Keith R. Higgons

Greenpoint Film Festival 2013 Wrap Up

September 24, 2013 By Keith R. Higgons Leave a Comment

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After a successful opening night on Thursday, September 19, the third annual Greenpoint Film Festival wrapped on Sunday. Just as she has done in the previous two years, Festival Director Rosa Valado was able to tap into the creativity of our neighborhood as well as bring together a diverse group of films and filmmakers from around the world. In addition to screening a number of amazing films, the Greenpoint Film Festival played host to a number of spirited discussions and panels.

The festival had the prerequisite narrative and documentary categories in addition to highlighting micro-budget/DIY films, experimental films, and offered a music video screening and discussion. The closing day, Sunday, featured an extensive environmental film and discussion series in addition to animated and performance films.

Dick Doblin: Privateye—a new web series

August 29, 2013 By Keith R. Higgons Leave a Comment

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Web series are a dime a dozen. Every flunky with an idea, an iPhone or digital camera now feels they’re qualified to shoot a web series. “Technical prowess and the syntax of English be damned,” they scream as they upload their dreck to the web. And with powerful distribution tools like YouTube and Vimeo making it as simple as an upload and click to reach an audience…God, or whatever, help us.

But before I spiral down that rabbit hole and I receive a tersely worded email from my editor accompanying a heavily redacted version of this article, I want tell you about one of the better web series, Tyler G. Hall’s Dick Doblin: Privateye.

Brooklyn Film Festival – Review # 4: Dragon Girls

June 7, 2013 By Keith R. Higgons Leave a Comment

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By Keith R. Higgons

According to Inigo Westmeier’s bio, the director of Dragon Girls, he has some serious cinematic chops. He studied at the Film Academy in Moscow, did his graduate studies at Baden-Wuttemberg Film Academy and even had a scholarship to study at the UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies Department. That’s not too shabby of a background in film studies.

Brooklyn Film Festival in Full Swing – Three-pack screening of Bye, Freckle, and Hank and Asha at Windmill Studios

June 3, 2013 By Keith R. Higgons Leave a Comment

Short film “Hank and Asha” star Mahira Kakkar. Photo by Bianca Butti

By Keith R. Higgons

The Lowdown on an Upright Citizen: Comedian Anthony Apruzzese

April 15, 2013 By Keith R. Higgons Leave a Comment

Williamsburg resident Comedian Anthony Apruzzese performs a weekly “live late-night show… on stage” at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater

Comedy is as much a part of the DNA of Brooklyn as country music is of Nashville. The list of comedians who have called Brooklyn home reads like a history lesson of the hysterical: Mel Brooks, Larry David, Woody Allen, Jackie Gleason, and current late night warriors Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, among countless others. Hoping to one day count himself among those names is Williamsburg resident Anthony Apruzzese. He is currently blazing a trail in the super competitive world of comedy with his improvisation/theater/sketch late night talk show at the Upright Citizens Brigade East Theater called “Showtime with Anthony Apruzzese”.

I first met Apruzzese a few years ago in prison. Not a real prison, mind you; we worked in the same office. He was always quick with the clever retort or with sharing a skewed point of view, which made me realize his humor was slightly beyond his years. I was relieved to have finally found a kindred spirit to help ease the mind-numbing pain of white-collar work. At the very least, it curtailed my budding Xanax addiction.