Welcome to our 12th annual film festival

Schedule:

10:30 - 11:45 AM: Workshop: Ready, Set… Network!

Bring your coffee and business cards and get ready to pitch yourself and your project in this fast-paced, one-on-one networking session where you get to talk to someone new every 5 minutes! It’s like speed dating, but without the dating.

This networking event is held at YoFi Fest's year-round Digital Media Art Center (DMAC) at 28 Wells Avenue on the 5th floor. Seating is unreserved, but limited, so we strongly suggest you reserve your spot ahead of time and be there when the event starts. As many walk-ins and people from the waiting list will be allowed in as space permits.

Location:
YoFi Digital Media Art Center
28 Wells Avenue
Building 3, 5th Floor
Yonkers, NY 10701

11:00 - 11:45 AM: Student Showcase 1

Crescendo
An aspiring pianist who grapples with returning to her old teacher's school in order to compete in a national competition, but her obsession leads her to face her past.

Location:
Riverfront Atrium Theater
Yonkers Riverfront Library
1 Larkin Center, Yonkers NY 10701

12:00 - 1:45 PM: Comedy Showcase 1

I Approve This Message

View all films tagged "Comedy"

Congressional hopeful Adam Hoffman just wants to be liked. But when a video of a much younger Adam is leaked online, the campaign manager and the rest of the team go into damage control. Trying to walk the line between his past idealism and his present reality threatens to tear Adam apart—and he is forced to make a choice about what he really believes.

Runtime: 11:30

Profiles Of Remarkable Neophytes

View all films tagged "Comedy"

A self-important film director invites a documentary crew to follow him on his latest journey helming pornography. In this mockumentary, come behind the curtain, with the cast and crew working on a professional pornography set. Like any job, there are ups and downs, and at times, their jobs ****.

Runtime: 00:12:08

Swiped

View all films tagged "Comedy"

Tara is at a crossroads in life and it seems the only thing she has going for her at the moment is Nick, the hot Italian guy from Tinder.

Runtime: 12:56

The Clogging

View all films tagged "Comedy"

A man at a party must do the unthinkable after he clogs the only toilet.

Runtime: 4:00

The Greensman
View all films tagged "Comedy"

In the early morning light, David, a seasoned gardener, follows his routine of caring for a quiet neighborhood, blissfully unaware of the chaotic film set nearby. When the crew’s filming is disrupted by his work, he’s caught between his dedication to his job and the demands of the movie production. As tensions rise, both on set and in his personal life, David's gentle wisdom begins to reveal deeper connections between the worlds of labor and art.

Runtime: 6:00

The Man in the Blue Suit
View all films tagged "Comedy"

Charlie, a lone ranger, must protect Sarah from harm. As a result, Charlie becomes targeted by The Man in the Blue Suit. To protect Sarah, Charlie must overcome his limitations. Will Charlie discover who the Man in the Blue Suit is and save the woman he loves from danger?

Runtime: 6:00

X-Mas Anonymous

When a group of Christmas addicts gather for their regular meeting, the addition of a new member could be the catalyst for a relapse they've all been waiting for.

Runtime: 17:00

Location:
Riverfront Atrium Theater
Yonkers Riverfront Library
1 Larkin Center, Yonkers NY 10701

12:00 - 1:45 PM: Workshop: Zhubin Parang & The Daily Show

Join YoFi Fest's Executive Director Dave Steck as he sits down with Emmy Award winner Zhubin Parang, the Head Writer and Co-Executive Producer of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, to talk about the challenges of creating an award-winning daily television show and how to find the successful balance between funny and facts. Hot off the 2024 election coverage, Zhubin will also share stories from his path through the comedy wildness and the survival skills he learned along the way.

He'll also be taking questions from the audience, in case he leaves anything out.

Location:
YoFi Digital Media Art Center
28 Wells Avenue
Building 3, 5th Floor
Yonkers, NY 10701

2:00 - 3:45 PM: Women Calling the Shots Shorts Showcase 1

Down The Avenue

Two inner-city kids from the projects have the time of their lives after they befriend an odd young boy with a mystical air about him.

Runtime: 16:00

Loser

Loser follows 22 year-old ALICE, who works at a frozen yogurt shop, on what turns out to be an unforgettable day of her life.

Runtime: 00:11:32

Mi Raya

Ramon, an educated man struggling to find work, turns to handyman jobs while battling a growing alcohol addiction. He notices a young girl repeatedly following him, as he goes from job to job. When he finally confronts her, he's faced with both his future and his past.

Runtime: 5:00

Rerun

Struggling after a breakup, a young woman crafts elaborate fantasies of running into her ex, which her best friend helpfully shatters with doses of reality, derailing her attempts to find closure.

Runtime: 9:00

Therapy Won't Kill You

After a painful divorce from her wife, Sid goes on a girls’ weekend with her three besties – who are horrified to discover she has never tried therapy! Through a series of absurd (and sometimes musical) flashbacks, the night unravels as each attempts to convince Sid that only by sharing her struggles will she finally be free of them. A queer comedic romp into the nightmarish challenges of finding the “right” therapist, THERAPY WON’T KILL YOU is a trippy and whimsical whirlwind, bending genre at every turn.

Runtime: 20:00

Welcome to Theatre

Two slightly lovable, mediocre white theatre producers (think Archie Bunker and Meathead!), try to revive their festival and save the theatre from financial ruin in a post pandemic world.

