The expanded New Museum’s inaugural exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future” is closing over the next few weeks, floor by floor (photo by Dario Lasagni / courtesy New Museum)
NEW HUMANS: MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE
New Museum
235 Bowery at Prince St.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 9, 23, 30, $19-$25 (eighteen and under free) www.newmuseum.org
Following a two-year renovation, the New Museum reopened in March with an exciting look at what’s next for the interaction between people and art; this is the last weekend to catch all of “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” three floors of works by more than two hundred international artists and scientists that explore technological shifts impacting life on this planet. The fourth floor closes August 9, followed by the third on August 23 and the second on August 30.
Pieces by such older figures as James Tilly Matthews (1770–1815), Albert Robida (1848–1926), Frank Gilbreth (1868–1924), Valentine de Saint-Point (1875–1953), Henrique Alvim Corrêa (1876–1910), Constantin Brâncuși (1876–1957), Max Ernst (1891–1976), Benedetta (1897–1977), Erwin Blumenfeld (1897–1969), Hans Bellmer (1902–75), and Francis Bacon (1909–82) to such living artists as Barbara Chase-Riboud, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Lee Bul, Wangechi Mutu, Philippe Parreno, Mika Rottenberg, Hito Steyerl, Alice Wang, WangShui, and the youngest in the show, Pol Taburet, who was born in 1997. The wide range of years emphasizes the ever-growing celebration and worries that comes with major steps forward, especially today as AI and robotics are dominating conversations. Among the other familiar names represented are Salvador Dalí, Agnes Denes, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, H. R. Giger, Eva Hesse, Fernand Léger, Nam June Paik, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Jean Tinguely.
Be careful where you walk; a snake might reach for your ankle, or that person you say “Excuse me” to may not actually be a person. Be sure to scour everywhere; there are treats on the floors, walls, ceilings, and nooks. Be on the lookout for Andro Wekua’s untitled installation of a woman slightly levitating, her chin balancing on a sheet of glass; Anicka Yi’s In Love with the World, balloonlike spacecraft that float over your head; Pierre Huyghe’s creepy Human Mask film; LuYang’s digital videos DOKU Heaven — God Mode and DOKU Hell — God Mode in an elevator; Precious Okoyomon’s singing stairway surprise When the Lambs Rise Up Against the Bird of Prey; Catalina Ouyang’s disturbing fairy tale gone wrong otherwise, spite: 1. whores at the end of the world / 2. from every drop of his blood another demon arose (1829–1840); glowing creatures in Christopher Kulendran Thomas’s The Finesse; Jordan Wolfson’s dangling puppet Red Sculpture; and Tishan Hsu’s wall mural ears-screen-skin: New York.
On Saturday and Sunday visitors can use Rirkrit Tiravanija’s silk-screened ping pong table untitled (mañana es la cuestión) and Caoi Fei’s full-length film Nova will be screened; in addition, there will be a collage workshop on Saturday afternoon.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
The Days Between include special meet-up screenings of the Grateful Dead’s 6/17/91 Giants stadium show
MEET-UP AT THE MOVIES: GRATEFUL DEAD GIANTS STADIUM 6/17/91
Multiple venues
August 8 & 10 www.meetupatthemovies.com
August 1 marked what would have been Grateful Dead cofounder Jerry Garcia’s eighty-fourth birthday; this Sunday, August 9, marks what will be the thirty-first anniversary of Garcia’s death in his home state of California at the age of fifty-three. This period is known as the Days Between.
To mark the occasion, Trafalgar Releasing and Rhino Entertainment are presenting the latest “Meet-Up at the Movies,” showing the Grateful Dead’s June 17, 1991, concert at Giants Stadium in theaters across the country, including here in New York City on August 8 and 10 at such locations as the Alamo Drafthouse in Staten Island, the IPIC at Fulton Market, and the AMC Kips Bay, AMC 34th Street, and AMC Empire 25.
