Don’t miss a final opportunity to see Third World Newsreel‘s New Filmmakers Series as part of MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight programming. The young filmmakers of color who have participated in TWN’s filmmaking workshops, or whose works are being distributed by TWN, are making socially relevant films that directly engage the communities they live in, providing a deeper understanding of the cultural and economic pressures faced by diverse populations in the greater New York area and beyond.

Tonight’s 6pm program presents the feature-length documentary, Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project, directed by Charles B. Brack. Fifteen-year-old Gunn was fatally stabbed at a Newark bus stop in 2003, after she rejected her killer’s advances. Gunn’s killer admitted calling the teenager a “dyke” and pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter with bias intimidation. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Poster for Hanna Rose Shell and Vanessa Bertozzi's Secondhand (Pepe), 2007. Image courtesy filmmakers.

The 8pm program is made up of a series of six short films that bring attention to a variety of individuals and communities in New York City. The films range from Vanara Taing and Lottie Porch’s uplifting look at the Inspirational Choir of Riverside Church, to ManSee Kong’s Here to Stay, about an elderly Chinatown neighbor in his SRO organizing against rising rents, to Jennifer Fasulo and Manauvaskar Kublall’s PRIMETIME: Fighting Back Against Foreclosure, an explanation of the complexities of subprime mortgages and their impact on two young families in Brooklyn. An additional film, Secondhand (Pepe), traces the historical path of the secondhand clothing industry between its roots in the Jewish tenements of New York to its present-day commodification in Haiti.

Organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; William Sloan, independent curator; and Sara Rashkin, filmmaker and independent curator, including TWN in MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight series provides an all-too-rare opportunity for young filmmakers with important, engaging stories to tell about real community issues to have their voices heard in a broadly respected venue. In addition, these films form an important starting point for audiences who frequent venues like MoMA to hopefully enter into a dialogue with the under-represented neighbors around them.

Tags: Charles B. Brack, Chinatown, Documentary Fortnight, Foreclosure, Inspirational Choir, Jennifer Fasulo, Lottie Porch, Manauvaskar Kublall, ManSee Kong, MoMA, mortgages, new filmmakers, pepe, Primetime, Riverside Church, Sakia Gunn, secondhand, Shell and Bertozzi, social issues, Third World Newsreel, Vanara Taing.

Last night, the Fjord photography collective held a one-night exhibition at Meet Waradise, curated by Fjord co-founders Alana Celii and Grant Willing. Over sixty photographers’ unmounted, unframed small prints were strewn across two long tables for attendees to browse through.

Having spent time and expense making photographic prints, I felt some initial discomfort with the notion of having a crowd of strangers putting their hands all over another’s work. But the actual experience was surprising and refreshingly personal, akin to finding a flea-market gem in a stack of old family snapshots. Only there were a good number of gems in the pile, including:

by Michelle Arcila, 2005. Copyright Michelle Arcila

by Kamden Vencill. Copyright 2006-2008 Kamden Vencill

Instead of the “be-seen scene” typical of a night out in Chelsea, the atmosphere at Meet Waradise was familial and low-key, with earnest artists in attendance who were interested in meeting one another and speaking with a participatory audience. One can imagine similar exchanges between Abstract Expressionists in the West Village of the 1940s, or among denizens of the loft communities in 1970s SoHo.

Meet Waradise is a temporary storefront venue at 17 Orchard Street, established by director Alice Wells, curator Karen Archey and designer Caroline Askew, which “seeks to establish connections within the ever-growing pool of young artists inhabiting New York City.” Observing the Fjord collective sharing their work among friends, I think the organizers are on to the right idea.

Tags: Alana Celii, Alice Wells, Caroline Askew, Chinatown, collective, Fjord, Grant Willing, Kamden Vencill, Karen Archey, Lower East Side, Meet Waradise, Michelle Arcila, New York, photographers, Photography, temporary.