Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Film at Lincoln Center announce the free outdoor film series lineup, part of Summer For the City, kicking off July 13.

​​Summer for the City is Lincoln Center’s three-month-long summer festival featuring more than 1,000 artists from New York City and beyond, performing across 10 outdoor stages. From May to August, Summer for the City will animate every corner of the Center’s 16-acre campus with over 300 free and Choose What You Pay concerts, film screenings, dance nights, theater, comedy, pop-up performances, civic events, family-friendly days, and more, a reflection of the multifaceted communities of New York. For more information, visit SummerfortheCity.org.

The Summer For the City outdoor film series promises to delight and thrill moviegoers, with iconic titles including the seminal music documentaries, Wim Wenders’ Academy Award nominated Buena Vista Social Club and Gimme Shelter, following the Rolling Stones during their notorious 1969 tour, directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin; quintessential 1954 monster classic Godzilla and the 1955 follow-up Godzilla Raids Again; Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi cult favorite Time Bandits; Mystery Train, Jim Jarmusch’s boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to Memphis and considered to be his finest directorial offering; Jennie Livingston’s landmark documentary Paris Is Burning, a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene; NYFF35 selection Happy Together, Wong Kar Wai’s raw, lushly stylized portrayal of a relationship in breakdown; and Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, the first in the Hulot series which launched director Jacques Tati into international stardom.

Acknowledgements:
Janus Films, New York Asian Film Festival

Entry to all outdoor screenings will be available for FREE via General Admission—first-come, first-served. Advance reservations are not required; just line up along the west side of Barclay’s Grove at Hearst Plaza (30 Lincoln Center Plaza). Seating will open to the public 30 minutes before showtime. All screenings will use headsets. Learn more here.

At this time, face coverings and proof of COVID-19 vaccination will not be required for outdoor events; however, face coverings are welcome and we encourage everyone to complete their primary vaccination series and get boosted before attending. Learn more here.

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films will take place outdoors at Hearst Plaza (30 Lincoln Center Plaza). In the event of a postponement due to inclement weather, rain dates include July 28 and July 31. Stay tuned to @filmlinc on Twitter and Instagram for updates.

Buena Vista Social Club
Wim Wenders, United States, 1999, 105m

Buena Vista Social Club

With a small film crew, Wim Wenders accompanied his old friend Ry Cooder, who had written the music for Paris, Texas and The End of Violence, on a trip to Havana. Cooder wanted to record his material for Ibrahim Ferrer’s solo album at a studio there—following the recording of the first Buena Vista Social Club CD (which had not yet been released at that time). Wenders immersed himself in the world of Cuban music. Over the course of several months, he observed and accompanied the musicians—first at home in Havana; then, weeks later, in April 1998, on their trip to Amsterdam for the first public performance of the band (who had never played together outside a studio); then, still later, in July 1998, to their triumphal concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He thus followed the old heroes of the traditional Cuban son music on their path from being completely forgotten to becoming world famous—within the period of just a few months. “I thought, I’ll shoot a documentary,” Wenders has said, “and here we were, about to witness a fairy tale that no one could have imagined in this form.” The music documentary became a cinematic sensation and an international success. Along with an Academy Award nomination for best documentary film, Buena Vista Social Club won in the same category at the European Film Awards, the German Film Prize in Gold, Germany’s Golden Camera, and the Grand Prize for Film in Brazil, as well as garnering numerous other awards. A Janus Films release.
Wednesday, July 13 at 9:00pm

Mystery Train
Jim Jarmusch, United States, 1989, 110m

Mystery Train

Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch, is Memphis. Made with its director’s customary precision and wit, this triptych of stories pays playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch’s very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world. A Janus Films release.
Thursday, July 14 at 9:00pm

Gimme Shelter
David Maysles, Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, United States, 1970, 91m

Gimme Shelter

Called the greatest rock film ever made, this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway, Direct Cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin were there to immortalize on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade’s dreams into disillusionment. A Janus Films release.
Friday, July 15 at 10:00pm

Happy Together
Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 1997, 96m 

Happy Together

One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong’s raw, lushly stylized portrayal of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung as a couple traveling through Argentina and locked in a turbulent pattern of infatuation and destructive jealousy. Capturing the dynamics of a queer relationship with empathy and complexity on the cusp of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong—when the country’s LGBTQ community suddenly faced an uncertain future—Wong crafts a feverish portrait of the life cycle of a love affair that’s by turns devastating and delirious. Shot by Christopher Doyle in both luminous monochrome and saturated color, Happy Together is an intoxicating exploration of displacement and desire. An NYFF35 selection. A Janus Films release. Presented by New York Asian Film Festival with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York.
Saturday, July 16 at 9:00pm

Paris Is Burning
Jennie Livingston, United States, 1990, 76m

Paris is Burning

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene. Made over seven years, Paris Is Burning offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion “houses,” from fierce contests for trophies, to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia and transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women—including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza—Paris Is Burning brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community. A Janus Films release.
Thursday, July 21 at 10:00pm

Time Bandits
Terry Gilliam, United Kingdom, 1981, 116m

Time Bandits

In this fantastic voyage through time and space from Terry Gilliam, a boy named Kevin (Craig Warnock) escapes his gadget-obsessed parents to join a band of time-traveling dwarfs. Armed with a map stolen from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson), they plunder treasure from Napoleon (Ian Holm) and Agamemnon (Sean Connery)—but the Evil Genius (David Warner) is watching their every move. Featuring a darkly playful script by Gilliam and his Monty Python cohort Michael Palin (who also appears in the film), Time Bandits is at once a giddy fairy tale, a revisionist history lesson, and a satire of technology gone awry. A Janus Films release.
Friday, July 22 at 9:00pm

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
Jacques Tati, France, 1953, 87m

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday

Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort, where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s masterpiece of gentle slapstick is a series of effortlessly well-choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers; it was the first entry in the Hulot series and the film that launched its maker to international stardom. A Janus Films release.
Saturday, July 23 at 9:00pm

Godzilla
Ishiro Honda, Japan, 1954, 96m

Godzilla

Godzilla (a.k.a. Gojira) is the roaring granddaddy of all monster movies. It’s also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama, made in Japan at a time when the country was reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning almost thirty sequels. A Janus Films release.
Friday, July 29 at 9:00pm

Godzilla Raids Again
Motoyoshi Oda, Japan, 1955, 81m

Godzilla Raids Again

Toho Studios followed the enormous success of the original Godzilla with this sequel, efficiently directed by Motoyoshi Oda as a straight-ahead monsters-on-the-loose drama. An underrated standout among the Showa Godzilla films, Godzilla Raids Again introduces the monster-versus-monster format that would dominate the remainder of the series, pitting Godzilla against the ferocious, spiny Anguirus as the kaiju wreak havoc in the streets of Osaka in a series of elaborate set pieces that succeed in upping the ante for destruction. A Janus Films release.
Saturday, July 30 at 9:00pm