Coney Island 2011: Free Movie Screenings on the Beach

April 27, 2011 by Tricia

Rooftop Films outdoor movie screenings include such venues as the roof of El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. Photo © Dillon DeWaters via Rooftop Films

UPDATE… JULY 9, 2012… The 2012 season of Coney Island Flicks on the Beach began on July 2 and continues on Monday nights through August 6. The schedule includes Bound for Glory featuring David Carradine as Woody Guthrie, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and Jim Henson’s The Muppets. Full schedule at “Coney Island 2012: Free Movie Screenings on the Beach” (ATZ, July 9, 2012).

Rooftop Films, a nonprofit which has been showing underground films outdoors in New York City since 1997, will bring free movie screenings to Coney Island’s beach this summer. The Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC), NYC & Company and EpixHD are partnering with Rooftop to launch the new Coney Island Film Series.

Lela Scott-MacNeil of Rooftop Films tells ATZ that the Coney Island screenings will be free of charge and the program is being put together especially for the new venue. “It is not part of our regular summer series,” said Scott-McNeil. When details of the Coney Island program are announced, ATZ will post an update.

Rooftop’s 14th Summer Series of “Underground Movies Outdoors” includes 25 feature films and over 150 short films in themed programs. Screening venues include Fort Greene Park, Socrates Sculpture Park and the roofs of Brooklyn Tech, El Museo del Barrio and Brooklyn Grange in Long Island City. According to Rooftop’s website: “We couple films with venues, and connect artists with audiences so that each event is unique and memorable.”

A tip of the hat to our friend Brian Hedden of the South Brooklyn blog BK Southie, who wrote in January, “Dear Luna Park, make this happen, movies at the beach.” Today he says: “Hey, I’m glad someone was listening back when I was begging for beachside movies!” ATZ urges BK Southie and everyone else to keep the ideas coming for event programming in Coney Island. Your idea could turn out to be the next new thing! We also ask our readers: What movies would you like to see on the big screen at Coney Island’s beach?

UPDATE, May 16, 2011…

NYC & Co. announced the schedule for the new film series today. Coney Island Flicks on the Beach will be shown on Monday nights at sundown on the beach between W 10th and W 12th Streets. The series begins on July 11 with Saturday Night Fever. Here’s the full schedule…

July 11 - Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The ’70s disco-kid flick stars a young John Travolta in an Oscar-nominated performance as Tony Manero, a Brooklyn teen who works a dead-end job and suffers from “night fever,” but knows how to boogie it off. The film is famously set in NYC, largely in the now-closed Bay Ridge disco 2001 Odyssey.

July 18 - Rango (2011)
This animated comedy-western follows Rango (Johnny Depp), a domesticated lizard, as he stumbles upon a town in the Old West and winds up becoming sheriff, only to brave a rattlesnake showdown.

July 25 – Top Gun (1986)
Revisit the time when Tom Cruise was Maverick, a too-cool-for-school Navy fighter pilot recruit, fueled by the need for speed. The hit film celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

August 1- Iron Man 2 (2010)
Now that the world knows the double identity of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as the armored superhero, everyone wants the Iron Man technology. Stark refuses to hand it over. But the evil Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has built his own weapon to retaliate.

August 8  – Annie Hall (1977)
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton star in this romantic comedy as a neurotic yet charming New York couple who fall in love after an awkward meeting, flirt in Central Park, argue over lobsters in the Hamptons and, eventually, split.

August 15  – Moonstruck (1987)
Cher plays Loretta, a widowed, 30-something Brooklyn bookkeeper who, while indifferently engaged to Johnny (Danny Aiello), falls for her fiancé’s estranged brother, Ronny (a young, hairy and angry Nicolas Cage).

August 22  – Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011)
Watch the Biebs prepare for his first sold-out show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. This documentary is titled for his song and mantra: “Never Say Never.”

August 29  – How She Move (2008)
After her older sister dies suddenly, a talented teen flubs her chance at a private-school scholarship and moves back home to her family’s crime-ridden neighborhood. But after she earns a spot on a respected step crew, she discovers how her dance skills can deliver the future she dreams of.

When the weather is iffy, check the Coney Island tweeters on Coney Island Fun’s list for updates here.