\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775898248_169_poetry_city_main_1920x1080.png\")
Oscar Fuentes, The Biscayne Poet, is featured in Aaron Glickman\u2019s \u201cPoetry City\u201d getting its premiere at the 43rd Annual Miami Film Festival. The film screens on at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, April 18 at the Koubek Center. (Photo courtesy of the Miami Film Festival)<\/p>\n
Three distinct Miami stories, each revealing the city through its people and culture, are part of this year\u2019s Miami Film Festival. The 43rd Annual Miami Film Festival \u2014 taking place Thursday, April 9 through Sunday, 19, 2026 \u2014 will screen over 160 films from around the world, including features, documentaries, and shorts, at seven key venues in Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n
While two are documentaries featuring notable Miamians and the third a feature-film caper about art, they share a common thread: these are Miami stories.<\/p>\n
From the neighborhoods and skyline shots that make Jing Ai Ng\u2019s art-themed caper \u201cForge\u201d glisten, to the city\u2019s literary landscape explored in Aaron Glickman\u2019s \u201cPoetry City,\u201d and Brian Bayerl and Mike Huter\u2019s three-year journey across America for \u201cAn Instrumental Start \u2013 A Model for the Nation,\u201d the filmmakers make clear that these works could only have been set here.<\/p>\n
Bayerl and Huter\u2019s film features interviews with well-known figures nationwide. It returns to Liberty City to tell the story of Marshall L. Davis Sr. and the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center.<\/p>\n
In each case, the city becomes a character, shaping the story as much as the people in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted the city to feel alive, like every street and skyline shot was part of the story itself,\u201d says Ng, whose experience growing up between Miami and Malaysia formed the basis for her film.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s home and where many of my formative childhood memories were made.\u201d<\/p>\n
While so many Miami movies focus on the Latin American story, Ng centered on a segment of the population that is less represented. \u201cThe Asian population in Miami is less than 2 percent. Growing up, it was a bit jarring to go from Asia to a place where, especially as my first reference to America, was Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForge\u201d (noon, Saturday, April 18, Bill Cosford Cinema), which made its debut at 2025\u2019s South by Southwest, is a fiction film about a brother and sister who have an underground operation selling forged paintings. With sister Coco a gifted painter and her brother, Raymond, a master counterfeiter, the two end up in the middle of a scheme with a down-on-his-luck millionaire.<\/p>\n
Miami\u2019s art scene, \u201cexploding\u201d ever since Art Basel Miami Beach, has influenced Ng\u2019s themes in the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that the quality of anything has changed. Every winter, so many people come into town, exposing us to maybe the cutting edge of the art world at all times. It goes back to the eternal debate of what is art and how do we value art. That fits completely with the themes of \u2018Forge.\u2019 How do you tell if something is worth a million dollars or if it isn\u2019t? I remember the year at Art Basel when there was an ATM machine and another year a banana.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her film, Ng has a Chinese cook making dumplings refer to the infamous Basel banana.<\/p>\n
Now based in Los Angeles, Ng, 32, wanted the scenes authentic for her first feature film. Everything was done on location \u2014 at the Perez Art Museum Miami, the city\u2019s most famous dance club, Club Space, Coral Gables and Brickell, plus the personal and notable Tropical Chinese Restaurant on Bird Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think part of what came to be with \u2018Forge\u2019 is that my family was always on the eternal search in Miami for Chinese food, and especially growing up in the \u201990s, it was Tropical Chinese. It was part of my childhood, us going there almost every weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregory (who co-owns the restaurant with sister Mei Yu), let her film there and use the restaurant\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/forge_main_1920x1080.png\")
Andie Ju as Coco Zhang and Brandon Soo Hoo as Raymond Chang in the Miami-set art caper from Jing Ai Ng, \u201cForge,\u201d which has a screening on Saturday, April 18 at noon at The Bill Cosford Cinema. (Photo courtesy of the Miami Film Festival)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a small part of Miami life and underrepresented. For me, watching a lot of Asian American film set in Los Angeles or New York or on the coast, it\u2019s not something I can actually relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filming in Miami had its challenges. The city is more accustomed to commercial shoots and larger productions. \u201cBecause of that, you get priced out of locations, so we were constantly playing the game of trying to do the most with what we had. But we had such support. The silver lining of filming in Miami is that you have a really passionate community around you that is going to help you get your movie made.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the movie is making its Florida premiere at the festival, it will be opening in major theaters in May. Utopia\u2019s Circle Collective has acquired the North American rights for the film, something Ng couldn\u2019t be happier about. It will be released in Miami theaters on May 30, she confides.<\/p>\n
