Steve McQueen's ‘Lover's Rock' to Open New York Film Festival; 3 McQueen Films in Main Slate

Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock” is part of his “Small Axe” anthology, which comprises five original films by the director. It was announced today by the New York Film Festival that three films from the anthology, “Mangrove,” “Lover’s Rock” and “Red, White, and Blue,” will premiere as part of the NYFF’s Main Slate, the rest of which will be disclosed in the coming weeks.

“Small Axe” is a series of five stories that shed light on the trials and tribulations of the West Indian community of London during the ‘60s, ‘70s,’ and ‘80s. “Lovers Rock,” for example, tells the story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980s. Whereas “Red, White and Blue” is a feature-length episode that follows a West Indian man in London that joins the police force after witnessing his father being assaulted by officers. Each episode shows a different side of the West Indian community’s struggles for decades, which is something McQueen is personally familiar with.”

These, to me, feel like the no-brainers for NYFF:

Ammonite. Nomadland, Minari, The Woman Who Ran, Spring Blossoms, Undine, Notturno, Wife of a Spy, True Mothers, Mangrove, Lover's Rock, Red White, and Blue, The Real Thing, Another Round, The Truffle Hunters, City Hall, Malmkrog, There is No Evil, Dick Johnson is Dead, The Salt of My Tears