Join the Bronx Library Center on Kingsbridge Road on Saturday May 17 for a movie marathon of popular films set in the Bronx.
The Bronx Week Film Festival celebrates the borough’s mark on pop culture and film throughout history. Here’s this year’s lineup:
11 AM
“The Warriors” (1979)
Gangs from all over New York City meet for a summit in Van Cortlandt Park when a Brooklyn based gang, The Warriors, are wrongfully accused of murdering a rival gang leader. Stranded in the Bronx, The Warriors must make it back to their home turf while dodging violence and police. Despite controversy surrounding its initial release, which prompted a wave of vandalism and violence forcing Paramount Pictures to pull its advertising, the film saw a resurgence as a cult classic.
12:30PM
“Beat Street” (1984)
Two brothers and their friends growing up in the South Bronx around the birth of Hip Hop make their performance debuts at nightclubs around the city. Eldest brother Kenny “Double K” Kirkland, an MC and DJ, and his younger brother Lee who is a talented break dancer, compete with other young artists across the city to try and make it in showbusiness.
2:30PM
“Finding Forrester” (2000)
A grumpy and reclusive author befriends a teenaged basketball player in the Bronx when the young man breaks into his apartment on a dare. Over time the writer realizes the teenaged boy is an intelligent student and talented young writer himself and begins to mentor him. As the young man’s grades and writing improve, he becomes more isolated from his friends and begins to be heavily scrutinized by one of his teachers, leading to problems at school.
4:30PM
“Marty” (1955)
A lonely and socially awkward butcher in the Bronx meets a homely school teacher after she is abandoned on a blind date. Marty and Clara spend a terrific evening together dancing, laughing, walking together and sharing about their lives and dreams. But Marty almost lets his friends and family influence talk him out of pursuing a real relationship with Clara when they put her down for being so plain. This Academy Award winning film was officially preserved in the Library of Congress in 1994.
