Americas Film Festival of New York Debut ‘Huge Success’

Inaugural season for City College CWE cultural project draws 600 participants for four days of screenings, panels and events

Close to 600 people attended the inaugural Americas Film Festival of New York (TAFFNY). The four-day festival, June 2 – 5, presented feature-length and short films from 10 countries in the Western Hemisphere plus panels and other events. The event was a cultural project of The City College of New York’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education (CWE).

“No doubt that the festival was a huge success,” said Juan Carlos Mercado, TAFFNY founder and Dean of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies. “It was something that started as an idea – a simple conversation – and became something really serious and meaningful. All the venues where we showed movies were full, in some cases beyond what we expected. It is very clear that our Division is becoming a major cultural force in downtown Manhattan.”

The opening event, a screening of “Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America” (“Mercedes Sosa: La voz de Latinoamérica”) at Instituto Cervantes, drew more than 150 attendees. More than 300 guests attended the closing night ceremony and awards presentation, held at the National Museum of the American Indian. The New York premiere of Alex and Andrew Smith’s “Winter in the Blood” followed the awards ceremony, with 150 VIPs and guests attending a reception afterward at the nearby India House Club.

Awards for the Americas Short Film Competition went to:

• “Oslo” by Luis Ernesto Doñas (Cuba), Best Short Fiction;
• “Jocelyn y el coyote” (“Jocelyn and the Coyote”) by Pilar Colomé (El Salvador), Best Documentary;
• “Pirapora” by Charles Bicalho (Brazil) and “Dance Horse” by Oscar Frasser (United States), Best Experimental Short film;
• “Padre” (“Father”) by Santiago Bou Grasso (Argentina), Best Animation.

In addition, “Enseguida Anochece” by Gonzalo Gerardin and Maria Paula Trocchia (Argentina) and “Yo te quiero” (“I Want it!”) by Nicolas Conte (Argentina) received special jury mentions.

Planning is underway for TAFFNY 2015.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.

About the Americas Film Festival of New York (TAFFNY)
TAFFNY is a cultural project of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education of the City College of New York, in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, The Cervantes Institute, NY, BMCC, the City College Division of Humanities and the Arts, and City College’s Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. For more information on The Americas Film Festival New York, visit www.taffny.com.