The 7th annual Greenpoint Film Festival is back, bringing a diverse mix of local, environmental and art shorts and feature-length films to the Wythe Hotel Screening Room (80 Wythe Ave) this week, starting today May 3rd and running through May 6th. Tickets for all the programs are $10 each, or you can buy a festival day pass for $18, or a pass for the entire fest for $56. Read on for our top picks of the fest!
Thursday, May 3rd
Greenpoint local and Polish-born artist Martynka Wawrzyniak is featured in two of the films, one of which is about her public art piece Ziemia, which will be installed in McGolrick Park early next month. The five-minute short Ziemia is screening tonight at 7pm. Also screening tonight is Past States, a 30-minute documentary short about Martynka’s life and camaraderie with fellow Polish emigrants in Greenpoint. Tickets for tonight’s Immigration-themed program, which will be followed by a Q&A, are $10 and available here.
Friday, May 4th
Friday night the fest will be screening the documentary feature United States of Detroit by Tylor Norwood, about the gritty soul and strength of folks living in the “Dirty D,” at 7pm. The film will be followed by a Q&A session. Tickets are $10 and available here.
Saturday, May 5th
Saturday there’s a full schedule of diverse films and Q&A sessions from 2pm onward. The day kicks off with the uniquely-visually styled documentary Instructions on Parting, a film about death, grief and the human process of transformation. The afternoon’s narrative shorts The Bird Who Could Fly and Don’t Be Afraid present stories about a Korean-American man and a strong Indian young woman. At 6pm the fest’s Art Program kicks off, and it’s a not-to-miss lineup of NYC-centric documentary art shorts spanning the 1970s to now. The program will wrap up with a panel discussion. At 8pm, the feature-length Pickings, about a Southern mother with a checkered past will close out the evening.
Sunday, May 6th
Sunday afternoon’s got the experimental documentary The Sky is Blue With Lies, a “retelling of the greek tale of Phaedra and Hippolytus in a No Wave Style”. The festival closes out at 6pm on Sunday with a curated selection of environmental films and a panel discussion. Our very own troubled waterway Newtown Creek plays a supporting character in two of the films: Water as Industry and City on the Water.
For full schedule/ticket info and film descriptions, check out the Greenpoint Film Festival’s website.