“Oh man, the score,” said Allen Guzman, 17, of what attracts him to “Star Wars.” He was dressed as a Jedi on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, and cosplaying with his little brother Adrian, 11.
Photo ET Rodriguez
The force was strong in Van Cortlandt Park on Friday as Siths, Jedis and Baby Yoda battled it out with glowing lightsabers that brilliantly contrasted against an ominous pink and blue sky.
Fans, cosplayers and local politicos alike gathered at the park’s grassy parade grounds for a screening of George Lucas’ highly regarded 1977 masterpiece, “Star Wars” (later retitled, “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.”) Unfortunately, the movie was canceled due to gusty conditions, but that didn’t take the wind out the sails of attendees. The screening was also scheduled in conjunction with what was supposed to be a closing party for a recent art exhibit in the park. Instead, it was a celebration of the exhibit’s extension through Dec. 1.
Photoville’s “Fandom Unbound” by photographer and curator Rhynna Santos is a documentary photo series of “Star Wars” cosplayers intended to spotlight the growing diversity of the body types and backgrounds of fans while “redrawing the boundaries of inclusion.”
“I like to tell people that a long time ago on an island far far away, I saw ‘Star Wars’,” Santos told the Bronx Times while dressed as Princess Leia in the character’s famous white gown, sinched with a silver belt and complete with the iconic two-bun hairstyle.
Santos was a young child in Puerto Rico when her father took her to watch the film at a theater she still visits when she returns to her hometown. And although Santos did not speak English and admits to not understanding the movie at the time, she was captivated by its visuals and felt a “bodily response.”
Bullied as a child and navigating the separation of her parents, Santos used “Star Wars” as an escape from her emotional woes by diving…
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