Friday, May 20, 2011

Cool stuff coming to Lincoln Center including the best film festival in New York (plus several other festivals and screenings)

Burn out is a terrible thing and we at Unseen Films have been contending with post Tribeca burn out, not to mention the slings and arrows of life. The practical upshot of this is that we have been slightly remiss in covering a wide variety of cool things going on in the film world.

I need begin to fix that by telling you there are several really great series happening at Lincoln Center over the next few weeks.

First up is this weekend’s Elizabeth The Golden Age. This is a weekend long look at the iconic films of Elizabeth Taylor. It’s a great selection of films.

After that they are doing a retrospect of the work of Norman Jewison, one of the more under appreciated directors working today. Over the last 50 years he’s made some classic films but no one seems to talk about him all that much any more. You need to find the time to go see some of these films on a big screen (Rollerball or And Justice For All Or Fiddler on the Roof or Thomas Crown Affair or Jesus Christ Superstar), more so since Mr Jewison will be in attendance at some of them.

From there we get the annual look at current Italian cinema. This will be followed in close order by the Human Rights Watch Film Film Festival.

In the middle of all of that will be the opening of the new film center. I’ve gotten a press release about this and god damn they have have some great stuff planned including twelve hours of free films that opened the New York Film Festival(Pulp Fiction, Ran Day For Night Among them), Oliver Stone appearing with the final cut of Alexander, Paul Schrader appearing with The Conformist and Kevin Smith taking on Valley Girl. There is some real kick ass stuff here and as soon as I get more details of whats happening when I will post it. Needless to say Unseen will be there.

Then at last comes one of the highlights of my film going year, The New York Asian Film Festival. This is the best festival in New York bar none. They are no longer tied with NYICFF and stand all alone at the top of the heap. (Sorry guys your vibe changed this year and as much I had a blast you guys seem to be going in a different direction). Based on what's been leaking out from the guys putting the NYAFF together this festival should be a blast and a half. They schedule comes out next week and I can’t wait. (I’m trying to figure out if there is going to be anyway I can see all 48 movies). Expect extensive coverage like last year from both myself, Mondocurry and anyone else we can sucker into going.

Related to that the Japan Society has begun teasing the films for their annual Japan Cuts series. The page where some pictures of up coming titles can be found here. And keep it bookmarked since that will be the place to go to when the whole schedule goes up.


Elsewhere in the New York Metro area there are a couple of other film festivals coming up.

June first through fifth is the Gold Coast Film Festival. It’s being held in several towns on the North Shore of Long Island and has several films from Tribeca screening in addition to some other good looking films. They are also having a master class with animator Bill Plympton and a talk with Bruce Dern. Details can be found here. I’ll have more details closer to time.

June 3rd is the start of the Brooklyn Film Festival. This film has a couple of good looking films attached and if I can work out how to get there (and I find out what the schedule is for the festivities for my nieces birthday)


Lastly Tuesday is the next film in the free screenings of the Korean Cultural Service. This time it’s Missing Person, a black film about the cruelty in society. The press material says the film will mess you up. I’ll be attending so watch this space Tuesday or Wednesday for a review.


That's it for now. I'll have more soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment