"We’re so exicted to have Shainberg and Montiel as our first guests, because they embody the risk-taking, forward-looking New York spirit we want this series to champion," said moderator Logan Hill. "And it couldn’t be more appropriate that their new films are both stories about New York artists: Diane Arbus and Dito himself."

Following his breakthrough feature, SECRETARY, director Steven Shainberg creates a mesmerizing portrait of the visionary artist Diane Arbus in his new film, FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS. Much as an actual Arbus photo transports us into strange and unfamiliar worlds, FUR travels through the looking glass to explore the transformation of a shy woman into a powerfully original artist. Oscar® winner Nicole Kidman stars as "Diane Arbus," a devoted wife and mother whose innate talents and dark obsessions are profoundly at odds with the conventional life she leads in 1958 New York. Oscar®-nominee Robert Downey Jr. co-stars as Lionel, an enigmatic new neighbor who launches Diane on her journey to becoming the artist she is meant to be.

Well before Arbus was a legend, Steven Shainberg was growing up in a New York City townhouse lined with her photos. Shainberg knew these unusual photos in his childhood home as simply the work of his uncle’s friend. "I never met Diane. But she was very much a part of my parents’ adult world ‘out there’; it was very mysterious and intriguing. The images themselves I think were a fundamental part of my visual upbringing. In the same way that someone’s parents might read Dr. Seuss to them every night, I would walk up to my room and pass a picture of the Jewish Giant!" In creating his imaginary portrait of this great American photographer, Shainberg has made a film that, like the work and the artist it celebrates, is both daring and mysterious.

Dito Montiel’s A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS, a coming-of-age drama inspired by Montiel's mid-eighties youth in Astoria, Queens, exudes the rawness and authenticity of the classic urban dramas. Based on his memoir of the same name, GUIDE won both the Dramatic Directing Award and a Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Performance at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Shot on a shoestring budget by first-time director, the film features exceptional performances by Robert Downey Jr., Chazz Palmenteri, Dianne Wiest, Rosario Dawson, and Shia LaBeouf, as well as a breakout turn by Channing Tatum.

Montiel, the son of a Nicaraguan immigrant and an Irish mother, was a kid "from nowhere going nowhere," as he wrote in his memoir. Growing up in Astoria, Queens in the seventies, he pulled pranks for Greek and Italian gangsters, confessed at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, took furtive hits of mescaline, and snuck into Times Square brothels. As a young adult, he discovered the grit and grime of Lower Manhattan back when it still felt authentic, formed a punk band called Gutterboy (signed to Geffen for the then unheard of sum of one million dollars), and was himself discovered by the city’s vibrant underground culture. Rather than recount bit-by-bit the events detailed in his memoir, Montiel has distilled and transformed his own source material into an evocative mood piece that ranks as one of the more indelible accounts of New York City street life in years.

"The Stoop Series brings together great talent from so many different realms," Rotunda Director and Chief Curator Isolde Brielmaier noted. "Rounding each program off with a great globally-oriented music program really reflects the Gallery’s vision of reaching new audiences with cutting edge programming. This is truly what the world of art and culture in Brooklyn are all about."

Logan Hill is a Contributing Editor and film critic at New York Magazine and a columnist at Nerve.com. He has written for I.D., The Nation, NY Press, New York Post, Poets & Writers, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Wired, and others.

As an editor at The Fader from 2000-2005, Knox Robinson defined the magazine's editorial voice with a fresh, distinct urban style whether filing stories from around the globe - reporting firsthand on the violent, poverty-fueled funk music of Brazil's favelas, trailing the elusive commandos of the Zapatista rebellion in the mountainous rainforests of Mexico, investigating the mysticism of Puerto Rico's African settlements, uncovering musical myths on the city streets of Lagos, Nigeria-or interviewing celebrities on the verge such as Outkast and the White Stripes.

The Stoop Series has been coordinated in conjunction with DUMBO’s First Thursday Gallery Wall, a monthly event during which participating galleries and studios throughout this vibrant arts neighborhood are opened to the public from 5:30 to 8:30 pm. In-kind contributions for the Stoop Series have been generously provided by Brooklyn Brewery and powerHouse Books.

The Rotunda Gallery presents contemporary art, public events and an innovative arts education program. The Gallery’s aim is to increase the visibility and accessibility of contemporary art while bridging the gap between the art world and global culture in Brooklyn and the world beyond. The Rotunda Gallery is the visual arts program of BRIC/Brooklyn Information & Culture, which presents media, performing and visual arts programming reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities.

Located in Brooklyn Heights, just over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the Gallery is a short walk from the 2,3; 4,5; M; or R trains at Court Street/Borough Hall; or the A, C trains at High Street.