"Enough" screened Thursday night at Kaufman Astoria Studios as part of the #Women block. I'm usually a little skeptical of any block whose theme is just "women," as it usually implies it's the only block at the festival with films directed by women. But women directors were super represented all throughout the festival this year, and I was happy to see that my block featured 5 films unified by a kind of "women on the edge" theme - tackling struggles that don't specifically afflict women but were portrayed in nuanced ways that felt authentically and pointedly woman. The audience was small, only about 35 people, but not bad for 6pm on a weekday. And thankfully, the audience was engaged, with a well-run Q&A that artistically tackled the work. See the Q&A below. We cut out most of the other filmmakers' answers, as as to not spoil their films. But the discussion was great overall.
"Arm Bar" screened Sunday at the beautiful Museum of Moving Image theater in the Queens Corner block, which always closes out the festival and has the largest audience because it features 7 to 8 films all by Queens-based filmmakers. Usually the films are also all shot in Queens, but there were a couple in this lineup that weren't. It was a mixed bag but there were some some really excellent films in the mix. "Arm Bar" was super well received by the audience, with the brilliant Latresa Baker's gripping lead performance complimented during the Q&A. Watch the recap below. Again, we kept everyone's intro but only included Ryan's answers, so as to avoid spoilers for the other films. (Thanks QWFF volunteer Maggi Delgado for recording & sharing both videos.)
We hope to be back at Queens World with new work next year! Until then, our next screening will be at Blackbird in April with "Enough."