Not many places around the entire world have filmmakers (directors, producers, actors and more) available in its backyard or that will travel to it quite like New York City. With more independent cinemas than anywhere else on top of that, NYC has the best moviegoing experiences in the world. Here's our list of upcoming special event screenings at theaters in New York City from May 1st and beyond. If you host an event and we missed you, please let us know -
info@greenroomnewyork.com.
Conbody vs Everybody - Q&A with Director Debra Granik
May 1 (6:30pm)
Firehouse Cinema DCTV (87 Lafayette Street, Manhattan)
Conbody vs Everybody is the story of a tight-knit group of formerly incarcerated New Yorkers who forge a pact for their mutual survival as they re-enter society after prison. Together they create a zone of acceptance for people reentering, in the form of an underground gym.
American Dream - Q&A with Director Barbara Kopple
May 1 (6:30pm)
IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan)
Recounts the 1985-86 strike against the Hormel Foods Corporation in Minnesota after its employees' wages and benefits were cut.
One Spoon of Chocolate - Q&A with Writer/Director RZA
May 1 (7pm)
Regal Union Square (880 Broadway, Manhattan)
An ex-military convict seeks a fresh start in a small town, but his past catches up as he finds love amid danger and chaos.
The Whole World Is a Lie - Q&A with Director Charlie Birns
May 1 (7pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
What begins as a documentary about a New York acting class collapses when the students and teacher revolt against the film, forcing the filmmaker into a reckoning with truth and power in an age when reality itself feels like a performance.
Harlan County USA
Extended intro with Director Barbara Kopple
May 1 (9:10pm)
Q&A with Director Barbara Kopple
May 2 (6:30pm)
IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan)
A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
American Agitators - Q&A with Director/Producer Raymond Telles, EP John Heffernan & Margo Feinberg
May 1 (7pm), May 2 (7pm), May 3 (2:45pm)
Quad Cinema (34 West 13th Street, Manhattan)
The story of activist Fred Ross, who helped invent modern organizing. He and his son, Fred Ross, Jr. Left a legacy and a set of techniques that are still used today.
There There - Q&A with Director Andrew Bujalski
May 2 (12:30pm)
Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan (28 Liberty Street, Manhattan)
A lover's doubt in the cold light of morning leads a chain of uneasy intimacies--counselors, disruptors, peacemakers and fire-starters--every one looking to have a little faith rewarded.
Joybubbles - Q&A with Director Rachael J. Morrison
May 2 (2pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
Blind Joybubbles finds he can control phones by whistling specific tones. His discovery, born from loneliness, becomes foundational to hacking culture and tech history.
Humboldt USA - Q&A with Director G. Anthony Svatek
May 2 (3:30pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
The struggle for environmental protection interweaves with technological alienation and climate collapse, in this experimental journey of American nature.
Silent Friend - Q&A with Director Ildikó Enyedi
May 2 (6pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
Set in the botanical garden of a medieval town in Germany. Three epochs, three personalities, three sometimes clumsy but sincere attempts to free themselves and to create links with the plants and the world of the garden. An encounter.
Tropical Park - Q&A with Director Hansel Porras Garcia
May 3 (2:45pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
In a single unbroken shot, two siblings discuss racism, transphobia, and past lives while squeezing in a driving lesson.
Elis and Me - Q&A with Director Andre Bushatsky
May 3 (5pm)
Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street, Manhattan)
The unknown motherhood side of Brazil's greatest singer ever, Elis Regina, told through the perspective of her oldest son, dramatic reenactment and interviews with friends and collaborators.
Last Summer - Q&A with Actor Richard Thomas
May 3 (5pm)
Paris Theater (4 West 58th Street, Manhattan)
During summer vacation on Fire Island, three young people become very close. When an awkward girl tries to infiltrate the trio's newly found relationship, they construct an elaborate plot that has violent results.
Fantasy Life - Q&A with Writer/Director/Actor Matthew Shear
May 3 (6pm)
New Plaza Cinema (65 West 67th Street, Manhattan)
An actress falls for the anxious law school dropout babysitting her kids in this smart, New York-set romantic comedy.
Remarkably Bright Creatures - Q&A with Actors Sally Field & Lewis Pullman
May 3 (6pm)
92NY (1395 Lexington Avenue, Manhattan)
Through unlikely bonds formed during night shifts at a local aquarium, Tova, an elderly widow, learns of a life-changing discovery that may bring her joy and wonder once again.
