The Tribeca Film Festival brings the biggest international films to New York City every year.
Starting Thursday night, the Westport Library will offer “a shortcut” to viewing some of those award-winning narratives, documentaries and animated shorts.
“We choose the best of the best,” said Nancy Diamond, the producer of SHORT CUTS Film Festival at Westport Library.
The three-night event begins on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m., featuring narrative films. It will be followed by a post-film conversation with one of the directors, JJ Kandel.
“When I look at the film, I want to make sure that the director is a good storyteller. The film has to show a complete message. These particular films all have something that stuck out to me,” Diamond said.
A film by Naman Gupta, Coming Out with the Help of a Time Machine, is a film in which a young man is trying to come out to his parents who are very traditional and conservative. He’s an MIT grad student and decides to use his time machine to make sure this time goes well.
A French film Five-O is about a story of a young man who was looking for drug dealers outside Paris. The woman who runs the opera in a town hears that he has an incredible voice, and she tries to get him into the opera company. This film is run by seven directors, and they attended a film school outside Paris in an underserved neighborhood.
“They have a poignant message that will really resonate with everyone,” Diamond said.
Another film that is featured is Night Ride, which won Best Narrative Short at the Tribeca Film Festival. “It is a humorous look at people looking out for each other and those who aren’t looking out for each other. I chose it because it’s important to see what is happening in New York, which is the mecca for film and because it’s such an interesting approach to this story.”
Diamond said she hopes that the audience sees how amazing a film can be. “I like them to appreciate what we appreciated when we chose the film,” Diamond said. “The way the film was directed. The story they tell. The diversity of the subject matter. We want them to come away loving film if they don’t already.”
SHORT CUTS will continue their film festival with an all-documentary program on Thursday, Nov. 17 and another night of narratives on Thursday, Dec. 8.
“We are really proud of what we have accomplished,” said Diamond. “We appreciate all the support and the members of our community and we do something that is very different from other film festivals because we don’t solicit locally. We select international award-winning films and I want people to enjoy it.”
