Rivertowns Dispatch: Mercy kicks off Art Exchange with film influenced by 9/11
The below feature story on the launch of the Art Exchange at Mercy University (“ArtEx”), a new initiative designed to strengthen cultural connections between the university and local River Towns communities, was published in the Rivertowns Dispatch on September 21, 2026.
By Julian Caldwell
Mercy University is launching an arts-focused initiative, The Art Exchange (ArtEx), with a free screening of “Martyr of Gowanus,” starring Steven Spielberg’s son, Sawyer Spielberg. The 9/11-themed film is directed by Long Island native Brian Meere, who will participate in a Q&A after the screening next Friday, Sept. 25, at Mercy’s Main Hall in Dobbs Ferry.
The film centers around a young man living in Brooklyn who struggles with loneliness and rejection during the months before and after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center 25 years ago.
The screening inaugurates The Art Exchange program, which is a project of Mercy University School of Liberal Arts professors Kristen Keckler and Marc Palmieri. Palmieri is also a theater actor and playwright who went to high school on Long Island with Meere and was living in Manhattan’s East Village when the Twin Towers came down.
“The first plane went right over my head on September 11,” Palmieri told the Dispatch. “I was walking to a magazine-writing job that I had on Lafayette Street, and I was in rehearsals for a play at the time.”
Palmieri was 30 years old and still finding his identity as he watched friends die in the attack and relatives in the FDNY dig for survivors or remains in “The Pile.” He’s seen the film twice, and relates to the main character, Gavin (Spielberg), for how much it makes Gavin question what role he’s supposed to play in the aftermath.
“The film really focuses intimately on those confusions and that disorientation that really filtered through everyone in different ways,” Palmieri explained. “I think our audience will relate to this because we are so close to downtown New York City where this happened.”
As part of their vision for The Arts Exchange, Palmieri and Keckler want to produce events on the Dobbs Ferry campus that are open to the public and promote the talents of local creatives, as well as Mercy’s own faculty and staff. The plan includes partnering with local arts organizations to cover a variety of mediums, from “theater, to dance, certainly music, even some healing arts, culinary arts,” Palmieri said.
The screening and Q&A for “Martyr of Gowanus” will take place Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Mercy University, 555 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry. The event is free, but registration is required. To RSVP, email artex@mercy.edu with your name and the number of attendees.