Movies in the Park expands this summer, by Brian Abate

The Red Hook Business Alliance is presenting Movies in the Park which includes movies in Coffey Park and Valentino Pier Park.

There was one movie scheduled to be shown in each park in June and July, and The Great Dictator will be shown on August 9 at Valentino Pier Park, and Loving Vincent will be shown on August 13 at Coffey Park. However, due to a couple of rainouts, The Wild Robot will be shown on the second Saturday in September at Valentino Pier Park, and The Muppets Take Manhattan will be shown on the following Wednesday in Coffey Park. If there’s a chance of bad weather, an update will be posted on the Red Hook Business Alliance’s Instagram account about whether or not the movie will be shown.

I stopped by Coffey Park to watch The Wiz, which was shown at dusk on July 13. The Wiz is a musical reimagining of The Wizard of Oz with many stars in the cast, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor, Mabel King, and Nipsey Russell. Despite hot, humid weather a crowd of about 40 people showed up to watch the movie. Many brought lawn chairs, blankets, and snacks.
Before the movie started, there were trivia questions and winners got picnic blankets. There was a brief scare when the inflatable screen used to show the movie suddenly deflated; however it only took ten minutes to reflate.

Carly Baker-Rice of the Red Hook Business Alliance, Maggie Beutner Cheung, and Steven Carmona of Green Lung Studio all played key roles in making Movies in the Park happen and tailoring it to the needs of people in Red Hook.

“There were a few different events that had occurred going back a few years,” Baker-Rice said. “Our council member had done some movies in Coffey Park, and before COVID, there was a regular movie night in Valentino. We talked to our council member’s office about helping to fund a movie night, and last year was our first year bringing it back.

“This year, we’ve expanded it to different locations, different days of the week, and movies for different age groups. We’re trying to reach a lot of different audiences in Red Hook, and we also want it to be attractive for visitors. We got feedback that people didn’t want to just have family movies, so I brought Steven Carmona in this year to curate a new set of films.”

“We thought it was important to have films that make people think and be active participants,” Carmona said. “We wanted to be diverse and hit as many groups and identities as we could, so we’re proud of the movies we have this year. There are political films, there are queer-representing films, and we have Loving Vincent, which was fully hand-painted and goes against all of the AI things.

Those were important statements.
“We started with a list of 30 movies, and we did some adding and subtracting until we felt like we found the best ones. We had some that were making statements like The Great Dictator, and then we had others that are fun and awesome because it’s The Muppets.”

“Half of the battle has been getting the word out,” Carmona said. “Red Hook can be very insular.

Artists come here and work in their studios, and families can get into the routine of coming home by 8 every night. Spreading the word as much as possible is the biggest thing.”
To do so, they have taped up street signs, had some ads in and out of the neighborhood, used a news letter, and Instagram.

“It’s not a perfect process yet, but I think we’ll get better at it over time,” Baker-Rice said.

A couple of years ago the Red Hook Business Alliance had a commercial district needs assessment and the feedback was that people wanted more family things to do, more things in the evening, and cheap things to do. Movies in the Park does all three and has already grown from last year.

“We’re a ragtag group of volunteers working together to make this happen,” Carmona said. It’s been fun, and we know how to put up a 32-foot screen now.”

“There were a few minutes of stress and panic when the screen deflated [just before The Wiz started], and everyone went running over to it,” Beutner Cheung said. “Thankfully, we just had to get the air back in it, and everything turned out fine.”

Everyone did a great job and made sure the movie was still able to get started without much of a delay. The hope is that this is just the beginning for Movies in the Park.

“For future goals, we’d like to have more events in the newly renovated Red Hook parks,” Baker-Rice said. “We also would like to have screenings of local filmmakers who have something that they’re working on and want to share, or get people excited about the Red Hook Film Festival. We want to continue evolving to serve the most people possible and make this a beloved part of summers here in Red Hook.”