Moonglow - Q&A with Director Isabel Sandoval
May 3 (6pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
Corrupt female detective secretly orchestrates daring heist. Unexpectedly paired with tenacious partner investigating her own crime. Forced to mislead him while staying ahead to crack the very crime that she orchestrated.
Gangsterism - Q&A with Director Isiah Medina
May 3 (9pm)
Metrograph (7 Ludlow Street, Manhattan)
As he mulls over the budget for his new film, director-gangster Clem sends his artist cronies after an old comrade rumoured to be a leaker.
TheyDream - Q&A with Directors William Caballero & Brad Jones, Producers Erin Ploss-Campoamor & Elaine Del Valle
May 5 (7pm)
IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan)
A director and his mother document their Puerto Rican family over 20 years, facing loss. Through animation, they celebrate memories while realizing each creation involves a painful goodbye.
Promised Sky - Q&A with Actors Aïssa Maïga & Laetitia Ky
May 6 (6:30pm)
Walter Reade Theater FLC (165 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
Marie, Naney, and Jolie live together in Tunis, sheltering Kenza, a shipwreck survivor. As this unorthodox family forms, crises make each woman reconsider her place.
Rockers Don't Stop: The Revival of Rockers Revenge - Q&A with Director Arthur Baker
May 6 (7pm)
Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park (188 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn)
A comeback story with grit and groove. New York's 1980's Dance pioneers Rockers Revenge reunite decades later to finally record their debut album, transforming nostalgia into a powerful journey of friendship, resilience, and unfinished dreams.
Blue Film - Q&A with Writer/Director Elliot Tuttle, Actors Reed Birney & Kieron Moore
May 6 (7pm)
IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan)
Fetish camboy Aaron Eagle agrees to spend the night with an anonymous client, only to discover a disturbing tie to his past.
Silent Friend
Q&A with Director Ildikó Enyedi, Actor Tony Leung
May 6 (6:50pm), May 7 (7:15pm, 7:45pm)
Q&A with Director Ildikó Enyedi
May 9 (3pm)
Angelika NY (18 West Houston Street, Manhattan)
Set in the botancial garden of a medieval town in Germany. Three epochs, three personalities, three sometimes clumsy but sincere attempts to free themselves and to create links with the plants and the works of the garden.
My Father and Qaddafi - Q&A with Director Jihan
May 7 (5:30pm)
Walter Reade Theater FLC (165 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
In 1993, Mansur Rashid Kikhia, Libya's former diplomat and peaceful opponent to Qaddafi vanished in Cairo. His daughter Jihan investigates his disappearance while documenting her mother's 19-year search for truth.
Crushing Wheelchairs - Q&A with Directors Tiny Gray Garcia & Adrian Diamond
May 7 (7pm)
Maysles Documentary Center (343 Malcolm X Boulevard, Manhattan)
A social justice film about the violent machinery of poverty in the United States today. Cast aside by society like trash, a group of poor people living in a homeless community struggle to find hope amid gentrification, domestic violence and the brutality of the State.
The Silent Treatment - Q&A with Writer/Director Caroline Strubbe
May 7 (7pm)
Museum of Modern Art (11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan)
The Silent Treatment is a story about three characters whose lives are imprisoned in each other's past.
Swingers - Q&A with Director Doug Liman, Producers Victor Simpkins, Nicole LaLoggia & Eden Wurmfeld
May 7 (7pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
A wannabe actor has a hard time moving on from a break-up, but he is lucky to have supportive friends.
New Kingston - Q&A with Director Kevin Bewersdorf, and James N. Kienitz Wilkins
May 7 (7:30pm)
UnionDocs (352 Onderdonk Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens)
"Handmade with appreciation for little details, artist and polymath Kevin Bewersdorf's filmmaking debut patiently documents the rhythms of his work building and repairing houses in upstate New York. Filmed entirely on his iPhone with music he composed himself, New Kingston moves through the seasons with deep affection for the people in his community in a refreshingly understated portrait of craftsmanship and the satisfaction that comes from a job well done." — Rockaway Film Festival
The Python Hunt - Q&A with Director Xander Robin
May 7 (6:30pm), May 8 (6:30pm), May 9 (6:30pm), May 10 (3pm)
Angelika NY (18 West Houston Street, Manhattan)
Every year the Florida government invites the public to compete in an invasive python removal contest in the Everglades. For 10 nights, an eclectic group of hunters confront the dangerous terrain, nocturnal creatures and their own desires.
Clueless - Q&A with Actor Wallace Shawn, moderated by John Early & Lucas Kane
May 8 (1pm)
Metrograph (7 Ludlow Street, Manhattan)
Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.
