Sunday, Nov. 2
5:00 pm
and
7:30 pm

Wednesday, Nov. 5
7:30 pm

Lalee’s Kin
Dirs. Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, & Albert Maysles, 2000, 88 min.
LaLee's Kin takes us deep into the Mississippi Delta and the intertwined lives of LaLee Wallace, a great-grandmother struggling to hold her world together in the face of dire poverty, and Reggie Barnes, superintendent of the embattled West Tallahatchie School System. The film explores the painful legacy of slavery and sharecropping in the Delta. 62 year old LaLee Wallace is the lifeblood of this film. Matriarch to an extended family that moves in and out of her house, LaLee is a woman of contradictions and hope.
Director Albert Maysles will be available for Q&A.

Lalee's Kin Maysles Website >

Thursday, Nov. 6
7:00 pm

Clash A' Ds Tight 1's
Dir. Teddy Nygh, 2007, 76 min.
A multi Award Winning 'Rapumentary' where one man and his camera take you on a journey deep into the heart of underground Hip Hop. Travel from the cold grimy streets of London city in the UK to the warm sunny beaches of Sydney, Australia on a mission. The mission is to expose the often neglected and misunderstood heart of Hip Hop. In doing so many social issues are uncovered especially in the UK, where poverty, gun and knife crime, postcode rivalry, youth crime and poor housing are serious problems. Yet, throughout all this, a powerful, creative and positive energy shines through.

Clash A' Da Tight 1's >

Thursday, Nov. 6
9:00 pm

Frekuensia Kolombiana
Dir. Vanessa Gocksch, 2008, 58 min.
When traditional music is the pulse of a culture, Hip Hop can only expand from its native roots. Frekuensia Kolombiana explores traditional music and how it relates to Hip Hop. Through a series of interviews the documentary examines the music that has kept Colombia alive, and it takes you on a journey through the cities of Colombia where it looks at poverty and international relations.
Presented by the Hip Hop Association

http://www.frekuensiakolombiana.com/

Friday,
Nov. 7
7:30 pm

Rezoning Harlem
Dirs. Natasha Florentino & Tamara Gubernat, 2008, 40 min.
Rezoning Harlem follows longtime members of the Harlem community as they fight a 2008 rezoning that threatens to erase the history and culture of their neighborhood and replace it with luxury housing, offices, and big-box retail. A shocking expose of how a group of ordinary citizens, who are passionate about the future of one the city's most treasured neighborhoods, are systematically shut out of the city's decision-making process, revealing New York City's broken public review system and provoking discussion on what we can do about it.
Directors Natasha Florentino and Tamara Gubernat will available for Q&A.

Saturday,
Nov. 8
7:30 pm

Rezoning Harlem
Dirs. Natasha Florentino & Tamara Gubernat, 2008, 40 min.
Rezoning Harlem follows longtime members of the Harlem community as they fight a 2008 rezoning that threatens to erase the history and culture of their neighborhood and replace it with luxury housing, offices, and big-box retail. A shocking expose of how a group of ordinary citizens, who are passionate about the future of one the city's most treasured neighborhoods, are systematically shut out of the city's decision-making process, revealing New York City's broken public review system and provoking discussion on what we can do about it.
Directors Natasha Florentino and Tamara Gubernat will available for Q&A.

Sunday, Nov. 9
5:00 pm
and
7:30 pm

Black Joy •
Dir. Anthony Simmons,1977, 97 mins.
An early example of black British cinema, Black Joy is a fast paced comic portrait of the lives of West Indians who immigrated to Brixton, London. It is considered the only example of British blaxploitation and captures the mood of the late seventies in London. The warm cast is complimented by a classic Roots soundtrack (Junior Marvin, the Heptones, Toots and the Maytals). Presented by Keeling Reggae Video

Black Joy Trailer >

RENT CONTROL: NYC DOCUMENTED AND IMAGINED, October 2008 to April 2009

Against the backdrop of global finance’s upheaval, global finance’s capital, New York City, continues to undergo rapid changes. The Maysles Cinema, a new theater devoted to documentary film and operated by the Maysles Institute, presents an in-depth examination of communities in New York undergoing change, Rent Control: NYC Documented and Imagined. This series is curated by Jessica Green with Philip Maysles.

