The Americas Film Festival of New York
I would like to invite you to the Fifth Edition of The Americas Film Festival of New York (TAFFNY), which showcases feature films in fiction and documentary as well as shorts and animations that represent the rich diversity of cultures, languages and stories of the Americas. The Festival begins Thursday, June 7, 6:30pm, at the Instituto Cervantes (211 East 49th Street) with the New York premiere of Handia by Spanish directors Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi. Handia, which means Giant in Basque language, is a touching drama about the tough life of mid-19th century traveling circus “freaks”. “An uneasy universe with complexity, subtlety, emotion and truth,” according to Carlos Boyero of the newspaper El País. All screenings are free and open to the public and foreign language films are subtitled in English.
TAFFNY is in its fifth edition and through the years it has been growing. This year, we wanted to honor the students and faculty of City College’s MFA program in Film, one of the oldest film schools in the U.S. and the only public institution in New York City to offer a BFA in film. Among the amazing list of people who studied or took classes at CCNY Film Program are Woody Allen, Judd Hirsch, Stanley Kubrick, Jackie Mason, Richard Schiff, Eli Wallach, and Ben Gazzara.
TAFFNY closes on Friday, June 15, 6:00pm, with the Awards Ceremony of The Americas Short Films Competition at the National Museum of the American Indian (1 Bowling Green), followed by the New York premiere of Out of State by Native Hawaiian filmmaker Ciara Lacy. Out of State is a character-driven documentary that chronicles the experience of two men who find their cultural identity while housed in a private prison, thousands of miles from their island home of Hawaii.
The Americas Short Film Competition is exclusively dedicated to the promotion and exhibition of short-length audiovisual works by emerging filmmakers. The Festival’s competition will showcase films with a maximum length of 20 minutes that portray contemporary concerns of filmmakers living in the region. This year, TAFFNYscreens 40 short films in competition for The Americas Award in the categories of Animation, Documentary, Experimental, and Fiction.
The Americas Panorama is an exciting program that will bring the richness of the cultures of The Americas through eight award winning, feature-length films in fiction and documentary. The films reflect the multiplicity of stories and identities that form the “American” experience, ranging from documentaries that explore the complexities of community in a globalized world to stories, both personal and social, of perseverance, memory, and love.
TAFFNY is a cultural project of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education of City College of New York (CUNY), in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian, and Instituto Cervantes. TAFFNY is made possible with the generous support of its partners and sponsors: the CCNY President’s Office, the CCNY Division of Humanities and the Arts, the CCNY Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, CUNY Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, Telemundo 47, Ron Barceló, Goya Foods, Consulate General of Argentina, NYU’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, Ines Rosales, Aceites Castillo de Canena, Begonia Sangria, Ole Imports, and Event Model Agency.
For more information and the schedule, please visit www.taffny.com or email Prof. Carlos Aguasaco at caguasaco@ccny.cuny.edu.