Festival Forum: New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival 2021 Xeyal Qertel in conversation with Lukas Brasiskis
Festival Forum
The New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival held its fifth edition this past September 10-12, 2021 at New York’s landmark movie theater, Village East by Angelika, featuring a program of long and short film screenings, live music performance, and book talks, and focusing on Kurdish women and their contributions to human rights discourse, feminism, literature, and egalitarian social organizing.
In this recoded interview, the festival’s founder and director Xeyal Qertel discusses this year’s edition with e-flux’s Lukas Brasiskis, including the context of the festival and its development over the years, the themes behind this year’s programming, and the films she and her colleagues picked for e-flux audiences.
The conversation is presented as part of e-flux Video & Film’s special feature of New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival 2021, accompanying a two-week group screening of films by Sajad Ahmadbeigi, Hadi Ahmadi, Veysî Altay, Evin Berazi, Amir Gholami, Çiğdem Mazlum and Sertaç Yıldız, Sarkot Nikdel, Maryam Samadi, Mohammed Sherwani, and Shoresh Vakili, streaming on e-flux Video & Film for two weeks from Thursday, October 7 through Thursday, October 21, 2021.
Watch them here.
This program is part of the series Festival Forum on e-flux Video & Film, presenting collabrations with established and emerging moving-image festivals from around the world.
The New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival 2021 programmers are Xeyal Qertel, Frances Underhill, and Farhad Falahi.
Xeyal Qertel is the founder and director of the New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival. Xeyal is a New York-based educator from the North Kurdistan region of Bakur. She believes in and supports grassroots organizing to build a better world, and took an active role in various organizations prior to establishing NYKFCF.
Frances Underhill is the program director of the New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival. Frances has worked for various independent documentary production companies, film festivals, and community arts organizations in production, event organizing, programming, outreach, and marketing, with a focus on social justice and activism.
Farhad Falahi is the program assisntant director of the New York Kurdish Film and Cultural Festival. Farhad is a filmmaker, journalist, and polyglot from the East Kurdistan region of Rojhilat.
For more information, contact program [at] e-flux.com.