A group of Bronx film lovers gathered for the premiere of an anthology of short films celebrating and inspired by the Bronx River on Thursday, July 16th.
Hopeful participants were required to submit both a written proposal and a prior work sample. Seven were selected to receive a stipend for their project.
The resultant films are as broad as you might expect from the lack of constraints in the brief. There were atmospheric experimental pieces, heartfelt spoken word and documentary films, multiple narrative pieces and even an animation.
The initiative was organized by The Bronx Filmmakers Collective, a non-profit founded in 2012 to provide film makers in the Bronx with both learning opportunities and, perhaps most importantly, community.
“We want to learn and grow as filmmakers, and we don’t want to have to leave the borough in order to do that.” said Hannah Leshaw, who founded the group after attending an event run by the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective.
At the time, she was stuck on a project of her own, and desperate for a community of other filmmakers to bounce ideas off.
“ I was like, ‘Why do we not have this in the Bronx?’ And so we started talking to people and got it started,” Leshaw said.
Beyond just providing community and support to filmmakers in the Bronx, the film collective is determined to show people both inside and outside of the borough that there’s a lot more to the Bronx than you might think.
Harry Santiago, who originally joined the collective as a filmmaker and is now the organization’s chairperson, said that he felt it was important to get the message out there to people in the independent film scene that there’s a world beyond Brooklyn and Manhattan.
“There are filmmakers in the Bronx. There are places to film in the Bronx, you know, great things to highlight in the Bronx,” Santiago said.
If part of the Bronx Film Collective’s mission is to show the Bronx in a new light, where better to begin than with the Bronx River. Known as Aquehung or “River of High Bluffs” to the Indigenous people that first lived and fished on its waters, the 23-mile-long river, which slices through the heart of the Bronx, is New York City’s only waterway that isn’t fully tidal.
Surrounding it as it wriggles down from Westchester toward the East River are areas of old growth forest and lush greenery. But the river has a storied past.
Industrial development in the 1800s led to the intense pollution of the Bronx River. By the late 1800s the river was so polluted that it was essentially an open air sewer, according to The Bronx River Alliance. It remained that way until a concerted effort from local organizers and Bronx residents, who came together under the auspices of the Bronx River Restoration Project Inc.
Beginning in the 1970s, an enormous clean up project began, and gradually, the river’s health improved. The Bronx River Alliance, which hosted the screening at their River House building in Starlight Park, was formed in the early 2000s to continue the efforts to restore and protect the Bronx River.
The river and its surrounding greenery is, says Bronx River Alliance Deputy Director Daniel Ranells, truly a resource and a gift.
“We always want people to know it’s here,” Ranells said, adding that the organization hosts canoe paddle trips for the public to explore the river.
For filmmaker Manuel Gonzalez, whose short film “Currents” was being screened as part of the Bronx River Anthology, growing up alongside the river and witnessing its transformation was inspiring.
“Seeing the change happening in the river is immense,” Gonzalez said, during a post-screening Q&A. “I think it speaks to how people count the Bronx out as a borough. We’re on the come up, and we’re changing. The area is a reflection of that.”
“Currents” which he wrote and directed, was a spoken word piece in memory of his late father. Gonzalez recalled his father’s love for the Bronx, and the many places he would take his family to.
“It helped me gain a sense of pride in the neighborhood,” Gonzalez said.
More than one of the filmmakers whose work was previewing at the River House used the river as an entry point for the exploration of grief and memory. Leshaw’s film “Jean Claire” was about the relationship between her late mother and the Bronx River.
Growing up, Leshaw lived in an apartment from which it was possible to just about glimpse the river. But it took on new significance after the departure of Leshaw’s father left her mother reeling. It was the river that helped her mother heal.
Now, in the wake of her mother’s passing, Leshaw herself feels a strong emotional connection to the river, something she explored in her documentary film, which blended old family photos with home video and present day shots of the Bronx River.
In the crowd were family and friends, members of the community and even some of the stars of the short films.
Gary Diezdeandino, who said he works as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, came when he learnt that Manuel Gonzalez –whose work he was already familiar with– would be screening a film.
“It was beautiful. It gave me more of a connection to the Bronx River” said Diezdeandino, who lives nearby. “It’s kind of beautiful to see filming and art visuals based on something not too far from your home as well.”
That same inspiration may have struck some of the filmmakers only after the fact. Director Josué Agustin Advincola whose animated short captured the colors and textures of not just the Bronx River but also of nostalgia and memory, had never been to the Bronx River before starting his project.
It took a research trip to get him out exploring the river’s twists and turns.
The evening ended with a call out from the Bronx Filmmakers Collective’s Director of Programming, Josafat Concepción to the audience.
“Mess around!” he said. “Go do things, make art!”
It seems his words may have already reached some of the crowd there that evening.
“It awakened something in me,” said Aravind Mallipudi, who said he already has a longstanding interest in photography. “Maybe I’ll also get into some sort of editing and try to do more filmmaking and photography to promote the Bronx.”
Eleonore Cattle is a Literary Reportage Fellow at NYU’s Graduate School of Journalism. You can reach her at eleonorecattle@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