Tuesday, Nov. 11
7:30 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN EAST / LOWER EAST SIDE

Brave New York •
Dir. Richard Sandler, 2004, 54 min.
This free form documentary loosely chronicles the last 12 years of intense change in the East Village. From the reopening of a newly curfewed Tompkins Square Park and Wigstock in ‘92, to the destruction of the cherished Loisaida Community Gardens, to the yuppie invasions of the dot com years, to the present era, indelibly stamped with post 9/11 grief, this lusty neighborhood survives in spite of a real estate gold rush that excludes all but the well-to-do. The main voices are those of artists and street people whose wisdom and commentaries upon the dominant culture give us pause amidst the speedy approach of a "brave new world."


Subway to the Former East Village Dir. Richard Sandler, 2008
Sandler used unused footage shot for Brave New York and SWAY, a film shot entirely underground in NYC’s subway system to create this new experimental film.
Director Richard Sandler available for Q&A

Brave New York/Subway to the Former East Village:
www.richardsandler.com

Wednesday, Nov. 12
7:30 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN EAST / LOWER EAST SIDE

Captured •
Dir. Ben Solomon, Dan Levin, and Jenner Furst, 2007, 90 min.
From drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos and ultimately gentrification, the lawlessness and raw creativity of the Lower East Side’s street art, music, and revolutionary minds have been documented by Clayton Patterson since 1979. The drugs, piercings, Mohawks, and graffiti on display are, in this context, not kitschy or nostalgic. Instead they express the rich diversity of many little communities living together on the LES. In the 70’s the Lower East Side was not merely a trendy neighborhood with a bustling nightlife, it was a cauldron of avant-garde music and art stirred together with punk rock and the nascent hip hop culture. It was dirty, crumbling, and often quite dangerous. Clayton never anticipated that this largely working class neighborhood of Puerto Ricans, Jewish immigrants, radical squatters, and decadent hipsters would become the locus of the city’s never-ending cycle of gentrification. Twenty years before there was YouTube, Patterson’s footage of police brutality (from the Thompson Square Park riot) served as evidence in the one of the largest suits in the history of the NYPD. Patterson’s odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.
Directors and Clayton Patterson available for Q&As

www.capturedmovie.com

Thursday, Nov. 13
7:30 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN EAST / LOWER EAST SIDE

Landlord Blues •
Dir. Jacob Burckhardt, 1987, 96 min.
A shocking, richly ironic class struggle on the Lower East Side, Landlord Blues, is a quintessential New York Story about a sleazy slumlord that evicts old ladies, deals coke and keeps an arsonist on retainer. The greedy not so clever landlord wants to evict a bicycle shop and replace it with a swanky art gallery but is outwitted in a high-speed bike chase. Welcomed for its relaxed, unpretentious charm, the film is not above playing genre jokes with a campy shock cut or film noir camera placement every once in a while.
Director Jacob Burckhardt available for Q&A

Friday,
Nov. 14
7:00 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN EAST / CHINATOWN

From Spikes to Spindles •
Dir. Christine Choy, 1976, 50 min.
In this raw portrait of New York's Chinatown, residents across New York band together to protest police brutality and greedy real estate developers. This coalition of young and old, Caucasian and Asian confront city officials and attempt to fight the physical and emotional dismantling of a community. Also explored are the issues that shape contemporary experience; gentrification, shifting notions of community, and the abuse of power by a police force charged with cleaning up the city.

Here to Stay
Dir. ManSee Kong, 2007, 7 min.
A short, poignant documentary about an elderly Chinese man who lives in an endangered SRO as the Chinatown community fends off developers.

