For six years now, the Red Hook Film and Video Festival has been doing the work of bringing international talent to Brooklyn to showcase their stuff. Often the festival has a loose Brooklyn theme. This year will different: they’re pulling together a tighter theme, “The Wake of Hurricane Sandy,” which is, of course also exactly what it sounds like. They’re also asking for submissions right now, so if you’ve produced a film, video, animation, video artwork, or commercial product in the last two years, now is the time to let it shine.
The festival has been known to grab big time and interesting Brooklyn features: last year they screened My Brooklyn, a much-discussed critical gentrification flick and Family Occupies a Foreclosed Home, which is exactly what it sounds like. This year’s festival will likely be especially powerful, as this will be one of the rare occasions (possibly one of the only occasions) where the area affected by disaster will also serve as the site where the stories will be told – the selected films will be screened at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition’s Screening Room. And just like there has been no shortage of dedication, manpower, and heart (corny but undeniably true!) in these post-Sandy times, there’s also been no shortage of creative energy inspired by this movement.
The board of the festival stresses that, although there is a definitive theme to the call this year, submissions on any topic will be accepted…though you may kinda look like a jerk. Entries will be judged by a panel and must be postmarked no later than midnight, September 21. Screening is scheduled for October 12-13, almost a year after Sandy.