The Rockaway Film Festival announces today the full lineup for its sixth annual edition, to take place between August 19-27. The 2023 program features premieres, repertory screenings and live performances amid the sand and sea at Rockaway Beach.

Screenings will be held at the festival’s flagship outdoor theater Arverne Cinema, which was constructed using pieces from the boardwalk that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. The opening night selection is Walt Disney’s Fantasia, with shorts by “cine-magician” Oskar Fischinger preceding the film. Other highlights of the festival include the New York premiere of Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, which won this year’s Sundance Documentary Directing award, Maya Deren’s At Land and even a performance by ventriloquist Sophie Becker.

Several films by former 25 New Face of Film will also screen during the fest, including works by Antonio Marziale, Georden West, Darol Olu Kae, Deniz Tortum (who also pens a column for us on new media), Nate Dorr, Crystal Kayiza and John Wilson, who will close out the festival with an advance screening of the series finale of his HBO show How To with John Wilson, as well as some early How To shorts of his.

“Our festival emerged from a deep love for the communal ritual of watching movies,” said RFF Co-Founders, Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller in a release. “Nothing compares to the experience of gathering silently in the dark with friends and strangers, to be unified by a shared source of sight and sound. This year’s lineup is vast and eclectic, and marks another year in our endeavor to bring cinema back to Rockaway, which had been without a movie theater for more than twenty years.”

The festival will also feature special appearances from filmmakers, artists, curators and musicians including John Wilson, Jessica Beshir, Luke Lorentzen, Rahill, Steve Gunn, Chances With Wolves, Edan, Andrew VanWyngarden, Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio and more.

Find the full lineup below, and find more information about tickets and showtimes on the festival’s official website.

FULL LINEUP:

SATURDAY AUG 19 – OPENING NIGHT

Live Performance: Rockaway Chamber Music
Study No. 8 by Oskar Fischinger. 1931, 4 Min.
Motion Painting No. 1 by Oskar Fischinger. 1947, 11 Min.
Walt Disney’s Fantasia. 1940, 124 Min.

SUNDAY AUG 20 

Live Performance: Steve Gunn
The Love Spell by Jane Stiles and Meryl Jones Williams. 2021, 19 Min.
Mirror Party by Bridey Elliott. 2022, 9 Min.
Side Hustle by Abby Harri. 2023, 15 Min.
Alpha Kings by Faye Tsakas & Enrique Pedráza-Botero. 2023, 15 Min.
Starfuckers by Antonio Marziale. 2022, 15 Min.
Playland by Georden West. 2023, 72 Min.
A Still Small Voice by Luke Lorentzen. 2022, 93 Min.

MONDAY AUG 21

Live Performance: Agua de Gio + M I C C A
Pine by Andres Rojas + Frank Siringo. 2023, 10 Min.
Beach Genius h2.0 by Thom Musso. 2023, 17 Min.
Kook Mike Goes Surfing by Robert Bryn. 2023, 11MIN.
First Times at Coney Island by Joana Botelho. 2023, 8 Min.
On the People’s Beach by AG Crist. 2022, 16 Min.
Rockaway Haiku by Emily Brausa. 2022, 11 Min.

TUESDAY AUG 22

Voices by Joanna Priestley, 1985, 4 Min
Once More With Feeling by Pallavi Agarwala, 2022, 4 Min
Story From North America by Garett Davis + Kirsten Lepore, 2007, 4 Min
Operation Jane Walk by Robin Klengel + Leonhard Müllner, 2019, 16 Min
The Stitches Speak by Nina Sabini, 2009, 12 Min
Plants by Deanna Morse, 1989, 4 Min
Myth Today by Jonah Primiano, 2021, 5 Min
La Joie de Vivre by Anthony Gross, 1934, 9 Min
489 Years by Hayoun Kwan, 2016, 11 Min
Wild Heart 1981 / 2020 by Zach Dorn, 2020, 6 Min

WEDNESDAY AUG 23

Live Performance: Duelle Films – Projection
Here at the Water’s Edge by Leo Hurwitz & Charles Pratt. 1962, 60 Min.

THURSDAY AUG 24

Live Performance: Kyp Malone
Atopias:the Homeless Wanderer by Daniela Yohannes + Julien Béramis. 2023, 27 Min.
As Time Passes by Jamil McGinnis. 2022, 14 Min.
Keeping Time by Darol Olu Kae. 2023, 32 Min.

FRIDAY AUG 25

Live Performance: Surf Jazz Trio
At Land by Maya Deren. 1944, 14 Min.
Zuma News, LA by Simone Forti. 2013, 13 Min.
Dune Dance by Carolyn Brown. 1981, 18 Min Excerpt.
Arena by Madeline Hollander. 2017, 14 Min.
Beach Birds for Camera by Merce Cunningham. 1993, 27 Min.

SATURDAY AUG 26

Live Performance: Rahill
The Corn Doesn’t Pay the Corn by Caitlin Craggs. 2023, 18 Min.
The Despair of Monkeys by Julián García Long. 2023, 17 Min.
Some Acts Around Rocks and Stones by Kevin Kelly. 2023, 35 Min.
I’m Not Here by Sujani Reddy. 2023, 5 Min.
Our Ark by Deniz Tortum + Kathryn Hamilton. 2021, 12 Min.
Neighbour Abdi by Douwe Dijkstra. 2022, 29 Min.
I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked by Yuval Hameiri. 2012, 10 Min.
Little Boy Loon by Kevin Daniel Bay & Julia Thompson. 2023, 10 Min.
There Is Gold Everywhere by Rita Morais. 2023, 12 Min.
The Empty Sphere by Stephanie Roland 2022, 19 Min.
Ywnhx by Nate Dorr. 2023, 5 Min.
Ommatidia by Gloria Chung 2022, 7 Min.
France by Philip Cartelli + Mariangela Ciccarello. 2022, 6 Min. *16mm Projection

SUNDAY AUG 27 – CLOSING NIGHT

Live Performance: Ventriloquist Sophie Becker
The Pedestrian by Claire Read + Nora Rose Deligter. 2023, 19 Min.
They Got Me Goin’ in on My Day Off  by Luis Figueroa. 2023, 5 Min.
Runon by Daniel Newell Kaufman. 2020, 12 Min.
Rest Stop by Crystal Kayiza. 2022, 12 Min.
Civic by Dwayne Leblanc. 2022, 20 Min.
How To Clean a Cast Iron Pan. 2012, 6 Min.
Los Angeles Plays New York. 2016, 19 Min.
How To Season 3 Finale. 2023, 37 Min.