Since Garcia’s death, various remaining GD members have toured as the Other Ones, the Dead, Furthur, Dead & Company, and Phil & Friends. But everything changed on January 10 when cofounder Bob Weir said farewell at the age of seventy-eight, joining Garcia, Donna Jean Godchaux (1947–2025), Phil Lesh (1940–2024), Vince Welnick (1951–2006), Brent Mydland (1952–90), Keith Godchaux (1948–80), and Ron McKernan (1945–73). The only remaining longtime members are drummers Mickey Hart and cofounder Bill Kreutzmann, who are not expected to put together a touring band affiliated in some way with the Grateful Dead.
We’re nowhere near ready for a summer without the band, so the only chance you have is to catch one of these special screenings of a show that opened with “Eyes of the World,” included such faves as “Brown Eyed Women,” “Cassidy,” and “Uncle John’s Band,” and concluded with “The Weight.” Also on the bill are a sneak preview of “Shakedown Street” from Merriweather 6/30/85 and an intro from Grateful Dead legacy manager and archivist David Lemieux.
“The summer tour of 1991 was widely considered one of the best of the 1990s, and the June 17, 1991, show at Giants Stadium was nearly universally acclaimed as the best of the tour. From the ‘Eyes of the World’ opener to the sixpack of ‘Dark Star’ teases woven throughout the night, the one show from 1991 whose reputation grew as time went on was this concert,” Lemieux said in a statement. “Because it’s one of only two shows captured on forty-eight-track analog tape, the audio quality is spectacular. Hearing this mix in a theater with fellow fans is going to be transportive, and we’re thrilled to sweeten the pot with an exclusive look at ‘Shakedown Street’ from the upcoming ’85 Merriweather release.”
As lyricist Robert Hunter wrote in his and Garcia’s 1990s song “Days Between”:
“There were days, and there were days / And there were days between / Summer flies and August dies / The world grows dark and mean / Comes the shimmer of the moon / On black infested trees / The singing man is at his song / The holy on their knees / The reckless are out wrecking / The timid plead their pleas / No one knows much more of this / Than anyone can see / Anyone can see.”
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
“Isn’t she a replica of myself?” Maggie Cheung says of Chinese actress Ruan Ling-yu in 1991’s Center Stage, in which Cheung plays Ruan as well as herself. “Maggie, may I ask if you wish to be remembered half a century later?” a man asks, to which Cheung responds, “That’s not so important to me. If future people do remember me, it won’t be the same as Ruan Ling-yu, as she halted her career at the age of twenty-five, when she was at her most glorious. Now she is a legend.” The Hong Kong–born Cheung, a former model and beauty queen, has long been a legend herself, having made more than ninety films since her career began in 1984, when she was nineteen; current and future people are sure to remember the glamorous superstar who continues to help spread Chinese cinema around the world even though she retired from acting in 2010.
In Center Stage, Cheung is radiant as both herself and Ruan as director Stanley Kwan goes back and forth between the present, as Cheung is making the film, and the past, as she portrays Ruan rising from an extra to a star in the late 1920s and early 1930s, at the same time Japan is mounting attacks against China. Cheung, who was named Best Actress at prestigious film festivals in Berlin, Chicago, Taiwan, and Hong Kong for the role, is joined by a stellar cast, including Chen Yen-yen, Lily Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Carina Lau, and Chin Han; the real Ruan is seen in archival footage.
For its thirty-fifth anniversary, Center Stage, also known simply as Actress, is screening in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from August 7 to 13; Kwan, who has also directed such films as Women,Full Moon in New York, and First Night Nerves, will be on hand for Q&As following the 6:30 shows on August 7 and 8, copresented by the New York Asian Film Festival. Alas, Cheung, who makes very rare public appearances and eschews interviews, will not be there.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
“Summer of Moomin” continues at New York Botanical Garden through September 13 (photo by Marlon Co. / courtesy the New York Botanical Garden)
SUMMER OF MOOMIN
The New York Botanical Garden
Everett Children’s Adventure Garden
2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx
August 8-9, noon – 5:30, $17 children two to twelve, $35 students and seniors, $39 adults
Exhibit on view through September 13 www.nybg.org
The New York Botanical Garden’s “Summer of Moomin” has a special Moomin’s Day Weekend planned for August 8 and 9, two days of culinary adventures, cooking demonstrations, planting, maker stations, and more in the Edible Academy.
