Arm Bar

Queens World Film Festival Recap

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Last week was the Queens World Film Festival, our favorite local fest and one of my (Christina's) favorite fests overall. We were lucky enough to have two shorts part of it this year, "Enough" and "Arm Bar." 

"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."

Urban Action Showcase Recap

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This past weekend, "Arm Bar" screened at the AMC 25 theater as part of the Urban Action Showcase. UAS is an action oriented festival in its fifth year. The festival is a two day event, the first day, oddly enough, being the awards ceremony. They held it in the Michael Fuchs theater at HBO, which is a beautiful space with a large screen. (see below)

All the content creators watched ten-second clips of their shorts, features and fan fiction before a very long awards process. My favorite part of the awards was learning about Lu Feng, a prominent actor and choreographer for Kung Fu in the 1970's. He traveled from China for the event and gave a very short and sweet acceptance speech after being honored for his achievements in the genre. There were too many nomination categories to even dream about revisiting here, but I only submitted for the shorts category. "Arm Bar" didn't win anything, but it was nice meeting all the content creators at the ceremony and learning about their specific journeys. One screenwriter, Aaron, even made it to our screening the next day! Thanks, Aaron!

The actual screening was held at the AMC 25 theater in Times Square. Christina and I arrived together and met Latresa, Victoria and Ricardo (who were all actors in the film) at the theater. The event was a very pricey $30 for general admission, and Latresa cleverly was able to get the three of them in for free by doing press for the event under her brand Millennial Renaissance  Media. When Christina and I got there, they were already deep into work, interviewing people for the fest. The festival rented out the fourth floor of the AMC theater and set up a small, but interesting comic con. We wanted to get our moneys worth, so we went to see "Crippled Avengers," a classic Kung Fu flick, starring Lu Feng. It was great to see one of his films after learning about him at the awards ceremony prior. After that was our shorts block. It had one major hiccup, as we all sat through the first half hour of a feature that was supposed to be programmed later that night. It was quite painful to watch, as well. Finally, one of the coordinators came out and explained the issue and we got the show on the road. I was initially wary as to how our film would look and sound on the big screen, but was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. There weren't many people in the theater, (maybe 20... I was expecting way more for 8 shorts) but we got some laughs in the right places as well as some great reactions to other parts of the film.

All in all, it was fun to share this very different type of screening experience with some of the cast and crew and meet some new people along the way. (See pictures below!)

- Ryan

 

DAMN Film Series Recap

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This past Tuesday night, we screened Arm Bar at the DAMN Film Series! It was a fun night filled with some really enjoyable films.

We also had a friend tag along named Ricardo, but not the Ricardo from the film. He's a friend of Latresa's and we absolutely appreciated his support!

DAMN doesn't do Q&A's or leave time for mingling, but the film got a great response from the crowd; and after the screening, we headed to a nearby bar with a few of the content creators. Discussions were had and memories were made.

Here are a few pictures from the night:

*UPDATE 11/29/17

Latresa went on to win Best Performance at the series!

damn win.jpg

 

- Ryan