Watch: Two Tech-Savvy Lovebirds Try to Really Connect in Charming ‘3rd Street Blackout’ Trailer

Negin Farsad and Jeremy Redleaf’s “3rd Street Blackout” puts a savvy twist on the old “New York City as a character” trope, instead subbing in a Hurricane Sandy-felled New York City for the shiny, happy place most often seen in the rom-com world. The feature – which the duo wrote, directed, produced and starred in – follows a pair of tech-smart lovebirds who find their sanity (and their relationship!) tested by forces way beyond their control, including the hurricane, the subsequent blackout and a very smooth-talking Brit with a lot of money. 

And these two really walk the tech walk. Farsad, a TED Fellow, previously directed, produced and starred in the documentary “The Muslims are Coming!” Redleaf recently won Best New Web Series at the Streamy Awards. They’re plugged in, and they’re bringing that sensibility to what looks like a very fun, very smart new romantic comedy. 

READ MORE: Paladin to Release Quirky NYC Rom-Com ‘3rd Street Blackout’

Farsad recently told Indiewire that the film hews pretty closely to her own life: “I live on 3rd Street and I’m also a TEDFellow so a lot of what we put in the movie was (lazily?) borrowed from real life. Considering the storyline in ‘3rd Street Blackout,’ it’s not surprising that I had some romantic shenanigans during the blackout after Hurricane Sandy. Like the fake movie couple, during the actual hurricane me and a dude I was dating holed ourselves up in my apartment, making up songs on the piano. Throughout the blackout, we met and helped neighbors, made plans with people by leaving notes on buildings and with bodegas. Bartenders became communication hubs and the entire neighborhood went from online-and-physically-isolated to absolutely chatty overnight. 3rd Street was in bloom and it took a massive blackout to make that happen.”

Redleaf too has his own vivid memories of the blackout which he put into the feature. He said, “I was on the last block without power, so to my right was a busy metropolis and to my left a leisurely community banding together. It was surreal! The blackout was the first time I met my neighbors. Turns out the guy that never closes the trash shoot isn’t total garbage! I found out I had all these awesome people right under my nose that I continue to lean on. New York can be an isolating city and the blackout momentarily showed us another way of relating. It was like time-travel to before we had technological distractions. In making this movie, we wanted to share that feeling with the outside world.”

And that’s precisely the spirit that the film speaks to, as Farsad’s Mina and Redleaf’s Rudy are forced to revert to more primitive kinds of conversation in the wake of their larger communication breakdown. Will they be able to survive the disaster right outside their door? What about the one raging between the two of them? You’ll just have to see “3rd Street Blackout” to find out.

The film opens in select theaters on April 29, but you can get a sense of its charming sense of humor and snappy narrative with our exclusive trailer up above.