Begun in 1945 by Finnish painter, author, and illustrator Tove Jansson, the Moomin books, comic strips, stage productions, animated television series, and movies share the tales of such beloved characters as Moomintroll, Snufkin, Snorkmaiden, Hemulen, Moominpappa, Moominmamma, and Little My, all of whom you can find along a winding trail through Moominvalley in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden filled with quotes, toys, plants and flowers, a tent, book excerpts, crafts, a kitchen, interactive elements, a puppet theater, and other fun surprises. There is also a booklet with games and activities and details about the world of Moomin.
“The stories offer a very happy and peaceful way to deal with some very complex issues of life and living and being together in a way that we don’t even notice, but we’re learning,” Tove’s niece Sophia Jansson said at the opening of the exhibit. “But Tove had some very important core values that were all about tolerance, friendship, and respect for nature.”
While at the NYBG, don’t miss the colorful, wide-ranging “Flower Power” exhibition, celebrating peace and love in the 1960s with paintings, photographs, music, drum circles, craft workshops, ornately designed VW buses, psychedelic nature displays, archival news reports, sound baths, and film screenings.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
New Penny Lane documentary details Flaco the owl’s unique New York City adventure
WILD INSIDE (Penny Lane, 2026)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Opens Friday, July 31 www.ifccenter.com
On February 2, 2023, an unexpected animal suddenly appeared on a Fifth Ave. sidewalk, becoming an instant sensation.
No, it wasn’t a groundhog looking for its shadow. It was a glorious Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco, who had escaped from the Central Park Zoo after someone had cut a hole in his steel mesh cage. The thirteen-year-old bird captivated the city, the country, and the world for more than a year as he traversed Manhattan, adapting to his newfound freedom by learning how to survive on his own, unfazed by — or perhaps reveling in — the media attention and the dozens of owlers who tracked his every move with binoculars and high-powered cameras.
Documentarian Penny Lane shares the remarkable tale of Flaco in the gently warm and touching — and ravishingly dramatic — Wild Inside, making its world premiere at IFC Center on July 31. Incorporating crowd-sourced photos and videos, news reports, eyewitness accounts, cute animation, and expert opinions, Lane and editor Hannah Buck transform the adventure into a compelling narrative of love and loneliness, of obsession and desperation, an apt metaphor for who we are and what we want and need in the twenty-first century. Birder after birder projects their fears and desires onto Flaco and his journey, an odyssey that goes well beyond Free Willy territory.
“The first time I saw him, I felt protective of him,” Jacqueline Emery says.
“I felt his pain,” JP Borum, known as the Bunny Lady because she rescues rabbits in the park, explains.
“After little more than a week, people were relating to Flaco. They were identifying with him and seeing him as a hero,” David Barrett points out.
As these birders celebrate Flaco’s reinvigorated life, one expresses his concern. “I think I came to this story with an understanding of really the dangers owls face being in Manhattan. . . . There were a lot of people there that night the zoo almost got him that were excited that he got free, and I was just like, ‘No, he’s going to die,’” D. Bruce Yolton admits, referring to the zoo’s attempt to capture Flaco and bring him back to his previous enclosure, efforts they abandoned after a week.
Lane, an avid birder who has made such previous well-regarded nonfiction features as Hail Satan?,Our Nixon, and “Nuts!,” was drawn into the proceedings from the very beginning, when a friend, the first person to see Flaco outside his cage, texted her photos of Flaco the night he was discovered on the street. “It’s rare that a story just falls into my lap and is so immediately capable of demanding my full attention,” she notes in her director’s statement. “Flaco was writing his own story and the rest of us were just watching. And yes, we were watching!”
