New Ohio Theatre's NYC INDIE THEATRE FILM FESTIVAL Returns For A 7th Season

NYCITFF runs in person at New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street, New York, NY 10014) from February 16 -19, followed by an encore online presentation from February 20 - 26. Feature-length films, short films, filmmaker Q&As, and panels with industry professionals will be presented. The full schedule will be announced in January.

Six new feature films will be showcased including THE GODDAMN TOONEY LUNES, LEON'S FANTASY CUT, MENDACITY, MIDDAY BLACK MIDNIGHT BLUE, A POEM AND A MISTAKE, and UNPACKING, feature theatre artists stretching themselves with exciting, moving, and vulnerable films. In addition, 35 short films (two thirds directed by women and non-binary creators) will be presented across four programs. See relationships challenged in Friendship Bonds, go deeper with dance, poetry, silent filmmaking and more in Nontraditional Storytelling, experience life shifts in Everything Changes, and go on a relationship rollercoaster in Dating Drama. All films will be available both in person and online.

Co-Producer/Co-Programmer Allyson Morgan shared,"We're so thrilled to once again present the work of theatre artists from across the country taking risks and dipping their toes into other forms of storytelling, many for the first time. This year's selections are moving, funny, and thoughtful, and come from a diverse array of creators. I can't wait to gather in person and be in community with our artists in February!"

Marc Weitz, Co-Producer/Co-Programmer added, "The festival is a wonderful opportunity for theatre artists from all over the U.S. to come together and share ideas and learn from each other, and stretch their ideas of storytelling. Our community has grown so much over the past 7 years, and I always look forward to seeing new collaborations between our artists take hold."

In addition to film offerings, NYCITFF will also present two panels: the first led by artist and improviser Kevin Laibson, where participants will learn how to create theatrical, immersive, and interactive experiences in virtual and augmented reality, including design, development, and production processes. Additionally, actor and creator Jocelyn Kuritsky will lead a workshop with her company, Staging Film - an experimental initiative that explores invigorating, new ways to tell theater stories with film, offering unique insight about producing this cross-medium work.

All-access passes are $50, which provide access to both in-person and online programming, and both in-person only and online only passes are $35 each. Individual tickets are $14. Passes are now on sale; individual tickets go on sale January 2023 when the full schedule is announced. The NYCITFF is a production of New Ohio Theatre, an award-winning non-profit theatre company in Manhattan's West Village. More information is available at https://nycitff2023.eventive.org/welcome

FESTIVAL LINEUP 2023

FEATURE FILM PROGRAM

THE GODDAMN TOONEY LUNES
Director: Carsen Joenk | Writer: Molly Bicks
Featuring Breezy Diabo, Violet Falkowski, Jordin Palmer, Bonnie Jean Tyer

A group of geeky teens in backwoods New Hampshire start a punk band as a way to make sense of their high school angst, raging hormones, and raucous personalities. When they accidentally attract a cult following and become local town legends, they struggle to balance their wayward persona with the looming pressures of adulthood.

LEON'S FANTASY CUT
Writers/Directors: Josh Caras, Jonathan Valde
Featuring Josh Caras, Paul Cooper, Ella Rae Peck, Jonathan Valde

Two first generation Ukrainian-American brothers George and Iggy know they are destined for great things. George is a wannabe business scion festering in a cell phone store. Iggy is a small-time pot dealer and an aspiring Rap mogul. They are stuck together in a suffocating studio apartment in South Brooklyn and are constantly at each other's throats. They know that their situation has to be temporary-- after all this is America. But both of them learn that their dreams are elusive and that unrealized ones can make a person lose their mind.

MENDACITY
Director: Reid Farrington | Writer: Sara Farrington
Featuring Kevin R. Free, Rafael Jordan, Jennifer McClinton, Laura K. Nicoll, Adam Patterson

MENDACITY is a darkly comic imagining of the three months between Nov 3rd, 2020 and Jan 20th, 2021 told through a transformed version of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and with the added element of new media & video projection.

MIDDAY BLACK MIDNIGHT BLUE
Writers/Directors: Samantha Soule, Daniel Talbott
Featuring Will Pullen, Samantha Soule, Chris Stack, Merritt Wever

Isolated in an empty house on the Pacific Northwest coast, Ian remains mired in grief and shame over the loss of Liv, a woman he loved dearly, who died some years prior. Ian's reality becomes increasingly haunted by visions and fantasies, and the only person who identifies the extent of his spiral is Liv's surviving sister, Beth. With the memory of Liv clamoring to be released, and his daily existence turning ever darker, Ian will have to find a way to let her go, even if it kills him.

A POEM AND A MISTAKE
Director: Tamilla Woodard | Writer: Cheri Magid
Featuring Sarah Baskin

A POEM AND A MISTAKE follows the story of Myrrha, a grad student in the classics, who is grappling with how to handle the 50 sexual assaults in Ovid's Metamorphoses. When one of her professors refers to the poem as, 'being about love'. Myrrha becomes so distraught that she inadvertently pushes him, and suddenly, like the characters in Metamorphoses itself, the professor is transformed into a young woman who looks exactly like Myrrha.