She is already working on her second feature, which is shooting in Asia. Not willing to reveal too much because it is in development, she does share that it is \u201ca coming-of-age story set in Malaysia and England.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/poetry_city_2_1920x1080.png\")
Poet Oscar Fuentes surrounded by kids from Shake-A-Leg Miami in a scene from \u201cPoetry City.\u201d (Photo courtesy of Miami Film Festival)<\/p>\n
For Glickman, it was about putting the city\u2019s literary arts front and center. \u201cThey tend to get overshadowed by the visual arts, so I\u2019m proud that we were able to highlight something that doesn\u2019t get the same attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The journey of \u201cPoetry City\u201d began with Oscar Fuentes, known as The Biscayne Poet. \u201cI\u2019ve known Oscar since about 2015, maybe even longer.\u201d Glickman remembers Fuentes and his typewriter at Wood Tavern in Wynwood. That was where he would start what\u2019s become one of his signatures \u2014 people would give him one word, and he would write a poem for them, gifting it to them as their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would be in the middle of the place and people all around him. I would just be observing. I always thought he was a unique person.\u201d<\/p>\n
A decade later, he ran into Fuentes at the main branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library System, where he manages the library\u2019s public art collection.<\/p>\n
Glickman was between film projects, having just finished \u201cMiami Schmatta,\u201d which premiered at the Miami Jewish Film Festival last year and later aired on South Florida PBS about the history of Miami\u2019s Garment District.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran into Oscar and we chatted for a while, and I said to him, \u2018We should do a documentary on you.\u2019 At that time it was going to focus on Oscar, but then he brought on Nicole Tallman.\u201d Tallman is the official Poetry Ambassador and this year\u2019s poet laureate for Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started to take on a different tone and we started to figure out some strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is \u201cPoetry City,\u201d (5:30 p.m., Saturday, April 18, Koubek Center) an ode to Miami\u2019s poetry scene, featuring interviews, readings, and performances by several of Miami\u2019s poets. They include Caridad Moro-Gronlier, the 2024\u201325 Miami-Dade County Poet Laureate; Richard Blanco, the county\u2019s first Poet Laureate and Presidential Inaugural Poet; Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books and co-founder of the Miami Book Fair; Campbell McGrath, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and MacArthur Fellow; and performance and spoken word artists Arsimmer McCoy and Darius Daughtry.<\/p>\n
The film also captures a community-wide photoshoot of poets with Miami photographer Manny Hernandez. In one scene, people who have known Fuentes throughout the years gather at the library to read their poems.<\/p>\n
Glickman\u2019s brother also participated in the film. \u201cMy brother had a key role \u2014 Alec Jerome Kreisberg. He did the animation, shot some of the film, and handled all the drone work.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Glickman, the close-knit group of poets and the spotlight on the literary arts scene were the catalysts that propelled the documentary. \u201cThe whole experience was organic; it just grew.\u201d<\/p>\n
The community that Marshall Davis Sr. built didn\u2019t hesitate when Bayerl reached out to notable names who said that Davis\u2019 visionary arts program \u2014 which grew into one of the most innovative arts education models in the United States \u2014 was a primary driver in their success.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were happy to do it. No one said no,\u201d said Bayerl, co-director of \u201cAn Instrumental Start \u2013 A Model for the Nation,\u201d (8 p.m., Friday, April 10, Olympia Theater). He recalls Davis phoning Oscar-winning \u201cMoonlight\u201d creator Tarell Alvin McCraney. \u201cAnd he picks up the phone and says, \u2018Hi, Mr. Davis. Yeah, no problem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you watch his film and listen to his story about meeting Mr. Davis, it\u2019s the same story. It\u2019s this kid running from bullies \u2014 and then he gets saved by Mahershala Ali. In real life, Tarell ran into the Cultural Arts Center and that\u2019s when he met Mr. Davis, and he said it changed his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the film, McCraney says, \u201cI\u2019ve always thought of that moment as the time people who didn\u2019t know me gave me the tools to save my life. When I came back to say, \u2018I want to make this film that is about Miami and about some tough issues,\u2019 it was only African Heritage that said this is important. Your voice is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Savion Glover appears in the film \u2014 he\u2019s best friends with Marshall Davis Jr., Bayerl points out. \u201cThere\u2019s a great scene where Savion, who mentors at the center, is teaching kids, and it\u2019s a really fun piece in the film.\u201d Along with countless other appearances, including actress Phylicia Rashad and former director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Robert Battle.<\/p>\n
