Films make virtual debut at Museum of Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image is hosting virtual film premiers. Photo via MOMI

By Rachel Vick

Instead of a step-and-repeat, how about a screenshot and a tweet?

Though the COVID-19 shutdown has rolled up the red carpet at cinemas citywide, new films will still premier at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria thanks to livestream technology. 

The film “ROOM H.264: Quarantine, April 2020” is a fitting installment in the live-streamed series. The documentary includes interviews with international filmmakers in quarantine, including several who were set to premiere their work at MoMI’s cancelled First Look Festival. 

The interview subjects reflect on cinema and creation amid the pandemic during Skype conversations.

Each interviewee also responded to a question first posed in “Room 666,” a 1982 documentary from Wim Wenders shot in a hotel room at Cannes Film Festival: “Is cinema becoming a dead language — an art form which is already in decline?”

Filmmakers Eric Hynes, Damon Smith and Jeff Reichert have filmed responses to the question  several times since 2016, including an iteration out of Astoria. 

A live discussion with the trio will follow the screening. The program is free, with a suggested donation of $10.