FILMS
BITS by Lilliya Reid
NEW YORK PREMIERE
BITS follows a young woman in small town Montana who catches the attention of a serial killer on the hunt. When his pursuit ends abruptly, the young woman is overcome with rejection. Pining for closure, she struggles to untangle feelings of neglect and desire.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
PLEASE LOVE ME by Lea Rose Sebastianis
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A Tap Dancer prepares for her final performance.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
HEY LOVER by Marcus Maddox
NEW YORK PREMIERE
HEY LOVER is a 2024 slideshow exhibition of black and white photographs taken between 2017 and 2024 by artist Marcus Maddox. With 65 images, Maddox explores the intimately personal relationships in his life in New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Nashville. The photographic sequence is a movement from a blissful, idealized version of youth—to a melancholy, dark interior of those same young subjects. In the end, what appears to be sweet isn’t so sunny after all. Inspired by the titling structure of Topographical poetry from the Romantic era, all of the picture titles in Hey lover cite a specific location and time. The titles, mostly written in verse, suggest emotional states too. This makes the work all the more personal and psychological, while rising to the effect of poetry.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
AVON VIDO by Dhara Wright
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Director Dhara Wright and Steven T. Hanley of Deeper Into Movies are given the opportunity to rummage Avon Video, a London video store left abandoned for about 20 years.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
TRAIN OF THOUGHT by Vogue Giovanna Giambri
How a thought travels from upstairs, down into the Tube station- but it can't get on a train, it's a thought.
Screening followed by Q & A with director and cast.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
NEPOTISM, BABY! by Tij D'oyen
A fame-obsessed young woman fabricates a conspiracy to jump-start her career.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
LOLO by Owynn Kaye
NEW YORK PREMIERE
LOLO is a short film with no dialogue.
The story is of an estranged relationship between mother and daughter. The film is framed by the mother’s memory, and what the mother does not know or cannot understand about the life of her daughter she fills with her worst fears.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
PITCHER/CATCHER by Will Janowitz & Monroe Robertson
NEW YORK PREMIERE
PITCHER/CATCHER is a VHS-shot movie about a washed up baseball player and his last shot at glory.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 4
NIGHTMILK by Tiger Hornby
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A troubled lesbian, experiencing intrusive sexual thoughts, confronts her girlfriend and the men of her nightmares.
Screening followed by Q & A with director.
SHORTS BLOCK 4
SAM'S WORLD by Lily Lady
NEW YORK PREMIERE
After a mysterious incident, a mid-20s non-binary sex worker must consider making a life-altering decision during one late summer weekend in New York City.
Screening followed by Q & A.
LA COCINA by Alonso Ruizpalacios
In the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, dreams and desperation collide as the back-of-house staff each chase the elusive American dream. When money goes missing from the till, the spotlight falls on Pedro (Briones), a passionate dreamer entangled in a tumultuous love affair with Julia (Mara), a waitress grappling with her own commitments. As tensions rise and shocking revelations unfold, the relentless pace of the kitchen threatens to shatter the hopes and aspirations of those who keep it running. It's a high-stakes drama that explores the intersection of the personal ambition and systemic exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers within the pressure-cooker environment of a Times Square New York restaurant.
Screening followed by Q & A.
NRG2000 by Michael M. Bilandic
Quite possibly the most rare and collectable of Michael M. Bilandic’s work, NRG2000 is a surreal, ecstasy fuelled, collage of Eurodance music videos, first person shooter video games, forgotten rave dances, familiar (and unfamiliar) ducks, cruise ship furries, Na’vi, Fred Flintstone and more. Innovatively edited by Stephen Gurewitz, this found footage film was originally commissioned for the Spectacle Theater’s 2019 “Mike Madness” retrospective.
THE JUNCTION by AJ Lambert
WORLD PREMIERE
Rose's father has just died. He had a "touch" to him that she seems to share, and she isn't sure what to do with it as it begins to creep into her life. Her mother, Annie, was always outside this connection her daughter and husband had - now that he's gone Rose is farther away than ever. They move to a place where James Dean died on a notoriously dangerous road. Rose starts seeing strange things all around her and slowly deteriorates, while Annie learns about the death of an unknown girl at the famous intersection and begins a kind of communion with her - the one person she can give love to. Rose and Annie are finally led back to each other, with help from the one person they never expected.