The film makes its premiere at the Miami Film Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarshall\u2019s story is at the center, but it also reflects the heartbeat of the city\u2019s arts \u2014 how personal ambition and community intersect. It brings home the point that one person\u2019s creativity can resonate across a wider cultural landscape,\u201d says Bayerl.<\/p>\n
Together, \u201cPoetry City,\u201d \u201cForge,\u201d and \u201cAn Instrumental Start\u201d reveal a Miami shaped by the people who move through it. The city emerges not just as a backdrop, but as a force in the stories it tells.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mecca: Legends of Traz Powell Stadium\u201d\u00a0(documentary feature): The story of the legendary Traz Powell Stadium and its deep roots in the Miami community directed by Nicanson Guerrier. From the big plays on the field, to the historic segregation-era coach that it\u2019s named after, the stadium is a vital part of South Florida culture. The film brings together a roster of NFL players from South Florida, including Teddy Bridgewater, Lavonte David, Kenny Phillips, Sean Spence and Nat Moore.\u00a0 It also features local icons Luther \u201cUncle Luke\u201d Campbell and Rick Ross, record-breaking coaches and many community members whose lives have been shaped by the place that has produced more NFL players than any other venue in the country.\u00a012:30 p.m., Sunday, April 12, Olympia Theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Men Dance\u201d\u00a0(documentary feature): Filmed in Miami and featuring a mix of local and international dancers, finds director Abbas A. Motlagh following young men for whom dance is more than expression \u2014 it\u2019s a lifeline. Against a backdrop of racism, isolation, financial strain, and rising anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant sentiment, the film pairs urgency with lush cinematography.\u00a06:15 p.m., Sunday, April 12, Bill Cosford Cinema.<\/p>\n
\u201cRope\/Tide\u201d\u00a0(feature:)\u00a0\u00a0Made by University of Miami students and shot by professor Ed Talavera, this offbeat, avant-garde film follows an artist and his muse who bind themselves together, turning their relationship into an ongoing test of intimacy and endurance.\u00a02:45 p.m., Saturday, April 18, Bill Cosford Cinema.<\/p>\n
Three winners of the Miami Film Festival Louies Awards from 2025 will premiere their films at the festival:<\/p>\n
\u201cDual Citizen\u201d\u00a0(documentary feature): Director Rachelle Salnave films her journey to obtain Haitian citizenship and the emotional legacy it carries for her father.\u00a07:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, Little Haiti Cultural Complex, 212 NE 59th\u00a0Terrace, Miami.<\/p>\n
The two films below are screening as part of Welcome to Miami: Florida Doc Shorts at 9 p.m., Thursday, April 16 at The Bill Cosford Cinema.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the Mango Tree\u201d:\u00a0\u00a0Director Symone Titania Major\u2019s documentary traces the rise and fall of a once\u2011prosperous African American agricultural community in Goulds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Floor Remembers\u201d:\u00a0\u00a0Director Jayme Kaye Gershen\u2019s short documentary revisits a historic Miami roller rink, where skaters return to a neon\u2011lit floor that holds the memories of a city in constant reinvention.<\/p>\n
WHAT:\u00a043rd Annual Miami Film Festival presented by Miami Dade College<\/p>\n
WHEN:\u00a0Thursday, April 9 through Sunday, April 19.\u00a0Click here for complete program guide<\/a><\/p>\n WHERE:\u00a0Silverspot Cinema, 300 SE 3rd\u00a0St., Miami; Olympia,Theatre,174 E Flagler St., Miami; Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; The Bil Cosford Cinema, 5030 Brunson Drive, University of Miami, Coral Gables; Koubek Center, 2705 SW 3rd\u00a0St., Miami, O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami; Tower Theater, 1508 SW 8th\u00a0St., Miami; MDC Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2nd\u00a0Ave., Miami.<\/p>\n COST:\u00a0$16.50 for general admission; $14.50, Miami Film Society Members Some events are higher costs..<\/p>\n INFORMATION:\u00a0305-237-FILM (3456) or\u00a0miamifilmfestival.com<\/a><\/p>\n ArtburstMiami.com<\/a>\u00a0is a nonprofit source of theater, dance, visual arts, music and performing arts news.\u00a0Sign up for our newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and never miss a story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Fuentes, The Biscayne Poet, is featured in Aaron Glickman\u2019s \u201cPoetry City\u201d getting its premiere at the 43rd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-227408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}