Meriem Bennani and Orian Yani Barki (pictured above)
Bouchra filmmakers, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Lower East Side

So Bouchra is an animated movie about a queer coyote who comes out to her cardiologist mother?
Orian: It’s a film about a mother-daughter relationship. It’s using real conversations that Meriem had with her mom, recorded by someone else. And it’s about love and acceptance and daughterhood and diaspora.

How’d the screening go?
Meriem: New York is home, so we have a lot of friends and family here — everyone was just very enthusiastic. We had a bit of a biased audience today, but it was amazing.

Did you coordinate your outfits?
Orian: I’m wearing a blazer that belongs to Meriem — a lot of my outfits are things that belong to Meriem.

Meriem: Well, it was hot today. I was going to wear a suit and then I was like, I probably need to not wear a full suit.

 A sliver of the directors, actors, and serious cinephiles who partook in its 63rd edition.