UNPACKING
Directors: Alexandra Clayton, Michal Sinnott | Writers: Alexandra Clayton, Joseph Schollaert, Michal Sinnott
Featuring Dania Arancha, Sam Bianchini, Katie Braden, Alexandra Clayton, Gandhi Fernando, Jessica Rotondi, Michal Sinnott, Stephanie Ann Whited, Natalie Mitchell

Six women, sold on the promise of radical transformation, travel to Bali into the hands of an Instagram guru and her Indonesian assistant--and get slapped with reality: change is messy AF (!).

SHORT FILM PROGRAM

SHORTS PROGRAM 1: FRIENDSHIP BONDS
There are all kinds of friendships - watch our characters' relationships be tested in extreme circumstances.

ANDY & KALIOPE
Directors: Crystal Arnette, Catriona Rubenis-Stevens | Writer: Rachel Handler

THE BOTTOM
Directors: James Kautz, Morgan Ruaidhrí O'Sullivan | Writer: James Kautz

EYEBALLS
Director: Robert Thaxton-Stevenson | Writer: Molly Powers Gallagher

LINDSAY LINDSEY LYNDSEY
Director: Claire Mathiot | Writer: Billy McEntee

THE ONE THEY WANTED
Director: Catriona Rubenis-Stevens | Writer: Byran Harlow

SCENE STUDY
Director/Writer: Trace Pope

SAKRE FIS (SACRIFICE)
Director: Bandar Albuliwi | Writer: Nily Refal

TWO WOMEN ON A BRIDGE
Director/Writer: Tom Bean

WE (DON'T) KNOW HOW TO LIVE
Director: Perrie Voss | Writers: Jayne McLendon, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Perrie Voss, Hilary Wirachowsky

SHORTS PROGRAM 2: NONTRADITIONAL STORYTELLING
From music to dance to spoken word, dive into these unique films.

ART IN SESSION 6
Directors: Soomi Kim, Gein Wong

THE DANCE AFTER THE LAST DANCE
Director/Writer: Candice Holdorf

THE GIRL WHO GOT FROZEN
Director: Joseph Gallo | Writer: Rossella Lopez

I DIGRESS: THE INTIMATE INSIGHTS OF A CHILDHOOD WEIRDO
Director: April Sweeney | Writer: Sauda Aziza Jackson

IN BETWEEN
Director/Writer: Anabella Lenzu

K2 TOG
Director: Ari Veach | Writers: Siena D'Addario, Cooper Gordon

LIBERTY SPEAKS
Director: Lucia Bellini | Writer: Gabrielle Fox

MY BODY IS MY TEMPLE
Director: Elizabeth Piccoli | Writers: Julian Blackmore, Daniel F. Levin

PAPER PLAIN
Directors/Writers: William Myers, Rana San

RETRIBUTION'S CHILD
Director/Writer: Cary Patrick Martin

SHORTS PROGRAM 3: EVERYTHING CHANGES
Nothing stays the same - and everyone is affected.

THE BIG PIVOT
Director/Writer: Chris Harcum

GREAT LISTENER
Director: Tristan Nash | Writer: Rachel Lin

METALERO
Director: Daniella Caggiano | Writer: Karsten Otto

NONE OF THE ABOVE
Director: Ana Moioli | Writers: Deniz Bulat, Luísa Galatti, Ana Moioli, Maria Luiza Müller, Giorgia Valenti

THIS IS HARRIET
Director: Robin Weigert | Writer: Nastaran Ahmadi

WAITING PERIOD
Director: Taylor Lee Nagel | Writers: Julia Greer, Julia Weinberg

WENDY
Director: Maren Lavelle | Writer: Matt Steiner

WOMEN AND ELEPHANTS
Director: Barbara Stepansky | Writer: Marlowe Holden

SHORTS PROGRAM 4: DATING DRAMA
Relationships aren't always perfect, but they are always interesting.

EXCAPE
Director: Molly Rose Heller | Writer: Taylor Steele

FULL DISCLOSURE
Director/Writer: Mia Rovegno

INTIMACY WORKSHOP
Director/Writer: Eddie Prunoske

JULES & DEE
Director/Writer: Juliet Perrell

MADE IN HEAVEN
Director/Writer: Yiqing Zhao

ME, MYSELF, VS. I
Director/Writer: Uzunma Udeh

RED
Director: Katia Koziara | Writer: Phoebe Dunn

YOU CAN KISS ME
Director/Writer: Jan Jalenak

Led by Co-Producers/Co-Programmers Allyson Morgan and Marc Weitz, The NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival presents work from New York City independent theatre artists and artists across the country that are defying labels and branching out into digital media and film. For our 7th year, we're taking the festival both in person and online, continuing to include indie theatre artists from across the United States! We're excited to take advantage of the internet's wide reach to meet a new, national community of fellow theatre artists, and showcase new perspectives and voices from across the country. North & South. Coast to coast. NYCITFF is both local and national.

New Ohio Theatre serves Manhattan's most adventurous audiences by developing, curating and presenting bold work by New York's independent theatre community. We believe the best of this community, the small artistic ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of what theatre is and what it can be. From our home in the West Village's historic Archive Building, the New Ohio strengthens, nurtures, and promotes this community, providing a professional, high-profile platform for downtown's most mature, ridiculous, engaging, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish, and profound theatrical endeavors. www.newohiotheatre.org

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.