#PickoftheWeek | A Positive from a Negative: Queens World Film Festival Commemorates Covid Lockdown’s Third Anniversary

It’s hard to believe, but the Covid shutdown began three years ago.

To mark the anniversary in a positive way, the Queens World Film Festival is spearheading a five-borough tour called “Together, Not Alone.” The next stop is The Local in Long Island City on Sunday, March 19, from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Attendance is free, and the event will open with light refreshments from The Queensboro, a Jackson Heights restaurant that provided meals to first responders at Elmhurst Hospital Center, which was “the epicenter of the epicenter.”

The main event is a screening of films about Covid, beginning with the tour’s namesake, Together, Not Alone, 19-minute piece that captures the energy, connective possibilities, and collective loss/grief/wisdom that a group of New Yorkers experienced during the pandemic.

Then, other Queens cultural organizations will screen selections from their film-and-video work.

A discussion and Q&A with the filmmakers will follow. (At times, willing audience members will participate in activities designed to share Covid experiences such as memory mapping and conversation.)

The Local NYC, which frequently hosts QWFF events, is a hotel with a large common area (seen above) at 13-02 44th Ave.

Other organizers of Sunday’s event include Zip Code Memory Project, Queens Memory, A-Doc (Asian American Documentary Network), Union Docs, Five Boro Story Project, Stoop Stories, and LaGuardia & Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY.

Images: QWFF