Rod Tryon and Anthony Cappetto will create one of their “Koi Pond” 3-D paintings as part of downtown Earth Day celebration Rod Tryon and Anthony Cappetto will create one of their “Koi Pond” 3-D paintings as part of downtown Earth Day celebration
BATTERY PARK CITY CELEBRATES THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF EARTH DAY
Multiple locations
Through April 25
Most events free
www.batteryparkcity.org
Battery Park City is honoring the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day with a battery of special events at numerous downtown locations through April 25, with many of the events free. There will be climate change workshops at the Mercy Corps Action Center, bird watching and drawing at the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman reading at Poets House, family programming at the Skyscraper Museum, and arts and crafts and more at the Battery Park City branch of the New York Public Library. The World Financial Center will be home to a pair of Earth Day-related exhibitions, Suzanne and Mathilde Husky’s “Forest” (through May 12) and Rod Tryon and Anthony Cappetto’s “Koi Pond” (April 20-25), in addition to daily 3-D drawing programs and open houses and workshops. The National Museum of the American Indian will feature daily film screenings and a “Native Views on Sustainable Foods” lecture on April 22, while on April 25 the Museum of Jewish Heritage will host “The Earth Day Worm Disco” children’s concert with ShirLaLa and a series of earth-friendly workshops.
Iranian writer-director Bahman Ghobadi (A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES) goes underground in NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS, following the plight of Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) as they attempt to put together an indie band for a gig in London. Inspired by their dedication—and always out to make a buck himself—fast-talking wheeler-dealer Nadar (Hamed Behdad) takes them to get illegal passports, then introduces them to a series of bands who play in secretive underground spaces where the government and the police don’t bother them, even though it is against the law to play Western-style music. Their quest for musicians leads them to such real groups as Take It Easy Hospital and the Yellow Dogs, who regularly risk their freedom and safety by playing to excited young fans desperate to hear live, modern music. Ghobadi throws in just about every genre imaginable, from heavy metal and punk to classic rock and jazz in a stirring musical journey, turning each song into a video depicting everyday life in Tehran. The film does lapse into overheated and unnecessary heavy-handed melodrama in its final scenes, but it’s still a compelling story of the intrinsic power of music and the desperate need to make connections.