Southland Tales - Intro with Actor/Writer Wallace Shawn, moderated by John Early & Lucas Kane
May 8 (3:45pm)
Metrograph (7 Ludlow Street, Manhattan)
During a three-day heat wave just before a huge 4th of July celebration, an action star stricken with amnesia meets up with a porn star who is developing her own reality TV project, and a policeman who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.
El Signo Vacio (The Empty Sign) - Q&A with Director Kathryn Ramey
May 8 (7pm)
Anthology Film Archives (2 Second Avenue, Manhattan)
Feature-length anthropological journey through the United States's occupation of Puerto Rico. Mixing over a hundred years of found footage – tourism, agricultural, and propaganda films – with contemporary portraits of local artists and activists and Puerto Rican punk rock/noise music, the film reveals how carefully crafted American fictions of "democracy" and "debt" obscure a capitalist and military domination that is ongoing.
So Long a Letter - Q&A with Director Angèle Diabang
May 8 (8:30pm)
Walter Reade Theater FLC (165 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
After 25 happy years of marriage, teacher Ramatoulaye's lawyer husband takes her daughter's friend as second wife, sparking tensions between old customs and modern life.
Influenced - Q&A with Writer/Actress Jill Kargman
May 8 (7pm), May 9 (7pm), May 10 (7pm), May 11 (7pm)
Quad Cinema (34 West 13th Street, Manhattan)
Renown influencer Dzanielle navigates fake friends among the Black card-swiping, Ozempic sharting, workout-addicted Upper East Siders. In her comedic quest for a million followers, she finds her first real new friend and her true self.
Caméra d'Afrique (1983) - Q&A with Director Férid Boughedir
May 9 (12pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
A look at 20 years of African Cinema.
Afrotopia - Q&A with Director David Mboussou
May 9 (2:45pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
In Gabon, within the Congo Basin, a young aspiring filmmaker forced into his father's logging empire uncovers a plan to destroy a sacred forest—and a buried colonial-era family secret.
Barni - Q&A with Director Mohammed Sheikh
May 9 (6pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
When a 9-year-old girl from a quaint Somali village goes missing, her older sister and two friends set out on a journey to find her.
When Nigeria Happens - Q&A with Director Ema Edosio Deelen
May 9 (8:30pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
Follows a tight-knit group of misfit dancers whose world is upended when one's mother falls critically ill.
Lace Relations - Q&A with Director/Producer Katharina Weingartner
May 10 (3:30pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
As colorful and multilayered as Nigerian fabrics, this documentary uncovers the history of the textile trade that has intertwined Nigeria and Austria for centuries, enriching Europe while contributing to the collapse of West Africa's indigenous textile economy.
Rumba Royale - Q&A with Directors Hamed Mobasser & Yohane Dean Lengol
May 10 (6pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
In 1959 Léopoldville, the Rumba Royale nightclub thrives to the beat of Congolese rumba as colonial rule wanes. Daniel, a young photographer, and Olive, an ambitious waitress, pursue dreams as love, power and politics threaten their world.
The Heart Is a Muscle - Q&A with Director Imran Hamdulay
May 11 (5:45pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
At a barbecue, Ryan's five-year-old son briefly goes missing. Ryan's violent reaction to this scare sets off a chain of events and unearths secrets from the past. A journey of self-discovery and forgiveness begins.
Sheitel: Beauty in the Hidden - Q&A with Director Lynda Medjuck Suissa
May 11 (7pm)
Marlene Meyerson JCC (334 Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan)
Sheitel shines a light on the world of Orthodox Jewish women and the practice of hair covering, revealing the deeper significance of this tradition as an expression of cultural identity, faith, and female empowerment.
Caméra arabe (1987) - Q&A with Director Férid Boughedir
May 12 (5:45pm)
Francesca Beale Theater FLC (144 West 65th Street, Manhattan)
Focusing on key Arab films produced in the last 20 years. Férid Boughedir traces the development of the film-makers' concern to produce more socially aware cinema. Themes include the issue of Palestinian homeland rights and the nature of Arab identity.
Reeling - Q&A with Director Yana Alliata
May 12 (6:45pm)
Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg (136 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn)
After a life-altering accident, Ryan returns home for a birthday luau and uncovers the secret of when things took a tragic turn.
The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas - Q&A with Director Eugene Yi, EP Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, film participants DJ Rekha & Madelyn Yu
May 13 (6:30pm)
Asia Society (725 Park Avenue, Manhattan)
This film brings together a tableau of voices to explore the themes of representation, belonging, and what it means to be AAPI in America.
