\u201cWe want to learn and grow as filmmakers, and we don\u2019t want to have to leave the borough in order to do that.\u201d said Hannah Leshaw, who founded the group after attending an event run by the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective.<\/p>\n
At the time, she was stuck on a project of her own, and desperate for a community of other filmmakers to bounce ideas off.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI was like, \u2018Why do we not have this in the Bronx?\u2019 And so we started talking to people and got it started,\u201d Leshaw said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond just providing community and support to filmmakers in the Bronx, the film collective is determined to show people both inside and outside of the borough that there\u2019s a lot more to the Bronx than you might think.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harry Santiago, who originally joined the collective as a filmmaker and is now the organization\u2019s chairperson, \u200asaid that he felt it was important to get the message out there to people in the independent film scene that there\u2019s a world beyond Brooklyn and Manhattan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are filmmakers in the Bronx. There are places to film in the Bronx, you know, great things to highlight in the Bronx,\u201d Santiago said.\u00a0\u00a0
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-04-at-3.03.15-PM-e1785870435945.jpg\")
The screening of The Bronx River Anthology fittingly took place at Bronx River House, a small concrete building nestled in a bend of the Bronx River itself. Photo by Eleonore Cattle\n<\/p>\n
If part of the Bronx Film Collective\u2019s mission is to show the Bronx in a new light, where better to begin than with the Bronx River. Known as Aquehung or \u201cRiver of High Bluffs\u201d to the Indigenous people that first lived and fished on its waters, the 23-mile-long river, which slices through the heart of the Bronx, is New York City\u2019s only waterway that isn\u2019t fully tidal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Surrounding it as it wriggles down from Westchester toward the East River are areas of old growth forest and lush greenery. But the river has a storied past.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Industrial development in the 1800s led to the intense pollution of the Bronx River. By the late 1800s the river was so polluted that it was essentially an open air sewer, according to The Bronx River Alliance<\/a>. It remained that way until a concerted effort from local organizers and Bronx residents, who came together under the auspices of the Bronx River Restoration Project Inc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Beginning in the 1970s, an enormous clean up project began, and gradually, the river\u2019s health improved. The Bronx River Alliance, which hosted the screening at their River House building in Starlight Park, was formed in the early 2000s to continue the efforts to restore and protect the Bronx River.\u00a0<\/p>\n The river and its surrounding greenery is, says Bronx River Alliance Deputy Director Daniel Ranells, truly a resource and a gift.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cWe always want people to know it\u2019s here,\u201d Ranells said, adding that the organization hosts canoe paddle trips for the public to explore the river.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For filmmaker Manuel Gonzalez, whose short film \u201cCurrents\u201d was being screened as part of the Bronx River Anthology, growing up alongside the river and witnessing its transformation was inspiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing the change happening in the river is immense,\u201d Gonzalez said, during a post-screening Q&A. \u201cI think it speaks to how people count the Bronx out as a borough. We\u2019re on the come up, and we\u2019re changing. The area is a reflection of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCurrents\u201d which he wrote and directed, was a spoken word piece in memory of his late father. Gonzalez recalled his father\u2019s love for the Bronx, and the many places he would take his family to.<\/p>\n \u201cIt helped me gain a sense of pride in the neighborhood,\u201d Gonzalez said.\n<\/p>\n More than one of the filmmakers whose work was previewing at the River House used the river as an entry point for the exploration of grief and memory. Leshaw\u2019s film \u201cJean Claire\u201d was about the relationship between her late mother and the Bronx River.<\/p>\n Growing up, Leshaw lived in an apartment from which it was possible to just about glimpse the river. But it took on new significance after the departure of Leshaw\u2019s father left her mother reeling. It was the river that helped her mother heal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, in the wake of her mother\u2019s passing, Leshaw herself feels a strong emotional connection to the river, something she explored in her documentary film, which blended old family photos with home video and present day shots of the Bronx River.<\/p>\n In the crowd were family and friends, members of the community and even some of the stars of the short films.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Gary Diezdeandino, who said he works as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, came when he learnt that Manuel Gonzalez \u2013whose work he was already familiar with\u2013 would be screening a film.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was beautiful. It gave me more of a connection to the Bronx River\u201d said Diezdeandino, who lives nearby. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of beautiful to see filming and art visuals based on something not too far from your home as well.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That same inspiration may have struck some of the filmmakers only after the fact. Director Josu\u00e9 Agustin Advincola whose animated short captured the colors and textures of not just the Bronx River but also of nostalgia and memory, had never been to the Bronx River before starting his project.\u00a0<\/p>\n It took a research trip to get him out exploring the river\u2019s twists and turns.\n<\/p>\n The evening ended with a call out from the Bronx Filmmakers Collective\u2019s Director of Programming, Josafat Concepci\u00f3n to the audience.<\/p>\n \u201cMess around!\u201d he said. \u201cGo do things, make art!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n It seems his words may have already reached some of the crowd there that evening.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt awakened something in me,\u201d said Aravind Mallipudi, who said he already has a longstanding interest in photography. \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll also get into some sort of editing and try to do more filmmaking and photography to promote the Bronx.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Eleonore Cattle\u00a0 is a Literary Reportage Fellow at NYU\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism. You can reach her at eleonorecattle@gmail.com<\/a>. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> and follow us on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-04-at-3.08.21-PM.jpg\")
\u201cThere are filmmakers in the Bronx. There are places to film in the Bronx, you know, great things to highlight in the Bronx,\u201d Harry Santiago, who originally joined the collective as a filmmaker and is now the chairperson. Photo by Eleonore Cattle<\/p>\n