Greenpoint Film Festival Announces Return to Indoor Screenings in Brooklyn

“Echoes of Ukraine” Themed Opening Night Features Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Roslowski’s The Hamlet Syndrome

New York, NY — Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Film Festival announced the film lineup for its 12th edition, which will return to indoors screenings for the first time in two years August 2nd through the 6th. GFF will kick things off with an opening night “Echoes of Ukraine” theme featuring Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Roslowski’s documentary The Hamlet Syndrome. Saim Sadiq’s Joyland will be the closing night selection.

As it has for more than a decade, the film festival will be screening and celebrating truly independent films and filmmakers, a world away from the studios and (especially notable at this time) the AMPTP.

The film festival will include 48 films (10 features, 38 shorts), with screenings at The Boiler / ELM Foundation (191 N. 14th Street). Along with the opening night selection, this year’s lineup has strong representation from Poland, along with Greenpoint FF’s solid survey of stateside indie films. Film industry catering favorites Wilson Rivas Crafts will have a food truck on the premises providing food and concessions for film goers and attendees. The Boiler’s backyard will serve as the film festival’s film-centric community mixer epicenter — open to the public and serving food and beverages before everyone heads inside for that day or evening’s air-conditioned screenings.

Filmmakers and celebrity guests will participate in GFF’s green “red” carpet, and the Filmmaker Awards will be presented prior to the closing night screening. Short film award winners will receive a “Short to Feature Accelerator” prize by R2W2.

Greenpoint Film Festival Creative Director Ricardo Vilar, said, “We are thrilled to be returning indoors for this year’s edition of the film festival. We’re having fun when say we are “steaming” our films this year since we’ll be in The Boiler but our lineup definitely has a lot of heat with award winners, thought provoking subjects, exciting new talent, and more. For more than a decade, we have celebrated cinema here in North Brooklyn, and this year’s edition looks to be one of our strongest yet.”

The opening night presentation on Thursday, August 3 is themed “Echoes of Ukraine” featuring Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Roslowski’s The Hamlet Syndrome. The film looks at a group of young Ukrainian actors, each with psychological scars of the war in Donbas, who are cast in an experimental theatrical production of Hamlet. As they confront Hamlet’s famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, the actors process their own dilemmas, mere months prior to Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of their country. The screening will be preceded by Orr Bortman’s short documentary Lesyk a.k.a. Words of Wisdom which profiles Astoria’s Alexander Lesyk Balaban, a Ukraininan stamp collector who’s prized collection is part of the fight for the survival of Ukraine’s identity and history.

The closing night selection is Saim Sadiq’s feature film debut Joyland. The first Pakistani film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize as well as the Queer Palm. The film follows a man who takes a job as a backup dancer at a Bollywood-style burlesque. His infatuation with another performer, a dynamic and strong-willed trans woman leads to trouble and complications with his family and wife. The presentation will feature a special pre-recorded interview with Sadiq and cast members with Siddhant Adlakha following the screening.

For more more information on the Greenpoint Film Festival, please visit the festival website.

Originally published at https://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on July 25, 2023.