What makes a film festival a Brooklyn festival? For BAM's first Playback: The Brooklyn Watch Party, on November 6 and 7, the setting of the films matters least. Seven films are on the schedule. One of them, Spike Lee's Crooklyn, is set in Brooklyn. The other six are set in Algiers, Sicily, Rio de Janeiro, Bombay, Accra, and the world of a New York late-night talk show. What makes it a Brooklyn festival is who's in the room: the hosts, the guest curators, and the audience filling BAM Rose Cinemas on Lafayette Avenue.
That has a practical side for anyone planning the weekend. Saturday is built so the curators' films overlap, and you can't see all of them. Most people will end up following one curator through the afternoon. The free street party outside is the only part of the day that doesn't ask you to pick.
A Festival Hosted by Brooklynites, Not About Brooklyn
BAM created Playback with filmmaker and producer Nicholas Ma, whose credits include Won't You Be My Neighbor? It's co-hosted by Spike Lee and Clara Wu Tsai, owner of the New York Liberty and the Brooklyn Nets. The format is a loose one. Each guest curator picks two films and stays for a conversation. Lee explained the idea to Vulture this way:
"We wanted it to feel like an invitation to your friend's house to watch their favorite movies."
Ma described the geography plainly in the same Vulture piece: "Over the course of two days, we'll travel from Brooklyn to Mumbai to Ghana to Algeria and back to New York City again." He also set Playback apart from industry-driven festivals: "Playback is really built around the audience: great movies, the people who love them, and what can happen when we experience them together." When Time Out first reported the festival in July, Wu Tsai called it "a new kind of film festival."
The Brooklyn Eagle reported the lineup in late September. Questlove chose Soul to Soul and The King of Comedy. Bryan Stevenson chose Salaam Bombay! and City of God. John Turturro chose The Battle of Algiers and Divorce Italian Style. Lee chose Crooklyn.
Friday Is the One Brooklyn Movie
Opening night is Friday, November 6, at 7 p.m. It's the only screening on Friday and the only one with a Brooklyn setting. Lee told Vulture that Crooklyn is one of his "most personal films" and "an homage to Brooklyn of the early '70s."
BAM's Crooklyn page says the night honors this year's three curators. It starts with a procession of the curators and hosts, then introductions from Ma and Lee, then the film, which runs 115 minutes. After the screening, Lee sits down for a talkback with Alfre Woodard, Cinqué Lee, Joie Lee, and Zelda Harris, presented in partnership with The Soapbox Presents. Tickets start at $35, the highest starting price of the weekend.
So Friday is the cast reunion and the welcome for the curators. On Saturday, the curators take over.
Saturday's Grid, and Where It Collides
Every Saturday screening is at BAM Rose Cinemas in the Peter Jay Sharp Building, and tickets for each start at $30. Here's the day as BAM lists it:
| Start | Film | Curator | Conversation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 a.m. | The Battle of Algiers | John Turturro | After the film |
| 1:45 p.m. | City of God | Bryan Stevenson | After the film |
| 2:00 p.m. | The King of Comedy | Questlove | After the film |
| 4:45 p.m. | Soul to Soul | Questlove | Before the film |
| 4:50 p.m. | Divorce Italian Style | John Turturro | After the film |
| 7:30 p.m. | Salaam Bombay! | Bryan Stevenson | After the film |
Two pairs of start times sit almost on top of each other. City of God begins 15 minutes before The King of Comedy. Soul to Soul and Divorce Italian Style start five minutes apart. Both pairs set one curator against another, so Stevenson and Questlove compete for early afternoon, and Questlove and Turturro compete for late afternoon.
Two details from the BAM pages change how the day plays out. At Soul to Soul, Questlove hosts his talkback before the film, not after. If you arrive at 4:45 expecting a 96-minute concert documentary, you'll be walking in on the conversation. And Vulture reports that Stevenson will talk with director Mira Nair after Salaam Bombay!, her first feature, which makes the 7:30 slot more than a repertory screening.
Three Ways the Day Sorts Itself Out
Since each curator has two films, the grid works best followed curator by curator:
- Turturro's day. The Battle of Algiers at 11 a.m., then Divorce Italian Style at 4:50 p.m. Both have his talkback afterward. BAM describes him as Brooklyn-raised, and Vulture calls him a longtime Lee friend and fellow Knicks fan. His gap falls across the street party's busiest hours.
- Stevenson's day. City of God at 1:45 p.m., then Salaam Bombay! at 7:30 p.m. BAM identifies Stevenson as founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. This path leaves the late afternoon free and ends with the Nair conversation.
- Questlove's day. The King of Comedy at 2 p.m., then Soul to Soul at 4:45 p.m. This is the tightest of the three, with less than three hours between start times, and because Questlove talks before Soul to Soul, the second half starts with no buffer.
Mixing curators is possible. You'd just give up one side of each overlapping pair. Vulture also reports there "may be even more surprises in store" across the two days, so the grid may not be final.
BAM members at Tier 2 and above get $5 off up to two tickets for these special screenings. Tickets went on sale to the public October 1, and availability changes daily, so check each film's BAM page before planning around a seat.
The Part That Doesn't Make You Choose
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street becomes Playback's Street Party, which is free. BAM's listing names The Soapbox Presents as partner. It also promises music from local Brooklyn DJs and Bring Your Own Vinyl, work by artist Katie Merz, Double Dutch, and food and drink. Time Out's September coverage also lists Soul Summit among the music and mentions games.
Both partners have deep local roots. The Soapbox Presents describes itself as a cultural-preservation and community-empowerment movement that curates public arts experiences for Black and brown communities, with an emphasis on access. Katie Merz is Brooklyn-born. Her murals and installations draw on cartoons, architecture, graffiti, and city life.
The party's hours line up with the screenings in a useful way. It opens with The Battle of Algiers at 11 a.m. and closes about the time the 4:45 and 4:50 films begin. So whichever curator you follow, the break between your films falls during the party, and the block works as the festival's lobby. If you skip the screenings entirely, you still get the part Vulture calls the culmination of the weekend, an afternoon block party outside BAM.
Entry is first-come, first-served. BAM notes that an RSVP does not guarantee entry, though it does get you updates as details are added.
Where the Brooklyn Part Comes In
When PIX11 covered the July announcement, Wu Tsai said the festival would "bring together people who share a love of storytelling through film." The lineup supports that. Six of the seven films come from somewhere else. The neighborhood comes in through the people: the hosts, a curator raised here, a Brooklyn-born artist on the street, and the crowd on the block. Vulture compared it to watching a movie at a friend's place, if that friend had one of the biggest screens around and "400-something other friends" to share it with. On Saturday, November 7, the festival spills onto Lafayette Avenue from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., free, between Ashland and St. Felix.
Fort Greene blocks like the stretch of Lafayette Avenue around BAM are a big part of why people want to live nearby, and a weekend like this is part of that. If you're weighing a move within Brooklyn or wondering what your own place near the BAM district might be worth, Yitzhak Cotler is glad to talk it through, with local context and no pressure. Let's Connect.
