BROOKLYN FILM FESTIVAL
May 29 – June 7, free with registration
www.brooklynfilmfestival.org
I’ve long maintained that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who were born in Brooklyn, and those who wish they were. As a Brooklyn native who lives in Manhattan, I’m still a regular visitor to the world’s greatest borough. But it’s now been more than two and a half months that I’ve been hunkered down in Murray Hill, barely leaving my apartment to get supplies, forget about going to BAM. TFANA, the Brooklyn Museum, Coney Island, BRIC, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or other Brooklyn cultural institutions in addition to eating out and visiting friends there. But I can get more than a taste of my hometown by checking out the twenty-third annual Brooklyn Film Festival, which goes virtual this year with the apt theme: “Turning Point.” From May 29 through June 7, BFF will present nearly 150 feature-length and short fiction, nonfiction, animated, and experimental works from around the world. Although everything is free this year, you are encouraged to support the festival if you can by donating here.
For those seeking even more of a connection to the area that was settled by the Dutch in 1636, the following films were made by Brooklyn-based directors: Morgan Ingari’s Milkwater, John Klingman’s Snatchers, Andrew Leibman’s Rooftop Refuge, Drew English’s Everybody’s OK, David Shayne and Jacob Roberts’s Lewiston, Connie Huang’s Ai Baba: (Love Dad), Lindsey Phillips and Shirin Ghaffary’s Rhythm’s Gonna Get Ya, Lorenzo de Guia’s Leeper, Mojo Lorwin’s Summer in the City, Rachel Harrison Gordon’s Broken Bird, Daniel Ferrer’s Ex Disposer, Kevin P. Alexander’s Boys & Toys, Courtney Ulrich’s Peter Has to Go to the Doctor, and Kana Hatakeyama’s Fitness! Or a Story about Sweat.