News

While a number of arthouse movie theaters, mostly in NYC, began closing their doors starting last Thursday, an unprecedented step has now been taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus: all movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles have been ordered to shut down. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made the decisions late last night, while also putting restrictions on other entertainment venues. Restaurants, bars, and cafes will also only be able to provide food delivery and take-out.

With these theater closures, the question remains: will any company want to theatrically release their new films over the next few months? We’ve already seen widespread postponements when it comes to studio tentpoles (from A Quiet Place: Part II to Mulan to No Time to Die to F9), but the indie distributors have been a bit less forthcoming about their plans in a rapidly evolving situation.

Yaara Sumeruk’s short film If We Say That We Are Friends was scheduled to have its New York premiere tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look series. Of course, it’s been cancelled, along with the majority of the city’s cultural activity in the wake of the Coronavirus. But in what’s perhaps a forerunner of the way filmmakers may be responding to the screening cessations in the weeks ahead, Sumerek is going ahead with the event, but online, in a “social distant screening.” At 7:00 Pm, viewers can click on this Vimeo link and use the password “Dine” […]...

Yaara Sumeruk’s short film If We Say That We Are Friends was scheduled to have its New York premiere tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look series. Of course, it’s been cancelled, along with the majority of the city’s cultural activity in the wake of the Coronavirus. But in what’s perhaps a forerunner of the way filmmakers may be responding to the screening cessations in the weeks ahead, Sumerek is going ahead with the event, but online, in a “social distant screening.” At 7:00 Pm, viewers can click on this Vimeo link and use the password “Dine” […]...

Making its world premiere at the recently concluded Camden International Film Festival was New York-based, Argentinian/South African director Yaara Sumeruk’s short doc, If We Say That We Are Friends, which, in a taut 17 minutes, sits the viewer down into the midst of a warmly unusual conversation on race taking place across dinner tables in the Cape Town South African township Khayelitsha. The organizers of Dine with Khayelitsha arrange for relatively well-off South Afrikaners from the city to hear first-hand about life in the townships by joining residents for dinners of African food in their homes. (Formed in 2015, the […]...

Making its world premiere at the recently concluded Camden International Film Festival was New York-based, Argentinian/South African director Yaara Sumeruk’s short doc, If We Say That We Are Friends, which, in a taut 17 minutes, sits the viewer down into the midst of a warmly unusual conversation on race taking place across dinner tables in the Cape Town South African township Khayelitsha. The organizers of Dine with Khayelitsha arrange for relatively well-off South Afrikaners from the city to hear first-hand about life in the townships by joining residents for dinners of African food in their homes. (Formed in 2015, the […]...

American indie film love is on full display at a fest that I’ve coined farm version of Telluride. The 8th edition of the Wassaic Project Film Festival will take off at the tail end of the month and the curators have landed Todd Haynes’ masterwork Safe and a foursome of worthy items (not including a special in-progress feature film screening) for the ’15 edition.

Sundance preemed items in Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe’s (T)error will be shown alongside SXSW/Cannes profiled Krisha from Trey Edward Shults and Sam Cullman’s Tribeca showcased Art and Craft. The fest runs from July 31st until August 2nd in Wassaic, New York. Pitch up a tent and go watch these features – as well as shorts selected by the Wassaic Project and Jason Sondhi of Vimeo Staff Picks and Short of the Week.