Wednesday, December 13, 8:00 PM
Undeterred by decades of prejudice, post-Katrina neglect, and ongoing appropriation of their traditions, three generations of the extraordinary, multi-talented Harrison family guard their legacy and define what Black masking culture means in New Orleans today.
Saturday, November 18 at 7:30 pm
Here are three common observations about Jonathan Demme: he was well known to be liked and admired by all who met him; throughout his career his films revealed a belief in the goodness of people; and he sometimes used close-ups on an actor looking directly into the camera lens, as if to make a direct emotional connection between that character and the viewer. In Jonathan Demme: Close Up, we turn that gaze back at the filmmaker and his films with the help of those who knew him, using clips from his films for insights into what made him a preeminent director, a champion of overlooked films from around the world, a mentor and role model.
Wednesday, October 25, 8:00 PM
A young boy (Tori) and a teenage girl (Lokita), who have left their home countries of Cameroon and Benin to make a new life in Belgium, navigate a range of challenging experiences. Whether finding jobs on the black market or working to send money back to their families, their friendship provides a bond that helps them survive. Hoping to get their papers to remain in the country, they soon find that there are an array of forces stacked against them. Clinging to the hope of a better life, their struggle is a gripping testament to the power of the human spirit and the courage of their relationship. 2022, Belgium, 88 minutes, in French with English Subtitles.
Wednesday, October 11, 8:00 PM
Set during the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, Chile ‘76 builds from a character study to a suspenseful thriller as it explores one woman’s precarious experience with political engagement. Carmen (Aline Kuppenheim) lives a sheltered life. She heads to her summer house in the off-season to supervise its renovation, while also performing local charitable works through her church. Her husband, children, and grandchildren come back and forth, bringing reminders of the world beyond. When the family priest asks her to take care of an injured young man he has been sheltering in secret, Carmen is inadvertently drawn into the world of the Chilean political opposition and must face real-world threats she is unprepared to handle, with potentially disastrous consequences for her and her entire family. 2022, Chile/Argentina, 95 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles.
Wednesday, September 27, 8:00 PM
A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt’s vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft. It is a deceptively simple drama about an artist’s life. 2022, USA, 107 minutes, rated R for brief nudity
Wednesday, September 13, 8:00 PM
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life. 2023, USA/South Korea, 105 minutes, rated PG-13
August 26, 8:00 PM
A children’s fantasy that acknowledges the power of media and the danger of stereotyping. Appropriate for ages 7 and up. Curated and hosted by Norvin Van Dunk.
OUTDOOR FILM AT GARNER ARTS CENTER
July 22 at 8:00PM
An evening of classic silent comedy shorts with live original score performed by Hervé and Skyler Alexandre.
WHAT HAPPENED TO JACKSON AVENUE
June 24 and July 7
In the summer of 2019 Clara Francesca, Elise Stone, and Craig Smith from Phoenix Theatre Ensemble were meeting with Bill Batson, Nyack community leader, historian, and activist, outside in the Nyack parking lot next to Main Street planning the Nyack performing arts festival. At one point Bill standing in some empty parking spaces said, “This was Jackson Avenue, our family home stood here” – thus began a 2-year journey leading to this powerful documentary film about the urban renewal program in 1960’s Nyack.
JIMMY IN SAIGON
Wednesday, June 28, 8:00 PM — Nyack Center
JIMMY IN SAIGON begins as a personal exploration into the mysterious death and radical life of Jimmy McDowell, an American 24-year-old Vietnam veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in 1972, when filmmaker Peter McDowell was only five. While investigating Jimmy’s drug use and sexuality, Peter takes us from the US Midwest to Vietnam, France and back home to the Mid-West again. In his quest to get to know his brother, Peter uncovers a hidden romance, new family ties that transcend countries and cultures, the beginnings of healing from devastating consequences of war and family secrets — and a remarkably intimate yet global love story.
The Quiet Girl
Wednesday, June 8, 8:00 PM
Rural Ireland. 1981. Cáit is a nine-year-old girl from an over-crowded, dysfunctional and impoverished family. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her.
