BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The show must go on!
Amid ongoing restrictions
for most gatherings due to the
novel coronavirus outbreak,
organizers of the annual Bushwick
Film Festival are looking
at ways to showcase movie
makers in the north Brooklyn
nabe in the fall.
“Community events like
this repair or make us feel
like there’s still parts of the
world that we won’t lose,” said
the festival’s founder and chief
executive offi cer Kweighbaye
Kotee. “It’s a place where people
from all social classes can
come and enjoy fi lm together.”
As they gear up for the
event’s 13th installment this
October, Kotee and her fellow
organizers are planning to
downsize in-person live gatherings
— with smaller crowds
in larger venues to allow attendants
to practice social distancing
— while looking into
possible outdoor screenings,
and moving some programming
COURIER L 20 IFE, MAY 29 -JUNE 4, 2020
online for the fi rst time
in the festival’s history.
During the pandemic, the
organizers have been hosting
online watch parties of Netfl ix
fi lms and shows made by the
festival’s alumni on the webconferencing
platform Zoom —
a trial which will help inform
how they organize more online
programming, Kotee said.
Previous iterations of the
event hosted almost 100 fl icks
— including shorts, documentaries,
and features — and
consisted of an opening night
bash, several panels, karaoke
sessions, screenplay readings,
and concerts.
Organizers expect to release
a more detailed approach in the
coming months as they keep an
eye on ever-evolving government
guidance and what other
festivals are doing, such as the
Toronto International Film
Festival in Canada, which usually
takes place a week or two
before Bushwick’s fest. For
now, though, planners say they
may move the festival’s panels
to online platforms.
“We’re defi nitely going in
line with what is safe and what
people feel comfortable with,”
Kotee said. “I’m thinking probably
in July we’ll know which
options will make the most
sense.”
In honor of its 13th event,
this year’s Bushwick Film Festival
will have a teenage theme
for its short fi lms section.
“We’ll probably do a lot
of teenage angst and look for
short fi lms based on that,” Kotee
said, adding, however, that
submissions for this year’s
festival have been slower than
usual. They’d initially hoped
to get 1,500 submissions, she
said, but organizers now believe
the number will likely
be closer to last year’s count at
1,300 due to the pandemic.
While most submissions
come in between January and
March, and between May and
July, Kotee speculated that
the cancellations of other festivals
and the general disruption
caused by the COVID-19
pandemic have made artists
hesitant to send in their work.
The crisis has hit artists
hard, according to Kotee,
who is also a fi lmmaker. She’s
heard from fellow creatives in
the fi lm industry that around
35-40 percent of them have had
projects cancelled or lost income
due to the health crisis.
But Kotee hopes that the
festival will still provide an
outlet for local artists and a
sense of normalcy for fi lm
buffs amid the virus.
“I think a lot of people over
the past few months have
found some sort of comfort
and peace in art, stories, and
fi lmmaking,” she said. “It’s a
way that has brought people
together.”
Bushwick Film Festival
is still accepting submissions
online until July 12 and those
wishing to send in their work
can do so at www.bushwickfi
lmfestival.com/submit.
Keep rolling
Bushwick Film Fest seeks entries
as organizers adapt to COVID-19
BROOKLYN
WAY BACK WHEN: A still from “Feral,” where Annapurna Sriram portrays a homeless woman living in New York
City’s tunnels, which screened at the 2019 Bushwick Film Festival. Photo by Andrew Wonder
BY ROSE ADAMS
Developers unveiled a
sprawling mural next to Williamsburg’s
historic Dime
Savings Bank earlier this
month, which pays tribute
to the borough’s thriving art
scene.
“Brooklyn is the place
where arts thrive, so we
wanted to pay homage to
these Brooklyn artists,” said
Sam Charney, a developer
who commissioned the mural
for his newly-constructed
residential tower on S. Fifth
Street called “The Dime,”
which is attached to the historic
bank.
The 36-foot-long mural
— painted by critically acclaimed
street artist Swoon
— depicts fl owers in a blackand
white nature scene from
fi ve stories above the residential
building facing S. Fifth
Street. Charney said he didn’t
want the mural to feature people,
but left the rest up design
process to Swoon, whose work
has been displayed at MoMA,
the Brooklyn Museum, and
the Tate Modern in London.
“She is well-known for her
fi gurative work with people,
and we just didn’t want any
people in the work. That was
the one piece of direction we
gave her,” Charney said. “We
wanted it to be less about the
individual and more about
the communal.”
The 22-story tower’s lobby
will also feature work by
Swoon, while the neighboring
commercial lobby — also
developed by Charney — will
display a mural by Brooklyn
based artist Tom Fruin,
whose stained glass water
towers have sprouted up
across the borough.
“Tom Fruin did incredible
piece in the lobby of laser-cut
found-trash that’s been collaged
together,” said Charney
about the 30-foot long piece
that will be on display in the
S. Fifth Street building.
The Dime Savings Bank,
which was built around 1906
on Havemeyer Street by S.
Fifth Street, will either be
leased as stand-alone retail
or as the lobby of a larger
commercial tenant, Charney
said.
Charney, an art collector,
said he became interested in
street art as a teenager growing
up in New York during the
1980s. He’s now the co-owner
of a street art gallery Soak
Your Buns, named after the
technique hot dog eating contest
participants use to scarf
down frankfurters.
“I grew up in Manhattan
in the ’80s and ’90s, I’m
a big street art collector,”
said Charney, who added that
commissioning the street
art murals felt like an obvious
choice. “I just feel like if
you have the opportunity to
put something really unique
in your lobbies and common
spaces, why not take advantage
of it?”
Mural by street
artist unveiled
near W’burg’s
landmark bank
A new mural by the famous street artist Swoon was erected next to a
historic bank in Williamsburg. Photo by Charney Companies
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