The Queens World Film Festival creative community will gather Friday evening at The Local in Long Island City for a special screening of “The Listening Tour,” an ongoing project in conjunction with Queens Public Library to create a historical record of life in Queens during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Since 2021, Queens World has been videotaping community members as they answer four questions about hope and resiliency. Over the summer, festival interns produced 15 Listening Tour segments that will join more than 60 other segments archived at QPL’s Queens Memory project.
Twelve of the recently produced segments will be screened at The Local, located at 13-02 44th Ave., on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“The Listening Tour is something we started in 2021 when we got a call from the mother of a student at P.S. 69 who took part in one of our programs,” Queens World Film Festival Executive Director Katha Cato said. “She said in a whisper that she needed a break and asked if she could send her kids over for a few hours, and we said sure. We recognized the one student who came over with his brother and sister, and they stayed for several hours talking about what they were going through during the pandemic.”
They came back several times and began hanging out with festival interns.
“We set them up in the living room and said, ‘Here’s the equipment, here’s how you frame the shots and just ask the questions,’” Cato said. “One of the kids took everything home and edited it together, and it just blew us away by the authenticity of what they were saying.”
Questions included: How do you define hope? How do you define resilience? Who is the most resilient person you know? And what do you hope for?
“Their answers just knocked me out, so we added those three kids together, and the Listening Tour was born,” Cato said. “Then we started looking for people to participate and we found whole sections of our Jackson Heights community who were never asked about their experiences.”
The team interviewed kitchen staff at delis, library custodians, recent immigrants and community activists who were never asked about their experiences before.
“Now it’s become a right of passage when the new festival associates come in each cycle,” Cato said. “They go out and find people unheard, people who need to be part of the conversation. They produce it as a team, they shoot it, they edit it, and this summer, they did 15 segments, and they killed it.”
After Friday’s screening, which is free and open to the public, the segments will be archived into Queens Public Library’s Queens Memory project. There will be free popcorn and chocolate, a vintage festival t-shirt sale, festival mugs for sale, an interactive community mural project and the opportunity to take the microphone and share your response to the segments.
“We usually do something where people write what they’re grateful for,” Cato said. “Friday night, we’re just going to listen.”
