Featuring works by: Daniel Scheinert, Billy Chew, Lawrence Chen, Sandeep Parikh and Casey Donahue
Audiences are invited to experience four interactive shorts for the new entertainment platform for interactive storytelling, Eko: The Gleam, an interactive documentary about a small town paper; Ticking Bomb where two men’s paths violently collide; That Moment When, a comedy that asks the viewer to navigate a battery of awkward conversations; and Now/Then, a Rashomon-inspired story focused on the various perspectives swirling around a relationship on the rocks.
All shorts will be available to experience at: NYFF’s Convergence
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
(144 W 65th Street. / Lincoln Center)
Saturday & Sunday, October 1 & 2
THE GLEAM
By Daniel Scheinert and Billy Chew
Created by Daniel Scheinert (Swiss Army Man, Possibilia) and Billy Chew, The Gleam is an interactive documentary film that explores the town of Guntersville, Alabama through its local newspaper, The Advertiser-Gleam. Encounters with the town’s vibrant personalities and events are presented within the documentary’s mosaic format, which gives each viewer a personal and insightful look into this community.
Elite Daily & Eko
Present
THEN / NOW
Directed by Casey Donahue
Uncover for yourself the conflicting memories and unreliable interpretations of events leading to a couple’s breakup. Then/Now is a scripted narrative that presents multiple perspectives of a relationship. It’s up to you to piece together these fragments in order to gain a broader understanding of their disputed past.
Cast: Ingrid Haas, Brooks Morrison, Brad Gage, Lauren Schacher
THAT MOMENT WHEN
Directed by Sandeep Parikh
We’ve all been there: you’re at a party speaking with someone who seems to know you and you think you know them but just can’t remember his name. Starring Milana Vayntrub, That Moment When is a short-form comedy where you will need to help Jill remember her friend’s name or risk her looking like a self-centered jerk.
Cast: Milana Vayntrub
TICKING BOMB
Directed by Lawrence Chen
Set to Aloe Blacc’s harrowing song, Ticking Bomb presents two parallel worlds focused on two men. Their paths collide in a volatile encounter that triggers irreversible consequences for them both. This interactive experience allows you to switch between the perspective of the two characters as well as actors, revealing that the differences between class, race, good and evil are not as clear as we imagined.
Cast: Brett Aresco, Ugo Anyanwu, Briana Pozner
Thanks to the likes of Stephen King, Poltergeist, and American Horror Story clowns are not cool. Lately, in fact, people dressed as clowns are attempting to lure small children into wooded areas in middle America. Why? That’s just sick! In Tom Nagel‘s new film CLOWNTOWN, a group of friends is stranded in what appears to be an abandoned town, until crazies dressed as clowns try to kill them. 
There is good, bad, and ugly about this film. We’ll start with the bad. The story is missing just enough explanation to bother me. The back story does not go far enough into the connection of why. That’s all I’ll say for now, because I do think the film deserves an audience. The ugly, while I’m being relatively nit-picky at this point, is as follows. The film runs long. It could have been much tighter getting to the “good stuff”. That’s basically all in that category. And now, for the good or I should actually say, the great: the acting. I have to say, with the exception of one character, this film has exceptional performances. I have to give our leading ladies a shout out for the level of terror portrayed on their faces. It reads completely genuine to me. Our clown friends are beyond unsettling. On the whole, I was impressed on this front. My favorite part of the entire film has got to be the opening scene. It harkens back to classic horror tropes featuring a babysitter and the creepy kids, brief gratuitous nudity included. It was a fantastic intro to a story that had all the potential in the world. Also, high five for the homage final shout. I’ll let you discover that fun gem on your own.
![FEN-01977R[4]](https://i0.wp.com/reelnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/FEN-01977R4.png?resize=600%2C401)
In a world where our entire life exists online, we are constantly in danger of being hacked. Using tools like an 
Mike Regan is about to launch “the Uber for private jets” in a new app roll out. When his company hires new tech Ed, who seems to have all the quick fixes, Mike invites him inside his home to tweak the glitches in his smart home. Unable to understand social cues after a short period of time, Ed becomes obsessed with taking Mike down notch by notch. Nothing is off-limits. Ed put Mike’s business, reputation, and family in harm’s way. His actions prove detrimental, but Mike will not allow his entire life to be destroyed. He has to fight firewall with firewall.
I.T. will do nothing less than make you rethink the devices in your hand and how you use them. In a present day where a foreign country is hacking a major political party in real life, that’s awful enough. Perhaps, though, we should be more afraid of the troll in a basement with nothing better to do than destroy others.
More often than not, when we think about our legal system today, perhaps the word that comes to the mind of many is “Injustice” How much does personal belief, whether religious or political, sway the decision of a DA’s office or a jury. My husband recently served on a jury here in Manhattan, on a relatively well known case. After his month long ordeal, he stated, “In some alternate universe, if I was ever thinking about breaking the law, well, God help me. A jury of my peers is anything but.” He explained that the particular jury he served on contained individuals who slept during proceedings, doodled in their notebooks, sighed audibly in court, and verbally fought to be excused on a daily basis. He cannot imagine what it would have been like had he been the defendant. In a very important documentary, SOUTHWEST OF SALEM, four women, who happen to be lesbians, were convicted of a heinous crime based upon a modern day witch hunt. In Texas, their jury was most certainly not comprised of their peers. 
Directed by filmmaker journalist Deborah Esquenazi, this emotional documentary first made its big splash earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival and received audience accolades. It recently garnered Grand Jury Award at 2016 Outfest and Outstanding Documentary Jury Award at the 2016 Frameline Film Festival.
The score is stunning, the cinematography might as well be an add for the landscape and the local sites. Susan Traylor, as Lizzy, is haunted and ethereal. Anslem Richardson, as Guy, is soft and magnetic. Someone, two people who should have nothing in common create a world of self discovery and forgiveness. Written in collaboration with Traylor, Richardson, and Balderson, the dialogue runs in circles at moments, keeping you on your toes constantly. El Ganzo has a quiet elegance that will capture your heart.
This is one of those films where seeing is believing. The striking visual scope of Firecracker is just one of the things that makes it so unreal. Half in black & white and the other half in overly saturated color, the emotional story lines are hard drawn. Paying almost direct homage to FREAKS, (and far before it’s time, Jessica Lange’s leading lady in Season 4 of American Horror Story) FIRECRACKER is disturbing in so many ways. 
Black plays duels roles, as both the carnival chanteuse and mother with a severe case a PTSD. Son Jimmy is caught between both worlds. The emotional grip this strange tale holds upon the audience is something to experience in the theater, in the dark, on a big screen, surrounded by others experiencing it for the first time. 
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