The George Forss Theater For The Arts is not exactly Lincoln Center, but Maria and I were both delighted to be invited there Sunday afternoon, after the big storm, to watch a showing of the movie “Communion,” a film about family from New York who were visited by aliens at their vacation home in the Adirondacks. The film, starring Christopher Walken and Frances Sternhagen, was made in the late 1980s, when there were many news reports (and many movies) portraying alien abductions of American families.
George called me up this morning, and we both had the same attitude about the storm, we were pretty bored with it: “it’s winter,” he said, “it snows.” Yup. He said we should come over and watch “Communion,” we were just about the only invited guests.
This particular phenomena – alien abductions – has faded, but it is close to the heart of George, who is a U.F.O Investigator and hopes to be abducted himself one day, he believes aliens are the God-force in our world and his. George has fixed up his art gallery (the Ginofor) in my town, Cambridge, N.Y., so that it can be reconfigured as the “George Forss Theater For The Arts” – I am proud to say the name was my suggestion and George loved it, he plans to use the theater as a center for arts and creativity, he’s already had two showings, one in which his partner Donna Wynbrandt’s mother was interviewed on Dubai TV as she wandered the Middle-East by herself some years ago, and the second was a film about Buddhism that drew a small crowd.
When the art shows are done, the space is quickly and easily reconverted to an art gallery, the centerpiece of the arts center is a big red sofa George found on the street. The theater seats eight comfortably, tweve in a pinch. Guests are welcome to bring something. It is an intimate space, a reflection of George’s personal and continuous genius and creativity.
George is not trying to be Regal Cinema, small crowds are fine, and the crowd Sunday was George, Maria and me, all of George’s friends thought the movie likely to be too scary and one of his friends, an artist, fled just after the credits and ran out of the gallery (thus the empty chair.) George has done a wonderful job setting up the arts center, he bought a second wide screen TV to sit atop the first (which shows everything in hot red) and rehabbed 14 speakers salvaged from junkyards and trash cans for his “Surround Sound” affect, which is impressive. There is a portable heater in the center, curtains up on the windows and dimmed lights. George made two bowls of popcorn (you will not find cheese nachos there) and offered a bowl of bananas, we got there at showtime, 2 p.m., and were done around 4 p.m., in time to give the animals their afternoon feeding.
It is a wonderful thing George has done, the movie was probably creepy when it was made, but it’s mumbling, hooded aliens were not too unnerving these days, we talked with George afterwards about why the aliens refuse to show themselves, and George has concluded it is probably because they can’t, rather than that they won’t. I suggested they took over Congress and decided to take over the world that way, by paralyzing government with strange and alien behaviors. Nobody would suspect Congress, unless you paid close attention. Some strange people there with big eyes.
I am not all that interested in aliens, but the subject, as George talks about it, is compelling. Aliens snapped George out of his agoraphobic life in Brooklyn, and got him taking photographs, along with his mother. He has logged 300,000 miles on his U.F.O. Investigations Vehicle, but not encountered an alien yet face to face, although they do sometimes speak through him, I have witnessed that.
George laughed pretty hard at my Congress joke. We welcome the George Forss Center For the Arts into our world, our town and our lives. We both hope to spend many Sundays there, it was special and George makes a mean bowl of popcorn.
You can look at his amazing photographer here, and buy it very cheaply.