Filmmaker Events in NYC | Sun. 7/13 - Sat. 7/19, 2025
whew. I'm tired. this heat is kicking my butt and somehow I still haven't gone to the beach? anyway, a lot of things this week. as always, click 'read more' because we've reached the email limit again
so many events tomorrow!!!!
Apologies for the lateness. My goal is to try to get this newsletter out more regularly on Friday evenings moving forward. Check out the end of the newsletter for our NYC Filmmaker Bites. Submit if you have something for me to shout out. There’s so many things I’m flagging in the bites this week that are not proper events – things to submit to, things that I’m aware of, etc etc. Check it out.
Speaking of filmmakers –
The FILMNYC event was Thursday, and it was a massive success. I had such an incredible time meeting a lot of you people, though unfortunately I only had the opportunity to talk briefly with everyone because so many of you showed up.
I'm working on a larger post about the event and waiting for the photographer to upload the pictures, so there will be a separate post soon. For those of you who attended, be on the lookout for a message from me in the next few days.
Do you need a filmmaker for your project and are looking for a certain role? Please fill this out and then let me signal boost to our larger community. I originally made this with the thought of passing ships in the night from the event, but anyone should use this.
A brief rambling here on paid/unpaid work:
I don’t love sharing unpaid/free work because I think it can run the risk of devaluing us as filmmakers. However, I understand we all have to start somewhere and I am happy to share unpaid/lower budget work as long as it is clear in the posting. During this time of life I’m still very happy to see people wanting to pursue creating just to create vs creating to monetize, and that’s very valuable.
We’re all at various levels of our crafts and personal capabilities – I struggle with this because I’m personally at the point where I’d love to be able to work for free on more creative projects (and I’d love to properly produce my first few) but unfortunately the only capacity I currently have is with this newsletter and building other community ventures.
All of the money I have made this last year comes from filmmaking or unemployment, (which, in theory, hooray I guess I ‘did the thing’, but I’ve been struggling) and I’ve had an extremely hard last few years despite trying to apply for jobs outside of the film industry to make ends meet. But I think it’s more important that we as a society are appreciating art more, as we start the shift to be more offline and value creativity more than Content slop.
I digress. I have more thoughts about this but I’ll leave it for my personal substack that I’m actually going to publish more on in the next month. Yes, I’ve just now realized it’s empty. Shout out to the 30 of you that actually followed me there even though I’ve posted nothing but notes/restacks on the feed. You’re the real mvps.
Because I’m warm and fuzzy I want to share this post instead of a meme today – from crew stories but originally made by cinematographer benoitdelhomme. It does touch on something I’m working on sharing in a post – thoughts on the beauty of cinema, and the unexpected magic of it all.
I’ve rambled too much, so let’s get to the newsletter already.
✨ As always, nothing here is sponsored. If you have any suggestions for this substack, comment, or tag/dm me on IG filmnycevents. Always feel free to tag me in your events.
If you have any extra to give and appreciate what I’m doing, please consider being a paid subscriber, sending me some coffee/rent money on venmo, or hire me for location scouting/event producing work/pa work. ;- )
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Screening & Q&A - Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Organized by: UnionDocs
Location: UnionDocs
Time: Doors at 7:30p, Screening at 8p
Cost: $10 - Tickets & more info here
Notes: a rich, intimate archival documentary by Barbara Malaran and Desireena Almoradie that traces the legacy of a pioneering queer Filipinx collective born in the radical spirit of 1990s New York.
Workshop - embodied writing workshop
Organized by: Niush.K
Location: Sunset Stoop
Time: 6p-8p
Cost: Suggested donation $15 rsvp here
Notes: Non film related, but I think it’s important to have a creative outlet like this in a space like this, so I wanted to share it.
Screening: FILTH!
Organized by: Niush.K
Location: Ridgewood Community Cinema
Time: doors 7p
Cost: donation suggested no rsvp required
Notes: in addition to the filthy films by:
Mahx Capacity of @aortafilmsforever, Sweatmother of @otherness_archive, Nixie Mae, Jorge the Obscene, and our own M.O. Guzman, there will be a very special live scoring of Autojektor's Rot Skin Voyeur by SEENs friend Noah Smith
NETWORKING - summer park picnic
Organized by: babyteeth and transfilmcollective
Location: HVK Park
Time: 2p-5p
Cost: Free, no rsvp. Bring Snacks to Share.
