Made In Miami: ‘Forge,’ ‘Poetry City,’ and ‘An Instrumental Start’ at the 2026 Miami Film Festival

Oscar Fuentes, The Biscayne Poet, is featured in Aaron Glickman’s “Poetry City” 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)

Three distinct Miami stories, each revealing the city through its people and culture, are part of this year’s Miami Film Festival. The 43rd Annual Miami Film Festival — taking place Thursday, April 9 through Sunday, 19, 2026 — will screen over 160 films from around the world, including features, documentaries, and shorts, at seven key venues in Miami-Dade County.

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.

Andie Ju as Coco Zhang and Brandon Soo Hoo as Raymond Chang in the Miami-set art caper from Jing Ai Ng, “Forge,” which has a screening on Saturday, April 18 at noon at The Bill Cosford Cinema. (Photo courtesy of the Miami Film Festival)

From the neighborhoods and skyline shots that make Jing Ai Ng’s art-themed caper “Forge” glisten, to the city’s literary landscape explored in Aaron Glickman’s “Poetry City,” and Brian Bayerl and Mike Huter’s three-year journey across America for “An Instrumental Start – A Model for the Nation,” the filmmakers make clear that these works could only have been set here.

Bayerl and Huter’s 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.

In each case, the city becomes a character, shaping the story as much as the people in it.

“I wanted the city to feel alive, like every street and skyline shot was part of the story itself,” says Ng, whose experience growing up between Miami and Malaysia formed the basis for her film.

“It’s home and where many of my formative childhood memories were made.”

While so many Miami movies focus on the Latin American story, Ng centered on a segment of the population that is less represented. “The 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.”

Kelly Marie Tran as Emily Lee, an FBI agent who shows up in Miami to investigate a string of art forgeries. (Photo courtesy of Miami Film Festival)

“Forge” (noon, Saturday, April 18, Bill Cosford Cinema), which made its debut at 2025’s 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.

Miami’s art scene, “exploding” ever since Art Basel Miami Beach, has influenced Ng’s themes in the film.

“It’s 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 ‘Forge.’ How do you tell if something is worth a million dollars or if it isn’t? I remember the year at Art Basel when there was an ATM machine and another year a banana.”

In her film, Ng has a Chinese cook making dumplings refer to the infamous Basel banana.

Now based in Los Angeles, Ng, 32, wanted the scenes authentic for her first feature film. Everything was done on location — at the Perez Art Museum Miami, the city’s most famous dance club, Club Space, Coral Gables and Brickell, plus the personal and notable Tropical Chinese Restaurant on Bird Road.

“I think part of what came to be with ‘Forge’ is that my family was always on the eternal search in Miami for Chinese food, and especially growing up in the ’90s, it was Tropical Chinese. It was part of my childhood, us going there almost every weekend.”

Andie Jue as Coco Zhang in “Forge” by Miamian Jing Ai Ng, which was recently picked up by distributor Utopia. (Photo courtesy of the filmmaker)

Gregory (who co-owns the restaurant with sister Mei Yu), let her film there and use the restaurant’s name.

“It’s 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’s not something I can actually relate to.”

Filming in Miami had its challenges. The city is more accustomed to commercial shoots and larger productions. “Because 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.”

While the movie is making its Florida premiere at the festival, it will be opening in major theaters in May. Utopia’s Circle Collective has acquired the North American rights for the film, something Ng couldn’t be happier about. It will be released in Miami theaters on May 30, she confides.

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 “a coming-of-age story set in Malaysia and England.”

Poet Oscar Fuentes surrounded by kids from Shake-A-Leg Miami in a scene from “Poetry City.” (Photo courtesy of Miami Film Festival)

For Glickman, it was about putting the city’s literary arts front and center. “They tend to get overshadowed by the visual arts, so I’m proud that we were able to highlight something that doesn’t get the same attention.”

The journey of “Poetry City” began with Oscar Fuentes, known as The Biscayne Poet. “I’ve known Oscar since about 2015, maybe even longer.” Glickman remembers Fuentes and his typewriter at Wood Tavern in Wynwood. That was where he would start what’s become one of his signatures — people would give him one word, and he would write a poem for them, gifting it to them as their own.

“He 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.”

A decade later, he ran into Fuentes at the main branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library System, where he manages the library’s public art collection.

Glickman was between film projects, having just finished “Miami Schmatta,” which premiered at the Miami Jewish Film Festival last year and later aired on South Florida PBS about the history of Miami’s Garment District.

“I ran into Oscar and we chatted for a while, and I said to him, ‘We should do a documentary on you.’ At that time it was going to focus on Oscar, but then he brought on Nicole Tallman.” Tallman is the official Poetry Ambassador and this year’s poet laureate for Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

“It started to take on a different tone and we started to figure out some strategies.”

