It’s film festival season again in New York City, with several taking place across the five boroughs, including the 61st annual New York Film Festival, the city’s LGBTQ+ film festival, the Brooklyn Horror film festival and, for the fourth installment, the Bronx’s own Mott Haven Film Festival.
“There’s a need for local filmmakers to be exposed via film festivals,” said Ninoska Carolina, Bronx native and Mott Haven Film Festival founder and executive director. “[A need] to be given that experience in the borough they are raised in or live in or work in currently.”
Although the film festival premiered in 2020, it all started back in 2018 when Carolina traveled with her sister, Priscilla Alvarez, to the Lady Filmmakers Festival in Los Angeles to view her sister’s short film, “Sexo y Tortillas” (2018). As the two ventured cross country, Carolina’s curiosity piqued.
“Is there a film festival in the Bronx?” she asked herself and her sister.
After some research, Carolina found that there wasn’t any and armed with her master’s in communications from New York University, she set out to create one. In one year, Carolina, with the help of others, created the Mott Haven Film Festival and fought through the pandemic to execute it.
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This year will be the Mott Haven Film Festival’s fourth run, featuring 23 screenings out of 50 submissions. The 2023 iteration includes 20 short films, two feature films and the first music video to join the ranks in its four-year history — “Blue,” which is directed by Dylan Hirsh.
The Mott Haven Film Festival will announce winners in seven categories including best director, best comedy and best documentary. The documentary category includes nominee Gregory Hernandez’s feature film, “1.5 Million” (2022) — a film about the overwhelming number of individuals suffering from illiteracy in the Bronx while using the beauty and grit of the borough as its backdrop.
Hernandez has been a leading voice in creating spaces for filmmakers in the Bronx. He is the founder and president of the Bronx Independent Cinema Center which aims to not only develop those spaces, but to also build a new movie theater in the Bronx by 2030. The organization had been in talks with Gerald Lieblich, the owner of the defunct Paradise Theater on Grand Concourse, but was told he is not interested in selling. The roughly 42 square miles of the borough is home to only two movie theaters while Manhattan — half the size — boasts more than a dozen.
“I’m excited to see the films of other filmmakers from the Bronx,” said Hernandez. “I want other filmmakers to come out and network.”
His documentary “1.5 Million” will be distributed via Roku and Hoopla in December.
Eurydice Roman’s short film, “So She’s Funny?” is also a nominee in the documentary category, as well as for comedy.
The movie follows Roman, a Dominican American comedian who suffers from ADHD, as she navigates the dichotomy of humor between white people and Latinos, while battling with Rejection Sensitivity Dysmorphia (RSD) — a medical condition that elicits an intense and painful emotional and sometimes physiological response to rejection.
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“I get really quiet, very introspective. Sometimes you want to beat yourself up and ask ‘why am I still doing this,'” asked Roman, who gave an example of what it’s like to suffer from RSD while standing on stage in a room full of people where your success depends on their approval.
To date, the Mott Haven Film Festival has showcased more than 120 film directors and screened more than 200 independent films, according to Carolina, with approximately 90% of the films either featuring the Bronx or having Bronx-based directors.
The Bronx Brewery is one of the sponsors and will kick-off the festival in their backyard on Oct. 19 with four screenings from previous festivals. Official opening night is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 20 at Lincoln Hospital’s theater at 234 E. 149th St., and will run through Sunday, Oct. 22 where chocolate bars will be distributed courtesy of Chocobar Cortes — a staple of the neighborhood. An award ceremony will wrap up the event with refreshments.
There are separate screening periods each day and tickets can be purchased here.
Carolina vocalized her vision for the future of the Mott Haven Film Festival and pointed out that they provide similar services to other mainstay film festivals like Sundance and Tribeca. “Those are the top-tier festivals, so why can’t we make it there?” said Carolina. “That’s my goal.”
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