STEPS TO DESTRUCTION by Leah Hennessey
NEW YORK PREMIERE
The music video for Emily Allan’s Steps to Destruction.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
DAYS OF HATE by Oliver Shahery
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A broken-hearted filmmaker finds meaning as he documents punk band Show Me The Body record their latest album.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
SELLING RABBITS by Hannah Schulman
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Down on her luck, aimless young Molly must sell her bunnies. She meets Leftaris, the perfect customer: a delusional magician. This chance encounter leads them down a rabbit hole of deception. Who exactly is pulling a trick on who?
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
ZOPA by Victoria Imperioli (Copy)
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A tragic choral procession narrates the poem of “A Still Life”. Impermanence, death, loss, grief, surrender and resurrection are the narrative elements of the story. The chorus cries to the universe of the endless cycle of birth and death. In the midst of this, glimpses of ordinary life are revealed. Within the endless pursuit of leisure and pleasure, suffering is ever present. The greater the pursuit of pleasure, the greater the agony of dissatisfaction and loneliness. The illusion of pleasure always shatters, breaking the veil of life wasted and lost. The poem ends in the collision of the two worlds, embracing the wisdom of impermanence.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
THROUGH THE WINDOW PANE by Joshua Pankiw
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Peering into the struggles of interconnected lives, a city grows lonesome by selfish attempts to get ahead.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
MELODY OF LOVE by Guy Kozak
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A cowboy earns the favor of a rancher’s daughter, but can’t keep his eyes off his horse.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
MAIDENHAIR by Julia Sipowicz
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A preacher’s repressed daughter develops a crush on a visiting salesman.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
ALL DAY ELLIPTICAL by Boothe Carlson
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A search by the lost. An older woman, Clara, cannot find her way to a child's birthday party. Interactions with strangers reveal the chasm between herself and the world around her. Wandering the city, Clara is in movement but covers little distance.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
DARK by Alex Ross Perry
The music video for Maya Hawke’s Dark.
Screening followed by Q & A
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
E'S by Maya Winkler
NEW YORK PREMIERE
There has been a shooting at pop-superstars The E’s sold-out stadium show. The band is in lockdown in their hotel suite, detached from the outside world and without their phones. They have only each other to get them through the night. They are reeling from the tragedy in different ways - through anxiety, dissociation, paranoia - while united in grief. When a tragedy like this occurs, the world is watching, waiting for a response. The band’s social media is skyrocketing, they’re trending in the news… Their celebrity is cemented. Though the circumstances of their newfound fame are horrific, someone will seize the spotlight.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
APPLIANCE by Olivia Erlanger
NEW YORK PREMIERE
APPLIANCE follows Sophie Weiss, whose house and its malfunctioning appliances become extensions of her biological self deconstruction. Just after a week of moving into her new home, Sophie's sense of reality takes on a distorted form as she begins to believe her house is living and breathing around her. Perhaps a result of her isolation? The side effect of a fertility treatment? Or even an outside antagonist? Appliance makes light of the disturbing history shaping the American delusion that homeownership is both an accessible tool for social mobility and a means by which one can value their self-worth.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 3
FOOD by Gordon Matta-Clark, Presented with the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark
This film documents the legendary SoHo restaurant and artists' cooperative Food, which opened in 1971. Owned and operated by Caroline Goodden, Food was designed and built largely by Matta-Clark, who also organized art events and performances there. As a social space, meeting ground and ongoing art project for the emergent downtown artists' community, Food was a landmark that still resonates in the history and mythology of SoHo in the 1970s.
Screening followed by Q & A with artist Lucien Smith, who is opening a new FOOD restaurant, and filmmaker Zachary Graves-Miller, moderated by Jessamyn Fiore, Co-Director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark.
PACKERS CONFIDENTIAL: BIRD OF PARADISE by Tracey Todd
WORLD PREMIERE
The Ion Pack, New York City’s once-anonymous Instagram trolls of the downtown film world, talk with filmmakers as they contemplate life, love and longing in the city of 8 million stories.
Screening followed by Q & A with director, The Ion Pack, Caveh Zahedi, and Lucien Smith.
THE CODE by Eugene Kotlyarenko
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A sexless couple, paranoid about the status of their relationship, embraces surveillance, spying and performance as a means to fall in love again, in this absurd, high-concept comedy.
Screening followed by Q & A with director, moderated by special guest.