The result is “Poetry City,” (5:30 p.m., Saturday, April 18, Koubek Center) an ode to Miami’s poetry scene, featuring interviews, readings, and performances by several of Miami’s poets. They include Caridad Moro-Gronlier, the 2024–25 Miami-Dade County Poet Laureate; Richard Blanco, the county’s 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.

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.

Glickman’s brother also participated in the film. “My brother had a key role — Alec Jerome Kreisberg. He did the animation, shot some of the film, and handled all the drone work.”

For Glickman, the close-knit group of poets and the spotlight on the literary arts scene were the catalysts that propelled the documentary. “The whole experience was organic; it just grew.”

The community that Marshall Davis Sr. built didn’t hesitate when Bayerl reached out to notable names who said that Davis’ visionary arts program — which grew into one of the most innovative arts education models in the United States — was a primary driver in their success.

Visionary educator Marshall L. Davis Sr.’s story of the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and its influence is at the center of “An Instrumental Start — A Model for the Nation” getting its world premiere at the 42nd Annual Miami Film Festival on Friday, April 10 at the Olympia Theater. (Photo courtesy of the Miami Film Festival)

“People were happy to do it. No one said no,” said Bayerl, co-director of “An Instrumental Start – A Model for the Nation,” (8 p.m., Friday, April 10, Olympia Theater). He recalls Davis phoning Oscar-winning “Moonlight” creator Tarell Alvin McCraney. “And he picks up the phone and says, ‘Hi, Mr. Davis. Yeah, no problem.’”

“If you watch his film and listen to his story about meeting Mr. Davis, it’s the same story. It’s this kid running from bullies — and then he gets saved by Mahershala Ali. In real life, Tarell ran into the Cultural Arts Center and that’s when he met Mr. Davis, and he said it changed his life.”

In the film, McCraney says, “I’ve always thought of that moment as the time people who didn’t know me gave me the tools to save my life. When I came back to say, ‘I want to make this film that is about Miami and about some tough issues,’ it was only African Heritage that said this is important. Your voice is important.”

In a scene from “An Instrumental Start,” Robert Battle, then director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, returns to the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center to visit his first dance teacher Eulyce Eason. The two hadn’t seen each other in over 15 years. (Photo courtesy of Miami Film Festival)

Savion Glover appears in the film — he’s best friends with Marshall Davis Jr., Bayerl points out. “There’s a great scene where Savion, who mentors at the center, is teaching kids, and it’s a really fun piece in the film.” Along with countless other appearances, including actress Phylicia Rashad and former director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Robert Battle.

The film makes its premiere at the Miami Film Festival.

“Marshall’s story is at the center, but it also reflects the heartbeat of the city’s arts — how personal ambition and community intersect. It brings home the point that one person’s creativity can resonate across a wider cultural landscape,” says Bayerl.

Together, “Poetry City,” “Forge,” and “An Instrumental Start” 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.

Other Don’t Miss Made In Miami Films

Director Nicanson Guerrier’s “The Mecca: Legends of Traz Powell Stadium” premieres on Sunday, April 12 at the Olympia Theater. (Photo courtesy of Miami Film Festival)

“The Mecca: Legends of Traz Powell Stadium” (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’s 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.  It also features local icons Luther “Uncle Luke” 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. 12:30 p.m., Sunday, April 12, Olympia Theater.

“When Men Dance” (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 — it’s 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. 6:15 p.m., Sunday, April 12, Bill Cosford Cinema.

“Rope/Tide” was made by University of Miami students and their professor. (Photo courtesy of Miami Film Festival)

“Rope/Tide” (feature:)  Made 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. 2:45 p.m., Saturday, April 18, Bill Cosford Cinema.

Three winners of the Miami Film Festival Louies Awards from 2025 will premiere their films at the festival:

“Dual Citizen” (documentary feature): Director Rachelle Salnave films her journey to obtain Haitian citizenship and the emotional legacy it carries for her father. 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, Little Haiti Cultural Complex, 212 NE 59^th Terrace, Miami.

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.

“Under the Mango Tree”:  Director Symone Titania Major’s documentary traces the rise and fall of a once‑prosperous African American agricultural community in Goulds.

“The Floor Remembers”:  Director Jayme Kaye Gershen’s short documentary revisits a historic Miami roller rink, where skaters return to a neon‑lit floor that holds the memories of a city in constant reinvention.

WHAT: 43rd Annual Miami Film Festival presented by Miami Dade College

WHEN: Thursday, April 9 through Sunday, April 19. Click here for complete program guide

WHERE: Silverspot Cinema, 300 SE 3^rd St., 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 3^rd St., Miami, O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami; Tower Theater, 1508 SW 8^th St., Miami; MDC Wolfson Campus, 300 NE 2^nd Ave., Miami.

COST: $16.50 for general admission; $14.50, Miami Film Society Members Some events are higher costs..

INFORMATION: 305-237-FILM (3456) or miamifilmfestival.com

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