Police seize and destroy the edible goods of a humble Dominican street vendor because he lacks a valid vendor permit. Tenants expose money-hungry landlords and corrupt real estate developers. A young girl analyzes the intersection of her Blackness and womanhood. Not only are these real-life issues facing everyday people, they are some of the themes at the center of this year’s second annual Bronx Film Week.
Created by the Bronx Independent Cinema Center (BICC), the festival features 29 jury-selected films of varying lengths and genres, with a focus on either Bronx stories or Bronx filmmakers. A party at SoBro Garden in Mott Haven kicks off the 10-day event on Aug. 13 and runs through Aug. 22 with screenings, workshops, panels, trivia and tours.
“I think Bronx film week is a great way to highlight and showcase the best of what is being done in our borough,” Gregory Hernandez said, who founded the Bronx Independent Cinema Center in 2022. He grew tired of not having a place to watch niche movies or engage with other creatives like him in his own backyard.
One particular film focuses on the modern plight of so many New Yorkers. The Emmy-nominated documentary “Slumlord Millionaire,” directed by Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching, centers on how landlord neglect and deed theft affects tenant health and robs individuals of their homes.
The documentary follows the story of several individuals, including Samantha Bravo-Huertero. She lives in Brooklyn with her Spanish-speaking parents and younger brother, who developed asthma due to the moldy conditions in their apartment. For years, they faced verbal harassment and intrusive unwelcome visits from their landlord on top of substandard living conditions. Heartbroken by the fear these drop-ins instilled in her little brother, Bravo-Huertero began attending housing meetings at 11 years old. Her family then joined Neighbors Helping Neighbors/Fifth Avenue Committee, a nonprofit advocating for housing equality and fairness. While not all problems were addressed, harassment stopped and the court ordered the landlord to attend racial sensitivity classes. Bravo-Huertero’s father saw that as a win.
While the documentary focuses on neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Chinatown, Bronxites know all too well the harm of negligent landlords and scammers. Earlier this year, Seth Miller and Aegis Realty, property owners of 919 Prospect Ave. near Longwood, were court-ordered to pay $2.147 million in retroactive penalties due to a failure to address repairs.
However, these issues do not only affect low-income individuals. At the other end of the spectrum is Janina Davis, a former supermodel who bought a brownstone in Brooklyn in 1998 with the money she earned from her glamorous career. She wanted to build on her property and sought the help of what she believed were reputable developers. She signed an agreement in 2005 only to be scammed out of her building. Through manipulative paperwork, Davis lost her home, as did her tenants.
The release of “Slumlord Millionaire” in 2024, picked up by PBS, put a spotlight on Davis’ struggle and on the pervasiveness of deed theft across the country. She continues the fight to save her building and created a GoFundMe last year to help with legal fees.
“If you are going through this as a tenant, you know you’re not alone. There are resources, and hopefully just seeing the way that the Bravos and other families in the film handle this, you can at least explore opportunities in your neighborhood, whether it’s speaking to a city council member or finding your local housing organization for support,”
Other entries are more lighthearted, like “Freaks Go Marching” by Jerry Landi, Stephen Franciosa Jr. and T.J. McGowan. The R-rated film, which won “outstanding horror” at this year’s Shawna Shea Film Festival in Massachusetts, marries the narrative of the 1990s T.V. show, “Tales from the Crypt” with the outrageous farce of the 2013 movie “Sharknado.”
The movie, presented as an anthology, opens with the City Island Halloween parade. The hilariously scary stories include the folklore of the murderous lobster man, a degenerate vampire dealing with the headache of divorce and a werewolf who enjoys bondage with his dominatrix wife. “Freaks Go Marching” is silly and fun and intended for audience engagement, but more than that, it highlights the creativity and community of a tight-knit enclave of the forgotten borough.
“All the actors are from the Bronx, the filmmakers, the editors, we catered in the Bronx, we used Bronx extras and we think that’s important, you know, to show the Bronx has a lot of talent here,” Landi said, filmmaker and former creative director behind Cinema on the Sound in City Island.
Peter Gennari, owner of Clipper Coffee, opened the independent movie theater in 2022. However, due to dwindling support, the small 50-seat space shut down in November, further amplifying the need for more movie theaters and creative hubs for filmmakers in the Bronx; a borough twice the size of Manhattan, but with two movie houses in all of its 42 square miles. (Manhattan has more than 30.)
In addition to their normal programming, BICC offers internships to Fordham University students, hires young people through the Summer Youth Employment Program and inspired the Bronx Science High School to create their own film club.
The film week closes with an epic night of movie trivia and a double feature screening, including a Q&A with Charlie Ahearn, director of “Wild Style.” The semi-documentary released in 1983 is credited with bringing hip hop from the streets of the Boogie Down to the world, cementing the borough’s global influence.
Cinephiles can find a complete list of events and tickets at linktr.ee/bronxindependentcinemacenter.
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
