March 29, 2024

Movies with Biography

JIMMY IN SAIGON

JIMMY IN SAIGON begins as a personal exploration into the mysterious death and radical life of Jimmy McDowell, an American 24-year-old Vietnam veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in 1972, when filmmaker Peter McDowell was only five. While investigating Jimmy’s drug use and sexuality, Peter … [Read more...]

Hopper: An American Love Story, presented by The Edward Hopper House Museum and Rivertown Film

Filmmaker Phil Grabsky's new documentary Hopper: An American Love Story been released in October 2022 to coincide with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition, "Edward Hopper’s New York" and Edward Hopper House Museum's "Edward Hopper’s Hudson River Boyhood and Emerging Artistic Vision." The … [Read more...]

TRUMAN & TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION, streaming from June 18

Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams —writers, celebrities, geniuses —catapulted to fame in the 1950s, sparking a friendship and rivalry spanning nearly 40 years until their deaths within a year of each other. Inextricably entwined, and fixtures of their age, they were creative powerhouses (and gay … [Read more...]

BILL TRAYLOR: CHASING GHOSTS

Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 on a cotton plantation in Alabama, and after the Civil War he farmed as a sharecropper. In the late 1920s, aging and alone, he moved to Montgomery and worked odd jobs until, in his 80s, he became homeless and started to draw and paint scenes from plantation … [Read more...]

GUSTAV STICKLEY: AMERICAN CRAFTSMAN, streaming from March 5

The rise, fall and resurrection of the father of the American Arts and Crafts movement is chronicled in Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman, which offers an unprecedented look at the life and works of Stickley as told through interviews, archival materials, and a close examination of his most iconic … [Read more...]

M.C. ESCHER: JOURNEY TO INFINITY

M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity is the story of world famous Dutch graphic artist M.C Escher ( -1972). Equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, Robin Lutz’s entertaining, eye-opening portrait gives us the man through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, … [Read more...]

HARRY CHAPIN: WHEN IN DOUBT, DO SOMETHING, presented with ArtsRock

Award-winning singer/songwriter Harry Chapin (Taxi and Cats in the Cradle) spent his fame and fortune chasing a dream to end world hunger and poverty, and in the process inspired, changed, and saved the lives of millions of people. His lyrics and melodies tell us about ourselves, our lives, and our … [Read more...]

JOHN LEWIS: Good Trouble, 3rd week! Presented by Nyack Center Teen Council, sponsored by OCADA

Held over for a 3rd week! JOHN LEWIS (1940 – 2020) gave 60-plus years of his life to social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration. Using interviews with Lewis last year, when he was 80 years old, John Lewis: Good Trouble … [Read more...]

BEYOND THE VISIBLE: HILMA AF KLINT, held over

Art history is being rewritten. Hilma af Klint was an abstract artist before the term existed, a visionary, trailblazing figure who, inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches of the natural world around her, began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge, colorful, sensual, strange works … [Read more...]

LOST IN THE STARS, presented by Rockland Center for the Arts

Rivertown Film is honored to be a Community Partner for LOST IN THE STARS, a portrait of Maxwell Anderson, the great 20th-century playwright and a resident of South Mountain Road from the 1920s until the 1950s. His plays, musicals, and movies include Key Largo, The Bad Seed, What Price Glory, Anne … [Read more...]

TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM

Tonight's film, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, may sell out. Online ticket purchase is recommended but will end at 3:00. Tickets will be sold at the door, but please arrive early to buy them, and if you have purchased online, arrive early for a good seat. Rivertown Film cordially invites you to … [Read more...]

AT ETERNITY’S GATE

ONLINE SALES CLOSE AT 3:00, but additional tickets will be available at the door. A journey inside the world and mind of Vincent van Gogh who, despite skepticism, ridicule and illness, created some of the world’s most beloved and stunning works of art. This is not a forensic biography, but rather … [Read more...]

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AILES

Roger Ailes was a news media pioneer who changed the nature of political discourse. In the process of creating a devoted audience, he angered both the right and left. An unquenchable, irrational thirst for power drove him; allegations of sexual harassment and of fostering a misogynistic culture at … [Read more...]

MARIA BY CALLAS

ONLINE TICKET SALES have ended. Additional tickets will be available at the door. This film is presented at the Rockland JCC, 450 West Nyack Road in West Nyack. Doors open at 7:00. Film at 7:30.   A compendium of interviews, performances, and writings from Maria Callas that proves she was … [Read more...]

LOVING VINCENT

ONLINE SALES HAVE ENDED but tickets will be available at the door. Doors will be open by 7:30. Come early to get a good seat. An animated film composed of 65,000 oil paintings in the style of Vincent van Gogh that tells the story of the painters’ final days, and, through his art, the story of his … [Read more...]

NERUDA

This biopic about the hot-blooded Chilean poet and leftist politician Pablo Neruda facing an emerging dictatorship in Chile illuminates the endless struggle between political authority and the creative imagination. In 1948, Neruda is engaged in a rhetorical war with Chile’s president, who is moving … [Read more...]

THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI

Meet the Filmmaker: Bill Siegel, via Skype Muhammad Ali was the most famous, loudest and baddest of Americans to refuse to serve during the Vietnam War. His embrace of Islam— specifically the Nation of Islam— led to his stance on the war and his journey to the Supreme Court. There is no smoothing … [Read more...]

PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT

The heiress Peggy Guggenheim’s life was intertwined with art. During her travels, she fell in with the Dadaists in Paris in the 1920s, and is credited with introducing Britain to Modern Art. Back in New York, she gave first shows in her gallery to every major Abstract Expressionist. A shrewd … [Read more...]

JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE

Janis Joplin died in 1970 at 27, but the hard living, folk-blues singer remains a legend. Growing up, she was the antithesis of the All-American prom queen, and suffered deep emotional wounds. This fueled her talent and ambition, but no amount of artistic success and fame were able to eleviate the … [Read more...]

THE AMAZING NINA SIMONE

SOLD OUT! Unfortunately, there are no seats left at this event. The Amazing Nina Simone will open in New York City next Week. Before the film there will be a musical tribute to Nina Simone by Nina’s brother and Music Director, Jazz/Blues legend Sam Waymon, and his band. The life of one of … [Read more...]