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Each month Live! From the Streets tries to bring you the latest trends to keep you in the know. April and May were huge months with the downtown film scene exploding with the latest chapter in two of Gotham's favorite film festivals, Gen Art and the Tribeca Film Festival. Your faithful correspondent was there to bring you the lowdown on both. While complete opposites in almost every aspect, they both succeeded in bringing New Yorkers the most prolific independent films that are out there right now, with a smattering of big-name pictures to bring the crowds out to the red carpet (TFF premiered Speed Racer this year as part of the festival's closing night ceremonies).

The "Seven Nights/Seven Parties" theme that Gen Art has adopted for its yearly film festival is straightforward and practical for people who don't like to wait in long club lines. This would be everyone. This year they rented a bevy of venues that ranged from Meatpacking hotspots to a Times Square calamity that would even have left even the most seasoned Bridge-and-Tunnel clubber gasping for air. Tribeca's after parties were more glam and glitz than general access.

This isn't to say that I didn't love the overwhelming amount of options that Tribeca afforded me it was just a bit...well, overwhelming. Gen Art had all of its screenings, with the exception of their blowout Opening Night at the Ziegfeld, at the Visual Arts Theatre in Chelsea, which is currently undergoing a facelift. Tribeca's screenings were held in theatres anywhere from the East Village to Tribeca, which proved tricky when the time allotted between films was marginal.

As for the films themselves, both festivals closely scrutinize all entries with a fine-tooth comb to make sure only the best will make it onto the screen. The highlight of Gen Art for me was a mockumentary about a group of modern day vampires and the D & D nerds that hunt them. Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo) graced the screen of Tribeca with his newest installment, Mister Lonely, which celebrates the relationship between a faux Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe and the group of misfit impersonators that adore them. As was the case with choosing the films that were best for the festivals, it all comes down to a matter of opinion and as the audience consensus showed, none thought that these films were worthy of taking home Grand Jury prizes.