It should come as no surprise to anyone that I went to a performing arts conservatory for my college experience. Not to burst readers’ bubbles, but I am pretty sure I have never been described as shy or ambiguous in my opinions. However, it wasn’t until a 2nd semester Voice Production and Speech class in which I got up in front of my ridiculously talented classmates and admitted that I have an oftentimes crippling case of stage fright. No one knew. I guess I hide it well. That being said, it has been the bane of my existence as performer for as long as I can remember. Seeing one of this year’s NYFF 52 Spotlight on Documentary selections hit very close to home. I present my thoughts on ‘Seymour: An Introduction.”
Even if you live in New York, it’s tough to secure tickets to the big films of the New York Film Festival (unless you have a Film Society of Lincoln Center 
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced an unprecedented addition to the New York Film Festival’s Main Slate with the World Premiere of Laura Poitras’s CITIZENFOUR as a Special Presentation on 
Relationships come and go. True love relationships are the rarest. Whether a friend, family, or romantic variety, the older you get the fewer they become. LOVE IS STRANGE, the new film by Ira Sachs, is a story of a newly married gay couple. But it’s not so simple. Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been together for almost 30 years. With the news of their nuptials, comes the dismissal of George from his teaching job at a Catholic school. Without his income, they are forced to sell their NYC apartment and ask family members to put them up… separately. Faced with the “What now,” Ben sleeps on a bunk bed beneath his reluctant great nephew, Joey (Charlie Tahan). Marisa Tomei and Darren Burrows play Ben’s niece and nephew, respectively, and Joey’s parents, Kate and Elliot. While George stays with their two younger neighbor friends (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez), gay cops from down the hall, who constantly have noisy parties until the wee hours of the morning, occupying his bed… the couch. 
While I lived through the final gasps of the Vietnam War, I was way too young to recall any of it. This war hangs over our country’s history like a rain cloud and it’s rare that we ever hear of much in the way of good that came from it. Enter Rory Kennedy‘s superb documentary, 
Plan as you may, every film that you see can’t be a winner. This holds especially true at film festivals where pre-festival exposure to the films playing is sometimes nil. That’s the exciting thing about going to a festival. You may stumble across an unheralded gem or you may find a film that turns you off completely, sort of a film roulette if you will. As I’ve already mentioned in previous posts, the other two narrative films that I caught at the Indy Film Fest (Fort Tilden and Bluebird) were both incredible in their own unique ways and worthy of infinite praise. Perhaps the old adage of third time’s the charm is true because the third narrative film I saw, William MacGillivray‘s 
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