Notes: Baby Teeth Film Festival is teaming up with @transfilmcollective for a heartwarming community hangout in Brooklyn! 💖✨
COMMUNITY EVENT - FREE FOR ALL (book and media swap)
Organized by: PINKHQUSE Collective
Location: 138 South Oxford Street Brooklyn, NY 11217
Time: 4p-7p
Cost: FREE. RSVP on Eventbrite.
Notes: We are a Trans-Led Community Space and Artistic Initiative for Queer folks and allies. Our event is free to attend and is in the garden studio and back yard of A.R.T./New York's South Oxford Space. We welcome all ages but recommend this event for ages 14 and up. You are welcome to bring books, zines, tapes CDs and any media you want to exchange with friends. We have a house guitar and keyboard for the Open Mic.
Monday, July 14, 2025
Nothing! let me know if I’ve missed something.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
SCREENING - CONDITIONS & ADAPTATIONS In Competition Films (Program #107)
Organized by: Animation Nights NY
Location: The Gutter, Spare Room 200 N. 14th St Brooklyn 11249
Time: 8:00p-10:00p
Cost: Free, Donations Appreciated. RSVP on Lu.Ma
Networking - Saphlicks Queer Filmmaker Mixer
Organized by: Saphlicks
Location: The Bush, Dyke bar
Time: 7p-10p
Cost: Free, RSVP here.
Notes: Saphlicks is a film collective centering sapphic filmmakers
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Meet and Greet, Screening & Q&A - EATING MISS CAMPBELL W/ LLOYD KAUFMAN
Organized by: Nite Owl Video
Location: 288 Grand St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Time: 6p-8p meet and greet, & screening to follow.
Thursday, July 17, 2025
NETWORKING - Hoboken Filmmaker Hangout
Organized by: Parker Foster/Filmmakerfridays
Location: Antique Loft
Time: 6p-10p
Cost: FREE. & Free food. RSVP here.
**VIRTUAL*** WORKSHOP - The Creator’s Playbook: Pitching Without a Gatekeeper
Organized by: Black Film Space
Location: Online
Time: 7P-8:30P
Cost: $15, FREE FOR BLACK FILM SPACE MEMBERS. More information here.
NETWORKING/PARTY
Organized by: ScrapPackProductions and Lens Rush
Location: Solas Bar - 232 E 9th St, Unit 1, New York, NY
Time: 7pm-11pm
Cost: $15, rsvp here.
Thursday, July 17th
SCREENING - FOLKTALES
Organized by: rooftop films
Location: Msgr. McGolrick Park
Time: 7p-10p
Cost: Special B.Y.O.Dog Screening | Free with RSVP | Featuring in-person Q&A with Ewing & Grady.
Friday, July 18, 2025
Wait what. None? Let me know if I’ve missed something.
Saturday, July 19, 2025
SCREENING -• BAM BAM: THE SISTER NANCY STORY
Organized by: rooftop films
Location: Brower Park
Time: 7p-10p
Cost: Free with RSVP | Sister Nancy, one of the most legendary Dancehall artists to grace a mic, has been largely unknown. It’s time to rectify that.
Workshop - WRITING WORKSHOP
Organized by: mahappinessiskey.
Location: Boyfriend co-op
Time: 12p-2p.
Cost: Class prices $20 each or $50 for three. More information here.
Screening - Souleyman Cisse’s masterpiece, Yeelen (1987) @ prospect park
Organized by: Alfreda’s Cinema
Location: Prospect Park Boathouse
Time: 8p-10p
Cost: Free, donation based. Tickets here.
BACKYARD RAGER/MERCH DROP
Organized by: RAW DAISIES
Location: HOUSE PARTY, RSVP FOR ADDY. BK.
Time: 7pm-late.
Cost: RSVP HERE. Pay what you can. 🌎 all money raised goes towards a world with better events, art, and movies.
And that’s a wrap on events for this week.
NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND:
Sunday July 20, 2025
Screening & Discussion w/ Francis Ford Coppola
Organized by: Francis Ford Coppola (most likely not himself)
Location: Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Red Bank, NJ
Time: 7:00pm, doors 6:00p
Cost: Various – Tickets here.
NETWORKING MIXER
Organized by: WE MAKE NOISE NYC
Location: Saturn Road
Time: 6p-8pm
Cost: RSVP here.
