YoFiFest returns for its 11th year as an international film festival that welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from across the globe to Yonkers. This year, YoFiFest will showcase many films, including music films “Kings of Blah” and “Louder Than You Think.”
YoFiFest launched its annual festival just 11 ago. Starting as a small non-profit, their mission was to raise the level of arts and culture in its community by showcasing the work of independent filmmakers and providing educational and cultural opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t exist in the area. This year, the organization is more committed than ever to not only continue that mission, but expand on it. For ten days, YoFiFest will present around 125 films from 24 countries, as well as films from our home state. The films include features, documentaries, shorts, animation, music videos, web series, and student work.
This year, two great “music movies” will be featured in the YoFiFest lineup, Kings of Blah and Louder Than You Think.
Kings of Blah is a story centered around two coworkers– Danny and Tom– at an electronics supply store, but by night, they are “Frog”: a guitar rock duo looking for their break. When their new EP makes a big splash in England, the boys bid farewell to Queens to seek glory “across the pond.” Frog will also be holding a live performance and throwing a record release party just after the screening of their film.
Louder Than You Think is an up-close cinematic film through the life of Gary Young, the original drummer of indie rock royalty, Pavement. His booze and drug-fueled stunts (such as on-stage handstands and gifting vegetables to fans) and haphazard production methods (which accidentally helped launch the lo-fi aesthetic) were both a driving force of the band’s early rise and the cause of his eventual crash landing. Leaving a wake of joy and/or destruction at every turn, Gary teeters the thin line between free-form self-expression and chaotic self-destruction.
“When we started the film festival nine years ago, Yonkers wasn’t known as a film-friendly city…but with an increasing number of movies and television shows shooting here, and a new studio complex right outside our YoFi Digital Media Art Center, it’s beginning to feel like people are realizing what we’ve know for awhile—Yonkers is Hollywood on the Hudson!”
Dave Steck
The 10 day festival kicks off on November 10 and offers over a hundred independent films, live filmmaker Q&A’s, educational workshops led by entertainment industry professionals, networking events, receptions, and parties.
Most of YoFi’s film programs will be followed by a live Q&A where the audience has the opportunity to ask the filmmakers questions about their movies. Patty Schuman, the festival’s co-founder and programmer, notes that nearly every one of their filmmakers plan to attend their film’s Q&A’s this year.
The festival provides an amazing opportunity for audiences to watch films that they might not see anywhere else. FilmFreeway named YoFiFest one of the “Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals” nine times. YoFiFest also been named “Best of Westchester” twice by Westchester Magazine, and it was named as one of the top ten reasons Yonkers was voted the “Hippest Town in the Lower Hudson Valley” by The Journal News/LoHud.
All the screenings and workshops are held in downtown Yonkers within a few blocks of each other at either the Yonkers Riverfront Library theater, directly across the street from the Yonkers Metro North Train Station, or YoFi’s own year-round DMAC (Digital Media Art Center). The festival is convenient to public transportation, as well as several nearby parking lots.
Besides the festival, YoFi offers year-round programs, screenings and events throughout the winter and spring. This year it piloted its new TEAM (Training for Employment in the Arts and Media) program that gives 18-26 year olds the skills they need to enter the entertainment industry in entry level positions. The program is preparing to expand and start its next cohort in January, 2024. The participants will receive classroom instruction, as well as location visits, mentorship and job placement.
More information and tickets are available at their website.
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