Co-eds in prison jumpsuits. Syrian cabdrivers. Shirtless Hungarian athletes.
No, this is not the scene at Stefon‘s latest club pick. Instead, you can catch all these characters at the Northside Festival film series, running from June 8th through the 10th on screens in North Brooklyn.
The series will show features, shorts, music videos, and web-based series episodes. You can buy an all-access badge for thirty dollars, or tickets to individual screenings for thirteen dollars here.
The toughest challenge for movie fans is going to be deciding among three promising features that all screen around the same time on June 9th. We present the following summaries to help you pick your personal best bet.
Britni West’s feature film Tired Moonlight screens at Nitehawk Cinema at 7:30 pm on June 9th. While riding her bike barefoot through the summer mountains of Montana, she envisioned the movie as “a love letter to the unpunctuated Facebook life histories” of her characters. She wrote, directed, produced, and edited this film that includes a scene of 4 year olds eating fried chicken, and also features “a slew of phone calls from middle-aged men at 2am. They would slur as they explained how they had come to find my phone number taped to the wall of the Blue Moon bar in my small hometown. ‘I saw in the paper you’re makin’ a movie,’ they’d say. ‘I wanna be star [sic],'” she said.
Aspie Seeks Love is a documentary about the online dating forays of a nice guy with Asberger Syndrome, a condition that makes social interactions difficult. Its exploration of what it means to be brave and open to love is a universally relatable theme. It is being shown at Union Docs (322 Union Ave.) on June 9th at 7 pm.
The plot for Valedictorian will tempt all Greenpoint Existentialists out there i.e. those of you whose bookshelves contain Max Frisch‘s entire oeuvre and who love to explain how the impossibility of rising above subjective perception is actually quite freeing and humanizing. Valedictorian follows its main character Ben over the course of a year, as he walks away from the life he has built in New York, while his friends and family try to decipher his departure. The film screens at 7 pm on June 9th at the Wythe Screening Room (80 Wythe Ave.).
Eden will appeal to electronica music fans, and this film’s showtime does not conflict with our other featured movies. It screens at Nitehawk Cinema (136 Metropolitan Ave.) on June 10th at 9:30 pm. Eden explores the life of a DJ who pioneered the French touch, a type of electronica dance music that was popular with the 90s rave scene. Loosely based on the founding of the band Daft Punk, the soundtrack features that band’s music, and promises many scenes of debauchery. Indie icon Greta Gerwig has a supporting role.
A complete schedule of Northside films and webisodes can be found here.
Are there any films that you are really looking forward to seeing at Northside this year? Please share them in the comments.