New York City’s scariest film festival, FEARnyc, will conclude its 2019 festival tonight at Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave) with a tingly, sensational, and sneakily immersive screening. But who’s the man behind the madness? Get to know festival founder, advocate, and horror film fanatic John Capo in this week’s Thursday Spotlight. And remember, if you’re looking to join the spooky fun, Greenpointers get a 20% discount on tonight’s Halloween Night Tingler Event with code GREENPOINTERS20.
Greenpointers: I see that this is your third FEARnyc; how long have you been affiliated with Film Noir Cinema?
John Capo: I founded the festival in 2016 but we took 2018 off to reassess our model. This is our first year at Film Noir Cinema! We were previously in Manhattan but we moved to Greenpoint this year because I love the neighborhood’s vibrant community. We love Greenpoint.
Are all of the film entries original ones? I love that you are spotlighting underrepresented groups in your programming.
We’ve had over 60 films, events, and other activities over the past eight days. Most of them are premieres although we did show some retrospectives including the 35th anniversary screening of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Fritz Lang’s M, a program of surreal short films by David Lynch, and the premiere of the new 4K restoration of George A.Romero and Dario Argento’s Two Evil Eyes. We always spotlight underrepresented groups in our programming. That’s a big part of our mission. This year we focused on queer horror with a discussion on queer themes and characters in horror films curated by The New York Times‘ Erik Piepenburg and the world premiere of the LGBT thriller Hurricane Aaron. We also had films centering on the Native American and Latinx communities.
Now in its fourth year, how do you think FEARnyc has evolved?
We’ve matured just as horror filmmaking has matured. Almost all of our films this year focused on the horrors of real life, whether that’s the dark underbelly of Instagram culture, beauty obsession, conversion therapy, Grindr hookups gone deadly. We even had a film about a mass shooting. I know these topics sound dark, but they really show that horror filmmakers are focusing on relevant issues and moving away from the stereotypical “let’s kill a bunch of pretty girls” tropes that have defined the genre.
Tonight’s the Tingler event! What can audiences expect?
It’s going to be insane. So when The Tingler came out in 1959 its producer William Castle knew that even thought it was a Vincent Price movie it wasn’t the greatest film so he marketed it by staging all these gimmicks in the theater. Buzzers on seats to jolt people, fainting audience members being carried out on stretchers, a monster jumping off the screen and into the theater. We’re recreating that experience at Film Noir Cinema just like it happened in the ’50s. We have showings tonight at 7pm and 9pm. People can get tickets in advance at FEARnyc.com or at the door.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Just a big thank you to the people of Greenpoint for embracing our festival and to all our filmmakers who’ve come from everywhere from Brooklyn to LA to Germany who’ve made this experience incredible.
More than 60 films and events are featured from world premieres to retrospectives and reimaginings, panel discussions, experiential events, and an award ceremony. Tickets are now available at FEARnyc.com.
Called “a huge, authoritative horror film festival” by Time Out New York film editor Joshua Rothkopfand “the best thing happening in the entire country this October” by Dread Central, FEARnyc was founded in 2016 by John Capo out of his lifelong love of horror movies.
“Our theme this year is Real/Surreal,” said John Capo, founder and festival director of FEARnyc. “From the morning commute to the evening news, New Yorkers are barraged by moments that are relentlessly real and surreal, often simultaneously.”
“Our selections this year, which deal with everything from obsessive Instagram culture, conversion therapy, and a school shooting to severalGrindr-gone-wrong tales, demonstrate that horror filmmakers are moving away from traditional let’s-kill-some-pretty-women tropes and focusing instead on the real life horrors that affect so many of us. In that sense, this year’s selections represent the maturity of horror filmmaking in 2019. I’m also excited to be spotlighting underrepresented groups in horror like the Native American, Latinx, and Queer communities and could not be more proud to present our annual Legacy Honor to iconic producer Debra Hill and our inaugural Trailblazer Award to the team behind Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.”
The FEARnyc Award Ceremony, which will take place at The Green Room 42 at The Yotel, will include the presentation of this year’s Juried Awards as well as the FEARnyc Honors.
The FEARnyc Legacy Honor will be posthumously presented to Debra Hill, writer/producer/director whose credits include the original Halloween, Halloween II, Escape from New York, Clue, and The Fog. Featuring tributes by Paul Reubensand Hill’s producing partners, with Ms. Hill’s brother, Bob Hill, accepting the honor on her behalf, Ms. Hill will be recognized not only for her filmmaking but for her groundbreaking commitment to advancing the visibility and employment of women in film. Ms. Hill is only the third recipient of the Legacy Honor. Past recipients include Wes Cravenand George A. Romero.
