We present one of animation's great classics on its centennial with live, original musical accompaniment by Order of the Illusive.

The one and only Bread & Puppet Circus is back to confront our upside-down situation! With stilt dancers, paper maché beasts of all sizes, and a riotous brass band, The Upside Down World Circus is an urgent spectacle of protest and celebration.

A selection of silent 16mm films by the visionary American filmmaker who distilled the natural world into images of a rare and quiet awe. Preceded by live music by White Magic.

Charting alternate maps into unknown territories, these shorts navigate the natural world across geologies and generations.

A luminous portrait of the great Lebanese-American poet and artist Etel Adnan. Working without ego, she asks: what does it mean to be alive, to live through catastrophe, to experience time?

A free performance and workshop from one of Palestine's leading traditional dance companies.

When his basement floods, John Wilson sets out to fix it himself and ends up deep in the world of concrete. With his signature dry humor and idiosyncratic detours, this debut feature is a surprisingly tender examination of impermanence and the unexpected forms of connection running beneath the surface of everyday life. With live music by Heems.

In his book L’Infra-ordinaire, Georges Perec instructed the reader: “Question your tea spoons.” These films question the life and liveliness of things, hovering between the magical promise of the consumer product and the terrible ordinariness of refuse.

Artist and educator Carl Elsaesser explores practical effects not simply as spectacle, but as documentary method shaping how reality is perceived and disguised. Featuring Rockaway-based magician Cardone, who will give a presentation on magic, illusion, and the unstable boundary between the real and the manufactured.

Kermit the Frog leaves his swamp for Hollywood, gathering Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the Muppets along the way. Presented by Bonnie Erickson, legendary puppet designer and creator of Miss Piggy.

In 2022, New York independent filmmaker Caveh Zahedi decided to stage a production of James Joyce's Ulysses with barely any money and just a month to write, cast and rehearse. He documents the chaos in his distinctive, intensely confessional style.

Metabolizing popular culture, these animations turn out something dark, obsessive, dystopic, and absolutely delightful. Screening followed by live music by Rockaway-based band Foundation.

Weaving together folklore, oral testimony, archival footage, and stunning fantasy sequences, this newly restored political fable uncovers the collective memory of Arab women throughout the twentieth century.

As a struggling movie theater faces closure, a lonely projectionist secretly moves into the theater. A tribute to cinemas as spaces of shelter, solidarity, and community for those society has overlooked. With live music by Frances Chang

A personal search for a long-lost piece of film history evolves into a vibrant, playful ode to cinema and a testament to the importance of preserving not just the medium, but also the convening space. 

Reckless and combustible, these short dramas run on the energy of adolescence, reversing roles and flipping power dynamics inside out.

Rising seas threaten the small Chesapeake Bay fishing community of Tangier Island. In her sophomore feature, Baltimore filmmaker Marnie Ellen Hertzler documents the personal, intimate world of a young girl living on an island that is sinking into the sea.

This open-hearted 16mm documentary follows a new generation of Deadheads on a freewheeling journey across America. With a live music performance by Rainbow Spirals.

Werner Herzog's blazing, otherworldly documentary surveys the ravaged oil fields of post-Gulf War Kuwait in "a requiem for a planet that we ourselves have destroyed."

An evening of music for flute and strings by Marcos Balter, Elizabeth Brown, Philip Glass, Joseph Haydn, Augusta Reed Thomas, and Caroline Shaw.

Free workshop imagining future possibilities for Rockaway's coastline through collaborative, hand-made animation.

During a summer heat wave in Brooklyn, one block simmers toward combustion. Spike Lee's 1989 masterpiece is a powerful dramatization of race relations in America.

A behind-the-scenes look at Spike Lee’s breakthrough classic, as seen by Bed-Stuy residents on the shoot’s sidelines. Screening on 16mm.

A selection of films by avant-garde legend Jordan Belson, whose spectacular, mystical abstractions explored layers of consciousness, translating inner states into pure sound and light. Preceded by a sonic meditation performance by Lavender Suarez.

To conclude our Movies & Matches series, join us for the Movie Match Cup before the World Cup final.

Shot entirely on an old Sony Ericsson phone, Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze's audacious new feature follows a father searching for his daughter who has mysteriously disappeared while shooting a series of soccer fields for a sports magazine.

A seven-year-old soccer prodigy is recruited to play for Sweden's national soccer team in this adorable and surreal 1974 comedy by Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg. 

Music for clarinet and string quartet by Kinan Azmeh, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Gabriella Smith, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Ryan Francis.

In the 1990s, a group of high schoolers made a video project that ended up breaking real news. This inspirational documentary shows what happens when young people are trusted with cameras and told to look closely.

A group of women try to sneak into a men's-only World Cup qualifying match in Tehran in this sharp and subversive comedy by Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi.

A landmark of Black independent cinema preceded by a live music performance by Irwin Hall. Co-presented with Alfreda's Cinema in celebration of Juneteenth.

Every move of the French-Algerian soccer superstar is captured in real time throughout a single match in this epic, breathtaking portrait by artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno.

Arverne Cinema Outside opens for the season with this lost gem of independent cinema. East coast premiere of new restoration. Co-presented by Hell Gate.

What happens when you turn the camera on itself? A guided tour of a body cam and police taser manufacturing facility becomes a mind-bending investigation into cameras, surveillance, and who controls the truth.

Join us for a free screening of one of Walt Disney's most beloved classics. A magical nanny descends from the sky and turns a rigid English household upside down.

Make a beautiful object that flies in the sky!

As a teenager, Bing Liu spent his free time making skate videos with his friends. With an intimate, unflinching camera, he ended up capturing poignant observations about modern masculinity in small town America in this coming-of-age journey of courageous vulnerability. Filmmaker in person.

Rockaway Film Festival joins the city-wide tribute to Ken and Flo Jacobs, two pioneers of experimental cinema.

A celebration of the voices and creativity of Rockaway youth, presented by Queens Community Justice Center

A vibrant portrait of revolutionary public artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the first Artist in Residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation. Post-screening conversation with director Toby Perl Freilich.

Join us for a cleanup and collaborative printmaking at Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary.

A love letter to NYC told through its trash. Join us for a work-in-progress screening and conversation with filmmaker sTo Len, recent Public Artist in Residence at the NYC Department of Sanitation.

Join us for a winter benefit at Crown Hill Theatre in Brooklyn, featuring MGMT, Angela Trimbur, Tall Juan, Alex Tatarsky & Taraka.