Jacob Burns Film Center
The Jacob Burns Film Center, located in the charming downtown village of Pleasantville, is a movie mecca, a bastion of the big screen, and a seat of cinema. Jacob Burns has the curated clip and the featured flick for everyone from movie maven to…‘maybe we should catch a matinee’, and it’s much more than just another multiplex!
Jacob Burns is an art house theater with five screens, three of which are newly refurbished, and with an art gallery and the newly opened ‘Take 3’ Wine Bar & Cafe on the third floor. Designed by Jacob Burns Board Member Laureen Barber, co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Take 3 is a cozy spot to enjoy wine, beer, and locally sourced specialty foods, before or after a movie.
But beyond the fabulous facilities, the super staff at Jacob Burns makes the programming powerful and curatorially compelling. Executive Director Mary Jo Zeisel, who joined Jacob Burns almost three years ago as life-after-covid was being reimagined, declares, “I’m proud to boast that Jacob Burns has a unique range of both theatrical and educational programming. Our biggest theater seats 245 and allows for large-scale screenings and events, and our smaller theaters upstairs provide a more intimate experience. This is a gorgeous place, and the whole movie-going experience is really enjoyable and quite comfortable. And our educational offering - to the community - is second to none! Jacob Burns is a museum, a school for K-12, a university, a film lab, and an entertainment destination, all rolled into one!”
Chris Holliday, Interim Director of Film Programming, expounds on the breadth and depth of the cinematic offering, “We do a lot of film series, with themes like ‘Sounds of Summer’, ‘Focus on Nature’, ‘Pride: A Celebration of Queer Stories’, and ‘Jazz’. We present a film and then bring in the writer, producer, director, actor, or all of them, to do a Q&A with the audience. Like when we showed Joan Baez: I Am Noise and Joan Baez and the Director came to speak, or when Tim Robbins came to speak about his film Bob Roberts. We do retrospectives on particular artists and movie genres. Monica Castillo, our Senior Film Programmer, curated the ‘Restored and Rediscovered’ film festival we’re showing from May 13 through 23, a series featuring discussions with key figures in film preservation and restoration. We play action films and old-school blockbusters. We literally search the globe to source a lot of international films. And we show cult films, like our annual Star Wars screenings on May 4th for our ‘May the 4th Be With You’ festival. …My goal is to present something for everyone!
I want to satisfy students of cinematography and the most intense fans of every movie genre, and show great films that will attract even the most casual movie goer.“
“Beyond showing movies, our educational programming really is quite unique,” Brandon Shenkman, Director of Education at Jacob Burns, and who’s been with Jacob Burns for 11 years, proclaims with a measure of pride. “At the ‘entry’ level, we host field trips for Grades 3 through 12 for about 50 local schools - and we foot the bill for about 70% of those students in order to remove any financial barrier to entry. For more interested students up through the high school level, we offer after-school filmmaking classes and have a robust summer camp. We schedule special movie showings for students, with student-led talks with the producers, actors, or subjects from the movie…and 400 students show-up! And for the most dedicated high schoolers, we have the Emerging Screenwriter Fellowship, where we select ten applicants to participate in a seven-week course, at no cost. Each participant is required to produce a 10-page screenplay for a short film, and the program culminates in a table read by a team of professional actors. And then this Fall we will also have a parallel all-Spanish Emerging Screenwriter Fellowship, where all the classes and performances are done in Spanish! For collegiate, graduate-level, and adult education, we collaborate with New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and offer programming in filmmaking, production, and cinematic studies. Sometimes, we’re privileged to host master classes with our sponsors and supporters, who include giants in the film world, like local Ron Howard. And, as a part of the work we do to support and encourage emerging artists, we have an artists-in-residence program, and even have a residence next door to the theater so artists can spend time in Pleasantville while working on a film or on any collaboration with Jacob Burns. I want our students, our emerging filmmakers, and the adults who just take one class, to be able to experience the joy of film, and learn something about the craft, all at one-in-the-same time.”
Denise Treco, Jacob Burns’ Director of Marketing and Communications, adds, “My job is actually pretty easy because the cinematic and educational offerings at Jacob Burns sell themselves. But as if that weren’t enough, in April we opened ‘Take 3’, a really cool wine bar and cafe, to enhance the whole movie-going experience. And as an added attraction, we have the Jane Peck Gallery, which is currently showing an exhibition of works by Bill Gold, who’s most famous for having done the original movie posters for such films as Casablanca, Dirty Harry, My Fair Lady, and Clockwork Orange, and the show is curated by his widow and collaborator, New Canaanite Susan Gold.
Jacob Burns is family-friendly and inclusive, with a variety of appropriate programming, including family programming every Saturday, and monthly sensory-friendly screenings. The whole idea of inclusivity is a big part of the Jacob Burns culture, and that goes for curatorial choices, and the staff making Jacob Burns a welcoming place for everyone.”
“Out on a Friday night,” Mary Jo beckons, “...you can count on there being something good at the Burns! Want to see the latest foreign film or a restoration of your favorite old classic…check the Burns’ schedule and you’re sure to find what interests you. Feeling like you could use some intellectual stimulation…take a master class at the Jacob Burns Film Center. Looking to put something with your group on your social calendar…plan ahead for a dinner in Pleasantville and tickets to see a movie at Jacob Burns. Just looking for something to do…come see whatever’s showing and grab a cappuccino at Take 3. …It’s a heck of a lot closer and more convenient than a night in Manhattan! …And a great local venue for ‘Puttin On The Ritz’!”