WORK IN PROGRESS
PAUL CHALEFF
Thinking in Clay
A new documentary follows Paul Chaleff at work in Ancram, New York, exploring his profound connection with clay and the creation of monumental ceramic sculpture. The film examines the ideas, influences, techniques, and accumulated experience behind a lifetime devoted to his craft, while capturing the physical process through which raw material is transformed into finished work. It also explores Chaleff’s collaboration with British sculptor Anthony Caro and considers his place within contemporary American art. Chaleff’s work is represented in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Made Possible with the Support of
Sheila PAREKH and Christopher BLUM, Carrie CHEN
and Stanley COHEN, Rufus COLLINS and people like you.
WORK IN PROGRESS
At the turn of the twentieth century, four men from Valencia began, in very different ways, to transform how Americans experienced and imagined Spain. Rafael Guastavino reshaped the architecture of New York with vaults of brick and tile, Joaquín Sorolla captured America through the brilliance of light, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez captivated readers and audiences with his novels and ideas, and Joaquín Rodrigo brought a new vision of Spanish music to the concert hall.
Their intersecting journeys reveal an extraordinary dialogue between architecture, painting, literature, and music, and uncover a larger story of cultural exchange between Valencia and the United States. Together, Guastavino, Sorolla, Blasco, and Rodrigo illuminate how four Valencians, each arriving at a different moment and through a different medium, helped shape American cultural life and the image of Spain that continues to resonate today.
NEW RELEASE
LIFE AND MUSIC IN THE AGE OF
GEORGE F. BRISTOW
NOW AVAILABLE ON ALEXANDER STREET
Life and Music in the Age of George Frederick Bristow explores the life, music, and cultural world of George Frederick Bristow (1825–1898), one of the most significant American composers of the nineteenth century. A violinist with the New York Philharmonic and a prolific composer of symphonies, operas, choral works, and chamber music, Bristow participated in a formative period when American musicians were struggling to establish a distinctive musical culture in a country still heavily dependent on European traditions and repertory. Through Bristow’s career and compositions, the film examines nineteenth-century New York, the development of American orchestral life, and the larger debate over what American music could and should become. Combining performances, archival materials, historical research, and commentary, the documentary restores Bristow to the cultural landscape of his time while considering the forces that contributed to his subsequent disappearance from the standard history of American classical music.
Life and Music in the Age of George Frederick Bristow
Made Possible with the Support of
The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation
IN DEVELOPMENT
THE LOST REPUBLIC
A documentary on the Cuban Republic (1902–1959), the vibrant and contradictory nation that flourished between independence and revolution — and the memory of a world that vanished. An exploration of Music, Fine Arts and Literature in the Republican period. Produced with the support of the University of Miami's Cuban Heritage Collection and FIU's Casa Cuba, with Carolina Calzada serving as Executive Director.
Made Possible with the Support of
Casa America, Florida International University
and the Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami
NOW SHOWING
THE PICCIRILLI FACTOR
A documentary on the Piccirilli family of sculptors and stone carvers, whose New York studio helped shape some of America’s most recognizable monuments and public spaces. From the Lincoln Memorial and the New York Public Library to Rockefeller Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Piccirilli Factor explores the extraordinary contribution of six Italian immigrant brothers whose craftsmanship became inseparable from American sculpture and architecture.
Made Possible with the Support of
The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation
The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund
The Columbus Citizens Foundation
The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)
October 4, 2026 Black Fiddlers | Light House, Vinegar Hill Theatre. Charlottesville, Virginia.
October 8, 2026 | Peoria Fine Arts Society, Illinois. Screening of The Piccirilli Factor, followed by a Q&A with director Montes-Bradley.
September 27 , 2026| Richmond Int'l Film Festival, Virginia. The Art of Joy Brown. Official Selection
September 11, 2026 | Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri. Screening of The Piccirilli Factor, followed by a Q&A with director Montes-Bradley.
August 20, 2026 | Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami. A Tribute to Humberto Calzada.
August 4, 2026 | Villa Rinchiostra, Massa, Tuscany. Screening of The Piccirilli Factor, sponsored by the City of Massa, the Biblioteca Civica Stefano Giampaoli, and Italia Nostra. Free and open to the public. Followed by a Q&A with director Montes-Bradley.
May 13, 2026 | Biblioteca Nacional, Auditorio Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aires. Screening of Deliciosas perversiones polimorfas.
March 6, 2026 | Kent School, Kent, Connecticut. Screening of The Art of Joy Brown, followed by a Q&A with director Montes-Bradley.
May 10, 2025 | James Monroe's Highland, Charlottesville, Virginia. Public screening of The Piccirilli Factor followed by audience discussion.
November 15, 2024 | Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, Virginia. Screening of Black Fiddlers, followed by a Q&A with director Montes-Bradley.
June 10 & 17, 2024 | Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. NEH-funded workshop "Creative Spaces/Contested Spaces: Reinterpreting Italian American Public Art in New York City." Screening of The Piccirilli Factor.
March 26, 2024 | Italian Cultural Institute of New York. Presentation and screening preview of The Piccirilli Factor, followed by Q&A.
January 19, 2024 | Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville. Screening of Black Fiddlers
June 27, 2023 | New York Public Library. The Piccirilli Factor. Hosted by The Victorian Society of New York. Jefferson Market Library.
May 24–26, 2016 | The British Academy, London. Screening of Julian Bond followed by panel discussion with Professor Clayborne Carson (Stanford University) and Judy Richardson (SNCC), chaired by Professor Sharon Monteith, University of Nottingham.
