Astor Room
Jan. 11, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan
The Queens World Film Festival is kicking off its seventh season with a party this weekend in preparation for the festival in March.
The kick off party, beginning at 7 p.m. inside the Astor Room at the Kaufman Astoria Studios complex on Friday, will offer filmmakers, local businesses, and community members the chance to come together and make connections before the festival begins.
“This weekend is a way to bring all the local filmmakers together, they can meet each other and network, and it helps to build a community groundswell of support,” said festival executive director Katha Cato. “We want filmmakers to love screening at the Museum of the Moving Image and at Kaufman, and love the Queens World Film Festival.
The film festival organizers will also be using the party as a way to collect information from the filmmakers, such as demographics and information on their films, to begin grouping them in to categories for the festival and connecting them with one another based on the types of films they make.
The party is open to the public, and will give community members the opportunity to mingle with some of the local filmmakers, 20 of whom are from Queens this year.
There will be a cash bar and brief remarks by several festival leaders, Cato said.
The festival itself will run from March 14th through 19th, screening 137 films from filmmakers all over the world.
The films will show on the two screens at the Museum of the Moving Image and in the old screening room for dailies at Kaufman Astoria Studios which has been converted in to a screening theater.
Katha and Don Cato
Cato emphasized that a big draw of the festival is the community spirit and the connections filmmakers can make with one another throughout.
“We want filmmakers to interact with each other and inspire one another,” Cato said. “It benefits the filmmakers to have international connections and allows them to promote together, and inspires filmmakers from far away to come here for the festival. We start building that momentum and those connections this weekend.”
To stay up to date on the schedule and details visit http://www.queensworldfilmfestival.com.
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One Comment
It’s wonderful work the Catos do bringing culture to Queens.