Time has come for the second installment of Nightstream, an entirely virtual festival born from quarantine, running October 7-13, 2021. Nightstream combines the powers of Boston Underground, Brooklyn Horror, North Bend, and Overlook Film Festivals to make one super-festival you can enjoy right from your sofa, your bed, your backyard, or anywhere else you’re brave enough to get real weird at. Being that it’s entirely virtual, this enables US-based genre fans of various disabilities or other disadvantages that may prevent them from attending a festival in person, making it one of the only fully-inclusive festivals in the world.
I attended the festival last year, so I knew what I was getting into, and boy was I excited. You see, as great as all of the films are here, the best part of Nightstream is by far the 8-bit Virtual Lounge. It’s open through the duration of the festival for festival-goers, filmmakers, and journalists to interact via video and audio, as well as a chat function for those whose mouths are too full of popcorn to chat aloud. Gather.town has become a virtual film festival mainstay, being used in such major festivals as Sundance, after gaining popularity with Nightstream audiences.
My most anticipated events of the festival include Racer Trash Scare-Tastic Double Feature–a video-editing collective that reimagines classic films with vaporwave style; After Blue (Dirty Paradise)–a film a friend told me is “very me” and I want to go in with minimal information just to see what he thinks I’m like; Mad God–a film 30 years in the making that has only ever been described to me as “bonkers”; Agnes–directed by the director of one of my festival favorites last year, Climate of the Hunter; and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair–one of my favorites from Sundance 2021 whose found footage-style narrative delves into the potential horrors of Creepypasta era YouTube.
This year’s Nightstream lineup is promising, and it’s not too late to order yourself a 5 or 10 film badge, or purchase films individually. Just keep in mind the schedule and you’re set!
See y’all on Gather!
xoxo, pierogiwitch
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