We were watching, and Wild Inside gives us the chance to watch yet again, this time much more up close and intimately. It’s impossible not to form an emotional bond with Flaco as Lane takes us from the zoo to the park, from the Lower East Side to the Upper West, as Flaco explores his burgeoning independence and searches for a companion, roosting on rooftop edges of tall buildings and hooting out love calls like they’re the Bat signal.
A tight-knit community forms around Flaco, including a man and a woman who get married. When Flaco disappears for a few days, people grow despondent. Sarah Bramwell became so involved that her family was concerned for her mental health. “I had been so worried about him. I mean, so worried, like a mother would be worried, right?” she concedes.
Even though owls are predators who are not often friendly or affectionate with humans, Flaco seems to be making a direct connection to his dedicated fans, as shown in two stunning scenes in which — well, to reveal more would spoil some of the many surprises the film has in store for viewers.
Lane also raises a key issue and a source of much disagreement: Would Flaco be better off back in the zoo, where most of his needs were met on a daily basis, or flying free in the wilds of Manhattan, where danger awaits around every corner? It’s a question many of us ask ourselves when we consider our lives, both personal and professional, whether we can or should take certain risks to find out who we truly are. We cannot watch Wild Inside and not internalize Flaco’s story ourselves; when it comes down to it, we are Flaco, and Flaco is us. We need Flaco — but does Flaco need us?
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it,” J. M. Barrie wrote in Peter Pan.
Flaco gives us all hope that one day, maybe, we can fly as well.
[Several screenings from July 31 to August 4 will be followed by Q&As with Lane, DOC NYC artistic director Jaie Laplante, and Emery and Lei as well as Village birdwatching tours. Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Walking tour of Harlem is part of special exhibition programming at Poster House
POSTER HOUSE WALKING TOUR WITH HISTORIAN JOHN T. REDDICK
Poster House
119 West Twenty-Third St. (tour starting point given upon ticket purchase)
Saturday, July 18, $25, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Exhibition runs through September 6 posterhouse.org
In September 2024, longtime Harlem resident, preservationist, and Yale University School of Architecture graduate John T. Reddick gave me a tour of the exhibit “Illustrating Tin Pan Alley: From Ragtime to Jazz” at the Society of Illustrators, consisting of his remarkable collection of sheet music art from the Tin Pan Alley era, focusing on Black composers, musicians, and performers. He told me that while doing his research, “It was just shocking; as I bought sheet music or got to see the names, I realized they all lived in Harlem during the same time period.”
Reddick is now collaborating with Poster House on a walking tour of Harlem in conjunction with the institution’s “Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen,” comprising promotional posters for musical revues, theatrical presentations, and movies featuring Black performers from the 1870s to the 1940s (including from Cabin in the Sky,Zouzou, and Imitation of Life). The one-hour tour will visit Strivers’ Row, the Schomburg Center, and Harlem Hospital’s WPA murals, among other locations that played a role in the Harlem Renaissance.
Reddick, who is a member of the Board of Directors of the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project, is an engaging storyteller and a font of knowledge, so this should be a special adventure; tickets are $25, and the starting point will be given upon purchase.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Sheep in the Box closes the 2026 Japan Cuts festival
JAPAN CUTS: FESTIVAL OF NEW JAPANESE FILM
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
July 8–19, $16-$20 www.japansociety.org
“The world is full of strange things,” a narrator says in one of the films that make up this year’s “Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film,” running July 8–19 at Japan Society. As always, the nineteenth edition of the hotly anticipated series is chock full of strange things, as well as things of beauty — and often both at the same time.
Japanese films may come in all genres, but the best of the best tend to veer off track into their own indefinable categories, and the 2026 iteration is no different, with more than its share of exciting, unusual, frightening, romantic, bloodthirsty, chilling, touching, and gorgeous works. There are twenty-seven programs divided into five sections: “Feature Slate,” “Next Generation,” “Classics,” “Documentaries,” and “New Directions in Japanese Cinema.”
The festival opens July 8 with Yoji Yamada’s ninety-first full-length film, Tokyo Taxi, followed by a reception with Twisty BonBon. The centerpiece selection is Kei Ishikawa’s A Pale View of Hills, followed by a Q&A and reception with star Suzu Hirose, winner of the Cut Above award. The closing-night film is Hirokazu Koreeda’s Sheep in the Box, followed by a Q&A and reception with the director.
