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East Village Community Gardens to Host Screenings of National Security Docs

Does government surveillance really get your goat? (To be honest I have never really understood that expression but I am just going to run with it.) Is your ideal evening spent watching documentaries on the deep state? If so, then you’re in luck.

In a new film fest running today through Aug. 5 — ominously titled “Spy vs. Us” — the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) in the East Village takes on national security and the surveillance state. Even better, like last year’s MoRUS-sponsored film and theater festivals, this year’s festival screenings will occur in the lovely environs of several community gardens. Tonight’s opening screening takes place in the roof garden of Alphabet City’s fabled Umbrella House.

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Coney Island Announces Lineup for Summer ‘Flicks on the Beach’

From last year’s Flicks on the Beach. Credit: Alliance for Coney Island.

With the memory of the recent Mermaid Parade still warm in our hearts, we’re pleased to note that the Coney Island Flicks on the Beach festival has announced this year’s lineup.

The film selection is an eclectic mix of the heavily family-friendly — Beauty and The Beast, Finding DoryThe Lego Batman Movie — and a few edgier selections like Get Out. The series is sponsored by Amazon Studios, who will also be doing previews of two Amazon Studios originals — Landline, the new dysfunctional family dramedy from the Obvious Child team, and Crown Heights, a Sundance drama (adapted from a This American Life episode) about a wrongfully imprisoned man.

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Free (Yep, Free) Midnight Screenings Coming to the Relaunched Roxy Cinema

Roxy Cinema. Credit: Roxy Hotel.

Tribeca’s Roxy Hotel has re-launched its much-loved cellar theater Roxy Cinema with new concessions and a big slate of summer programming — including free midnight screenings and events with indie acts like TV Baby and Beach Fossils.

The cinema, which specializes in “first-run, independent, classic, art-house and foreign film, both played on digital and 35mm,” is one of the few locations in New York where you can enjoy good beer, wine, and even champagne during a movie. Cocktails are also reportedly on the way. They’re also beefing up their snacks-and-candy concessions.

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At the NY Asian Film Festival, There’ll Be Retro Japanese Softcore Porn and So Much More

Credit: NYAFF17.

Cinephiles, take note: the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) opens June 30, and this year’s roster has just been announced. With “just shy of 60 films,” including feature films and documentaries from seven countries, there’s a diverse lineup of films in every genre, from gangster flicks to romantic dramas to experimental stream-of-consciousness softcore porn. Truly, something for everyone.

China and Hong Kong are particularly well-represented, with a slate of popcorn-friendly thrillers, dramas, and crime flicks. Battle of Memories (2017, dir. Leste Chen) follows a novelist who wakes from an experimental medical procedure to discover he has acquired the memories of a serial killer. In Blood of Youth (2016), directed by “self-trained fireman-turned-filmmaker Yang Shupeng,” police and criminals alike race to hunt down a computer hacker.

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Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, and Wanda Sykes Want You to See These French Films Outdoors

Contempt (Le Mepris, 1963).

It’s always amusing to hear new transplants to New York speak excitedly of summer in the city. Those of us who have lived here longer know with grim certainty that the city will soon transform into a giant sauna filled with rotting garbage. Not quite a dystopian hell. But close.

However, there are some things to look forward to in the summer. One of them is Films on the Green. Cinema buffs – and francophiles – will want to mark their calendars for the popular outdoor film series, which returns June 2nd and runs through the 7th.

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Attention Indie Film Fans: One Week to the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival

The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival

Picture courtesy of AoBFF17.

Here’s some good news for New York’s numerous indie film fans – the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival is only a week away.

Running June 3 to 12, the festival (acronym, for extra credit: AoBFF17) describes itself as “the ONLY international, independent festival in the world devoted to Brooklyn’s vibrant film and media scene,” and considers films with any connection to the borough.

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Week in Film: a Very Lynchian Retrospective, Full-Frontal Greek Mythology, and More


Metamorphoses
Saturday March 25 (10 pm),  Sunday March 26 (7:30 pm), Tuesday March 28 (10 pm) Thursday March 30 (10 pm) at Spectacle: $5, advance tickets available 

You know what’s cool about ancient Greek mythology? It looks good on almost anyone. Even 21st-century French people, as you’ll see in Christophe Honoré’s new film Metamorphoses. It’s actually based on a really old poem–but you already knew that by the film’s title right? Metamorphoses (the original) dates to about 8 AD when this Roman dude named Ovid fused bits from more than 250 existing Greek mythos together to create a pretty wacky piece of non-linear literature that defies the standard didactic, A-to-B tellings that were popular back then. Thankfully, Ovid’s story is every bit as riveting as the OG mythos, which are always chock-full gore, guts, adultery, betrayal and, of course, horny gods mingling with orgy-prone mortals.

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Week in Film: Cinema Kink a-Go-Go, a Chloë Sevigny Retrospective, and More


Cinekink NYC
Thursday March 16 through Sunday March 19 at Anthology Film Archives: $11 individual screenings, $45 to $85 for all-access pass (get your tickets here

Fet culture and cinema? I mean, duh, guys, they’re a match made in heaven– er, whichever circle of hell doms and bronies go to. (Dunno about you guys, but that’s where I’m hoping to end up, Lucifer willing). That’s why Cinekink NYC– which clears up any confusion by calling itself “the kinky film festival”– is popping off this week for its 14th year.

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Week in Film: OG Badass Babe Mildred Pierce; Purple Reign in Blood, and More


Purple Rain: Terror Beyond Belief
Friday January 27, 7:30 pm at Spectacle: $5 always

Ok, so I might be outing myself as a giant lame by admitting this but, until I came across this mind-blowing feature presentation, I had no idea that “détournement” is actually, like, its own thing. Basically, that’s just a fancy word for (re)appropriated movies that have been drastically altered and yet retain some of the original characteristics of their source films which tend to be instantly recognizable classics. The result is a chunky, weird-tasting at first, but then loveably gritty combination of parody/homage, familiar/totally alien, nostalgic/apocalyptic– or post-modern upchuck that could trick your grandma and scare the kids. In other words, it’s very punk.

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Anthology Film Archives Adding New Library and Café, With Help from Sparkly Art Auction

Jonas Mekas and Andy Warhol (Courtesy Stephen Shore / Anthology Film Archives)

Jonas Mekas, co-founder of Anthology Film Archives with Andy Warhol (Courtesy Stephen Shore / Anthology Film Archives)

Yesterday, Anthology Film Archives announced that, for the first time in their 46-year history, big changes are coming to the institution in the form of an expansion to their East Village operations that will include a library and café.

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