“The city’s best independent film showcase” —The New Yorker
(May 5, 2022 | Brooklyn, NY) BAM announces the lineup for this year’s BAMcinemaFest taking place in person at BAM Rose Cinemas June 23—30. Overflowing with funny, moving, challenging, and thought-provoking discoveries, this year’s festival is a celebration of all that movies can be when bold, uncompromising artists are empowered to tell their own stories. Festival programmer and senior programmer for film Jesse Trussell explains, “I'm thrilled to have BAMcinemaFest back in person and to spotlight this incredible lineup of filmmakers. As we close in on a year since BAM Rose Cinemas reopened, it's a joy to be able to gather and celebrate this art form as a collective experience.”
The festival features the New York premiere of new restorations of Ayoka Chenzira’s first feature film, the coming-of-age dramatic comedy Alma’s Rainbow (1993), screening with her animated satirical short film Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People (1984). Amber Bemak’s 100 Ways to Touch the Border, a self-reflexive documentary on the radical artistic practice of extraordinary Mexican/Chicano performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his troupe La Pocha Nostra, makes its world premiere.
The hopes, anxieties, and romantic tanglings of Gen Z make an appearance at BAMcinemaFest with Andrew Infante’s award-winning Brooklyn rom-com Ferny & Luca and Kit Zauhar’s feature debut Actual People. The festival also includes Ramin Bahrani’s (Chop Shop, White Tiger) acclaimed 2nd Chance about the life and lies of the bulletproof vest inventor; Rita Baghdadi’s Sirens, the story of the Middle East’s first all-female thrash metal band; and Julie Ha & Eugene Yi’s Free Chol Soo Lee, a portrait of community activism following the wrongful conviction of Chol Soo Lee and the complex legacy of becoming the symbol of a movement.
Also in this year’s lineup, Damian Marcano’s award-winning
breakout debut Chee$e; Ahsen Nadeem’s Crows Are White, a
documentary-existential comedy set in a Buddhist monastery; director Jason
Kohn’s documentary-thriller about the secretive world of the diamond industry
Nothing Lasts Forever; and Tyler Taormina’s Happer’s Comet screening with
Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian’s The Last Days of August, two visually
stunning films that capture prairie towns in Nebraska and the quiet nightlife
of suburban Long Island. BAMcinemaFest features two short film programs
highlighting formally inventive short films that ask questions about art,
history, family, connection, and trauma.
Full Festival Lineup
Thu, Jun 23 at 7pm: Aftershock
Fri, June 24 at 6:45pm: Chee$e
Fri, June 24 at 9:30pm: Ferny & Luca
Sat, June 25 at 1:30pm: BAMcinemaFest Shorts Program 1
Sat, June 25 at 4:15pm: 100 Ways to Touch the Border
Sat, June 25 at 6:45pm: The Unknown Country
Sat, June 25 at 9:15pm: Actual People
Sun, June 26 at 1:30pm: BAMcinemaFest Shorts Program 2
Sun, June 26 at 4:15pm: Sirens
Sun, June 26 at 6:45pm: Nothing Lasts Forever
Sun, June 26 at 9:15pm: Crows Are White
Mon, June 27 at 7pm: Alma’s Rainbow + Hair Piece: A Film for
Nappyheaded People
Tue, June 28 at 7pm: Free Chol Soo Lee
Wed, June 29 at 7pm: Happer’s Comet + The Last Days of
August
Thu, June 30 at 7pm: 2nd Chance
Film Descriptions