Below is a look at some of the other highlights, with more strangeness to come.
SHUFFLE (『シャッフル』) (Gakuryu Ishii, 1981) THE MASTER OF SHIATSU (『指圧王者』; SHIATSU OJA) (Gakuryu Ishii as Sogo Ishii, 1989)
Saturday, July 11, 5:30 japansociety.org
One of the myriad reasons to check out Japan Cuts is for double features such as this wild one, the world premieres of 4K restorations of Gakuryu Ishii’s 1981 thirty-seven-minute Shuffle and 1989 thirteen-minute The Master of Shiatsu.
The Master of Shiatsu begins with a close-up of a woman’s left hand stroking a man’s right hand in what appears to be an elegant bar. Bright lights glow from the contact, a crazy laugh is heard, and the opening credits roll, the title in a wacky design reminiscent of 1970s wuxia films. Ishii then cuts to a feather floating into a candle and a woman (Anna Hole) getting a deep, erotic massage from an older man (Tokujiro Namikoshi, the real-life Father of Shiatsu). Wonderfully cheesy special effects take them both to another dimension, leading to a very strange but optimistic finale.
Inspired by Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga Run, the mostly black-and-white Shuffle begins with a close-up of a young punk, Hiroshi Kobayashi (Yosuke Nakajima), cutting off his hair when a small earthquake hits, knocking down some of the bullets next to a handgun. He peers out his window at two men in suits surveilling the area, then heads outside, where he is spotted by one of the detectives (Tatsuya Mori). What ensues is one of the wildest foot chases you’ve ever seen, a brilliantly filmed frenetic pursuit, set to Hikashu’s propulsive score, in which neither man is willing to give up. The action cuts away a few times to reveal a back story involving a femme fatale, Naomi (Shigeru Muroi), and a gangster, Kimura (Genjirō Arato), but keeps returning to the seemingly endless hunt, with Kobayashi hallucinating, in color, moments from his past.
Both films create fantastical realities with characters immersed in activities that release endorphins and dopamine that the audience tunes in to, The Master of Shiatsu slowly paced and intimate, Shuffle a marathon sprint Ishii called “a portrait of my generation.” I dare you to not think about these films the next time you get a massage or go running, for whatever reason.
Four sisters come together after their father’s death in another masterpiece from Hirokazu Koreeda
In such films as Still Walking,Nobody Knows, and Like Father, Like Son, Japanese writer-director-editor Hirokazu Koreeda has crafted beautifully told tales of parents and children, of estrangement and divorce, of death and ritual and the unbreakable bonds between siblings. In yet another minimalist masterpiece, Our Little Sister, he focuses on the women of the happily dysfunctional Kōda family in the scenic city of Kamakura. Sachi (Haruka Ayase), Yoshino (Masami Nagasawa), and Chika (Kaho) live together in a large house, where they go about their days with the normal trials and tribulations of twentysomething women. Sachi, the oldest, is a nurse who acts as a surrogate mother to her younger sisters, since their real mother plays almost no role in their lives. Yoshino, the middle sister, works in a bank and likes to stay out late drinking and partying. And Chika, the baby of the trio, is sweet and goofy, but not as goofy as her mountain-climbing boyfriend. When their long-estranged father dies, they decide to attend the funeral, where they meet their dad’s thirteen-year-old daughter from his second of three marriages, Suzu Asano (Suzu Hirose), a solid, smart girl who seems a bit lost now that both of her parents are dead. So the three older sisters invite her to move in with them in Kamakura and extend their family. The four immediately grow close as they live their daily lives, going to work or school, eating together, interacting with the opposite sex, and honoring their deceased ancestors. Suzu also regales them with tales of their father, some of which surprise them. Not a whole lot happens except a series of heartfelt, realistic scenes that audiences of all kinds can relate to.
