2022 Film Festival Program

Inwood Art Works proudly announces the programming for its fifth annual Inwood Film Festival, to be held at Columbia University’s Campbell Sports Center in Inwood from June 2-5, 2022. The festival includes 37 films, two seminars, lots of post-show conversations with filmmakers, and plenty of special events. Details of the screenings and all the films are listed below.

The festival includes a special Opening Night Benefit on Thursday, June 2, at 6.30pm, featuring the history of Hollywood filmmaking in the ‘hood, award-winning shorts from our NYC Quarantine Film Festival, and the world premiere presentation of select shorts from the Inwood Filmmaker Fund grantees. Delicious food and beverages will be provided by Amores Café and Dyckman Beer Company.

Before and after the festival screenings, ticket holders can mingle in The Red-Carpet Community Room, a hip hub to connect filmmakers and audiences that is for the exclusive use of all Inwood Film Festival ticketed patrons before and after each screening. Enjoy a glass of wine or a Dyckman Beer and come to connect with neighbors before the show, stay afterward to discuss the films, meet like-minded folk, and hob-nob with local movers n’ shakers.

After the last screenings on each day there will be conversation with some of the day’s filmmakers. Following the final post-screening discussion, at approximately 5:30pm on Sunday, join us in the theater for the announcement of the Inwood Film Festival’s 5th Annual Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking.

And on both Saturday (10pm) & Sunday (6pm) evenings, you can join filmmakers, film aficionados, and the Inwood Art Works team to raise a glass to our Inwood community and its vibrant arts scene. Saturday’s After Party will be held at Tubby Hook Tavern (4946 Broadway) and Sunday’s is hosted by Inwood Farm (600 West 218th Street).

For the first time we will also be hosting IFF+, a special online extension of the Film Festival that will include all the Film Festival programming plus exclusive online screenings of two Inwood Film Festival Filmmaker Fund Films — Filipinos Get Some and Sunspot. The two exclusive films will be available online on June 3, and the rest of the Festival films will be available once the main event ends on June 5.

If there is one positive thing that we’ve learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is that our community exists beyond geographical boarders. Our goal for IFF+ is to provide an alternative digital platform that celebrates, showcases, and enhances accessibility to the films of our fantastic local artists.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Inwood Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. This program is funded in part by The Medical Center Neighborhood Fund.

Thanks to these organizations and all our local sponsors

Tickets and Location

$15 Single Tickets (Students $10*) to each individual screening.
$50 Festival Pass (Students $40*) — all access pass to all screenings June 3-5.
$85 Benefit Ticket — admission to Opening Night Benefit on June 2
$125 Benefit Ticket & Festival Pass – admission to Opening Night Benefit on June 2, and all access pass to all screenings June 3-5. No refunds or exchanges.
IFF+ Online Festival – $3 Single Tickets / $20 Festival Pass

*Special discount for local students. Email info@inwoodartworks.nyc for promo code and attach proof of current, valid student ID

Seminars – tickets for Budgeting, or Telling Story of your Film through Numbers and Screenwriting and Storytelling for Independent Film are available on a Pay-What-You-Can basis, and are also through our Eventbrite page.

Friday Program

Long Shorts: Inhood | Friday, 7:05pm

Featuring Inwood Film Festival Filmmaker Fund Films (58 minutes total screening time)

The Other Side Of Broadway
The Other Side of Broadway, directed by Dileepan Ganesan

Two teenagers find young love, crossing the cultural divide that is Broadway.

Beautiful Strokes
Beautiful Strokes, directed by Steven Burneson

Washed up tennis player Pete Sampers rediscovers his dream of defeating tennis legend Pete Sampras, by playing against a poster on a wall.

Effacement
Effacement, directed by Ellen & Michael Mullen

In this darkly funny “babycom”, a woman wrestles with her greatest fear: The irrevocable choice of motherhood.

Go Live in the Woods
Go Live in the Woods, directed by Brandon Stirling Baker

A documentary short film that follows Pat Tillery and Libbie Rice who have called Inwood their home since 1974. This film is a portrait of two long-time neighbors who began a true friendship during the isolation of the pandemic, and provide a playful view of what it means to be local.

Where the Rivers Meet
Where the Rivers Meet, directed by Libby Stadstad

Where the Rivers Meet is a new stop-motion film that celebrates the history and community of Inwood, placing historical events at the center of the narrative to learn from the past and create a better future.

Long Shorts: Reality Bites | Friday, 8:35pm

Featuring Inwood Film Festival Filmmaker Fund Films (59 minutes total screening time). Post-screening filmmaker conversation and reception featuring Inwood Filmmaker Fund grantees immediately following.

Archive & The Storyteller
Archive & the Storyteller, directed by Natasha Marie Rivera

On the brink of human extinction, a young couple struggles to win a coveted spot in the “Archive”.

