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Mar 10

Immigrant Screening Series: Fiction Shorts

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New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) produced a screening series entitled Immigrant Women: Sharing Our Voices Through Film. The series presented the works of women immigrant and first-generation American filmmakers, focusing on the immigrant experience within the five boroughs of New York City. This initiative presented one screening per month from February through June 2015.

The second screening on March 30th, focused on capturing the immigrant experience through fictional narrative.

Bella
9:17
Directed: Olga Goister 
Bella is a short film about a Gypsy girl who wants to experience American culture. However, she is in for a surprise when she comes home to her family and discovers that her parents have arranged for her to be married.

I Am Julia
2014, 15:00
Written by Marisol Carrere
A “fish out of water” story: I Am Julia, is a short film that focuses on the experiences of a young Latina girl, Julia, as she adjusts to the hostile environment of a new school while starting a new life in a foreign country.

Temblor
2014, 10:06
Directed by Marina Fernandez
Dreams that New York inspires are not always sweet, even less so for the young Spaniard who yearns for connections in the city of frozen streets and lost glances. Temblor is a quiet short film from the intimate perspective of an immigrant struggling to adapt in the barren New York winters. Her imagination and fears come to life through a hybrid of live action and animated sketches.

About the filmmakers: 

Olga Goister is a Ukrainian born New York based film producer, writer and a storyteller. She has been involved in numerous productions including the upcoming film, Anesthesia, directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring Kristen Stewart, Glenn Close and Sam Waterson. She has produced numerous commercials for companies like Lufthansa, Dish Network, Blue Cross Blue Shield, as well as documentaries, music videos and short films. Her previous positions encompass all aspects of film business; from creative development for feature film scripts and television pilots to post-production, marketing and distribution. She is currently pursuing her MFA degree in Film at Columbia University.

 

Marisol Carrere is an award winning actress, writer, and producer as well as the Founder, Directing Producer, and CEO of Carrere Films International and LLC. Her piece, I am Julia,acts as a cinematic memoir for this Colombian-born writer and documents the bullying that she went through as an immigrant student. Carrere has taken strides to end bullying through community work in schools, hosting workshops, and founding the “I am Peace” Project, in which students express notions of peace through screenwriting, media, and the arts. Her hard work in these programs has earned her recognition of “New Yorker of the Week” by NY1 News. This year, Marisol Carrere will be awarded the “Progressive Woman” Award by the Latin American Intercultural Alliance (LAIA) on its 11th annualWomen’s History Month Celebration.

 

Marina Fernandez Ferri is a passionate freelance producer who loves to work on innovative and challenging visual projects, contributing creatively to the process. Possessing a multicultural background, she has been working for over ten years as a producer in both the US and in Spain and has produced award-winning content in all genres and mediums including documentary, narrative, branded content, commercials, and television.

 

 

 

A Q&A reception with the filmmakers followed the screening.

Produced by Elizabeth Estrada

 

A special thanks to City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley who selected New York Women in Film & Television to receive funding for the Cultural Immigrant Initiative.

 

Mar 06

Ende Tymes V

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ENDE TYMES V was the fifth-annual celebration of NOISE, EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC, and VIDEO ART.

Hosted by KNOCKDOWN CENTER, SILENT BARN, and OUTPOST ARTISTS RESOURCES, Ende Tymes V presented more than 60 artists over the course of 5 nights. A densely packed lineup featured a wide variety of street-level experimental music and noise art: harsh noise, avant-garde, drone, modular synthesis, and our personal favorite “unclassifiable.”

Knockdown hosted the opening night performances, featuring large scale installations, a multi-channel sound system, and workshops by the likes of:

Bob Bellerue & Wanda Gala, Sputnik Trio, Julia Santoli, Timeghost, Lary7, Marcia Bassett & Samara Lubelski, Z‘EV, Greg Fox, POSTCOMMODITY and Daniel Neumann.

Suggested donation at the door.

The installations will remain on view Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th from 2-6pm.

Mar 05

Pysanka Egg Decorating

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Free all ages workshop!

The word pysanka is derived from the Ukrainian verb pysaty ‘to write’; we ‘write’ designs on the eggs. Nearly all Slavic peoples and those in the eastern Mediterranean area practiced this art in ancient times using beeswax and dyes to create tiny masterpieces of art but Ukrainian Easter Eggs from the more modern Christian era seem to be the ones best known. The symbols used in pysanka design are a blend of ancient pagan motifs with Christian elements.

A special tool called a kistka is used to melt the beeswax and write on the eggs. The kistka is the pen and the beeswax is the ink. Each successive color is waxed and dyed until the entire design is created on the surface of the egg. The wax is then removed, and your masterpiece is revealed!

Photos by Marek Antoniuk

Mar 02

Piano Vectors

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Piano Vectors
for 6 pianos: a world premiere by John King

Laura Barger
Taka Kigawa
Joseph Kubera
Jenny Lin
Tania Tachkova
Ning Yu

A major work of 80 minutes in duration for our 30,000 square foot main exhibition space, Piano Vectors for 6 pianos filled Knockdown with rich textures of sound. Each solo pianist was seated at a piano at a chance-determined location. This composition was begun with a system of organizing time, and this system in turn generated all subsequent musical and spatial elements. Imagine the 6 pianists traveling through space and time, each at their own rate, speeding up or stretching time in chance-determined and improvised ways. Piano Vectors explores and summarizes King’s ideas on the organization of time and space as the primary focus of sound.

Feb 20

Auditorium

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AUDITORIUM was an extended evening of site-specific electronic and electroacoustic performances organized by artists/curators Lea Bertucci and Tristan Shepherd. The focal point for this event was a custom 10-channel sound system installed throughout the 50,000 square feet of Knockdown Center. This system acted as the point of departure for multichannel works by innovative sound-based artists Nate Wooley, Sabisha Friedberg,Marina Rosenfeld, Woody Sullender, and Phil Niblock. Bertucci and Shepherd commissioned new works from the seven composers, instrumentalists and audio artists to develop works uniquely suited to the site. The project culminated in a day-long event in which the selected artists presented their projects on site in a roving auditory experience.

For the 2015 iteration of this event, now in its third year, the event drew on a roster of artists whose work represents diverse perspectives, some as instrumentalists, others who come from a sculptural/installation based sound practice and still others whose work centers more on composition.

Curated by Joe Ahearn, presented by Clocktower Productions

This event is made possible, in part, by the Queens Council an the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Feb 11

Winter Jamboree

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Free, family friendly Winter Jamboree complete with bounce house, giant obstacle course, a beach themed photo booth, craft corner, a music video workshop and much more!

Join in the fun on February 20th from 11am-2pm.

Feb 11

Malingering Uvula II

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On November 16th, 2012, Knockdown Center hosted an “Malingering Uvula II: The Face That Lied (Geometric Edibles).” The event was billed as “equal parts performance, immersive installation, and dinner party.” Created by artists Camilla Ha and Michael Merck, the ongoing series “sparked by a conversation about the Futurist Cookbook and surrealist dinners.” Ha, Fagan Noose, MV Carbon, Cupola Bobber, Keti Kartveli, Brian Chase, Gabrielle Muller, David Lackner, Aaron Fagan, Zebediah Keneally, and Thermos Unigarde all contributed to the various environments.

Feb 11

Outdoor Interactive Recreational Sculpture Park

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Knockdown Center officially opened its doors to the public on August 10, 2012. To celebrate, Knockdown Center commissioned original works from nineteen artists, designers and architects to create The Outdoor Recreational Sculpture Part (OIRSG). Inspired by both the whimsy of the sport and the formal possibilities of the course’s architecture, these artists created a miniature golf course on the sprawling three acre grounds of the Knockdown Center.

Mini-golf Holes by
Arielle Baio, Astrid Busch, Jeff DeGolier, Aasha Foster, Eric Hagan, Kemeya Harper, Jamie Lin, Rowan Norlander-McCarty, Geetha Pedapati, Anna Pinkas, Zach Postone, Naida Serak, Chris Shelley, Amber Shields, sumu (Gabriela Bruno, Soña Power, Ioannis Sochorakis & Alex Postelnicu), and Brian Wondergem

Musical performances by
Trabajo, Happy New Year, Saturn Dogs, and Tim Garrigan

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