Freely adapted from Akimi Yoshida’s josei manga Umimachi Diary,Our Little Sister simmers with the beauty and energy of real life, as Koreeda offers viewers a fly-on-the-wall look at four exquisite women living day by day. Koreeda once again blends documentary techniques with the intimate style of Yasujirō Ozu to fully develop his delightful characters, from the four sisters to their great-aunt to a student smitten with Suzu to local diner owner Sachiko Ninomiya (Jun Fubuki), who serves as a kind of tenderhearted matriarchal figure to the community. Yoko Kanno’s sweet music and Mikiya Takimoto’s lovely cinematography make it all a visual and aural pleasure, along with a fabulous cast that acts with an infectious naturalism. No one makes family dramas like Koreeda, who skillfully avoids treacly plot twists in favor of simplicity, making it all seem easy. If you’ve never seen a Koreeda film, Our Little Sister is a great place to start, and if you have experienced any of his previous work, this one is another gentle, graceful, and immensely engaging tour de force from one of the world’s most talented and original filmmakers. His latest, Sheep in the Box, closes “Japan Cuts” on July 19.
Kura (Kei Nakafuji) and Kishida (Kai Fujita) are reunited high school friends in Gingerboy
GINGERBOY (『ジンジャーボーイ』; JINJABOI; SEPARATED) (Miki Tanaka, 2024) NAOMI OUT OF SYNC (『空回りする直美』; KARAMAWARI SURU NAOMI) (Fuku Nakazato, 2025)
Tuesday, July 14, 9:00 japansociety.org
The North American premiere of Miki Tanaka’s forty-eight-minute Gingerboy and the international premiere of Fuku Nakazato’s forty-four-minute Naomi Out of Sync make for a strangely compelling double feature. Part of “Next Generation,” in which one filmmaker will take home a three-thousand-dollar stipend, the movies both explore offbeat relationships, obsession, and physiological and neurodevelopmental conditions.
Winner of a joint third prize La Cinéf Selection award at Cannes, Gingerboy reunites high school friends Kishida (Kai Fujita) and Kura (Kei Nakafuji), whose lives have gone in opposite directions. The former is a regional banker who has been transferred to Tokyo, while the latter is an aspiring ne’er-do-well filmmaker. Kishida puts on a suit for work and has a girlfriend back home; he is quiet and unassuming, serious about his career. “I’m not nice,” he admits to a coworker. “It’s just a hassle to say no.” Kura is unpredictable and unkempt, wasting away the days and partying at night with booze and women. At first Kishida goes out with Kura, but he soon makes some discoveries about his roommate that complicate their friendship, even as Kura grows more dependent on him. Nakazato creates unique characters in knotty situations in a tense narrative that builds to a moving conclusion that provides no easy answers.
Naomi (Kono Adachi) and Shingo (Masafumi Shinohara) try the best they can in Naomi Out of Sync
In Naomi Out of Sync, Kono Adachi is delightful in the title role, an eighteen-year-old part-time employee caring for her her older brother, Shingo (Masafumi Shinohara), who has debilitating Tourette’s, while her father (Wataru Ohshige) is away. Naomi works at a supermarket but has trouble focusing on her job; when she gets disciplined, it looks like she’s not taking it seriously, but that’s just the way she approaches life. “What goes on in her head? And she always smiles when I scold her. What is she grinning about?” her boss asks another manager. When Shingo sells her clothes so he can buy a plastic toy, instead of getting mad, Naomi slurps down noodles she and Shingo slide through the toy. Naomi’s main responsibility is to make sure Shingo takes his medication, but when that goes awry, serious problems arise. But as her T-shirt says: “Fully honest: Believe in yourself.”
Winner of the Grand Prize at the PIA Film Festival, Naomi Out of Sync is an affecting drama about a dysfunctional family in which the two kids are trying to do the best they can, not unlike Kishida and Kura in Gingerboy. Kono is mesmerizing as Naomi; even when Naomi makes questionable decisions, you can’t help but be charmed by her, rooting her on as she stands by her choices. And oh, that surprise ending, one that is deeper than you might first imagine.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]