The Greenpoint Film Festival is back this week for its 8th edition with four days of film screenings — spanning topics from environmentalism to displacement and gentrification — and panel discussion with directors and local experts. Tickets are available here, along with the festival schedule which runs May 2nd – May 5th.
This year the festival kicks off on Thursday May 2nd, at the Wythe Hotel (80 Wythe Ave.) with a 7 p.m. screening of “100/100” and “Rodney Dickson,” which invites the view to “look inside the studio, routines and life of Brooklyn-based artist Rodney Dickson as he works “along the edge” of art and seeks to push the boundaries of how it can and should be experienced.” A kickoff party will follow at the Wythe Hotel from 9 p.m. – 12 p.m.
On Friday night, a focus on experimental film brings screenings of “Proliferation,” an isometric animation short, “Blue Reverie,” which presents commentary on internet personas, and “The Washing Society” an “intimate sociohistorical portrait of an urban laundromat using the people who worked there for decades,” from filmmaker Lynne Sachs.
The narrative feature “Doing Money,” kicks things off on Saturday at 2 p.m. with a drama based on a true story that tells the story of a Romanian Woman who is “snatched off the streets of London in broad daylight, trafficked through a series of pop-up brothels in the UK.”
The narrative shorts “Picket Fence” and “You Look Great” follow ahead of “Barney’s Wall” that recalls the life of Barney Rosset, “the American publisher of Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Tropic of Cancer, Naked Lunch, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, among hundreds of other subversive, radical and vital literary works.”
Saturday’s programming at the Wythe Hotel wraps with the documentary feature “Jacob,” that follows Jacob M. Appel, who “is a recognized professor, doctor, lawyer, bioethicist, and published creative writer.”
Also happening on Saturday as part of the festival is the Pratt student film screenings taking place at Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave.) starting at 7 p.m.
The spotlight turns to the festival’s namesake neighborhood on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. with the screening of a short on Manhattan Avenue’s Cato’s Army and Navy Store that owner Ed Veneziano opened over 40 years ago, and “A Letter From Greenpoint,” which traces Jonas Mekas move from SoHo after 30 years in the neighborhood to Greenpoint. Continue reading →
☺ TOO MUCH! A Free Comedy Show! @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St.), 6:30pm, FREE, More Info ^ Performance Philosophy Reading Group February @ Center for Performance Research (361 Manhattan Ave.), 6:30pm, FREE, dance and philosophy, More Info * Meet The Makers: Make S**T Happen @ The William Vale (111 N. 12th St.), 7pm, $20, a panel of female innovators, Buy Tix ♫ String Noise: Whispering @ Arte Venue and Gallery (67 West #103), 7:30pm, $20, violin, More Info
THURSDAY 2/21
# Taste of Resilience: A Conversation with the Rousseau Sisters @ MOFAD (62 Bayard St.), 6:30pm, $40, the story of Caribbean food, includes small bites and cocktails, Buy Tix # Potions & Tinctures 101 @ Catland (987 Flushing Ave.) 7pm, $15, Buy Tix ^ Pete’s Reading Series: Fisher & June @ Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer St.), 7:30pm, FREE, More Info ♫ Erin Durant, Jane Herships, Joanna Sternberg About Comedy @ Magick City (37 Box St.), 8pm, $8, Buy TixContinue reading →
♫ Sonoro x Pragmatik w/ Daylomar[Unleash London] @ 101Brooklyn (134 Metropolitan Ave.), 6pm, FREE, 2-for-1 drinks 6-7pm, music all night, More Info * The Five Elements Within: Connecting With Your Body’s Road Map @ Anima Mundi (31 Noble St.), 7pm, $35-140, a 5-element workshop series, Buy Tix ♫ Daddy Issues, Leggy, Desert Sharks @ Baby’s Alright (146 Broadway.), 8pm, $12-14, Buy Tix ♦ We’re Going to Eat You (1980) by Tsui Hark @ Spectacle Theater (124 S. 3rd), 10pm, $5, Hong Kong New Wave fantasy, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 1/24
