60 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • JULY 20, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
Boulevard Film Festival in Sunnyside will show
local and international shorts this weekend
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
For the second year in a row, a fi lm festival
in Sunnyside will showcase shorts
from local and international fi lmmakers
alike.
Th e Boulevard Film Festival was created
by Sunnyside fi lmmakers and artists
who felt that the closing of Sunnyside
Center Cinemas in 2014 was a huge
loss for the community. Co-founders
Amanda Barker-Carlson and Matthew
Carlson aimed to to create an alternative
space for the neighborhood to watch
fi lms.
Th is year’s festival will take place from
July 20 through July 23 at four venues
including Maggie Mae’s, Th alia Spanish
Th eatre, Bar 43 and Th e Dog and the
Duck.
“Th ere was a very positive response
from fi lmmakers and the audience last
year,” Barker-Carlson. “Momentum
built throughout the main day last year
and the midnight screening sold out and
became standing room only. It was a lot
of fun for everyone.”
A total of 31 fi lms will be screened this
weekend and each day is organized by
theme. Th ough last year’s festival focused
on Queens artists, the organizers decided
to expand their search to include international
fi lmmakers and received more
than 800 submissions.
“Th is year we have more fi lms and have
also included some international submissions
along with the local fi lmmakers,”
Barker-Carlson said. “We feel that the
international fi lms we selected can really
speak to the Queens audience. For example,
we are really excited to present an all
Spanish-language screening at the Th alia
Spanish Th eatre on Friday night.”
On July 20, Th e Flushing Remonstrance
— a musical duo that scores fi lms — will
provide live accompaniment for several
fi lms at Maggie Mae’s starting at 8 p.m.
On July 21, “Cine En Español” will
take place at the Th alia Spanish Th eatre,
where seven shorts from fi lmmakers
from Queens, Argentina, Spain and Chile
will be screened starting at 7:30 p.m.
Th e festival is catering to night owls by
hosting a “Midnight Madness” screening
at midnight to kick off the slate of
screenings taking place on July 22. Shorts
during this block will be a “mad mix of
comedy, animation, sci-fi , horror and
music videos.”
Screenings include “Fashion Cave” by
Tristian Goik, “Surgeon Secrets” by Cool
Kids Comedy and “WorldQuake” by
Germany-based fi lmmaker Rico Herre.
Th ree Queens fi lmmakers will be highlighted
in the “Queens Selects” block on
July 22 at Th alia Spanish Th eatre at noon.
Daniella Turano’s “Taking in Quinn,” a
story about two estranged sisters reconnecting
will be screened along with
“Choices” by Rick Hamilton. “Impervia”
by Patrick Devaney follows a family
under the rule of humanoid robots.
Also on Saturday, a handful of shorts
highlighting cultural and social issues
ranging from mental health to transgender
equality will be shown at Bar 43 starting
at 5:30 p.m. Films include “Buddha of
Superposition” by UK-based fi lmmaker
Alexis Kirke, “Th e Still Life” by Queensbased
Yun Xie and “Th at’s My Boy” by
India-based fi lmmaker Akhil Sathyan.
Th e festival will end with the Audience
Choice Awards on July 23 at noon where
fi lmmakers from each block will be honored.
Th e ceremony is open to the public
and will take place at Th alia Spanish
Th eatre.
“We want this event to continue to be
a positive and fun thing for local fi lmmakers
and our community as a whole,”
Barker-Carlson said.
Photo courtesy of Boulevard VFilm Festival
The Boulevard Film Festival will take place in Sunnyside from June 21 through June 23.
‘One Station Plaza’ opens up for business in Bayside
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
intensive fi ve-week overhaul. Owners and
maybe one day we’d come back.”
smonteverdi@starnetwork.com / @
Queens natives John Ryan and Mark Boccia,
Drawing inspiration from the past, the
smont76
who also own Bell Boulevard’s Bourbon
new owners restored the former name.
Street and Kew Gardens’ Austin Ale House,
Th e eatery’s walls will also soon be
Bayside‘s past and present collide at this
began their careers in the restaurant industry
adorned with old pictures of One Station
fresh new beer garden and restaurant.
at the space in the 1980s, when it was
Plaza and Bayside throughout the years,
One Station Plaza, the neighborhood’s
called One Station Plaza.
Boccia said.
newest food destination, welcomed the
“We bussed tables, waited tables, John
“Our goal was to bring it back to the
community for a soft opening on July 12.
bartended, we helped out in the kitchen
One Station Plaza look with a modern
Th e former home to C.J. Sullivan’s
— anything we could do,” Boccia said.
fl air,” he continued.
American Grill, or “Sullivan’s,” which served
“Th ere’s a lot of history here,” Ryan
In the coming days, the restaurant will
customers for the fi nal time on June 4, the
said. “We sort of always had an aff ection
roll out full service with the full dine-in
space at 213-10 41st Ave. went through an
and our eye out for it. We always said,
menu. A grand opening will take place in
a few weeks.
As far as food goes, Boccia described
the selection as “a gastropub menu with
a Hudson Valley feel,” including salads,
wraps, paninis, cheese boards, oysters,
and steaks and salmon entrees.
Th e beer garden section of the eatery
will be operational 12 months of the year,
according to Ryan. Th e circular outdoor
bar features a large illuminated umbrella,
allowing it to stay open even in inclement
weather. And, in the colder months, the
owners will enclose the space.
Photos by Suzanne Monteverdi/QNS