LAS ABOGADAS: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis
Thursday, May 25, 7:30 PM
For a group of extraordinary women who practice immigration law, the refugee crisis is a call to action they can’t ignore.
LAS ABOGADAS follows a group of immigration attorneys over a multi-year odyssey as the U.S. Government under President Trump upends every law meant to protect those fleeing from persecution, violence and war. USA, 2022, 60 minutes.
Wednesday, May 10, 8:00 PM — Nyack Center
After being removed from a traveling circus, which is the only life he’s ever known, a gray donkey named EO begins a trek across the Polish and Italian countryside, experiencing cruelty and kindness in equal measure, all the while observing the follies and triumphs of humankind. During his travels, EO is both helped and hindered by a cast of characters including a young Italian priest (Lorenzo Zurzolo), a Countess (Isabelle Huppert), and a rowdy Polish soccer team. EO puts the viewer in the perspective of its four-legged protagonist. It speaks to the world around us, pointing out societal ills and serving as warning to the dangers of neglect and inaction, all while taking us on a quest for freedom. Poland, Italy, 2022, 88 minutes, in Polish, Italian, English, French and Spanish, with English subtitles.
RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island
Wednesday, April 26, at 8:00 PM
RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island, is an award-winning documentary about the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown, the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history. It focuses on never-before-told stories of four intrepid homemakers, two lawyers who took the local community’s case all the way to the Supreme Court, and a young female journalist who was caught in the radioactive crossfire. (USA, 2023, 76 min., color, Dir. Heidi Hutner)
THE QUIET EPIDEMIC, streaming from April 7 through 13
Streamed continuously 4/7 through 4/13
After years of living with mysterious symptoms, a young girl from Brooklyn and a Duke University scientist are diagnosed with a disease said to not exist: Chronic Lyme disease. The Quiet Epidemic follows their search for answers, which lands them in the middle of a vicious medical debate. What begins as a patient story evolves into an investigation into the history of Lyme disease, dating back to its discovery in 1975. A paper trail of suppressed scientific research, and buried documents reveals why ticks – and the diseases they carry – have been allowed to quietly spread around the globe. USA, 2022, 101 minutes.
A NEW YORK STORY
Streamed 3/17 through 3/26
In the tumultuous summer of 2020, four entwined New Yorkers tell stories of how their lives have been shaped by the protests, the pandemic, and the unforeseen consequences of both. USA, 2021, 49 minutes
THE SEASONS: Four Love Stories
Wednesday, March 15, 8:00PM
Over the course of a year, four sets of intertwined characters are faced with turning points in their romantic lives. Each chapter takes place in a different season, with the central characters in each season being age-appropriate, thus: Summer, young adults, Autumn, middle aged, Winter, elderly, and Spring, a ten-year-old girl. USA, 2022, 82 minutes
PERSONAL PROBLEMS
Streamed Feb. 17 through 23
Operating in defiance of the racially exclusive Hollywood studio system, novelist Ishmael Reed, Rockland County based director Bill Gunn and a renegade group of artists banded together to film a “meta soap opera” about the struggles of a working class African American couple in New York City in 1980. With Vertamae Grosvenor, Walter Cotton, Stacey Harris, Jim Wright, Thommie Blackwell, Sam Waymon and Marshall Johnson. USA, 1980, 165 minutes.
LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER
Wednesday, Februrary 8, 8:00PM
The passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented not the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, but the beginning of a new, crucial chapter. Nowhere was this next battle better epitomized than in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural, impoverished county with a vicious history of racist terrorism. In a county that was 80 percent Black but had zero Black voters, laws were just paper without power. This isn’t a story of hope but of action. Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County. 2022, USA, 90 minutes
AFTERSUN
Wednesday, January 18, 8:00PM
At a fading vacation resort, an 11-year-old treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father. As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye her father struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie’s tender recollections of joy and private melancholy on this final holiday together become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as memories real and imagined fill in the gaps and she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t. She watches the events of that holiday replay through Polaroids, camcorder footage, and the fog of her own adult life, yearning to form a true picture from the broken puzzle.
