Q&A with Basement Tapes filmmakers moderated by Ethan Knecht

Thursday, Apr. 23 2026, 7:00

• Ethan Knecht (Commuting) is a filmmaker, educator, and arts organizer whose work blends dark humor, absurd realism, and working-class tenderness. Drawing from his experience as a suburban father and assistant principal in a New York City high school, Knecht’s films explore the chaos and quiet beauty found in human systems, families, and institutions. He is also a Pleasantville resident and the creator of Basement Tapes: Underground Film Series, a DIY screening event showcasing bold and unconventional short films. With a background in both education and the arts, Knecht’s storytelling captures the tension between compassion and bureaucracy, absurdity and sincerity, the personal and the comedic.
• Marta Renzi (Bronx Magic) is an independent filmmaker and choreographer whose work bridges dance and film in deeply human, community-centered narratives. She has made more than 75 dances for her Project Company, including her BESSIE-award-winning Vital Signs. Her site-specific pieces in locations such as the Guggenheim Museum, Union Station and the Staten Island Ferry, led naturally to her work in video and film. Her debut feature film, Her Magnum Opus, was released in 2017. For her full filmography see here.
• Alyssa Kurtzman (One Suggestion) is a writer/director/executive producer for Vox Media's internal agency, Vox Creative, helping businesses and corporations find common ground with human earthlings. She grew up in the woods of northern CT, attended NYU's Tisch School Of The Arts, and lives locally in Pleasantville.
• Carl Conway Maguire (Ultra Juice) is a writer and director in NYC whose work has played at festivals including SeriesFest, Hollyshorts, Sidewalk Film Festival, and more. He started making films as a founding member of the indie filmmaking collective Video Mass, through which he helped facilitate screenings in Brooklyn of over 100 short films.
• Gary Fisher (Year of the Catfish) is a Brooklyn, New York-based musician and filmmaker.
• Eric Rich (Stalled) is a filmmaker from Long Island, NY. He cut his teeth writing and directing at the age of eight. An Emerson graduate, Eric moved to LA where he worked as a script reader for Miramax, then later on at ICM Partners. Eric would read screenplays from the best screenwriters working today while making his short films.
• Kevin Ralston (The Warmest Color is Blue) is a director, writer, editor, and actor based in NYC. His short Hubbards won awards including Best Picture at Fantastic Fest for their Shorts With Legs program, Short Com’s Funniest Film, Best WTF at Nooga Underground, and King Video at Videodrunk. He presented his pilot, Easily Solved Mysteries, at the 2022 Just For Laughs Stand Up and Pitch Program while part of the pilot episode was also featured in Vulture. The full Pilot Episode World Premiered at Seriesfest 2023, where it won the Late Night Program Audience Award. He studied Psychology and Cinema at Binghamton University in upstate New York.

Tickets: $11 (members), $16 (nonmembers)

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