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Gov­er­nors Island and the Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter Announce Out­door Film Series

May 1, 2018 12:16 pm

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, in part­ner­ship with the Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter, today announced a new out­door film series: ​‘Escape in New York: Out­door Films on Gov­er­nors Island’. The first ever film series pro­duced on Gov­er­nors Island will fea­ture four free screen­ings through­out the sea­son, inspired by the city we all call home. For its inau­gur­al year, the out­door film series will take place on the Island’s new­ly restored Parade Ground, an eight-acre lawn with expan­sive open views of Low­er Man­hat­tan. The series will be pro­duced by Rooftop Films.

“Thanks to expand­ed late sum­mer Fri­days and some of the best sky­line views, I can’t think of a bet­ter way to cel­e­brate our city than bring­ing New York­ers togeth­er under the stars for a New York City-themed film series,” said Michael Samuelian, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Our inau­gur­al part­ner­ship with the Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter is sure to become a sig­na­ture sum­mer event on Gov­er­nors Island that New York­ers look for­ward to for years to come.”

The Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter has part­nered with the Trust to curate film selec­tions this sum­mer, its first out­door series in decades. The theme for Escape in New York draws inspi­ra­tion from the Island’s icon­ic views and the sense of escape vis­i­tors enjoy when board­ing the fer­ry or watch­ing a film on the big screen. The series will kick off with a screen­ing of John Carpenter’s cult clas­sic Escape from New York on June 8. Oth­er films to be show­cased through­out the sea­son include The Last Drag­on, Ghost­busters, and Des­per­ate­ly Seek­ing Susan, each paired with an inde­pen­dent short film by a local New York film­mak­er. Rooftop Films will lead the tech­ni­cal pro­duc­tion on the series, bring­ing more than two decades of expe­ri­ence pro­duc­ing out­door movie screen­ings in New York City.

“In the 1970s and 80s, before we had our own the­aters, the Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter pre­sent­ed out­door screen­ings across New York,” said Lesli Klain­berg, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Film Soci­ety. ​“We are return­ing to our roots, in a sense, by part­ner­ing with Gov­er­nors Island on a free pub­lic film series, and we are thrilled to cel­e­brate the city’s his­to­ry by screen­ing these NYC clas­sics while also look­ing for­ward with con­tem­po­rary shorts by local filmmakers.”

Kick­ing off on June 8, the Escape in New York series will take place dur­ing Gov­er­nors Island’s Late Fri­days and will occur on the sec­ond Fri­day of every month between June and Sep­tem­ber. Screen­ings will be free and open to the pub­lic with pre-show enter­tain­ment kick­ing off at 7:00 PM and the films begin­ning at dusk.

“We are thrilled to part­ner with the Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter on a cul­tur­al pro­gram nev­er before pre­sent­ed at this scale on the Island,” added Mered­ith John­son, VP of Arts and Cul­ture at the Trust of Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Work­ing with Rooftop Films on the pro­duc­tion of this ground­break­ing series will be an exam­ple of art and pub­lic space com­ing togeth­er to shape quin­tes­sen­tial sum­mer mem­o­ries for tens of thou­sands of New Yorkers.”

Fer­ries dur­ing Late Fri­days will run from the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing in Low­er Man­hat­tan, locat­ed at 10 South Street. On film nights, they will depart Low­er Man­hat­tan at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 PM. Fer­ries will return to Low­er Man­hat­tan from Sois­sons Land­ing at 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00PM.

Full Sched­ule

June 8: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (John Car­pen­ter, 1981, 99m), with THE ROAD TO MAG­NAS­AN­TI (John Wil­son, 2017, 15m) 

July 13: DES­PER­ATE­LY SEEK­ING SUSAN (Susan Sei­del­man, 1985, 104m), with MY LAST FILM (Zia Anger, 2015, 9m) 

August 10: GHOST­BUSTERS (Ivan Reit­man, 1984, 107m), with REVIEW (Dustin Guy Defa, 2015, 4m) 

Sep­tem­ber 14: THE LAST DRAG­ON (Michael Shultz, 1985, 109m), with HER­NIA (Jay Giampi­etro, 2015, 12m) 

Gov­er­nors Island is open dai­ly through Octo­ber 31. The Island is open to the pub­lic from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM week­days, week­ends from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Fri­days between May 25 and Sep­tem­ber 14 until 10:00 PM. Fer­ries will be free dur­ing open­ing week, May 1‑May 6. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

About the Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Center

The Film Soci­ety of Lin­coln Cen­ter is devot­ed to sup­port­ing the art and ele­vat­ing the craft of cin­e­ma. The only branch of the world-renowned arts com­plex Lin­coln Cen­ter to shine a light on the ever­last­ing yet evolv­ing impor­tance of the mov­ing image, this non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion was found­ed in 1969 to cel­e­brate Amer­i­can and inter­na­tion­al film. Via year-round pro­gram­ming and dis­cus­sions; its annu­al New York Film Fes­ti­val; and its pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing Film Com­ment, the U.S.’s pre­mier mag­a­zine about films and film cul­ture, the Film Soci­ety endeav­ors to make the dis­cus­sion and appre­ci­a­tion of cin­e­ma acces­si­ble to a broad­er audi­ence, as well as to ensure that it will remain an essen­tial art form for years to come.

For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.filml​nc​.org.