Red Hook Community Cinema Expands to Multi-Day Film Festival, by Dante A. Ciampaglia

Red Hook is long overdue for its close-up. And this month, it gets one.

Running November 1-10, the 2nd Annual Red Hook Community Cinema film festival showcases 25 films made in, about, or that feature the neighborhood. The series opens Friday, November 1 with Isaac Dell’s Boys at Twenty at 7 p.m., followed by a costume party at 9. Like most of the festival, the screening and party will be hosted at Green Lung Studio, on Commerce Street.

“We really want to bring attention to how strong of a film and theater industry we have here in Red Hook,” says Carly Baker-Rice, Neighborhood 360 program manager and executive director at Red Hook Business Alliance. “It’s also intended to bring people to Red Hook to support all of our businesses. And we’re really dedicated to this being a great networking opportunity for people in Red Hook to meet each other.”

The festival began last year, expanding Red Hook Open Studios programming and capitalizing on its popularity. Over that weekend, there were five screenings of a few dozen films — mostly shorts, though there was one feature. They were well attended, and when Green Lung moved into the community last October from Gowanus and began hosting monthly movie screenings, it felt right to spin off the Open Studios film program into its own event.

Among the line-up this year is a buzzy debut (3 A.M., the first feature from “Spike Lee protege” Lee Davis), a high-wattage indie (She Came to Me, a 2023 film starring Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei), and a historical drama (Brutal Season, set in Red Hook circa 1948), as well as two blocks of short films. The one non-Red Hook entry is Sambizanga, a 1972 Africa-set drama directed by French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror.

There are also a number of events and mixers on the agenda. They include a movie trivia night hosted by the card game Cinephile on Wednesday, November 6, at Strong Rope Brewery, and a panel discussion on overcoming obstacles in documentary filmmaking, followed by a documentary lighting workshop, on Saturday, November 9.

While the programming is the main attraction of the festival, the event is about more than screening films and talking about them. Equally important is creating a space for the many filmmakers and cinema artists in the neighborhood to get together.

“Half the battle in art making is community; it’s people to bounce ideas off of,” says Steven Carmona, who co-founded Green Lung with his wife, Amanda. (They are both in the industry: Steven is a cinematographer on independent films; Amanda is a production designer.) “Our making can be so lonely because you feel like you’re grinding away and trying to survive. The biggest thing is for the filmmakers to feel celebrated and to know there are so many people living down the street from you, so many possible opportunities for collaboration and to make stuff and not be discouraged.”

Depending on how this year’s event goes, it could grow into something bigger than a festival, where filmmakers can show their work, completed or in-progress, year-round. But that’s down the road. Right now, the focus is on the series — which isn’t called Community Cinema for nothing.

The festival is a celebration of what Carmona calls Red Hook’s “wild mix” of artists and their “independent creative spirit.” And by showcasing their filmmaking, the event both champions who is here now and opens the doors to newcomers.

“It’s hard to get people to Red Hook,” Baker-Rice says. “But every time we do an event like this, it’s one more reminder, one more reason for people to come down here. And the more people who try it realize that it is worth that extra effort to get here.”

The 2nd Annual Red Hook Community Cinema runs November 1-10, with most screenings and events taking place at Green Lung Studio, 22 Commerce Street. A complete festival schedule can be found at greenlungstudio.com/redhookcine.