Arts Express: Zora Neale Hurston - A Theatrical Biography

**Shadow World: A Conversation With The Filmmakers. What do Reagan, Thatcher, Tony Blair and Obama have in common? According to Shadow World, plenty. And having to do with covert roles as brokers for the arms trade in perpetrating endless war. A look at the investigative documentary and a discussion with the filmmakers Johan Grimonprez and Andrew Feinstein. Touching on connections to the Panama Papers, the 35,000 lobbyists in DC; the Pentagon as metaphorical self-licking ice cream cone; and the Gucci Shoe Guys complicit with the US corporate coup d'etat in slow motion.

**Theater Corner. Zora Neale Hurston: A Theatrical Biography. Delving into the both triumphant and tragic life and work of the late famed novelist and folklorist. And a tribute to the African American writer revered as 'Queen Of The Harlem Renaissance.' Though in her final years a housemaid in rural Florida, and subsequently buried in an unmarked grave. A roundtable gathering with playwright Laurence Holder, actress Elizabeth Van Dyke who plays Hurston, and Joseph Edwards as multiple characters - among them Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. A production of the New Federal Theatre. Chris Butters reports.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE
 
**Radio Drama Corner: All Robots Go To Heaven. Arts Express contributor Bradley Firebird with his latest on air presentation. A cautionary futuristic tale when escalating regimentation may render humans problematic, if not obsolete. The African American writer, producer and director fuses sci fi, horror, satire, drama, and a commitment to social justice - while serving up Twilight Zone storytelling. And, characterizing himself as a black Rod Serling.

Arts Express: Thursdays 2pm ET: Airing on WBAI Radio in NY 99.5 FM, and streaming live and archived everywhere at wbai.org.

**NY FILM FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT ON DOCUMENTARY: UNCLE HOWARD

In a cinematic journey into a both personal and literary landscape of the vibrant creative downtown New York City scene of the 1970s and 1980s, director Aaron Brookner embarks on a quest to decipher the artistic flowering of the time. And of his uncle, filmmaker Howard Brookner who was at the center of this vortex of a collective imagination, until his untimely death when stricken with AIDS like so many others back then, just a few days before his 35th birthday.

And while Aaron was working on the restoration of Howard's 1983 documentary, Burroughs: The Movie, he happened to discover an immense trove of unassembled archives shelved away for thirty years. Expressing however haphazardly, a chronicle of the time connected to an alternative community of writers, filmmakers, performers and artists.

And though the found material is more than worthy of its own documentary, the film Uncle Howard does not unfortunately, evolve as up to the task at hand. And more akin to an unfocused, visually and analytically scattered, between takes kind of home movie. 

And though the core of Aaron's passion and inspiration feels genuine, his own assertion that 'Howard's was an unfinished story long after he left this earthly world' unfortunately comes off in the film as all too true - a production that required more narrative momentum, structure and emotional depth and context to effectively resonate and honor its subject matter. And ultimately fulfill the intended imagery on screen of 'a sort of lost soul walking through his work, how your work lives on through your work or not. And how you see without words.

More information about the screening of Uncle Howard and the NY Film Festival is online at filmlinc.org.

Prairie Miller