* Public Visoning for Bushwick Inlet Park Design @ Bushwick Inlet Park Building (86 Kent Ave.), 6pm, FREE, More Info ♫ Laraaji, Rachika S @ Park Church Co-op (129 Russell St.) 7pm, $15-18, Buy Tix ^♫ NationalSawdust+: Paul Muldoon’s “Against the Grain” @ National Sawdust (80 North 6th), 7:30pm, $29-34, Literary music series, Buy Tix ♫ FYRN – bowed guitar quartet @ Arete Venue and Gallery (67 West St #103.), 8:30pm, $15, More InfoContinue reading →
☺ TOO MUCH! A Free Comedy Show!@ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St.), 6:30pm, FREE, More Info ♫♦ RAW:Brooklyn presents Holiday RAWk @ Brooklyn Bazaar (150 Greenpoint Ave.), 6:30pm, $22-$30, featuring 50+ hand-selected emerging artists across fashion, music, visual art, photography, performing art, hair, makeup and accessory design, Buy tix * Happy Hour with Park Church Co-op @ Goldie’s (195 Nassau Ave.), 6:30pm, FREE, More Info ♦ Smoke Mixtape @ Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave), 9:30pm, $10, A curated program of animations, performances, sounds, and other selected sensations, followed by the LA premiere of Smoke’s Last Thought, a new film by Miranda Javid, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 12/20
♦ Darkest Day Of The Year III–Solstice Stouts and Holiday Movies! @ The Well (272 Meserole St.), 6pm, FREE, Scrooged, Nightmare Before Christmas, Die Hard, Gremlins, beer on tap, More Info ♫ Haybaby, Fern Mayo, Thelma, UV Rays @ Trans-Picos (9-15 Wyckoff Ave.) 8pm, $10, Buy Tix ♫ All I want for Christmas is ACID with DJ Pierre, Turtle Bugg @ The Good Room (98 Meserole Ave.), 10pm, $15, Buy Tix ♫ Cinematic Holiday Party @ Lot 45 Bushwick (411 Troutman St.), 10:30pm, FREE, RSVPContinue reading →
THIS SUNDAY (December 2nd, 1-7PM)! Forecast calls for a snow flurry of fun inside the beautiful Greenpoint Loft (67 West Street) at our Polar Vortex Holiday Market with 60+ of the most talented makers and purveyors of handcrafted goods and gifts for all of your Holiday Gifting needs! FREE fun activities include Massages, Henna, Nail Art, and interactive hologram experience with Looking Glass Factory! Plus there will be live music and delicious Mulled Wine! More info and RSVP here!
WEDNESDAY 11/28
♦ BK Horror Fest Presents: The House That Jack Built Directors Cut @ Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave.), 6:15pm and 9:15pm, $15, Buy Tix ♫ Destruction<>Distraction @ Rubulad (RSVP for location), 7pm, $8 suggested, rsvp to [email protected] ^ Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Crusade Against Fascism @ McNally Jackson (74 N. 4th st.), 7pm, FREE, More info ♦ Das Ist Kunst: 16mm Experimental Shorts @ Spectacle Theater (124 S. 3rd St.), 7:30pm, $10, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 11/29
#♫ Christmas Party @ Lot 45 (411 Troutman St.), 7pm, $20 includes appetizers and a drink, Buy Tix ^ Green Series: Toward a Green New Deal @ Leonard Library (81 Devoe St.) 7pm, FREE, RSVP ♫ Fall Bash featuring San Fermin: a concert benefiting Brooklyn Youth Chorus @ Baby’s Alright (146 Broadway), 8pm, $145+, open bar, passed hors d’oeuvres and backstage access, Buy Tix ♫ Ladies of LCD Soundsystem DJ Tour @ The Good Room (98 Meserole Ave.), 10pm, $15, Buy TixContinue reading →
^ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | 75th Anniversary Party @ Leonard Library (81 Devoe St.), 5pm, FREE, Special guests Amy Lyons, artist of the HarperCollins 75th Anniversary edition cover, and the family of Betty Smith–along with contemporary authors–help celebrate a book that, according to The New Yorker, “deserves to be thought of as one of the greatest American novels,” RSVP * An Ecological History of the Bushwick Inlet and its Environment @ A/D/O (29 Norman Ave.), 7pm, FREE, With the continued development of Williamsburg and Greenpoint along the East River shore, it’s hard to imagine that Brooklyn was once a thriving wetland, with winding streams carrying freshwater running right below our feet, More Info ♦ Machine//Body @ Arete Gallery (67 West St. #103), 8pm, $10-15, sound and movement, space and architecture, More Info
♫ How To Dress Well, Baltra @ The Good Room (98 Meserole Ave.), 9pm, $20, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 11/15
