Short Films and a Marble Vote in a Greenpoint Studio

Filmshow runs short films back to back and fills the gaps with experimental theater and stand-up rather than letting the room reset between pieces. The night closes with an audience vote for a prize, cast by dropping a marble. Voting with a marble means you commit in front of everyone, which changes how the room watches the last few films. It takes place in a working studio rather than a cinema, with folding chairs on a concrete floor.

You come in off Green Street into a raw industrial room with the projector set up at the back and the beam cutting over the seats. The floor is flat rather than raked, and people sort themselves by height without being asked. Filmmakers sit in the audience rather than backstage. Several of the directors are in the room while their work plays, and the applause lands differently for it. Drinks are sold at a table along the side.

The show runs on the evening of Saturday, October 3 at 259 Green Street in Greenpoint, a walk from the Greenpoint Avenue G stop. Book ahead. A studio room seats far fewer people than a cinema does. Latecomers wait for a gap between films rather than slipping in mid-reel, which makes arriving before the first block worth the effort. It fits people who want to watch shorts with the makers in the room, rather than a polished festival screening.