Feature Films 2024
The following films will be screened during the Albany Film Festival.
The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales
Director: Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes, USA | 2022 | 1 hr 27 min
Screening and discussion with director Abigail Disney and moderated by Rosa Clemente
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Abigail Disney looks at America's dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy yet is a nightmare for people born with less. As a way to imagine a more equitable future, Disney uses her family's story to explore how this systemic injustice took hold.
Bayard Street
Director: Cindy Chu, USA | 2022 | 15 min
Screening and discussion with director Cindy Chu
2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Campus Center Multi-Purpose Room
Set in 1980s NYC, two Chinese restaurant workers find love while facing hardships chasing their American dreams.
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games
Director: Joe Brewster and Michéle Stephenson, USA | 2023 | 18 min
Screening and discussion with Dr. Kyra Gaunt
4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., Campus Center West Multi-Purpose Room
Tracing the beginnings of the games all the way back to the slavery era, the film’s collection of illuminating voices — including musicians, music educators and ethnomusicologists — trace a fascinating cultural history that explains the significance of hand games, particularly in the evolution of popular music from jazz all the way to hip hop.
The Monkey
Director: Spencer Sherry, USA | 2023 | 60 min
Screening and discussion with director Spencer Sherry
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Campus Center West Multi-Purpose Room
Based on the story by Stephen King. After a near-fatal accident, soon-to-be father Pete Shelburn begins to suspect that his past has come back to haunt him. With his own father at death's door and his brother refusing to make amends with him, he's forced to save his family by confronting a nightmare from his childhood: a cursed cymbal-clapping toy monkey.
Loren and Rose
Director: Russell Brown, USA | 2022| 1 hr 23 min
Screening & discussion with director Russell Brown and actress Jacqueline Bisset
3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
The appetizer is an introduction, the dessert is a farewell in this story of an indelible bond forged between a promising young filmmaker and an iconic actress.
Story Ave.
Director: Aristotle Torres, USA | 2023| 1 hr 46 min
Screening and discussion with director Artistotle Torres
1:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m., Campus Center West Auditorium
Story Ave. follows a teenage graffiti artist who runs away from home and holds up an unwary MTA worker in a robbery gone right that would change their lives forever.
Sucker
Director: Deni Cheng, USA | 2023| 18 min
Screening and discussion with director Deni Cheng
2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Campus Center West Multi-Purpose Room
Andy loses his job at a local parking garage and is confronted with the realities of being the caretaker of his little brother, Tom Tom.
World Premiere
Swedish Erotica (A Comedy)
Director: Greg Pritikin, USA | 2023| 28 min
Screening/Q&A with director Greg Pritikin and film producers Larry Hummel and Dr. Bob Wishnoff
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Campus Center West Multi-Purpose Room
When an ultra-religious grandmother tries to fix her daughter up, a divorced, single mother, on a blind date, her own past comes back to haunt her. Features the final performance of actor Richard Roundtree.