Quico
Quico, directed by Carlos Hiciano

An emotional portrait of a young Latino boy navigating his youth in white suburban America.

A Best Man
A Best Man, directed by Dylan Tuccillo

On his best friend’s wedding day, Josh proves that A Best Man can only do so much to make sure everything goes smoothly for the Bride and Groom.

An Invitation to Tea
An Invitation to Tea, directed by Desiree Abeyta

In this visually rich short film we step into a Magical-Realist world normally reserved for children, when a woman is visited by the fictional characters of her Grandfather’s stories in an effort to come to terms with his passing.

IFF+ Exclusive Online Screenings

Online only Shorts Exhibition – Friday, June 3 through Sunday, June 12, featuring Inwood Film Festival Filmmaker Fund Films:

Filipinos Get Some
Filipinos Get Some, directed by Michael Manese

A fistfight, ugly cries, betrayal, coming out, unrequited love, lovers spat, what else can happen during a public marriage proposal between a couple in front of their closest friends?

Sunspot
Sunspot, directed by Brian Mihok

River, a young woman, struggles to find her own way in life while trying to help a neighborhood friend retrieve something of value. But in a working community of broken dreams and shallow bank accounts, possessing anything of value complicates the lives of anyone in its orbit.

Saturday Program

Seminar: Budgeting, or Telling Story of your Film through Numbers

Saturday, June 4 at 12:05pm (Pay-what-you-can). Appropriate for beginners and professionals.
Before you make your movie, you need make a budget! Do you know how to tell the story of your film through numbers? Join Founder and Executive Producer of Inwood Art Works, Aaron Simms, as he shares the essential financial considerations all filmmakers need to account for before they shoot their first frame.

Long Shorts: Documentary Portraits | Saturday, 1:35pm

(55 minutes total screening time, plus post-screening conversation with filmmakers)

Con Dios
Con Dios (student film), directed by Anthony Rojas

A short documentary exploring the hardships, achievements and courage of Carmen Rojas; a community leader and historical figure of Washington Heights.

Tumbling Towards Home
Tumbling Towards Home, directed by Imelda O’Reilly

An Irish immigrant moves to New York in 1989 to study acting. He works through the grief from the loss of his mother’s passing and of his friend Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Layers of a Baker
Layers of a Baker, directed by Carla Franchesca

Owning your own business in New York City could be the perfect definition of the “American Dream’; but for Marcos, a baker, that dream can show many layers.

Maria Torres: Neighborhood Artist
Maria Torres: Neighborhood Artist, directed by Davis Hall

What if making art could save your life? For this Peruvian-born New Yorker, painting helps heal physical and emotional trauma.

Ydanisville
Ydanisville, directed by Cristobal Vivar

Community activists defend their neighborhood from a government rezoning that threatens their neighborhood, Inwood New York. This short movie shows their last attempts to stop the plan in the last week before the City Council votes.

Long Shorts – Uptown: Criminal Intent | Saturday, 3:35pm

(45 minutes total screening time, plus post-screening conversation with filmmakers)

Kimchi Taco
Kimchi Taco (Student Film), directed by Seran Kim

Traumatized by the brutal murder of her husband in Spanish Harlem, a Korean shopkeeper finds an unexpected ally’s in a young Mexican woman with a secret.

Tubby Hook
Tubby Hook, directed by Nelson Estevez and Nell Teare

After three thieves succeed in a dangerous heist, their loyalty is tested when gangsters show up to reclaim the loot.

Fran Gil, Notario
Fran Gil, Notario/P.I., directed by Victor Yanik

Notary and private investigator, Fran Gil, is hired to investigate a possible death threat. When he learns that his client is found dead, he sets out on a path to find the truth.

Seminar: Screenwriting and Storytelling for Independent Film

Saturday, June 4 at 5:05pm (pay-what-you-can).
Innovative tools for developing skills and captivating an audience through storytelling, cinematography, and cinema. Hosted by filmmakers Imelda O’Reilly and Joe Foley.

Long & Short Shorts | The Long and the Short Shorts of it | Saturday, 6:35pm

(50 minutes total screening time)

Roaming the Ruins
Roaming the Ruins, directed by Vivien McNab

Based on a true event, a mother and daughter travel to Rome and get lost for hours in the Palatine Hill ruins.

Dancy Nancy
Dancy Nancy, directed by Miguel Mercado

Documentary showcasing fitness specialist, Nancy Bruning, who promotes exercise classes in city parks for people who want to have a healthy lifestyle in New York City without going to the gym.

The Replacement
The Replacement, directed by Michael Pizzano

While fending off the office bully, a business exec must help the front desk face his possible firing and replacement.

