June 23—30, 2022
On-sale dates:
Thu, May 12 for BAM Members & Patrons
Thu, May 19 for General Public
Launched in 2009 as a showcase for new independent films, the annual festival is an extension of BAM’s year-round film program, collecting the most innovative new work from festivals in the US and around the world and bringing them to New York City audiences. This year’s festival features blazingly personal works by filmmakers who have defied industry odds to realize their singular visions. Overflowing with funny, moving, challenging, and thought-provoking discoveries from the cutting edge of independent film, BAMcinemaFest is a celebration of all that movies can be when bold, uncompromising artists are empowered to tell their own stories.
Lead sponsor of BAMcinemaFest:
Leadership support for BAM Access Programs provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation.
Leadership support for BAM Film provided by the Ford Foundation and The Thompson Family Foundation
A powerful documentary that shines a light on the Black women, and bereaved partners, who are failed by the US maternal health system.
An award-winning lo-fi rom-com, shot in Brooklyn, that follows the hot and cold relationship of a naive pretty boy and a rough and tumble disco queen.
An award-winning breakout debut by up-and-coming director Damian Marcano about a young father’s eccentric scheme to sell weed.
A daring, self-reflexive documentary on the extraordinary Mexican/Chicanx performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his troupe La Pocha Nostra’s radical artistic practice and work in “queering the border.”
Desperate to control something in her life, a college grad decides to win the affections of a boy from her hometown in Kit Zauhar’s exciting, honest film about a young woman launched into adulthood.
From activists fighting for the rights of incarcerated pregnant people to singles searching for touch during the pandemic, these shorts focus on family, connection, and trauma.
In this narrative/documentary hybrid, Lily Gladstone stars as a grieving woman traveling to the Texas-Mexico border to reunite with her Oglala Lakota family.
Moroccan-American filmmaker Rita Baghadi captures the unexpected, uplifting behind-the-scenes story of the Middle East’s first all-female thrash metal band.
Jason Kohn pushes the documentary into thriller territory with this riveting investigation of the secretive diamond industry.
A filmmaker searches for answers in a strict Buddhist monastery and at the bottom of a sundae in this doc-existential comedy.
A selection of formally inventive short films ask questions about art and history.
New restorations of African-American filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira’s visionary work center Black womanhood.
This extraordinary portrait of community activism follows the wrongful conviction of Chol Soo Lee and the complex legacy—and human cost—of becoming the symbol of a movement.
From prairie towns in Nebraska to the quiet nightlife of suburban Long Island, these visually stunning films capture the quiet essence of humanity.
This critically acclaimed first documentary from Ramin Bahrani follows the life and contradictions of the man that created, and self-tested, the bulletproof vest.