Official Selection - Queens World Film Festival 2016
6th Annual Queens World Film Festival Unfurls March 15-20, 2016, with "Spirit of Queens" Tribute to Melvin Van Peebles and Closing Night Salute to Susan Seidelman's Smithereens and the IndieCollect Film Preservation Campaign.
The Queens World Film Festival engages audiences with targeted outreach to the diverse communities that comprise the borough of Queens. QWFF Artistic Director Don Cato underlines this: "This year's films come from many of the countries whose diasporas are represented in Queens, and they promise to move and entertain our audiences. There are tender films, heartbreaking films, and several works that are extremely provocative, even disturbing. Taken as a whole, I feel this year's selection ties us into discussions people are having around the world."
Cato programs the films in thematic blocks with evocative titles, and each program is followed by a post-screening dialogue. Alumni are not automatically accepted, and names are no guarantee either. The real stars are the films themselves. “It’s about surrendering to the cinema experience, without looking for familiar names, titles, scores. It’s about creating the right context for personal, intimate discoveries you will not find anywhere else on the planet,” states Cato.
The Festival’s Executive Director, Katha Cato, defines the ethos that makes QWFF so compelling. “From the beginning of time we have gathered in darkened caves around flickering lights to share our stories. We’ve upgraded the caves, the flickering lights are now zeroes and ones, but the impulse to gather, to tell our stories, remains. When we look at a QWFF film, we see that artists and audiences all over the globe are finding exciting ways to tell stories, both old and new. We are proud to be part of that conversation.”
Queens World Film Festival sponsors include Kaufman Astoria Studios, Investors Bank Foundation, Council Member Daniel Dromm and Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, and The Queens Post.
In addition to producing the annual Queens World Film Festival, the organization programs films year-round at a variety of borough venues through its “Encore” and “Old Spice” screening series, and through its “Young Filmmakers” training program.
The Queens World Film Festival is a program of the Queens World Film Initiative, Inc., a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization. For more information: www.queensworldfilmfestival.com