The 2011 Astoria/LIC International Film Festival Is Here At Last

Posted By admin

Indie film buffs get ready. It’s Fall and that means The Astoria/LIC International Film Festival is back and it looks to be even bigger and better than ever. Start-up Cieri Media International (CMIC), parent to Long Island City performance venue The eGarage, internet media site eGarage.tv, and print/online literary magazine Voices From the Garage is gearing up for the The 2011 Astoria/LIC International Film Festival extravaganza. Hot on the success of last year’s inaugural event, this year’s fest promises more venues showcasing more films, readings, panel discussions, music videos and live performances. There’s even a jitney bus to take you from one venue to the next! What could be easier?

The festival is bookended by two events at the Z Hotel which will host the Opening Night gala Friday, October 14th and the Fan Awards which wrap everything up the evening of Sunday, October 16th. In between, films from The New York area and from all over the world will be screened at three venues: LIC’s Secret Theatre, Astoria’s Variety Boys and Girls Club and CMIC’s own eGarage in Long Island City. The three day event includes films in categories ranging from feature-length and documentaries, shorts and super-shorts, to music videos and more. In addition dramatic presentations of scripts, live music, panel discussions and music videos will be interspersed among the viewing sessions. This year’s festivities also include a few special treats: live improv by The eGarage’s own Improv Nation short form improv troupe and performances at Circus Warehouse, an 8,000 square-foot playland that recently made New York magazine’s Best of New York list. That’s hot! 

The Astoria/LIC Int'l Film Festival proudly promotes an open and nurturing environment for artists, writers, actors, filmmakers and fans, and will focus on offering great networking opportunities for its participants. This second annual film festival continues a commitment to promoting new and emerging voices in film, spoken word and art similar to the Tribeca and NYC Downtown Film Festivals. “Last year we showed over 50 films selected from producers all over the world,” says CMIC president and festival founder Dennis Cieri. “We had a music video session that highlighted Long Island City performers. We had writers, producers, and actors involved and exchanging ideas with one another and the viewing public. This year we’re going to expand on that, enhancing the experience with a variety of interactive and alternative peripheral and supporting entertainment.”
 
What about the movies? This is a film festival after all. Feature-length films include Swedish director Filip Tegstedt’s horror “Marianne” and the american Colin Rivera’s “The End of Something”. “Marianne”, which premiered at the 2011 Fantasia International Film Festival, is a harrowing tale about a widower coping with a newborn, a teenager who blames him for her mother’s death and the recurring nightmares that torment him and distort his ability to separate his dream world from reality. A splendidly woven narrative, this movie is absolutely chilling.

Shot on location in the DUMBO and Gowanus areas of Brooklyn, New York “The End of Something” finds a group of young artists struggling with the pressures of keeping afloat the failing Black Box theater as they deal with each other and discover just how far they’re willing to go, individually and collectively, while putting on one last show. It’s local. It’s topical and it’s cool.

In the Shorts category, there’s “Recess”, something with which everyone has dealt. Here one boy finds that it’s not that easy to make friends. Kids on the playground can be cruel and, in this case, maybe this boy is better off with the friends he already has. Made in the USA and directed by Bradley Montesi, this is a really smart three minute look at life, and learning, in the sometimes rough confines of jungle gyms and swings. If you’re not careful it just might provoke a knowing laugh. We’ve all been there.

“I Rub New York” in the film’s own words is “the story of one artist’s passion and how it touched an entire city one block at a time. Carol Caputo has spent three decades creating, and encouraging others to help create, a “textural database” by taking impressions/rubbings of any and all surfaces you can imagine. This is an uplifting story of one woman’s vision and the thousands who contribute.    

The Astoria/LIC area has been dubbed "The United Nations of New York City” with people from 120 different countries living and working in these diverse and eclectic neighborhoods. As such it is a terrific host for this truly international cinematic tradition, on par with and ready to challenge more established New York City art locales. Situated in the heart of Long Island City, home to Silvercup Studios, Kaufman Astoria Studios and The Museum of the Moving Image, The Astoria/Long Island City International Film Festival seeks to build upon and enhance a vibrant and growing artistic community.

This year’s event sponsors include Ultimate Sound Installations Inc., RCN, Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, Z Hotel, the attorneys at Morales Soukeras, Capital Glass and Sash Co. and all the good people at Cieri Media International.

September 27, 2011 5:11pm