This week marks the return of one of our favorite festivals here at Bold as Love.
Now on its 10th year, The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinemaFest 2018 features a slew of outstanding films, as per usual. From contemporary documentary’s exploring undiscovered pockets of life, to fresh narrative perspectives, to experimental fare that uncovers to natural turns of our lives – in between all of that, is a free screening of a film classic.
Our picks this year, with an obvious leaning toward Black thought and imagination, include forward thinking director Quasim Basir’s hallucinatory take on Election Night 2016, the New York premiere of musician-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley’s wacky Sorry to Bother You, starring ‘everywhereman’ Lakeith Stanfield (“Atlanta”)and the always transformative Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok), and a focus on the NYPD 12, a band of minority officers who speak out against the continued use of arrest and summons quotas—an officially illegally practice that overwhelmingly targets young black and Hispanic men, whose first screening is already sold-out.
Also featured is the Regina Hall (Girls Trip, Scary Movie) starring Support the Girls. Hall will be present for a post-film Q&A.
Also, you cannot miss the June 30th short film lineup featuring new works from Stefani Saintonge (Seventh Grade – 2014), actor-turned-filmmaker Adepero Oduye (Pariah, 12 Years a Slave), and Mariama Diallo’s highly-anticipated Hair Wolf.
BAMcinemaFest runs from June 20th to July 1st at BAM Rose Cinemas and the BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn, unless otherwise noted. See our highlights below and click THIS link for the entire lineup.
*Opening Night Film*
Wedns, June 20 at 7:30pm
Struggling to make ends meet in Oakland, CA, Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) lands a job as a RegalView telemarketer. Realizing perfecting his “white voice” is the key to his monetary success, Green soon discovers it’s not without considerable consequences. Also starring Armie Hammer as RegalView’s callous CEO and a beguiling Tessa Thompson as Green’s activist-artist love interest. Also co-starring Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead).
Introduction by Boots Riley
Tickets: $30, $25 (BAM members)
Fri, June 22 at 7pm
A magnificent Regina Hall is the fiercely devoted manager of Double Whammies, a Hooters-like Houston sports bar in Andrew Bujalski’s funny portrait of women banding together to get it done.
Q&A with filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, Regina Hall, and Shayna McHayle
Tickets: $20, $15 (BAM members)
Fri, June 22 at 9:30pm
Shot in one seemingly continuous, hallucinatory take, this tale of two strangers who come together on election night 2016 takes viewers on a profound emotional journey.
Q&A with filmmaker Qasim Basir
Tickets: $20, $15 (BAM members)
Polly: Recent Films and Collaborations by Kevin Jerome Everson
Sun, June 24 at 4:15pm
Journeying from 16th-century Florence to the 2017 solar eclipse, the latest works from the restlessly inventive experimentalist blend past and present to illuminate hidden fragments of black life and history.
Q&A with filmmakers Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold
Tickets: $20, $15 (BAM members)
outdoor screening: Eve’s Bayou
Thurs, June 28th
Directed by Kasi Lemmons | 1997
With Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfied, Meagan Good
This richly atmospheric saga of sex, lies, and voodoo is one of the most distinctive films of the 1990s, charting the tumultuous coming of age of a young girl (Smollett-Bell) whose idyllic view of her wealthy Louisiana family is shattered when she catches her father (Jackson) in an act of infidelity. Steeped in Creole folklore, magic, and mysticism, Eve’s Bayou is a scintillating showcase for a powerhouse ensemble of black actresses.
Film begins at sundown. Co-presented by Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy
FREE
Sat, Jun 30 at 2pm
From a black hair horror comedy to a trance-inducing pas de deux, women filmmakers explore race, identity, gender, and relationships in these bold, stylistically daring short works.
Films by Stefani Saintonge (Fucked Like a Star), Adepero Oduye (To Be Free), and Mariama Diallo (Hair Wolf)
Q&A with filmmakers
Tickets: $20, $15 (BAM members)
encore of Crime + Punishment
Sun, July 1 at 2pm
A galvanizing documentary chronicling 12 New York Police Department minority officers who risk everything, speaking out against the continued use of quotas that unfairly target young black and Hispanic men. With unprecedented fly-on-the-wall access, the film exposes racism, corruption, and intimidation within the NYPD.
Q&A with Stephen Maing and film subjects
Tickets: $20, $15 (BAM members)
