December 11
A seventy-minute compilation of short films by Rockland County’s master of menace, twisted plots, mysteries, puzzles… and romance. Few filmmakers have much more experience writing and directing narrative film and television than John Gray, the creator of the long running series Ghost Whisperer starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. In recent years he’s been making short films that have been playing in film festivals all over the world.
October 25
With her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers became a star of the New York literary scene and a celebrated child prodigy in the spring of 1940. At just 23 years of age, the author, who was born in Georgia, published a novel that gave outsiders in her society a voice and became a global success.
September 25
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this stirring true story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art, starring an unforgettable ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors.
September 11
In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet and her spellbinding nature. In her solitary moments, Lacy inhabits an inner world so extraordinarily detailed that it begins to seep into the outside world. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker captures a child’s experience of time passing, and the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother, in this singularly sublime film debut.
August 25
A free outdoor screening of the Academy Award winning film Summer of Soul projected on a 4-story wall in the center of Nyack, kicked of by a Community Soul Sing-A-Long and outdoor multi-media gallery with images and sounds from the largely Black community that once stood in the same spot before it was destroyed in the name of urban renewal.
Wednesday, August 21 at 6:30
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 Phoenix Theatre Festival. At one point Bill, who was 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.
Friday, July 26, 8:00 pm
On Friday July 26, Rockland County filmmaker Brooklyn Demme will share his debut fictional feature film at the Cultural Arts Theatre of Rockland Community College. Mountain Lion: Healing Film of St. Francis is an intense drama about personal relationships, mental health, and family dynamics, that uses magical realism to express mindfulness in intimate relationships and seriousness in prayer. It was entirely shot in Rockland County.
Saturday, July 20, 8:30pm
An evening of classic silent comedy and fantasy short films with live original score performed outdoors under the stars by Hervé and Skyler Alexandre. Comedy by Buster Keaton, fantasy from Edwin S. Porter, and animation by Max Fleischer.
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak.
In 1885, peerless cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) has worked for the famous gourmet Dodin (Benoît Magimel) for the last 20 years. As time went by, the practice of gastronomy and mutual admiration turned into a romantic relationship. Their association gives rise to dishes, one more delicious than the next, that confound even the world’s most illustrious chefs. But Eugenie is fond of her freedom and has never wanted to marry Dodin. So, he decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her. 2023, France, 135 minutes, French with English subtitles.
Wednesday, April 3, 8:00 pm
Mary Bruno spent her childhood along one of the most polluted waterways in America. Decades later, she wrote An American River: From Paradise to Superfund (2012) and eventually teamed with filmmaker Scott Morris and river-guide Carl Alderson to kayak the river of her youth and tell its story with a unique blend of personal memoir, adventure, history and science. 2021, USA, 86 minutes
Friday, March 8 at 8:00 PM
Rivertown Film welcomes Illuminate the Darkness, Women of Color, a unique film-based theatrical event, to The Nyack Center on Friday, March 8. Illuminate the Darkness is a theatrical project started when Bea Conner-Pohl interviewed women of different races and ethnicities illustrating their plights, their tragedies and their achievements. It shows how they address the cultural inequities that affected them through their own unique ways of humor, common sense, heart and empowerment
Saturday, February 24, 8:00 PM
Rivertown Film welcomes Dark Side of the Hudson, the authentic Pink Floyd tribute experience, back to The Nyack Center for a fifth time, on February 24. Their live performance includes the groundbreaking Dark Side of the Moon and the ethereal Wish You Were Here. Both of those classic Pink Floyd recordings will be performed in their entirety, and will be accompanied by a stunning light show with the same visuals created for the live performance of these records by Pink Floyd.
January 31 at 8:00 pm
Cult icon, enigma, recluse… the life of Syd Barrett, founding member of Pink Floyd, is full of unanswered questions. Until now. Piecing together his comet-like rise to pop stardom, his creative and destructive impulses, breakdown, exit from the band and subsequent life alone, this feature length documentary is set against the social context of the explosive sixties. Directed by Storm Thorgerson (Hipgnosis) and award-winning director Roddy Bogawa, it features new interviews with Syd’s friends, lovers, family and band mates Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason.
Continuously from 1/18 through 1/24
Nancy Savoca’s first student film, made alongside husband Rich Guay at NYU in the early ’80s, deftly explores the struggles of a young mother living in The Bronx. Marianne Leone gives life to their character of Renata and her plight—weighing her own well-being against her commitment to her family. Crisp black-and-white photography adds to Leone’s dynamic performance, stripping away everything but her struggle. A wonderful rediscovery that sheds new light on the work of Nancy Savoca. USA, 1982, 15 minutes.
Wednesday, January 17 at 8:00 PM
Nancy Savoca’s magical and mysterious 1993 feature film has been unavailable for many years — it was never even released on DVD or Blu-ray – so we are excited to be able to show this brand new restoration. Household Saints, based on the novel by Francine Prose, stars Vincent D’Onofrio as Joseph Santangelo, a butcher in New York’s Little Italy, who wins his wife Catherine (Tracey Ullman) in a Pinochle game. But was it luck or fate that brought them together? The ghost of Joseph’s father opines: “Man deals and God stacks the deck.” And the couple’s daughter Teresa, played by the luminous Lili Taylor, does turn out to be a complicated blessing. 1993, USA, 125 minutes
