New Haven Green will go “back to the future” — or take the past back to the future — with free films this summer.
For five weeks beginning July 15, the silver screen will come to the New Haven Green on Friday evenings with free “Friday Flicks.”
Friday Flicks took place on the Green a decade ago, until 2004, according to Gross. Groups this year plan to screen movies in Edgewood Park and Chatham Square as well this summer. LCI hopes eventually to screen movies in Newhallville.
The Livable City Initiative (LCI), city government’s neighborhoods and housing inspection agency, spearheaded the effort to bring back Friday Flicks this year. LCI chief Erik Johnson and helper Ben Gross succeeded in raising over $20,000 in a couple of weeks.
Besides LCI, sponsors include Continuum of Care, the Bennington Group, Trinity Financial, Northland Investments, Dunhill Capital, Laz Parking, Pike International, Yale University and the city’s parks and cultural affairs departments. Johnson worked closely with Barbara Lamb and Kim Futrell of the cultural affairs office on the series.
Jacob Cohn Photo
Erik Johnson (right) and Yale Public Interest Fellow Ben Gross review promotional cards for Friday Flicks.
Johnson said that Friday Flicks will have a “family friendly” theme. In the end, the films chosen generally represented a mix of new and old classics. In order of screening date, the five films shown will be “Men in Black,” “Back to the Future,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Finding Nemo” and “The Last Days of the Coliseum.” (A list with exact dates can be found below.)
The city will set up a 40-foot screen (drive-in movie theater sized) and speakers on the Green courtesy of the rental service FunFlicks.Popocorn will be free on a first-come first-served basis until it runs out.
For Johnson, the flicks represent an “opportunity to give residents and their families a chance to come down to the New Haven Green at no cost and enjoy themselves.” He expressed a hope that Friday Flicks would once again become “another annual thing on the Green.”
The schedule follows; showings begin at 8:30 p.m.
July 15: Men in Black (1997): Two men who keep an eye on aliens in New York City must try to save the world after the aliens threaten to blow it up.
July 22: Back to the Future (1985): In 1985, Doc Brown invents time travel; in 1955, Marty McFly accidentally prevents his parents from meeting, putting his own existence at stake.
July 29: The Blues Brothers (1980): Jake Blues, just out from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised.
Aug. 5: Finding Nemo (2003): A father-son underwater adventure featuring Nemo, a boy clownfish, stolen from his coral reef home. His timid father must then travel to Sydney and search Sydney Harbour to find Nemo.
Aug. 12: The Last Days of the Coliseum (2010): The complete story of the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the baby boomers who called it home for 30 years, put together by Quinnipiac University’s Rich Hanley.
This is great! Hopefully, a few short-sighted downtown merchants will not lobby to kill this, as they did last time, incorrectly fearing that they were being hurt by it.