Uptown Film Center Launches Summer Film Series Across Upper Manhattan

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — As Uptown Film Center works toward opening a permanent home in the former Metro Theater, the nonprofit is bringing moviegoers together this summer with a season-long film series celebrating community, nostalgia and the shared experience of cinema.

The new pop-up series, "Tales of Summer," will run from June 3 through Sept. 18 at venues across The Upper West Side, Morningside Heights and Harlem, featuring classics, documentaries, a New York premiere and three free outdoor screenings.

For Ira Deutchman, president of Uptown Film Center, the series is about more than entertainment. It's also a chance to show neighbors what the organization hopes to bring permanently to the Upper West Side.

"All of our pop-up series are based on the fact that we want the neighborhood to understand the kind of programming that we want to do when we open the film center," Deutchman told Patch. "We want the programming to be as diverse as possible and make it as accessible as possible."

The lineup includes Kathleen Collins' landmark film "Losing Ground," the New York premiere of "The Floaters," a screening of "Footloose" followed by a Q&A with Kevin Bacon, and Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom."

Free outdoor screenings of "Summer of Soul," "Mamma Mia!" and "In the Heights" are also planned.

Screenings will take place at several venues across Upper Manhattan, including the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, the Maysles Documentary Center, Morningside Park, Riverside Park and a stretch of Amsterdam Avenue that will be transformed into an outdoor movie theater for one night.

The series comes as Uptown Film Center continues fundraising and planning efforts to transform the long-vacant former Metro Theater at Broadway and West 99th Street into a five-screen nonprofit arthouse cinema and community space.

The organization hopes to open the theater by the end of 2028. In the meantime, he sees the summer series as a reminder that movies can still bring people together in an age dominated by streaming.

"We believe that every film experience is enhanced by seeing it with other people," Deutchman said. "There's a magic to sharing an experience with other people that absolutely cannot be reproduced in the home."

Tickets and a full schedule are available through Uptown Film Center's website.

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.