Castle Williams is now open to the public, with tours taking visitors to the roof for great views (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Governors Island
Wednesday – Sunday, 10:00 am – 5:30 pm, free ticketed tours on the half hour from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm
www.nps.gov
castle williams slideshow
A genuine New York City treasure, during the summer Governors Island hosts indoor and outdoor art exhibits, live music and dance, a variety of food choices, biking, and lots of military history. One of the highlights is Castle Williams, a huge circular fort that features a hundred guns around its perimeter; the “Cheesebox” was used as a Confederate prison during the Civil War. Named for its designer, chief engineer Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Williams, who later became the first superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the castle was built between 1807 and 1811 and used as a defense during the War of 1812. After a major restoration, the red sandstone structure was opened to the public several years ago, and lots of information about its history is available in the open courtyard area and in the first-floor galleries. In addition, half-hour guided tours take a small group of people (sign up in advance to secure a spot) up the stairs, into various rooms, cells, and sick wards, and onto the roof, which provides a wonderful view of Lower Manhattan and a close-up of a cannon. The National Park Service tours, which also shed light on the intricate architecture of the rounded fortress, are usually held Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm, but they have been currently suspended because of electrical problems. The castle provides quite a contrast to the centrally located Fort Jay, an eighteenth-century four-bastioned battlement that was reconstructed by Williams between 1806 and 1809. “Experience Fort Jay: An Island Star!” tours are held Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon to 4:00 on the hour, while “Artillery Thursday!” takes place Thursday afternoons at 2:00.
Most prison documentaries are about drugs, violence, race, systemic abuse and corruption, politics, and social justice, focusing on frightening crime statistics. But first-time director John Lucas takes a different approach in the thoroughly engaging new film The Cooler Bandits. In 1991, Ohio teenagers Charlie Kelly, Donovan Harris, Richard “Poochie” Roderick, and Frankie Porter pulled off a string of restaurant robberies in which they locked employees in refrigeration rooms or freezers. Caught, tried, and convicted, the four friends got vastly different sentences; while Harris accepted a plea bargain and got 16 to 50 years, the others went to trial: Kelly and Roderick received sentences of 60 to 150 years and Porter 200 to 500 years. But Lucas, a longtime Ohio photojournalist, doesn’t concentrate on the men’s past, their fair or unfair treatment, or their experiences behind bars; instead, the film follows them from 2006 to 2013 as Harris adjusts to life outside and his release before the others, Kelly and Roderick prepare for possible parole, and Porter faces much more time in prison. Kelly and Roderick, in particular, speak openly and honestly about their plans for their future, thinking about education, careers, and family, fully accepting their punishment without any chips on their shoulders despite sentences that even the prosecutor agrees were far too harsh. They refuse to turn themselves into victims, making for a surprising and refreshing film. Lucas also speaks with their parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, who are much more emotional than the four men; while standing by their family members, they recognize that the group committed serious crimes that deserved jail time, but they also want them to still be able to have a chance at a good life on the outside. The Cooler Bandits is screening September 11 at 7:00 at Aaron Davis Hall as part of the ninth annual Harlem International Film Festival; it will be preceded by Melanie Hibbert’s Coalition for Women Prisoners: Harlem NYC and Indrani Kopal’s The Game Changer and followed by a performance and Q&A with the filmmakers. Among the other films at the five-day fest, consisting of nearly one hundred shorts and features from more than two dozen countries, are Jason Paul Laxamana’s Magkakbaung (The Coffin Maker), Tim Wilkerson’s Oracles of Pennsylvania Ave., Joel Lamangan’s Kamkam (Greed), and Kevin Chu’s I See Love.
At the beginning of Eric Merola’s Second Opinion: Laetrile at Sloan-Kettering, a 1970s news reporter says, “Dr. Robert Good, president of the Sloan Kettering Institute, one of the world’s biggest and richest cancer research centers, said Laetrile does not prevent cancer, nor cure cancer, nor stop cancer from spreading.” For the next seventy-five minutes, Ralph W. Moss, PhD, the public affairs science writer for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 1974 to 1977, talks about what lay behind that statement and the furor that followed. He tells the captivating story of what went on behind the scenes as Laetrile, a form of amygdalin used in tumor treatment, was coveted by cancer patients but demonized by the medical establishment. The controversy over the drug, which was eventually banned in America, forced patients to go to Mexico in search of the palliative care medicine while the FDA, the National Cancer Institute, and several high-profile MSK doctors considered it to be quackery. MSK’s own top researcher, Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura, had exciting success treating mice with the drug, hopeful that the positive effects would be proven in humans as well. But when Dr. Good, MSK vice presidents Dr. Lloyd J. Old and Dr. Chester Stock, and MSKCC president Dr. Lewis Thomas decided that Laetrile was not the future of cancer treatment, despite what some of them had previously stated in public, Moss was confused and distressed. Others were as well; the documentary reveals that the political dimension of the debate eventually brought even the ultra-right-wing John Birch Society into the fray. Moss eventually became a whistleblower, writing numerous books on the subject, including The Cancer Industry, Cancer Therapy: The Independent Consumer’s Guide to Non-Toxic Treatment & Prevention, and the brand-new Doctored Results: The Suppression of Laetrile at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, which spurred the documentary.
