Film festivals love to profess their indie bona fides, regardless of how institutional (Tribeca) or industrial (Sundance) they’ve become. (The only exception: Cannes, which absolutely, unapologetically trumpets its status as a glitzy party for superstars and the uber-wealthy.) But a festival that truly embraces the DIY spirit is the New York City Independent Film Festival. Since the festival’s start in 2009, it has screened more than 2,700 films from 96 countries. And with a focus on emerging and overlooked filmmakers and their low-budget work, it “aims to create the largest gathering of true indie filmmakers” and bring “their talent to culturally enrich the NYC community.” What a refreshing change of pace from the wheeling, dealing, and see-and-be-seen making of so many other “independent” festivals.
The 17th edition of the festival, which runs June 3-8 at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44th Street, will showcase features and shorts in both narrative and documentary categories that are truly independent and uncompromising. At least one of the films — Goddess of Slide: The Forgotten Story of Ellen McIlwaine — is explicitly Village-centric. Also on the agenda are presentations from industry professionals and live performances. More information and a schedule of screenings can be found at nycindieff.com.
If festivals aren’t your thing, here are five other cinema happenings worth your time (and money) this month:
Charlotte Zwerin: Vérité Pioneer — Metrograph, May 31-June 15Albert and David Maysles are responsible for some of the most vital American nonfiction filmmaking: Grey Gardens (1975), Gimme Shelter (1970), Salesman (1969). Often left out of the “Maysles Brothers” shorthand is their editor, Charlotte Zwerin. Despite being credited as co-director on Gimme Shelter and Salesman, it took a recent profile in The New Yorker to return Zwerin, who died in 2004, to the center of the conversation. To celebrate the filmmaker, Metrograph has programmed a series of her work, including the Maysles films and her documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser. (Screening schedule: metrograph.com/category/charlotte-zwerin/)
Monica Vitti: La Modernista — Film at Lincoln Center, June 6-19
Was there ever a screen presence — was there ever a face — like Monica Vitti. The Italian actress is synonymous with the cold Modernism and ennui of Michaelangelo Antonioni’s films (L’avventura (1960), La notte (1961); L’eclisse (1962); Red Desert (1964)), but she collaborated with a number of legendary filmmakers over the course of her 55-film, 35-year career. Film at Lincoln Center’s 14-film retrospective — incredibly, the first in North America dedicated to the actress — covers the sweep of Vitti’s career, from her collaborations with Antonioni to work with Ettore Scola (Jealousy, Italian Style), Luis Buñel (The Phantom of Liberty), and Alberto Sordi (I Know That You Know That I Know), and includes a half dozen 4K restorations. (Screening schedule: filmlinc.org/series/monica-vitti-la-modernista/)
Will — BAM, opens June 13
Jessie Maple isn’t a household name, but she should be thanks to the rediscovery of her 1981 feature, Will. A neo-realist portrait of addiction and recovery shot on location in Harlem, the film — starring Obaka Adedunyo as a Will, a former All-American basketball player wrecked by drugs; Loretta Devine as his wife Joan; and Robert Dean as Little Brother, a teenager who seems to be going down the same path as Will — is Maple’s raw confrontation with heroin’s impacts on people and communities. And when it was released 44 years ago, it made Maple one of the first Black women to direct an independent film. Will has been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress, and the print BAM is screening was restored from the film’s 16mm negative. (More info: bam.org/film/2025/will)
John Cazele: A 90th Anniversary Tribute — Film Forum, June 13-19
The Godfather. The Godfather Part II. The Conversation. Dog Day Afternoon. The Deer Hunter. Five stone-cold classics with only one thing in common: the inimitable John Cazale, a magnetic, unpredictable, sympathetic screen presence who was arguably the most talented actor of his generation. But it’s a debate that never had a chance to begin; he died of lung cancer in 1978. He was 42 years old. Film Forum’s series includes all five of his films, as well as the 2009 documentary I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale. Not on the agenda but definitely in the air: all the work this genius might have created had he lived to see 90. (Screening schedule: filmforum.org/series/john-cazale-90)
J. Hoberman Selects: — Anthology Film Archives, June 20-24
To mark the publication of J. Hoberman’s new book Everything is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde, the critic has programmed a series that surveys the sweep of the city’s wildly fertile experimental cinema of the ‘60s, from the Beats and Warhol to trips and the Big Apple itself. It’s an ambitious slate, including films from Stan Vanderbeek, Ken Jacobs, Jonas Mekas, Ron Rice, Michael Snow, Harry Smith, and Jud Yalkut — and that’s just from the first three of the seven total programs. And then there’s Shirley Clarke’s Cool World, a film that circulates as bootlegs but is otherwise impossible to see. But it’s here, in a 35mm print. Not a bad way to kick off a sweltering New York summer. (Screening schedule: anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/59233)
