WORLD PREMIERE Stretching beyond the limits of the classic character study documentary, More Than the Rainbow not only chronicles the life and times of street photographer and former taxi driver Matt Weber, it becomes a vibrant conversation about the photographic medium, artistic expression, and New York City. Reflecting upon photography at the end of the analog age, the film […]
US PREMIERE This remarkable documentary explores the untold story behind one of the most iconic images of the twentieth century: the 1932 photograph of workmen taking their lunch perched on a girder high above New York City on the 69th floor of Rockefeller Center. Part homage, part investigation, this is the beautiful tale of an American icon, an unprecedented race […]
Every day for the last 67 years, 90-year-old cab driver Johnnie “Spider” Footman has shown up for work at one of New York City’s most eclectic communities—the taxi garage across from the United Nations. The garage is a kind of a refugee camp in the heart of New York, a city where drivers have come for protection from […]
WORLD PREMIERE Building Babel tells the story of Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ in Lower Manhattan. With unfettered access to Sharif’s life and family over the course of two years, the film tracks his struggle to bring his idea of Park51, a controversial Muslim community center two blocks from the site of Ground Zero, […]
Co-presented by Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard LLP. When it comes to Wall Street corruption, the worst criminals rarely grant interviews. But Unraveled marks an exception. Prominent attorney Marc Dreier committed fraud on a scale that made him second only to Bernie Madoff. While confined under house arrest, he opened his life to filmmaker and attorney Marc H. Simon […]
WORLD PREMIERE Billboards and commercial messages dominate the public space like never before. Can we reverse this visual pollution? This Space Available looks at diverse activists from the worlds of advertising, street art, and politics. Influenced by the writing of Marc Gobé (Emotional Branding), his daughter Gwenaëlle directs with tremendous verve in her depiction of New Yorkers and others […]
WORLD PREMIERE Whatever happened to The Sugarhill Gang? After scoring a mega-hit with “Rapper’s Delight,” the band’s creative leaders Master Gee and Wonder Mike became the victims of nightmare contracts. They lost their income and even their names. Twenty-five years later, they set out to reclaim their identities and place in hip-hop history, going up against ruthless adversaries […]
2011 METROPOLIS COMPETITION WINNER US PREMIERE Inside the legendary (and soon to be transformed) Chelsea Hotel, first-time director Corinne van der Borch discovers Bettina, a resident since the 1960s, once a mysterious beauty and now a recluse. Filmed over two years, Bettina lets down her guard and reveals a treasure trove of her artwork. This exquisite portrait captures […]
Blazing the Trail reveals the legacy of New York’s silent movie pioneer The Kalem Film Company, toplined by the creative combo of director Sidney Olcott and actress Gene Gauntier. In 1910, they traveled to Ireland to produce the country’s first feature film, The Lad from Old Ireland, and built on its success with other tales of immigration, romance […]
2010 METROPOLIS COMPETITION AND AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER Karina, Pearl and Anthony are three New York teenagers in a radical poetry workshop called Power Writing that has a profound affect on their lives. Putting pen to paper they’re able to imagine a future where fathers aren’t in jail, mothers aren’t abusive and college isn’t something you […]