Inspired! 2024

Online ticket sales end at 4:00. Remaining tickets, if any, will be sold when doors open at 7:30.

People who create are inspirations to us all. But what inspires them? Find out at Rivertown Film’s Inspired! on Saturday, April 27. Support our future by attending our signature fundraising event.

On April 27, fifteen local artists in varied disciplines share the sources of their inspiration, each using ten slides and twenty seconds per slide to explain them. Join us for a fast-paced night of creativity and enjoy the many ways that artists find inspiration. The doors open at 7:30 and the program begins at 8:00. Arrive early for complimentary hors d’oeuvres and to give yourself time to look over our silent auction items and raffles. A second round of food and beverages will be available when the Inspired! performers have finished.

Tickets to this unique, entertaining, and enlightening evening are $35 general admission and $25 for Rivertown Film Members. There will be an opportunity to mingle with the artists before and after the presentations. Tickets are limited and are sure to go quickly.

Event MC: DAVID NOVARRO
Anchor and reporter for WABC-TV News Channel 7

The 2024 Inspired! Honorees:
GEORGIA STITT, Composer, music director
KRIS CAMPBELL, Conceptual artist
LAURIE SEEMAN, Place-based artist, educator, environmental advocate
ASHLEY DAWSON, Filmmaker, activist
RICHARD CONNOLLY, Lifelong learner, teacher; writer, editor, publisher and producer
ASHLEY GERST, Animator, filmmaker, professor
JUDITH ROSE, Movement artist/poet
SHAWN RAWLS, Dancer
DEREK TARSON, Actor, director, Elmwood Playhouse board member
FRANK OLIVIER, Film producer, actor, casting agent, pop art illustrator, painter
J.D. ZEIK, Screenwriter
KATHLEEN COLLINS, Filmmaker (represented posthumously by her son, Emilio Collins)
CHERYL BAUN, Karenderya restaurateur
MARIA LUISA WHITTINGHAM, Founder Maria Luisa Boutique
JODY REDHAGE FERBER, Cellist, Composer

Our growing list of Food and Beverage Sponsors so far includes:
Dolce Vita Nyack, Bolzano Restaurant and Brick Oven Pizza, Hudson House, Boxer Donuts, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Nyack Diner, Stop & Shop, Village Pizza, Turiello’s Pizza, Carousel Cakes, Salonniere Coffee Bar, King and I, Olde Village Inne, with more to come.

Flowers by Pearl River Florist

Inspired! 2024 is sponsored by
Elena Schloss / Julia B Fee, Sotheby’s International Realty

“A film that could have settled for being a masterclass in technique, but instead goes deeper, exploring questions of artistry, authorship, legacy.” NPR

“Had The Christophers just been a cross-generational punch-up, the sort of flinty showdown designed to throw off pleasurable sparks, you’d still walk away content. It remains a conduit for two of the best performances you’ll see all year.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“The Christophers is largely a comedy, but it’s also about all that we gain and lose with age, and about how we sometimes need young people to bring us back to ourselves.” – Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

“Having lost the inspiration that guided him to greatness, Julian is an artist who can no longer paint, and Lori is an artist who has lost all confidence in there being a place for her work in the larger world. For all the undercurrents about fame, commodification, and reputation that flow through The Christophers, at its core is a more plaintive lament about what it feels like to love something that doesn’t love you back.” – Alison Willmore, Vulture

“Go see The Christophers. Show up, and support a tiny, talky experiment that has no relationship to IP or sequels or box-office projection. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s also never, as Lori grudgingly notes about Julian’s work, uninteresting. And in this cultural moment, that’s an authentic win.” – Elizabeth Weitzman, Time Out

“The Christophers is a work of criticism that deftly distinguishes different approaches to criticism.” ­– Justin Chang, The New Yorker 

“Brims with hilarious dialogue, lightly satirical observations of a culture that treats art as a commodity, and satisfying payoffs to a number of story elements planted early on.” – Seth Katz, Slant Magazine

“In the end, this film about artists becomes a work of art in its own right. The more you look at it, the more its many components reveal themselves to you.” – Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap

“Ian McKellen plays Julian Sklar, a sardonic art legend who meets his intellectual match in frank preservationist Lori Butler (Michaela Coel). In a test of wits and wills held mostly in a single-setting, Soderbergh pushes both characters to return to their former passions through philosophical conversations that reflect his own career.” – Robert Daniels, Screen International

“It bats about ideas pertaining to art, commerce, ownership and legacy with dexterous aplomb and boasts two equally superb leads who make the material crackle.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“The Christophers is a talky, at times incredibly funny, comedy drama with plot reversals that make it feel like it’s on the verge of a thriller. It doesn’t end up there, at least not strictly, but it’s unpredictable enough to never make us entirely sure just where it’s heading.” – Benjamin Lee, Guardian

“There’s no room for anything shy of genius in The Christophers, a crackling original drama about artistic legacy in all its facets, directed by Steven Soderbergh , from a script by Ed Solomon (No Sudden Move) and starring two top-notch English actors of wildly different backgrounds and styles, Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, at the top of their respective games.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

“With Ian McKellen in superbly crotchety form and Michaela Coel exuding chilly cunning, it’s further proof that Soderbergh remains one of American Cinema’s most inimitable, and adventurous, auteurs. – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast