What’s on in Rockland County in June and beyond? Check out our selected listings of plays and films you don’t want to miss. NEW: We’ve added a section called On the Radar so you know what’s coming up. If you have additional films and theater performances that you’d like to see included in our next roundup, email us at info@nyacknewsandviews.com.
SPOTLIGHT: Rivertown Film Presents: “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today”
A celebration of Woody Guthrie and America’s 250th birthday with film clips, discussion, and live music
June 15, 8:00 p.m., Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave.
This is the first preview anywhere of Greg Mitchell’s acclaimed new film, “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today,” narrated by Rosanne Cash with a song by Bruce Springsteen. Mitchell will present over thirty minutes of excerpts from this timely film for the first time to a public audience. He’ll also lead a discussion with Woody’s granddaughter Anna Canoni, president of Woody Guthrie Publications; and Daniel Wolff, author of “Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913.”
A second world premiere, of a very short film “Woody and Me,” will feature tributes to Woody Guthrie from Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Mavis Staples. and many others.
The evening will also include musical guests Tom Chapin, The Chapin Sisters, and the All Together Now Chorus. And there will be a community singout on “This Land Is Your Land,” which some consider our real national anthem.
“Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad” will air over PBS stations later this summer. Mitchell’s fifth film for PBS since 2022, it reveals why Guthrie has become such an icon for many in today’s political struggles. It contains numerous surprises, such as the venom aimed at John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” when it was first released—it was taken off shelves at some libraries and copies were even burned—and the amazing full story of how Woody came to write “This Land Is Your Land” (which is not its original title). It closes with words and images that reveal echoes of 1930s conflicts in debates surrounding immigration, ICE raids and authoritarian impulses today.
The film will receive its world premiere hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa on June 25.
Every dollar earned at the event will go toward the newly established Rivertown Film Cash Reserve Fund, and all of it will be matched by a generous gift from former Rivertown board members Barrie Peterson and Bea Conner-Peterson.
Advance tickets are $15/day of show $20
On Screen in Rockland
The Christophers
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
June 10, 8:00 p.m. Rivertown Film
Rivertown Film, Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave.
A mainstay of the London art scene since his breakout in the creative explosion of the 1960’s, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) has drifted into a cluttered, self-imposed seclusion. His two estranged children enlist a young painter and sometime-forger, to pose as a prospective assistant and gain access to a fabled series of unfinished canvases Julian has buried deep in his home studio, in a deceptive bid to secure an inheritance for themselves.
After the film, there will be a discussion with Daly Flanagan, Executive Director of Rockland Center for the Arts.
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On the Radar
“The Story of Us: Behind the Scenes with American Revolution Reenactors“
July 16, the Nyack Library
A new documentary, “The Story of Us: Behind the Scenes with American Revolution Reenactors,” is a 45-minute intimate portrait on the people behind the uniforms/kit we see on the “battlefields.” The film focuses on three members of the Brigade of the American Revolution, who guide us through their thoughts and meditations on what they do and why they do it. The film is timed to discuss America’s 250 and the state of the union.
The screening is co-sponsored by the Historical Society of the Nyacks and there will be a Q&A with the three main characters.
The Children’s Shakespeare Theatre is offering a summer program for kids ages 8 to 18, August 17 – 28, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Nyack. Registration is open.
