Brooklyn Bridge Park Brings Pop-Up LGBT Art to 'Photoville'
United Photo Industries has announced the fifth annual Photoville, a free pop-up photography village in and around 55+ shipping containers turned into galleries in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Sept 21-25. In the short time since its inception in 2012, Photoville has become the largest annual photographic event in New York City, and one of the most attended photographic events nationwide.
LGBTQ specific programming is outlined below:
Miss Trans Israel - Pulitzer Prize-winner Oded Balilty's project Miss Trans Israel, documents the contenders in "Miss Trans Israel," Israel's first transgender pageant, as they polish their moves and compete.
Contenders in Israel's first transgender pageant polished their moves and competed in "Miss Trans Israel." Talleen Abu Hanna, 21, an Israeli from a Catholic Arab family, was crowned the winner of the 2016 pageant held at HaBima, Israel's national theater, in Tel Aviv. The 12 finalists spent long hours practicing their routines, strutting in stiletto heels and modeling evening gowns and swim wear.
The competition is more than a show of beauty and pride. It also is a display of coexistence and tolerance, bringing together contestants from Israel's Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. The contestants describe themselves as a family of sorts, saying they find strength in one another.
Israel is generally tolerant of gays, and Tel Aviv has emerged as one of the world's most gay-friendly travel destinations. The Israeli city stands in sharp contrast to most of the rest of the Middle East, where gays are persecuted or even killed in some places.
Gay and transgender soldiers openly serve in Israel's military, and in 1998, a transgender singer, Dana International, won the popular Eurovision song contest. But homosexuality is often shunned in religiously observant Jewish and Muslim communities. Last year, an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a teenage girl to death at a Jerusalem Pride parade.
Wayne Lawrence's #OrlandoStrong (Outdoor Installation) - Photographer Wayne Lawrence is known for his sensitive and intimate portraits of Americans of every class, race, and creed. Lawrence spent a week in Orlando gathering the stories of a community that has been battered but not defeated.
On June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire in Pulse Nightclub, one of Orlando, Florida's most popular gay nightclubs, killing 49 people and wounding dozens more. This was the deadliest mass shooting in American history, the worst terrorist attack since 9/11, and the deadliest hate crime against LGBTQI people and Latino people. Conversations around motives, terrorism, gun laws, and civil liberties rose, once again, to the surface of America's daily discourse.
Pulse was a safe haven for the Orlando LGBTQI community, a space where people felt free, welcomed, and loved. In the days immediately after the attack, as people attended vigils, lined up to donate blood, and struggled to overcome shock and grief, a community targeted by hate found resilience. Supporters and allies came together to speak out in solidarity-standing for love, unity, and hope.
Photographer Wayne Lawrence is known for his sensitive and intimate portraits of Americans of every class, race, and creed. Lawrence spent a week in Orlando gathering the stories of a community that has been battered but not defeated. This story was a digital feature for National Geographic in June 2016.
PBS' POV [Point of View] (Photoville Nighttime Series on September 22 only) - An LGBTQ-focused evening of screenings and discussion by PBS' POV featuring excerpts from "From This Day Forward" (which follows a family planning a wedding in the midst of the bride's father coming out as transgender) and "Pink Boy" (an intimate portrait of a gender-nonconforming boy growing up in conservative rural Florida).
When director Sharon Shattuck's father came out as transgender, Sharon was in the awkward throes of middle school. "From This Day Forward," premiering on PBS's POV series on October 10th, follows the Shattucks as they plan Sharon's wedding and explore how the parents' marriage, and the family, remained intact.
Join POV and IFP for an evening celebrating LGBTQ stories in film, featuring a sneak-preview of "From This Day Forward," short indie doc "Pink Boy" - an intimate portrait of a gender-nonconforming boy growing up in conservative rural Florida - and animated shorts from renowned oral history project StoryCorps. The evening will include exclusive sneak-previews of the films and in-person conversations with Sharon Shattuck, director and subject of "From This Day Forward"; Martha Shane, producer of "From This Day Forward"; Eric Rockey, director of "Pink Boy"; and more. "From This Day Forward" is an IFP Documentary Lab alum and we are pleased to present the event in collaboration with IFP's Film Week.
For more information, visit http://www.photoville.com/