Governors Island
Building 110, lower level
Free ferry from Battery Maritime Building
Sunday, July 31, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
www.govisland.com
www.ficultureny.org
governors island slideshow
Today is the last day to see the excellent exhibit “Bodies, Borders, Crossings: Photography and Video Art from Finland” on Governors Island before it goes on the road to other countries. Organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and curated by Leena-Maija Rossi, professor of gender studies at the University of Helsinki, and artist and photographer Kari Soinio, the multimedia show is located in the dark, mysterious lower level of Room 110, with the videos and photographs glowing in Jesse Auersalo’s installation design. Featuring the work of eleven artists, the exhibition examines personal and cultural identity amid geographic, psychological, and physical boundaries. The centerpiece is Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts’s Eight Rooms, a circular eight-panel video in which an older lady goes from room to room, making the beds, throwing out the trash, and looking out the window, dreaming of a better life than the one in which she cleans up after men who have had their way with poor women who have become sex slaves through human trafficking. Riikka Kuoppala’s mesmerizing short film Visitor in My Body follows a young girl as she goes into the attic of the filmmaker’s memory, exploring a critical moment in her past. Childhood identity is also the subject of Marja Pirilä’s photographic series “I am” and Raakel Kuukka’s video triptych Childhood Rooms – Dreams and photograph “Rebekka at Muhniemi.” Minna Suoniemi’s Miss Kong consists of extreme close-ups of a woman’s body as she jumps rope, but since her figure is not quite what society generally considers beautiful and slender, it takes on added meaning. The exhibition also includes Jaakko Heikkilä’s photographs of minority communities, Elena Näsänen’s feminist ecological film Wasteland, Hannele Rantala’s “Blue Scarf” photo series of the same woman at various locations around the world, and Catarina Ryöppy’s “Being Misplaced” photos of two very different children.
There’s much more to see and do on Governors Island this summer. “Mark di Suvero at Governors Island” features several of the New York sculptor’s large-scale sculptures scattered around the area; you can immerse yourself in Victoria Vesna and James Gimzewski’s “Blue Morph” interactive multimedia butterfly installation, part of the New York Electronic Art Festival; Mary Mattingly’s “The Investigation, Constitution, and Formation of Flock House” details the construction of a unique urban environment; you can play fourteen holes of miniature golf as part of the annual Figment art presentation, which also includes a bunch of cool environmentally conscious works; “Intersections” consists of works by the Sculptors Guild; “Collage Logic” highlights mixed media pieces; you can fly through the air with the greatest of ease at the Big Apple Circus’s Trapeze School; the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is sponsoring open artist studios and building tours; galleryELL is presenting “Transient Landscape”: the Children’s Museum of Manhattan is hosting art workshops; Isabelle Garbani’s “Knit for Trees” creative reuse of plastic shopping bags; Cause Collective and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art have teamed up for “The Truth is I am you”; as well as upcoming live concerts, a Civil War weekend, a VW Traffic Jam, bocce, park ranger programs, and much, much more.
Liberally adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens is a summer popcorn slice-and-dice mash-up of just about every Western and sci-fi flick you’ve ever seen. Boasting the producing talents of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau (who also directed), and others, the film pays tribute to its match-made-in-heaven dueling genres with references to such classic tales as The Searchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Unforgiven, Aliens, Blazing Saddles, War of the Worlds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Stagecoach, Star Trek, The Magnificent Seven, Avatar, High Plains Drifter, Blade Runner, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Predator, True Grit, The Poseidon Adventure, and many more. Heck, they even throw in some zombies for good measure. In the dry, hot desert shortly after the Civil War, a stranger (Daniel Craig) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Absolution, sporting a six-shooter and a weird bracelet manacled to his left arm. Soon identified as wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan, he gets himself into trouble with Percy (Paul Dano), the bully son of wealthy cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But before Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) can turn over Jake and Percy to the federal marshals, a massive attack comes down from the sky as flying machines start blowing everything up and stealing many of the town’s residents, including María (Ana de la Reguera), wife of the weak-willed Doc (Sam Rockwell), and Percy. So sworn enemies are forced to band together, along with the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to figure out just how they can get their loved ones back. Sure, the meandering plot gets unhinged time and time again — it’s never a good sign when half a dozen writers are attached to the story and screenplay — and the film lacks any James Bond–like, Han Solo/Indiana Jones–esque catchphrases, but Favreau (Elf, Iron Man) manages to hold it all together just enough to make Cowboys & Aliens a fun, out-of-this-world oater, even if it should have been better.
For The Interrupters, director, producer, and editor Steve James (Hoop Dreams, At the Death House Door) teamed up with journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) to hit the dangerous inner-city streets of Chicago with the men and women of CeaseFire, a grass-roots organization of former gang members who are now trying to stop the violence. Inspired by Kotlowitz’s New York Times Magazine article, the two men concentrate on three primary stories. Ameena Matthews, the Muslim daughter of notorious gang leader Jeff Fort, is working with a deeply troubled young woman who’d rather fight than flee, even if it means being sent back to prison. Cobe Williams has his hands full with the angry, recently released Flamo, who thinks the whole world is against him. And Eddie Bocanegra is attempting to come to grips with a cold-blooded revenge murder he committed when he was a teenager by visiting schools and talking about turning his life around. One of the most poignant moments of the film occurs when Williams brings Lil Mikey back to the barbershop he and several of his cohorts robbed at gunpoint as he again faces some of his victims. Matthews, Williams, and Bocanegra are paid employees of CeaseFire, which was founded by Dr. Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist who believes that violence is a disease that can be treated in similar ways, and is run by Tio Hardman, who handles his extremely tough task with intelligence and dignity as he deals with what he calls “the madness.” But in a society in which “words’ll get you killed,” as Matthews says early on, these tireless violence interrupters put their own lives on the line every day, battling a sickness that seems to have no end in sight. The award-winning film, a hit at numerous film festivals, felt a bit long at its original 144 minutes, but James has since edited it down to a more streamlined 124 minutes for its theatrical release, which begins July 29 at the IFC Center. James, Kotlowitz, Williams, and coproducer Zak Piper will be on hand for several opening-weekend screenings to talk about the film and CeaseFire. In conjunction with the release of The Interrupters, the Maysles Institute is hosting “
