As one New York film festival ends (Tribeca), attention turns across the East River to the New York borough of Brooklyn where another cinema celebration has been unveiled. In only its third year, the BAMcinemaFest, presented by BAMcinématek at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, has become an important film event on the cultural calendar and a festival with a reputation for innovative programming. The third annual BAMcinemaFest, which runs June 16 to 26, will present 19 New Yo...

THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED You've heard of the Warner brothers and the Baldwin brothers.....well, make way for the Safdie brothers, the directorial team of Benny and Josh Safdie, American indie's dynamic duo. The BAMcinématek located at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York has turned the asylum over to the inmates for the eclectic film series titled Emotional Sloppy Manic Cinema: Films Directed and Selected by Benny and Josh Safdie. The series, a collection of 19...

BAMcinemaFEST is back for year two at Brooklyn's BAMcinématek, where its slate of New York premieres stands to fuel its rep as a local Cape Canaveral of independent films. The June 9–20, 2010 spectacle is challenging lazy Manhattanites like me to rethink our scout pledge, "I'll never leave the island for culture." P.T. Barnum paraded 21 elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge, so an hour subway ride shouldn't be such an ordeal.  Especially not when it comes to attractions...

 Don't Let Me Drown  New York City is blessed with a number of established film events for every season, including the New York Film Festival in the Fall, the New Directors/New Films series, Gen Art Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival in the Spring, and dozens of other smaller, more specialized events. Add to this a new summer festival to be presented by BAMcinematek, the repertory film program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, one of the city’s citadels of culture. The Festival ...

 The past few years has seen a steady revival of interest in classic Japanese cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, with a stream of retrospectives and the issues of DVD packages devoted to the works of such films masters as Yasujiro Ozu, Kenzi Mizoguchi and Shohei Imamura. The latest Japanese director to get the revival treatment is Nagisa Oshima, widely considered a major force in world cinema for his provocative films of the 1960s and 1970s. A national tour of Oshima’s work has opened at the Bro...

 Tuesday, July 1----------With the American economy in the crapper and the dollar at near record lows, a trip to the Cannes Film Festival has become an inexpensive indulgence, even for the media professionals who “must” be there. For the general public, who may be curious about what goes on along the famed shores of the Riviera, the difficulty of being part of the Cannes action is doubly difficult. Well, for the past month, Cannes has been made affordable and surprisingly accessible, with t...

 Friday, October 19---------BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas, presents its annual presentation of New French Films from October 24 to 28. The series returns with five new features from France, all New York premieres.  The series includes comedies, thrillers, and dramas, as well as a documentary investigating the relationship between filmmakers and critics. New French Films is presented in association with Unifrance NY and the French Cultural Services in New York....

 Monday, August 13---------Even though Hong Kong has officially been absorbed into the People's Republic of China, it remains its own political and cultural animal. This is certainly reflected in its national cinema, which has been a major international sensation for decades. To mark the 10th anniversary of the end of colonial rule, the BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas, is presenting THE NEW DECADE: HONG KONG FILM, starting this Thursday, August 16th.This nine�...

 Wednesday, August 1--------Robert Redford's got Sundance. Robert De Niro's got Tribeca. So why not let Paul Giamatti into that exclusive club? Well, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) apparently agrees and has scheduled an 8-film series of movies selected by the Oscar nominee (and indie fave) entitled PAUL GIAMATTI SELECTS. The series begins tonight at the BAM Rose Cinemas and continues through September. Giamatti and Brooklyn are actually a perfect fit. Not only is he a longtime res...

Friday, July 6------As the thermometer rises amid a July haze, the temperatures of moviegoers is also on the ascendant as the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents the white heat emanating from some of Italian cinema's sexiest and most seductive performers. SIGNORE & SIGNORE: Leading Ladies of Italian Cinema, which begins today at the BamCinematek, presents a fabulous array of talents, from international superstars to sultry temptresses to fast-talking firebrands. These are actresses who ...

 Friday, June 16--------The BamCinematek, the repertory arm of the BAM Rose Cinemas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is presenting a newly restored film print of a true classic from iconic director Jean-Luc Godard  for a limited run starting this evening. PIERROT LE FOU, a 1965 milestone from the most innovative director of the French New Wave of the 1950s and 1960s, will have a special 10 day revival, reminding audiences of the audacity, sexiness and visual splendor of this iconic director&...

 Monday, May 28-----The Sundance Institute is coming to Brooklyn starting this Thursday to present a lively series of film, theater, music and panel discussions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), part of an on-going relationship between the two organizations. The core of the event will be the showcasing of feature and short films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. This year’s Sundance Institute at BAM series opens with the New York premiere of Garth Jenning’s ...