THE ONES TO WATCH
Vimeo hosts 2019 best video awards in Prospect Height s
IBy Jessica Parks t’s a big day for the small
screen!
Filmmakers and aspiring
video storytellers will stream to
Prospect Heights next weekend
for a day of screenings, panel
discussions, and parties. The
Vimeo Festival and Awards, at
Murmrr on Jan. 11, will also
honor 10 videos as the best of
2019 with an award ceremony
that one online video platform
honcho said is different from
other festivals.
“The VFAs is an awards show
unlike any other,” said Courtney
Horwitz. “We’re celebrating the
best and most original videos on
the internet, and bringing people
from all corners of the world
together to have fun, learn, and be
inspired.”
Out of the millions of videos
uploaded to Vimeo, staff members
selected 100 nominees, spread
evenly across 10 different genres.
The categories include Comedy,
Drama, Animation, Action
Sports Video, Documentary,
Experimental, and Travel, along
with three new categories:
Branded Contest, Brand Story:
Large Business, and Brand Story:
Small Business, which Horwitz
said results from a recent increase
in businesses using the platform to
share their stories.
“More and more we’re seeing
businesses and brands using our
platform to share their stories with
the world, and it was important for
us to include these segments in the
VFAs and our curatorial process,”
Horwitz said.
In each category, a panel of
three judges — including actors
Danny Devito, in the Comedy
Category, and Alec Baldwin, for
Drama — chose a single winner,
which will be announced at 7:30
pm, followed by a screening of
all 10 winners, and an after-party
for the honored filmmakers (and
those who spring for a deluxe
ticket.)
During the day, the festival will
feature a series of panel discussions
aimed at upcoming filmmakers,
discussing the creative process,
working with brands, and the
difference between working on
short films and feature-length
products. In another room, many
Brooklyn is stepping outside!
COURIER L 34 IFE, JANUARY 3-9, 2020
of the nominated films will screen,
while the creators offer live
commentary about their projects,
which Horwitz said she is most
excited for.
“I’m most excited to see the
live directors commentary; those
behind-the-scenes takes on how
shots came together adds both
personal and educational elements
that I find truly wonderful,” she
said.
Vimeo Festival and Awards
at Murmrr 17 Eastern Parkway
between Grand Army Plaza and
Underhill Avenue in Prospect
Heights, (516) 510–1477, murmrr.
com. Jan. 11; 1–9 pm (after party
9–11 pm). $20 ($40 for deluxe pass).
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Community Bookstore’s
pick: “How Not to
Make a Human,” by
Karl Steel
Sifting through esoteric
medieval manuscripts for
forgotten gems, Steel furnishes
the reader with entangled stories
of human beings and how we
are shaped by nature. Chock
full of stranger-than-fiction
anecdotes about feral children,
adventures in cannibalism,
sky burial rituals, and more,
Steel provides compelling documentation
that thinking critically about the ecology has a much
longer history than we may imagine.
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore 43 Seventh Ave.
between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718)
783–3075, www.commu nityb ookst ore.net.
Word’s picks: “White
Girls,” by Hilton Als
This book is worth picking up
for the first essay alone, a longform
dissection of a relationship
that plays with the fluidity of
gender, race, and sexuality, and
that calls the entire notions of
memory, identity, and longing
into question. Als, who won the
2017 Pulitzer for Criticism, is
a razor-sharp cultural critic,
and several of the essays in
this book changed the way I
watch, read, and listen to media. This is a
first-rate collection of criticism.
— Ryan Evans, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in
Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com.
Greenlight Bookstore’s
pick: “Topics of
Conversation,” by
Miranda Popkey
Miranda Popkey’s great
debut novel “Topics of
Conversation” is structured
around a series of conversations
and monologues about
female sexuality, power,
and misogyny that occur
over the course of 20 years
in the narrator’s life. The
outstanding centerpiece
is an angry recounting of the night
Norman Mailer stabbed his wife, told through a
Youtube video of a documentary outtake. It is great for fans of
Mary Gaitskill, Renata Adler, and Ottessa Moshfegh.
— Matt Stowe, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton St. between
S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718)
246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com.
Fowl play: The short film “Albatross Soup,” from Brooklyn animator Winnie
Cheung, has been nominated for Best Animation by the Vimeo Festival and Awards,
happening on Jan. 11. Winnie Cheung
By Bill Roundy Happy new year, everybody!
In the wild world of
2020, it is 50 degrees in
January, so we are going to take
advantage of this strange weather
and go outside!
Was your resolution to get more
exercise? Go for a walk through
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
(990 Washington Ave. between
President and Carroll streets in
Crown Heights, www.bbg.org),
on Friday afternoon — because
admission is free on weekdays all
winter! Walk through the peaceful
Japanese Garden, and if you get
chilly, check out the indoor Jungle
Pavilion, which should be nice and
steamy. The Garden opens at noon
and closes at 4:30 pm, but it ends
admissions at 4 pm.
On Saturday, you can visit a
brand new place to go skating —
23 floors above Williamsburg!
The William Vale (111 N. 12th
St. at Wythe Avenue, 23rd
f loor, in Williamsburg,
www.thewilliamvale.
com/r ink) has
installed a skating
rink on its rooftop,
although it uses a
high-tech polymer
called “glice” instead of
frozen water. Apparently
the surface works just like ice,
and you can use regular skates
on it — though the Vale provide
its own special skates with your
$20 admission price ($12 for kids
12 and younger). It stays open
from noon until midnight, if the
weather is nice — and if not, there
is a tent up there where you can
sip hot cocoa.
On Sunday, we will return to
Williamsburg for the annual Three
Kings Day Parade
(along Graham
Avenue, from
Meeker Avenue
to Broadway).
Thousands of
people, costumed
c h a r a c t e r s ,
and camels will
march through
the streets starting at 2
pm, sometimes stopping to give
toys to kids. The holy festival
commemorates the Epiphany,
the day that the Three Wise Men
brought gifts to the baby Jesus, but
honestly, we just want to gawk at
the camels.
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