DUMBO Film Fest Will Host Free Outdoor Screening Tuesday

DUMBO, BROOKLYN — The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, is hosting IFP Film Week in DUMBO through Thursday — and, lucky for the locals, will be screening 20 short indie film previews for free Tuesday before they hit the festival circuit.

The outdoor screening will take place Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. at Brooklyn Bridge Park - Pier 1. (Enter at Old Fulton and Furman Streets).

Here are descriptions of the shorts, as provided by Rooftop Films:

• "306 Hollywood" (Elan Bogarin and Jonathan Bogarin): Our grandmother’s death triggers an epic, humorous, and surreal excavation of her New Jersey house in this magical realist documentary.

• "93 Queen" (Paula Eiselt): A film about women's empowerment in Hasidic Brooklyn--a neighborhood where you'd least expect to find it.

• "Alaska is a Drag" (Shaz Bennett): A fish out of water story—literally. An aspiring drag superstar's diva-fabulous dreams are hard fought working in a fish cannery in Alaska.

• "A Bad Idea Gone Wrong" (Jason Headley): Two would-be thieves forge a surprising relationship with with an unexpected housesitter when they accidentally trap themselves in a house they just broke into.

• "Canary in a Coal Mine" (Jennifer Brea): Jennifer, a Harvard PhD student, was signing a check at a restaurant when she found she could not write her own name. Months before her wedding, she became progressively more ill, losing the ability even to sit in a wheelchair. When doctors insisted that her condition was psychosomatic, she picked up her camera to document her own story and the stories of four other patients struggling with the world’s most prevalent orphan disease – Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, often referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 80% of its sufferers are women.

• "Cold November" (Karl Jacob): A midwestern matriarchy guides 12-year-old Florence through the rite of passage of her first deer hunt.

• "Curandera" (Ethan Goldwater): Yolanda, mourning the death of her youngest son Johnny at the hands of the Oakland police, works to end legacies of oppression, addiction, and violence in her family and community, when called by her spirit guides to seek healing in dreams and visions.

• "Dayveon" (Amman Abbasi): A young boy comes to terms with his brother's death while navigating the joys and dangers of gang life in rural Arkansas.

• "For the Birds" (Richard Miron): A woman’s love for her pet ducks and chickens—all 200 of them—begins to threaten her marriage and draw attention from local animal rescuers.

• "Gautam Buddha" (Shayok Mukhopadhyay): They are Indian traveling actors who play women. They are rural gay men. Gautam is closeted, Buddha is out. Per Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, both are criminals.

• "Heartlock" (Jon Kauffman): A convict determined to escape begins manipulating a female guard, but when they form a genuine bond, he’s forced to choose between love and freedom.

• "Idiom; Hale County This Morning, This Evening" (RaMell Ross): A constellation of imagery presents the life of two men living in the historic South.

• "Jaddoland" (Nadia Shihab): Is it possible to make a home somewhere you feel out of place?

• "Julia Blue" (Roxy Toporowych): University student Julia dreams of an education abroad, but her future plans are disrupted after falling for a soldier from Ukraine’s front lines.

• "The Missing Sun" (Brennan Vance): After a solar flare powers down her remote community, Alma discovers her husband Terry comatose. Pursuing a series of bizarre clues, she soon believes Terry is astral traveling to reunite with his deceased ex-wife.

• "Poor Jane" (Katie Orr): A housewife’s comfortable life unravels when she suddenly stops loving her husband.

• "Sage Country" (Yuri Chicovsky): On the brink of losing the family ranch, sheep rancher Albert Villard must choose between clinging to a crumbling paradise or reimagining his life's dream.

• "Solace" (Tchaiko Omawale): Sole, orphaned at 17, unwillingly lives with her grandmother, numbing herself with food until her forbidden friendship with teenage neighbors forces her to confront pain.

• "Swim Team" (Lara Stolen): Three autistic boys coming of age struggle with limited support and services, but find hope for their futures through a competitive swim team.

• "Untitled Hasidic Film" (Joshua Z Weinstein): Given unprecedented access to New York's Orthodox Jewish community, the film is a story of faith and fatherhood—performed entirely in Yiddish.

Check out the rest of the programming scheduled for IFP Film Week here.

Lead image courtesy of Katie Killary/Flickr