Notes: Connect with women & gender-expansive musicians + allies, grab a drink, make some new friends and maybe even plan your next collab 👀
Sunday July 27, 2025
NETWORKING - IATSE INTERLOCAL PICNIC
Organized by: IATSE YWA
Location: Prospect Park Bandshell
Time: 2p-4p
Cost: Free, BYO snacks & blanket. RSVP on partiful.
Notes: MUST BE AN IATSE MEMBER. Interlocal mixer.
Filmmaker Bites -
If you or someone you know have something in the works, let me know and I’ll include it here.
✨ CUNY TV Presents - Queer Voices Showcase. Check out the full schedule and tune in. More information here.
✨I completely missed queerphotogroup’s photographer picnic, but if you haven’t followed them you should.
✨MOOD RING is casting for their hybrid short. submission form here. DEADLINE JULY 15TH.
✨NATIVES the series is now casting as well! (OPEN) NOW CASTING for NATIVES SEASON 1 (Ep. 3-7): “Richard”- Tag someone you think would be good for this! And share this post please 💗👀☺️
If interested please email your headshot and resume to nativescasting@gmail.com and production will reach out with all details. (NO DM’S)
✨ Do you have a Borscht Belt story to tell? The Borscht Belt Film Fest wants your original short films about the Borscht Belt resort era (think Dirty Dancing or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). Selected films (fiction, docs, animation) will be screened during the film fest on the weekend of October 31-Nov.2 in Ellenville, NY, in the heart of the Catskills and your film will be eligible for awards. You do not need to be an established filmmaker to submit! Get together with some friends this summer and make a movie! For more info, go to: borschtbeltfilmfest.org
✨ RECESS GROVE, STUDIO SOCIALS. thursdays this month: join us for a happy hour to explore your creativity and unwind from the grind. play with watercolor, collage and mixed media in the studio while meeting friends old and new. happy hour prices on fine wine, local beer, spirit free cocktails, and snacks. studio socials — thursdays 4-7pm, $ 19 or free for members.
✨ Idle.Workshops always posts a great roundup on photographer specific events, please check it out. I should make it to one of these someday soon….
✨ Submissions just opened for SQUARE PEG SOCIAL 2025. Presented by Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen.
Calling all filmmakers who don’t fit the mold — and never wanted to.
Square Peg Social is officially opening submissions.
This is not your typical industry event. There will be no gatekeepers and egos. We pride ourselves on being a home for artists, weirdos and freaks, enabling them to realize their visions without compromise.
Whether you’re a graduate student with a bold first short, a writer-director redefining genre, or a seasoned producer looking to shake things up — if your voice is distinct and your work unapologetically your own — we want to hear from you.
At Square Peg Social, you won’t be speaking into a void. With a one-to-one ratio of attendees to industry professionals, this is a space where you will receive unvarnished advice and mentorship in an informal and intimate setting.
Four days of intimate gatherings without the walls and barriers that too often exist within the film industry.
Deadline: August 26, 2025
Attendees: The event will welcome 30 selected creatives—20 writer/directors and 10 producers—who will take part in this immersive, four-day experience.
CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGNS
There are no new crowdfunding campaigns, so I trimmed this section (and am making it a separate section here. In the last few weeks, I got a fair amount of new subscribers (THANK YOU!), so if you are interested in contributing to crowdfunding please take a look at the past few newsletters for more opportunities if that’s of interest to you.
I’m leaving up these two which are still very important to me and I personally know person behind the first campaign.
✨ Space for Sapphics – Documentary
Space for Sapphics: The Rise of Sapphic, Queer and Trans Third Spaces in New York City is a documentary series that documents sapphic,* queer and trans history . Take a look at the kickstarter here.
✨CROWDFUNDING - PROJECT THE DOLLS. Funds keep getting added! $10,818 out of $20,000 raised–– now 50% funded. PROJECT THE DOLLS shirt highlight the need for trans visibility on screen! Because film is how we relate to each other, how we learn about each other, and how we learn to accept each other. Take a look at the campaign here.
✨✨✨ One more note is that I’m currently available for work and looking for my next gig. Have a car, will travel. Happy to PA for any department, even though I do want to shift gears to do more Location Scouting work and Producing work (as well as more events, since I had such a fun time producing the last one). Reach out to me if you hear of anything.
See you next week.