Restoration to Host September Film Screenings

Since its inception, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation has forged a number of dynamic partnerships to bring the community a range of arts and culture offerings.

Housing the Billie Holiday Theatre, Skylight Gallery and its multi-disciplinary youth arts academy, Restoration has long been a cultural hub.

And, most recently, this past June, Restoration Plaza presented the dynamic and incomparable performance of Yasiin Bey and Leslie Uggams with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. 

Restoration is now gearing up for the 8th Annual Bed-Stuy Alive celebration, including the 6th Annual Restoration Rocks concert, featuring emerging and headliner artists. 

In advance of Bed-Stuy Alive, Restoration is excited to serve as host of several FREE film screenings, as part of two major festivals: Urbanworld Film Festival and Word*Rock*&Sword: A festival exploration of women’s lives.

WHAT: Urban World Film Festival

WHEN:Friday, September 14, 6:30 Doors Open, 7:00 Film Screening

WHERE: Billie Holiday Theatre @ Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street

This event will mark Urban World’s first-ever Brooklyn community pre-festival screening. The official Urbanworld® Film Festival, scheduled for September 19-23, is the largest internationally competitive festival of its kind. The five-day festival includes narrative features, documentaries, and short films, as well as panel discussions, live staged screenplay reading.

Several of these films will be screened on Friday in Bed-Stuy at the Billie Holiday Theatre at 7:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.)

FILMS:

"The Christmas Tree"-- A struggling single father prepares to spend his first Christmas alone with his daughter, but when their tree is lost on Christmas Eve, he’s placed in a troubling predicament. 

"Mikel’s Faith"-- Mikel Hill an incarcerated former Golden Glove Champ is suddenly released from prison. He then tries to restore his former life and confronts his past friends.

"Junior and the Saint"-- Lamont and Langston Stephens star in this inspirational story about the bond between a father and son. Leon “The Saint” Claire (Lamont Stephens) is a champion boxer training for the biggest fight of his life. When his wife (Marisol Miranda) walks out, Leon is left to raise his 6-year-old son, Junior (Langston Stephens), on his own. Determined not to be distracted by her absence, Leon trains hard and instills the values of hard work into his son. Old wounds reopen when she returns.

WHAT: Word*Rock*&Sword: A Festival Celebration of Women’s Lives

WHEN: Friday, September 21, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Skylight Gallery @ Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, 1368 Fulton Street,  3rd floor

The Word*Rock*&Sword film festival (September 16-September 23), now in its second year, is about women taking and holding space, sharing experiences and skills, teaching and celebrating—spirit, body and mind, academic and social, all in the name of justice and rights for women.

"A Drop of Life", a film screening and discussion with Film Maker Shalini Kantayya

--Set in the near future, A DROP OF LIFE is the story of two women, a village teacher in rural India and an African American corporate executive, whose disparate lives intersect when they are both confronted with lack of access to clean drinking water. Mirabai, an impassioned schoolteacher, has left her urban lifestyle to teach in Kutch, Gujurat. When Mira witnesses growing illness among the village children after a pre-paid water meter is installed, she decides to take action.

Nia, an ambitious young African-American executive, represents the interests of Hydron, a Manhattan-based water corporation. Nia goes to this Indian village to demonstrate Hydron's new pilot project water pump that dispenses water with a swipe from a pre-paid credit card. When Nia finds herself in need of drinking water without a pre-paid card, both women must confront the horror of this system. 

The screening of "A Drop of Life" continues Restoration’s partnership with the activist, singer-songwriter-guitarist and founder of Word*Rock*&Sword Toshi Reagon.