NOW ON VOD
Indie Films available to watch now from #NYWIFT Members
This month, NYWIFT members are offering some feature length film suggestions to your VOD queue – plus a film screening in NYC today, one coming up very soon, and one film you can pre-order for digital download while simultaneously supporting its Kickstarter campaign for wide release. So show some love to members of New York Women in Film & Television and check out these films below:
About Scout by Laurie Weltz
Website: http://www.scoutthemovie.com/
Synopsis: A rebellious young girl convinces a suicidal young man to go on a road trip across Texas to track down her little sister, who’s been taken by their father. Cast includes: India Ennenga, James Frecheville, Onata Aprile, Jane Seymour, Nikki Reed, Tim Guinee, with Danny Glover and Ellen Burstyn.
Featuring music by John Dragonetti, The Heligoats, Jack and Eliza, Bright Eyes, Josh Ritter, Lauren Mann, Noah Gundersen, The Joker & The Thief and more.
About Scout opens in NYC and LA on March 11
Black and Cuba – written, directed and produced by Dr. Robin J. Hayes
Website: BlackandCuba.org.
Synopsis: Black and Cuba follows street-smart Ivy League students who are outcasts at their elite university, as they band together and adventure to Cuba to see if revolution is truly possible. Intent on sharing their experiences, the students film their journey through the streets of Havana and Santiago. They observe the literal signs of revolution—“¡Venceremos! We Will Overcome!”—as well as moving hip-hop performances. A stirring block party at a racially integrated housing project impacts the travelers in surprising ways.
Black and Cuba is available now via DVD, Vimeo on Demand and VHX.
[Coming to ITunes, GooglePlay and Amazon this March]
“The Grass Is Always Greener” by Meredith Post
Synopsis: When the first medical marijuana dispensary opens in CT, the lives of 20 strangers will change in ways no one expected. “Grass” got it’s start as a reading at NYWIFT and features NYWIFT member, Dawn Young, as pharma C.E.O., Blue Wilson.
Written by six-time Emmy nominee and Writer’s Guild Award winner Meredith Post (As The World Turns, Days of Our Lives), “The Grass Is Always Greener” is a new series in the vein of Weeds and “High Maintenance” on the ensuing chaos that follows the opening of the first medical marijuana dispensary in Connecticut.
Screening today!
Heirs by Sascha Just
The New Orleans documentary Heirs is premiering in NYC today at the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performances.
WHEN: Friday, February 26 at 7:30 PM followed by a Q & A.
WHERE: Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (part of the Graduate Center), Elebash Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue @ 34 Street
Free and open to the public!
Synopsis: New Orleans, city of jazz and Mardi Gras at the shores of the Mississippi river, is the setting for Heirs. Between French flair and African rhythms, ballrooms and street parades, Heirs explores the Crescent City’s heritage of racist injustices—and the roots of its famous arts.
Heirs follows three New Orleanian artists—percussionist Jason Marsalis, theatre artist / former Carnival Queen Lisa D’Amour, and Mardi Gras Indian Chief Darryl Montana—on journeys to their families’ artistic histories and struggles through racial segregation, resulting in footage of Mardi Gras preparations, Indian drum practices, and a traditional carnival ball from the D’Amour family archives. Jason Marsalis revamps long-forgotten music by the first musician in his family, Creole clarinetist Alphonse Picou.
Jason Marsalis wrote the film music. Inspired by the various New Orleans music traditions his modern jazz score reflects the film’s motif of how the past shapes the present, how the old creates the new. The soundtrack Heirs Of The Crescent City is now available on CD (Elm Records).
More info here: http://thesegalcenter.org/event/sascha-just-heirs/
Thank You For Playing – NYWIFT member Laura Vigilante is the Impact Producer
Website: http://www.thankyouforplayingfilm.com/
Synopsis: When Ryan, a video game designer, learns that his young son Joel has cancer he and his wife begin documenting their emotional journey in the form of an unusual and poetic video game. The result is a game called “That Dragon, Cancer” – an astoundingly honest and innovative work of art about the universal complexity of grief. Thank You For Playing follows Ryan and his family over two years offering an intimate revolutionary glimpse into how the fusion of art and technology – in this case a video game – can document profound human experiences in the modern age.
You can pre-order the film for digital download (arriving in April) via Kickstarter. Their Kickstarter campaign has only seven days left, so please take a look for your support consideration: http://kck.st/1WXAzLN
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Lindsey Lambert
Lindsey Lambert is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker originally from Austin, Texas. She works as a location scout for film and television in the NYC area, currently on Law & Order: Organized Crime. After receiving her Master’s Degree in Human Rights from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the spring of 2022, she began directing and producing her debut feature documentary Teaching Social Studies about public school education and the anti-critical race theory laws in Texas. It is currently in production and she hopes the film will be completed by the summer of 2025. In our interview, she discusses her decision to go back to school, her work on the new Amazon Prime series Étoile, how to educate young people about our challenging history, and the most memorable location she's scouted to date.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Melanie Fox
Let's give a warm welcome to new NYWIFT member, Melanie Fox! Melanie Fox is a linguist who turned her passion for accents, dialects, presentations, and language learning into a thriving coaching business. Melanie empowers actors and public figures to speak clear, confident English through accent reduction, interview and presentation training. She also trains actors to master authentic English and Spanish dialects. She is a paid public speaker who helps her audiences "Hack into Language" and hosts a new podcast, "Hack That Accent." Melanie holds a Masters of Science degree in Linguistics from Georgetown University. She credits a lot of her inspiration to two semesters studying abroad at la Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. In our interview, she discusses how her work as a dialect coach spans multiple industries, her coaching success stories, and how she encourages clients to maintain their cultural authenticity while adjusting their presentation to match their business goals.
READ MOREDisney+ Celebrates National Pet Day with Heartwarming New Documentary “Pets” Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard
Disney+ is tugging at the heartstrings this National Pet Day with the premiere of its latest original documentary, Pets, debuting April 11. Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, the film dives into the extraordinary relationships that exist between humans and their animals — no matter the species, no matter the place. In our exclusive interview, Bryce Dallas Howard shared how the collaboration with Imagine Documentaries — and her father Ron Howard — helped bring her vision to life. Along with aspects which will make audiences interested in watching even if they are not pet owners and more!
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Melody Gilbert
Welcome to our new NYWIFT member, Melody Gilbert! Melody is an Emmy-nominated and Alfred I. duPont award-winning documentary filmmaker. Over the course of her career, Melody has directed and produced 20 documentaries that have been screened at several film festivals and distributed internationally. Melody is also an educator committed to teaching new and emerging filmmakers. She has been on the faculty at several universities (including the American University in Bulgaria), teaching documentary production, multimedia, and journalism. Currently, Melody is traveling the world and spreading her love for film by teaching pitch training workshops and conducting her “Documentary Boot Camp” while working on her new documentary about the scandalous topless monokini bathing suit in 1964. The most recent documentary she helped produce, Queendom, was shortlisted for an Oscar in the feature documentary category. In our interview, Melody discusses her move from chilly Minnesota to NYC, her unconventional documentary subjects, and key lessons she shares with film students.
READ MORE