8:00 pm
Panel: Helena Wong, Chinatown Justice Project, CAAAV, ManSee Kong, Director of Here to Stay, Community Board 3, John Woo, Chinatown Community Center

Third World Newsreel >

Saturday,
Nov. 15
7:30 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN EAST / CHINATOWN

Eat a Bowl of Tea •
Dir. Wayne Wang, 1989, 102 min.
From the director of Smoke and The Joy Luck Club, comes this tale of Chinese immigrants in New York involving a prearranged marriage, impotence, infidelity, interfering elders, the benevolent tyranny of family, and even a severed ear. Until 1946 Asians were locked out of American citizenship and were not allowed to bring their wives or families with them to the United States. Based on Louis Chu’s novel, the film is set in Chinatown, 1949, when Wah dispatches his son to bring back a Chinese bride and start making grandchildren.

Eat a Bowl of Tea Trailer >

Sunday, Nov. 16
5:00 pm
and
7:30 pm

Black Joy •
Dir. Anthony Simmons,1977, 97 mins.
An early example of black British cinema, Black Joy is a fast paced comic portrait of the lives of West Indians who immigrated to Brixton, London. It is considered the only example of British blaxploitation and captures the mood of the late seventies in London. The warm cast is complimented by a classic Roots soundtrack (Junior Marvin, the Heptones, Toots and the Maytals). Presented by Keeling Reggae Video.

Black Joy Trailer >

Tuesday,
Nov. 18
7:00 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN WEST

Ballad of Greenwich Village
Dir. Karen Kramer, 2005, 70 min.
Interweaving past and present, and combining 16mm footage, archival photographs, Hollywood movies, cartoons, stories from people living and dead, famous and obscure – and with a soundtrack ranging from ragtime to bebop to folk music– this film is a celebration of what was America’s true bohemia. The artists, rebels, and bohemians of New York’s Greenwich Village transformed American culture by doing things like starting the first interracial jazz club, founding Socialist newspapers at the dawn of the 20th century and throwing the first punches at the 1969 Stonewall rebellion that sparked gay liberation. The film also interweaves on-camera stories from well-known celebrities who got their start in Greenwich Village. Actor/director Tim Robbins speaks about growing up in the Village and going to early protest rallies. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg shows us the coffee house where he first read poetry. Amiri Baraka shares stories. Other memories are shared by poet Maya Angelou, author Norman Mailer, jazz drummer Roy Haynes, and folk singers Peter, Paul, & Mary, Judy Collins, and Richie Havens - as well as local Village painters, drag queens, activists, and club owners. Actress Lili Taylor is the narrator.
Director Karen Kramer available for Q&A.

www.balladofgreenwichvillage.com

Tuesday,
Nov. 18
8:30 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN WEST

Next Stop Greenwich Village
Dir. Paul Mazursky, 1976, 111 min.
Though he may borrow some from Fellini, Mazursky's hip, semi-autobiographical film is more honest and true to life than usual. The film follows the journey of a young Jewish Brooklyn, 50s Beat era boy who moves to Greenwich Village aiming for an acting career –honestly depicting the way hopeful aspiring artists relate to each other, alternately propping each other up and tearing each other down. Some of the friends he meets there, include sexy, edgy Sarah, suicidal Anita, flamboyant Bernstein, and narcissistic playwright Robert (a young Christopher Walken).

Friday,
Nov. 21
7:00 pm

RENT CONTROL: DOWNTOWN WEST

Fenced Out
Dir. Paper Tiger TV with FIERCE! & The Neutral Zone, 2001, 28 min.
Fenced Out documents the fight for the Christopher St. pier, a long-established hangout and safe haven for New York City’s youth of color, homeless, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and two-spirited youth. In the summer of 2000, with support from residents of nearby waterfront properties, development began for a state park that would “fence out” the kids. The documentary includes interviews with “pierets” about how important the pier is to them, and with LGBTQ activists about the history of the piers and the gay liberation movement of the 60’s.

Fenced Out Trailer >

Life on Christopher Street
Dir. Maria Clara, 2002, 28 min.
Through the eyes of these urban male youth, known as “Homo Thugs”, we see gay rappers, “Blood” gang members, pimps, and prostitutes in their struggle to maintain dignity. The film is an exposé of a rising subculture of Black and Latino gay youth born in the late 70’s to early 80’s, representing the Hip-Hop generation. These urban gay youth living on the most popular gay strip in the world maintain the aggressive hyper masculine image and attitude represented in the Hip-Hop culture, contradicting the stereotypical image of homosexuals.

