SOUTHEAST QUEENS FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
SOUTHEAST QUEENS FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
A detailed schedule with dates, times and a description for each festival event is listed below. For a general overview and more information on relevant people and organizations, SEQFF film screenings from April 15 to April 17 include:
recently digitized video from Southeast Queens cultural activist Clarence Irving’s Black American Heritage Foundation Music History Archive (1987-2014);
films submitted to the juried open call run by Southeast Queens Center for History and Culture (SQCHC);
a retrospective of films by playwright and filmmaker Carl Clay, founder and Executive Producer/CEO of Black Spectrum Theatre, including the feature film Let's Get Bizzee (1993);
oral histories from the Corona Collection at the Louis Armstrong House Museum;
the experimental documentary, Milford Graves: Full Mantis (dir. Jake Meginsky and Neil Cloaca Young, 2018), about artist and percussionist Milford Graves, a longtime resident of Jamaica, Queens.
RSVP is required. Review the detailed schedule below and click the pink RSVP button for the registration form.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15
Clarence Irving’s
Black American Heritage Foundation Music History Archive
11AM to 1PM
York College CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens
Faculty Dining Room 2D01
Organized by the York College Music Program and Art History program, this event shares recently digitized video from cultural activist Clarence Irving’s Black American Heritage Foundation Music History Archive (BAHFMHA) founded in 1984.
The event is held in collaboration with the CUNY University Archivist’s team and CUNYTV. In addition to showing video from the BAHFMHA archives, it includes a live piano performance by jazz pianist, Mark Adams, lecturer at CUNY York College. Light food and refreshments will be available during the event.
Juried Selection of Films/Videos from Southeast Queens
Submitted for Open Call
1:30PM to 5PM
York College CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens
Lecture Hall 3D01
Organized by the Southeast Queens Center for History and Culture (SEQCHC), this screening shares a juried selection of films/videos by content producers/filmmakers with a connection to Southeast Queens who submitted to the Open Call.
The event is attended by selected content producers/filmmakers who have an opportunity to discuss their films with audience members.
THURSDAY, APRIL 16
The Films of Carl Clay:
A Retrospective
(Afternoon Program)
12PM to 2:30PM
York College CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens
Lecture Hall 3D01
Organized by the CUNY York College Art History program, this special retrospective of films by Southeast Queens playwright and filmmaker Carl Clay, founder and Executive Producer/CEO of Black Spectrum Theatre, runs for two sessions.
This afternoon session introduces Clay's work through two films -- Urban Encounters, 2000 and Justice is Done, 2001 – both honored with National Black Programming Public Broadcast System (PBS) Awards for Outstanding Youth Programming.
It concludes with the short documentary Getting Shot, 2019, created in collaboration with a trauma room nurse, and Soup, 2019, an edutainment dramedy.
Clay will be present to discuss his work in conversation with CUNY York College professor Harlan Penn (Theatre). Light food and refreshments will be available from 11am to 11:50am.
The Films of Carl Clay:
A Retrospective
(Evening Program)
5PM to 8PM
York College CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens
Lecture Hall 3D01
This evening session of the York College Art History program's special retrospective of films by Southeast Queens playwright and filmmaker Carl Clay, founder and Executive Producer/CEO of Black Spectrum Theatre, shares Clay's first film Babies Making Babies, 1978, followed by his feature film, Let’s Get Bizzee, 1993, starring hip-hop artist Doug E. Fresh as a rapper-turned-activist who takes on a corrupt state assemblyman.
Clay will be present to discuss his work in conversation with special guest Patricia Robinson, a leader across media, business and community sectors who is committed to the continued flourishing of creative Southeast Queens. Light food and refreshments will be available from 4pm to 4:50pm.
FRIDAY, APRIL 17
Louis Armstrong House Museum Showcase of the
Corona Collection
11AM to 12:30PM
York College CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens
Lecture Hall 3D01
Organized by the Southeast Queens Center for History and Culture (SEQCHC) with the Louis Armstrong House Museum, this event shares selections from the Corona Collection, the museum's collected oral histories of neighbors who knew artists Louis and Lucille Armstrong.
The project offers a unique intimate perspective on neighborhood histories. Corona Collection program lead Charanya Ramakrishnan will be present to discuss the collection with special guest Cherise Jones.
Feature Film Screening of
Milford Graves: Full Mantis
2:45PM to 5PM
York College CUNY
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, Queens
Lecture Hall 3D01
Organized by the CUNY York College Art History program, this feature film screening shows an experimental documentary portrait of renowned artist and percussionist Milford Graves who grew up in the housing projects of South Jamaica, Queens. Later, Graves's own South Jamaica single-family house was part of his exploratory artistic practice, including a lush garden and a basement laboratory with an EKG machine for study of the heart's rhythms.
The film's co-director Jake Meginsky will be present to discuss the film along with Graves's granddaughter Tatiana Graves-Kochuthara and longtime Jamaica-based student Jason Corley.
Light food and refreshments will be available before the event from 1:45pm to 2:30pm.