Runtime: 15:00

Location:
Riverfront Atrium Theater
Yonkers Riverfront Library
1 Larkin Center, Yonkers NY 10701

2:00 - 3:45 PM: Workshop: Talking Distribution With Zeitgeist Films

So you've made your film, but now what do you do with it? Here's your chance to find out!

Join YoFI Fest's Executive Director Dave Steck for a conversation with industry veteran Emily Russo, the co-founder of the New York-based distribution company Zeitgeist Films, to find out how she finds films to distribute, what sort of things she looks for, what a filmmaker should reasonably expect and the best way to (and not to) approach her with a project. She'll share her thoughts about the current state of the industry and offer some ideas about where it might be going.

She'll also be taking questions from the audience, so if you've made a film and are wondering what to do with it next, here's your chance to find out!

Emily Russo is co-founder and co-president of the New York-based distribution company Zeitgeist Films. For the past 35 years, Russo, and her partner Nancy Gerstman, have released an award winning and acclaimed collection of over 200 films, including the early films of such renown directors as Todd Haynes, Christopher Nolan, Atom Egoyan and Laura Poitras. Five of their films were nominated for an Academy Award and one, NOWHERE IN AFRICA, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003. Russo is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Executive Branch.

Location:
YoFi Digital Media Art Center
28 Wells Avenue
Building 3, 5th Floor
Yonkers, NY 10701

4:00 - 5:45 PM: Dreaming of You

While attending a sleep study, Miles Puck meets Ren Helena, the girl of his dreams. He's also diagnosed with anxiety driven night terrors. Now, his stress levels are going through the roof as he manages this new relationship, a job he hates and even more bad dream, but at least he has a teddy bear to help him through these nightmares.

Runtime: 1:35:00

Location:
Riverfront Atrium Theater
Yonkers Riverfront Library
1 Larkin Center, Yonkers NY 10701

4:00 - 5:45 PM: Workshop: A Conversation with Ric Burns

This is a unique opportunity to learn about documentary filmmaking first hand from a master in this conversation with award-winning Director, Writer and Producer, Ric Burns of Steeplechase FIlms.

Ric will share his thoughts on the nature of documentaries, how he chooses his topics and the process he uses to craft his films. He'll also share insights he's gained from many years of telling non-fiction stories for television and where he thinks the medium is heading.

Ric Burns is an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker and writer, best known for his eight-part, seventeen and a half hour series, New York: A Documentary Film, which premiered nationally on PBS to wide public and critical acclaim when broadcast in November 1999, September 2001, and September 2003.

Burns has been writing, directing and producing historical documentaries for over 25 years, since his collaboration on the PBS series The Civil War, (1990), which he produced with his brother Ken and co-wrote with Geoffrey C. Ward. Since founding Steeplechase Films in 1989, he has directed some of the most distinguished programs for PBS including Coney Island (1991), The Donner Party (1992), The Way West (1995), Ansel Adams (2002), Eugene O’Neill, Andy Warhol (2006), We Shall Remain: Tecumseh’s Vision (2009),Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World (2010), Death and the Civil War (2012), American Ballet Theatre (2015), Debt of Honor (2015), The Pilgrims (2015), VA: The Human Cost of War (2017), and The Chinese Exclusion Act (2018), Oliver Sacks: His Own Life (2019), Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America (2020).

His work has won numerous film and television awards including six Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, three Writer’s Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing; the Eric Barnouw Award of the Organization of American Historians, and the D.W. Griffith Award of the National Board of Review.

Please Note: YoFi Fest will be screening Ric's film OLIVER SACHS: HIS OWN LIFE in our Atrium Theater right after the workshop, so make sure to get your tickets to that as well!

Location:
YoFi Digital Media Art Center
28 Wells Avenue
Building 3, 5th Floor
Yonkers, NY 10701

6:00 - 8:00 PM: Oliver Sacks: His Own Life a film by Ric Burns

An exploration of the life and work of the legendary neurologist and storyteller, as he shares intimate details of his battles with drug addiction, homophobia, and a medical establishment that accepted his work only decades after the fact. Sacks was a fearless explorer of unknown mental worlds who helped redefine our understanding of the brain and mind, the diversity of human experience, and our shared humanity.

A talkback with director Ric Burns will follow the screening.

Runtime: 114 minutes

Location:
Riverfront Atrium Theater
Yonkers Riverfront Library
1 Larkin Center, Yonkers NY 10701

8:00 - 11:00 PM: Party: First Saturday Afterparty

Join us at YoFi's Digital Media Art Center's event space for a casual lo-fi hang to wrap up the first full day of the festival!

The Digital Media Art Center (DMAC) opened in 2018 as the year-round home for YoFiFest, the Yonkers Film Festival, which started in 2013. It's located on the 5th floor of the historic Otis Elevator Factory Building, which is now part of Great Point's Lionsgate studio campus and houses a 50 seat screening room, event and classroom space and our administrative offices.  It's an original part of Yonkers' "Hollywood on the Hudson" and' revitalized downtown waterfront area., which is home to an ever-growing number of restaurants, art galleries, shops and residential buildings.

Location:
YoFi Digital Media Art Center
28 Wells Avenue
Building 3, 5th Floor
Yonkers, NY 10701

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