* Los Sures Thanksgiving Dinner @ First Spanish Presbyterian Church (157 S. 3rd St.), 6pm, FREE, communal dinner and turkey raffle, more info ♦ Advent Kickoff | Potluck Supper + Opening Reception @ Park Church Co-op (129 Russell St.) 6pm, FREE, art exhibit and potluck, More Info ♫ The Travelin’ McCourys @ Rough Trade (64 N 9th.), 7pm, $20, Buy Tix ♫ The Mercury Program and Square Peg Round Hole @ Brooklyn Bazaar (150 Greenpoint Ave.), 8pm, $12-15, Buy TixContinue reading →
Sunday, September 16th, 2018 (12-7pm)another piece of North Brooklyn history will be bustling with music, fun activities, design, and craftsmanship as we host our first ever Indie Makers Market inside BIBA of Williamsburg (110 Kent Ave). From frozen treats made with upcycled plant based materials, custom handcrafted guitars, ethereal essential oil blends, to tiny terrarium jewelry, and more, we can’t wait to showcase the high quality unique creations by our top 20 curated pick of local makers. FREE to enter!! RSVP Here!!
WEDNESDAY 9/12
♦ The Pantsuit Party: The September Issue @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St.), 6pm, FREE, donations encouraged, THML theater company hosts a night of networking, cocktails, guest presentations and a chance to show your stuff during the open mic portion More Info
^ Big Words, Etc: A Reading & Fundraiser for Raices @ 61 Local (61 Bergen St.), 6pm, $5 suggested, More Info ♦ Design & Research Seminar: On Peers, Superpowers and Cyborgs. @ A/D/O (29 Norman Avenue), 6:30pm, $10, Featuring Neil Harbisson, a Cyborg Artist who listens to colors through an antenna implanted in his skull, Buy Tix * Trivia Night 1 Year Anniversary!!!! @ Archestratus Books and Foods (160 Huron St.), 8pm, FREE, Join our News Editor for Trivia! Tonight’s game marks a year of Trivia at Archestratus! Win food, drinks, cookies, or a full meal and bragging rights! More Info
THURSDAY 9/13
♦ Art Opening: Simon Linnert @ Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Ave.) 7pm, FREE, Photography. More Info ♫ Best Worst Talent Show! @ The House of Yes (2 Wyckoff Avenue) 7pm, FREE, More Info ♦ Art Hole Presents: Femme du Soir @ Rubulad (Location w/ RSVP), 7:30pm, $10, Enjoy some drinks and get your doodle on with a live figure model, more infoContinue reading →
Would Northern Brooklyn be complete without its own film noir jewel box theater? Film Noir Cinema, located at 122 Meserole Avenue, is a hidden gem in Greenpoint that will soon screen the revival of INCALL, a coming-of-age film with a twist. In the film, After the accidental death of a massage client, and through a bizarre set of circumstances, a young masseur and a seductive cat burglar begin killing massage clients for profit. The film, previously a hit in the nabe, returns Thursday, June 21 at 9 PM.
We spoke with filmmaker Brock Riebe — a local artist who wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the movie — about his influences, social commentary in film, and how to succeed while working on a micro-budget.
Greenpointers: INCALL has had a few encore presentations at this point. What do you think audiences find most appealing about this film?
Brock Riebe: Many people can relate to the struggle of the lead character, Kasey, who has been playing by the “rules” in life but who still can’t seem to make ends meet. In the film, Kasey begins questioning who exactly is making the “rules” and for whose benefit? As a result, he ends up going down a very dark path in which he, with the assistance of his cohort Marco, begins making his own rules for his own benefit. In this age of 21st century, greed-based global capitalism (an age in which many feel forced to play by “rules” that are not for their benefit, and that they had no say in making), many can relate to this theme and are asking similar questions. Continue reading →
THURSDAY 2/21
THURSDAY 1/24
THURSDAY 12/20
THURSDAY 11/29
THURSDAY 11/15
♦ The Pantsuit Party: The September Issue @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St.), 6pm, FREE, donations encouraged, THML theater company hosts a night of networking, cocktails, guest presentations and a chance to show your stuff during the open mic portion 