I Love Boosters - Q&A and Intro with Questlove
May 14 (7:30pm)
Regal Union Square (850 Broadway, Manhattan)
A group of shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven.
95 and 6 to Go - Q&A with Director Kimi Takesue
May 15 (7pm)
Firehouse Cinema DCTV (87 Lafayette Street, Manhattan)
Tom Takesue is a hard-working, practical Japanese-American raised in Hawai'i, who discovers his filmmaking aspirations at the age of ninety when he becomes invested in "re-writing" a feature love story that his granddaughter is developing. His unusual script doctoring reveals larger concerns about love, loss, unrealized dreams, and mortality.
Agatha's Almanac - Q&A with Director Amalie Atkins
May 15 (7pm), May 16 (4:40pm)
Film Forum (209 West Houston Street, Manhattan)
90-year-old Agatha Bock maintains her ancestral farm and heirloom seeds without modern amenities, preserving traditional practices through daily routines that document a fading way of life.
Been Here Stay Here - Q&A with Director David Usui
May 15 (7pm), May 16 (7pm), May 17 (3pm)
Quad Cinema (34 West 13th Street, Manhattan)
Three generations on Tangier Island as rising waters threaten their way of life. The close-knit Christian community faces an uncertain future while maintaining their deep connection to the Chesapeake Bay.
Power Ballad - Q&A with Director John Carney, Actors Paul Rudd & Nick Jonas
May 18 (7pm)
92NY (1395 Lexington Avenue, Manhattan)
Rick, a washed-up wedding singer, and Danny, a fading boy band star, bond over music and a late-night jam session. When Danny turns Rick's song into a hit, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves.
Jason and Shirley Revisited - Q&A with Director Stephen Winter
May 19 (6:45pm)
Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park (188 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn)
A radical revisitation. This updated version of Stephen Winter's 2015 film unearths the ghosts of Jason and Shirley, restaging the volatile 12-hour shoot of the 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason—held at the Chelsea Hotel—which blurred the line between subject and storyteller.
I Love Boosters - Q&A with Writer/Director Boots Riley
May 19 (7:30pm)
BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn)
A group of shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven.
Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer - Q&A with Director Wes Orshoski
May 20 (7pm)
Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg (136 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn)
A pair of fans of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden launch a crowdfunding campaign to help Paul Di'Anno (aka The Beast), the band's iconic original singer, get back on his feet literally, emotionally and professionally.
I Love Boosters - Q&A with Writer/Director Boots Riley
May 20 (8:30pm)
Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park (188 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn)
A crew of professional shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven. It's like community service.
Forge - Q&A with Director Jing Ai Ng, Actors Andie Ju, Brandon Soo Hoo & TR Knight
May 22 (7pm)
Quad Cinema (34 West 13th Street, Manhattan)
Siblings Raymond and Coco Zhang run a forgery ring. Coerced by a disgraced millionaire, they create counterfeit masterpieces for his family's collection. FBI agent Emily Lee investigates a new string of art forgeries.
Manas - Q&A with Director Marianna Brennand
May 22 (7:40pm), May 23 (7:40pm)
Film Forum (209 West Houston Street, Manhattan)
Aware that the future does not hold many options for her in a riverside community on Marajó Island, a 13-year-old girl decides to confront the violent machinery that governs her family and the women in her community.
Visio Cordis - Q&A with Director Sophie Hamacher
May 23 (1pm)
Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens)
Visio Cordis takes medical imaging as both subject and provocation, tracing how systems built to observe and measure do not merely reveal the body but also shape how care and rupture are interpreted.
Behind Her Eyes - Q&A with film subject Tova Friedman
May 26 (6pm)
Marlene Meyerson JCC (334 Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan)
Behind Her Eyes tells the powerful journey of one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust who uses the power of social media to bridge across generations. Born in Poland in 1938, Tova was one of the few Jewish children to survive the horrors of Auschwitz. Tova proves that understanding how and why hatred erupts can serve as one of the strongest antidotes to building empathy and compassion.
Hangin' With The Homeboys - Q&A with EP Janet Grillo
May 27 (8:30pm)
Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park (188 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn)
Four young friends spend one crazy Friday night on the streets of Manhattan that quickly turns into a night, they'll never forget.
Forastera - Q&A with Director Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
May 29 (7pm), May 30 (7pm)
Film Forum (209 West Houston Street, Manhattan)
During her Mallorca summer, Antonia recognizes similarities with her late grandma. She develops an influence over her mourning grandpa through dress-up, blurring who inhabits who.