Life on Christopher Street >

8:00 pm
Panel: Life on Christopher Street Director and Producer, Maria Clara, Kimberly Gray, FIERCE, Community Board 2 LGBT Taskforce

Saturday,
Nov. 22
6:00 pm

Remembering the Shootout: Larry Davis vs. 30 NYC Cops

On February 20, 2008, Larry Davis, a modern day folk hero who made headlines across America after shooting 6 out of 30 NYC cops, wounding 6 of them, escaping unharmed and leading the country on one of the biggest manhunts ever, was assassinated in prison by another inmate. The death of Larry Davis was a shock to many and people across America went into mourning for an individual many considered a hero because of his stand against police corruption and brutality as well his victory in the face of overwhelming odds. On Saturday, November 22, Larrima Davis Enterprises and Fam4Life Entertainment present an event to mark the bloody shootout that led to Larry becoming the cultural icon that he is today. Every family member that was in the house on that bloody night will participate in a Q & A. FREE admission /donations accepted.
Official After Party at 10:00 pm.

Sunday, Nov. 23
5:00 pm
and
7:30 pm

Black Joy •
Dir. Anthony Simmons,1977, 97 mins.
An early example of black British cinema, Black Joy is a fast paced comic portrait of the lives of West Indians who immigrated to Brixton, London. It is considered the only example of British blaxploitation and captures the mood of the late seventies in London. The warm cast is complimented by a classic Roots soundtrack (Junior Marvin, the Heptones, Toots and the Maytals). Presented by Keeling Reggae Video.

Black Joy Trailer >

Monday, Nov. 24
7:30 pm

MASTERPIECES OF DOCUMENTARY

Winter Soldier
Winterfilm Collective, 1972, 96 min.
Rarely seen since it's 1972 Cannes premiere, Winter Soldier has been called one of the most powerful anti-war films ever made and remains to this day a remarkable plea for peace. On January 31, 1971 more than 125 Vietnam veterans, representing every major combat unit to see action in the war, gathered at a Howard Johnson's hotel in Detroit to heal a nation and themselves. They risked everything--their careers, their friendships, their families--to talk about the atrocities they had committed or witnessed in the presence of officers while stationed in Vietnam. These veterans saw themselves as winter soldiers battling against the wrongs of the war and the brutal training that had made them capable of unthinkable violence. Barbara Kopple, Michael Lesser, Bob Fiore, David Grubian from WinterFilm Collective in attendance.

www.wintersoldierfilm.com

Friday,
Nov. 28
7:30 pm

Lalee’s Kin
Dirs. Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, & Albert Maysles, 2000, 88 min.
LaLee's Kin takes us deep into the Mississippi Delta and the intertwined lives of LaLee Wallace, a great-grandmother struggling to hold her world together in the face of dire poverty, and Reggie Barnes, superintendent of the embattled West Tallahatchie School System. The film explores the painful legacy of slavery and sharecropping in the Delta. 62 year old LaLee Wallace is the lifeblood of this film. Matriarch to an extended family that moves in and out of her house, LaLee is a woman of contradictions and hope.

Lalee's Kin Maysles Website >

Saturday,
Nov. 29
7:30 pm

Lalee’s Kin
Dirs. Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, & Albert Maysles, 2000, 88 min.
LaLee's Kin takes us deep into the Mississippi Delta and the intertwined lives of LaLee Wallace, a great-grandmother struggling to hold her world together in the face of dire poverty, and Reggie Barnes, superintendent of the embattled West Tallahatchie School System. The film explores the painful legacy of slavery and sharecropping in the Delta. 62 year old LaLee Wallace is the lifeblood of this film. Matriarch to an extended family that moves in and out of her house, LaLee is a woman of contradictions and hope.

Lalee's Kin Maysles Website >