A La Mode
A La Mode, directed by Charles Gomez

When a young woman’s obsessive behavior for wearing makeup turns ugly. Showing a different perspective of what we don’t see behinds doors.

Nevertheless
Nevertheless, directed by KarynRose Bruyning

Deeper meaning is the thing everyone seems to be looking for after heartbreak. What if you got the answer to all of the “whys” would it matter? Nevertheless is story of WHY and what happens after.

Don’t Blink Twice
Don’t Blink Twice, directed by Kristin Macomber and Steven Burneson

A couple navigates what it means to hang out.

The First Time I Saw You
The First Time I Saw You, directed by Dylan Scott Tuccillo

A young man sees a woman shoplifting and decides to follow her. Hours later he’s obsessed, following the woman everywhere she goes. As days turn into weeks, he learns everything about her, and his life will never be the same. But she has a secret that even he doesn’t know about. The film pays homage to the silent film era in that it contains no dialogue.

Anya | Feature Film | Saturday, 8:05pm

(80 minutes, plus a special post-screening conversation with the filmmakers)

Anya
Directed by Carylanna Taylor and Jacob Akira Okada

A young couple’s personal quest to have a child becomes a provocative, yet utterly dramatic, exploration of some of the most challenging issues facing humanity today.


Sunday Program

Sometimes Why | Feature Film | Sunday, 12:35pm

(59 minutes, plus a special post-screening conversation with the filmmakers)

Sometimes Why
Directed by Dileepan Ganesan

The story of two dreamers, brought together by chance, who navigate the trials and tribulations of life and love in NYC

Long Shorts: Heath & Wellness | Short films under 25 minutes | Sunday, 2:15pm

(63 minutes total screening time, plus special post-screening conversation with filmmakers)

Cultivate
Cultivate, directed by Alex Baglio

When food critic Brian visits Cultivate, the hottest new restaurant in town, he’s challenged by the establishment’s quirky waiter before chowing down.

Desert Shadows
Desert Shadows, directed by Robin Zerbe

Returning from his latest tour of duty, a guilt-ridden soldier battles his inner demons while trying to find peace in his civilian life.

Nourishing Japan
Nourishing Japan, directed by Alexis Agliano Sanborn

Embark on a delicious journey from farmer’s field to school classroom that celebrates how one country has reimagined school lunch and food education. At the heart of Japan’s 2005 Food Education Law are the incredible people whose daily work nourishes the next generation’s relationship to food, the earth, and one another.

Without a Scratch
Without a Scratch, directed by Samantha Farinella

Without a Scratch is an experimental short documentary that takes the viewer on the journey of the queer filmmaker’s experience with a pituitary tumor, exploring the interconnectedness and complexity of healing, memory and love.

Long Shorts: Now, That’s Comedy! | Short films under 25 minutes | Sunday, 4:05pm

(58 minutes total screening time, plus special post-screening conversation with filmmakers)

The Meditater
The Meditater [sic], directed by Justin Giegerich

Bennett is an unpaid intern. He hates it, but his boss keeps promising him a promotion. The stress of the job keeps mounting and the promotion keeps getting delayed. To deal with it all, Bennett starts meditating, but when the voice of his Meditation App starts talking directly to him, Bennett realizes peace might take more than just some deep breaths.

Not So Hilarious Anymore
Not So Hilarious Anymore, directed by Adam Karsten

When Eliza catches Todd watching old Louis CK clips in the middle of the night, the couple reckon with their feelings about a man they once admired and wonder, among other things, in the age of Hannah Gadsby, how a man who was so tuned in before can be so tone deaf now, before ultimately saying goodbye.

Murmur
Murmur, directed by Sabrina Seidner

Desperate to increase attendance in her unconventional grief support group, Dr. Dee Dee Daniels admits the distraught Lizzie Marks who disrupts the counseling group when everyone discovers she’s in the wrong meeting. Shot on location in Inwood, this is a sweet tale of quirky characters who learn to accept each other and offer some relief from their devastating losses.

Little Italy, Los Angeles
Little Italy, Los Angeles: Un Taglio all’Italiana, directed by Adriano Valentini

The new way to shave.

5th Annual Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking | Sunday, June 5, 5:30pm | FREE, all are welcome!

Join us in the Theater following the final screening on Sunday for the announcement of the Inwood Film Festival’s Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking.

The Festival Spirit Continues on IFF+

Online only Festival Programming – On demand Sunday, June 3 through Sunday, June 12. Tickets on sale beginning May 23 through June 12.

Inwood Art Works is thrilled to launch IFF+ as the online extension of the Inwood Film Festival. Our goal for IFF+ is to provide an alternative digital platform that celebrates, showcases, and enhances accessibility to the films of our fantastic local artists. Our hope is that these online festival screenings attract large and enthusiastic new audiences for local independent filmmakers.