Announcing Streetfilms first ever feature documentary & trailer and how to screen it!
WATCH OUR NEWEST WORLD PREMIERE TRAILER ABOVE!
In case you didn’t know I had left shoulder replacement surgery at the start of 2026. But rather than sit on the shelf, I decided prior to the operation to film interviews up and down Queens’ world-renown 34th Avenue Open Street. During recovery, my original idea was to stitch together a 20 minute celebration of the street’s 6th anniversary - and its re-christening Paseo Park. But the story details proved too rich and full of lessons for the world on how the power of community can achieve victory of cars so it became my first full-length documentary feature - “Close Encounters of the 34th Avenue Kind: The Story of NYC’s Best Open Street”.
The synopisis: During the Covid pandemic, NYC created an Open Street on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights and Corona, Queens — which was one of the city’s pandemic epicenter, where thousands died. The Open Street quickly became a lifeline to residents desperate to exercise or socialize in a socially responsible way. But even as the pandemic faded, residents quickly realized that the 34th Avenue Open Street had become an essential amenity in a neighborhood with among the lowest amount of park space per-capita.
Quickly, neighborhood activists rallied and got the administration of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio to commit to a full buildout of the Open Street into its current configuration: Paseo Park, which, as its name suggests, is a 1.3-mile long promenade for cycling, strolling and just connecting with neighbors.
“Close Encounters of the 34th Avenue Kind” features over 55 speakers, some of which are shown here!
Since I live a few hundred feet off of the open street, many of these people are my friends, neighbors & elected officials. As anyone will tell you it is not hard to find people to talk to on any jaunt up and down 34th Ave. Once I went for a loop (yes, an incredible 2.7 miles) and it took over three hours since I chatted with so many people.
The film’s cast is incredibly diverse (Jackson Heights features over 160 languages spoken) not only in ethnicity but gender, age, physical ability and time living in the area .
We’ve already had a few well-attended screenings in Queens and now we are ready to see it on screens across the country and the world! We already have a contacts in about a half dozen cities who want to show it and I’ve begun entering the film in festivals (plus a three NYC open streets are likely showing it this summer!).
If you’d like to screen it essentially the deal is this: if you can find a place to screen it - whether it is for dozens or hundreds - it’d be great! The cost is free if you’re not charging for tickets. If you need to charge a fee to attend in order to make back costs to show it, there’s still no cost unless you turn a profit. Please contact clarence@streetfilms.org to ask specific questions. We want to hear from everybody everywhere who loves better people places whether you’re in the Arctic Circle, Ukraine, Los Angeles or Burkina Faso.
Over 150 people attended a screening at LaGuardia Community College and there was a discussion afterwards featuring local advocates.
“Close Encounters of the 34th Avenue Kind: The Story of NYC’s Best Open Street” runs 1 hour & 8 minutes, a length which is perfect for paring with a discussion following the film with local elected officials, advocates and focussing on local transportation issues. And/or you can also show a few local shorts prior to the feature that look at things going on your city.
If you would like me to attend to speak, be on a panel or tour your city for a day or two that is certainly a possibility but funding would need to be raised for travel and/or hotel stay. But if it is not far away (example say Philadelphia) all that might be is just a roundtrip train/bus ticket!
Below are just a sliver of the fun and people that make our neighborhood street one of the best places in the entire world to live along. Again, any questions just email me at clarence@streetfilms.org, whether it be about the film, how I shoot films (after all there are nearly 1,200 of them) or any curious question. I am also on Twitter/X, BlueSky, LinkedIn, Instagram and other social medias.