THE METHOD by Rick Rocha
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A legendary acting teacher (Eric Roberts) relentless pursuit of perfection pushes an overly eager student (Conlan Kisilewicz) into the dark depths of his own psyche. As the student becomes engulfed in a masochistic and obsessive acting 'method', the lines between reality and performance blur. Soon, the series of events takes a criminal turn, leaving the audience questioning... Where does the act end and reality begin?
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
500 FLOWERS by A.C.
WORLD PREMIERE
The flowers can talk. The blank slate heavens are split by rolling thunder and bloody fireworks as GG watches Young Boul work on his game.
500 Flowers is an experimental short film shot on 16mm in Philadelphia, PA.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
THE DATE by Avery O'Rourke
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Rick goes on a blind date with a cartoon woman.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON by Nina Cristante
NEW YORK PREMIERE
The Richest Man in Babylon is a medical mystery drama set in London.
While training her international wealthy clients, Elda witnesses the mutation of the city, while fighting a mysterious disease the medical system is unable to diagnose.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
FREEFALL by Abyn Blue Atticus Reabe
NEW YORK PREMIERE
“We’re all dragging around the corpse of our memory…”
A nameless narrator traverses a lonely city. Distant airplanes pass overhead. The shadows of his former self haunt him in the form of specters as he recollects the past. Reflecting on brutality and banality, he sells his memories to these other-worldly cashiers that inhabit the world around him.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
REST IN PEACE by Rachel Amodeo
REST IN PEACE (1998, 13min.) is a supernatural story of two sisters. The oldest sister dies and the younger sister violates her grave, which leaves the unrested spirit in ghost form, haunting. Reminiscent of Italian silent cinema. The film stars Dame Darcy and Rachel Amodeo.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
AFTERPARTY by Kava Gorna
NEW YORK PREMIERE
After breaking up with her abusive boyfriend one night in New York City, Luna must navigate a series of frenzied events that mirror her inner self, and question her complicity in the relationship's downfall.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
ZOPA by Victoria Imperioli
NEW YORK PREMIERE
A tragic choral procession narrates the poem of “A Still Life”. Impermanence, death, loss, grief, surrender and resurrection are the narrative elements of the story. The chorus cries to the universe of the endless cycle of birth and death. In the midst of this, glimpses of ordinary life are revealed. Within the endless pursuit of leisure and pleasure, suffering is ever present. The greater the pursuit of pleasure, the greater the agony of dissatisfaction and loneliness. The illusion of pleasure always shatters, breaking the veil of life wasted and lost. The poem ends in the collision of the two worlds, embracing the wisdom of impermanence.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
SOUL CITY by M. Henry Jones
NEW YORK PREMIERE
"Over 2,000 photo cut-outs of The Fleshtones performing the title track are hand-colored and stroboscopically animated to produce an optic-overload of syncopated sound and image. Painstakingly constructed frame-by-frame over a year and a half, SOUL CITY made a splash on the underground film circuit, screening at rock clubs and art galleries alike." - Anthology Film Archives
16mm
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 2
MESSY by Alexi Wasser
NEW YORK PREMIERE
MESSY is a neurotic sex comedy romp about a promiscuous love addict named Stella who moves to New York after a bad breakup, and her quest to find love and purpose - one disappointing date at a time.
Screening followed by Q & A with director, moderated by Chloë Sevigny.
LIGHT FALLS by Phedon Papamichael
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Clara, a Georgian model based in Los Angeles has a job in Greece and takes her girlfriend Ella along for an island holiday. Altin, Veton and Eddy are young Albanian illegals, part of a shadow society of laborers living in an abandoned seaside hotel. Clara and Ella explore the site when an accident occurs. The Albanians don’t speak a word of English. Different worlds collide and misunderstandings lead to the situation spiraling into violence and revenge. Exposing the plight of a social group fundamental to the Greek economy, the story highlights the consequences of fear, prejudice and exploitation.
Screening followed by Q & A with cast, moderated by Beach Fossils' Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson.
HERE COMES KERMIT WILLIAMS by Ryan Terk
WORLD PREMIERE
A young cockfighter and sports memorabilia reseller prepares for the unexpected release of his incarcerated father.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 1
THIRD HOUSE OF SATURN by Jesse Brant Howell
WORLD PREMIERE
A pharmacy technician steals painkillers from work in order to alleviate her mother's back pain.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 1
...AND YOU HAD TOURETTE'S by Luis Figueroa Caunedo
NEW YORK PREMIERE
An international student moves in with Americans while avoiding the scorns of a faceless old man across the hall.
Screening followed by Q & A.
SHORTS PROGRAM 1