A cinema paradiso looms high above the city

By Jefferson Siegel

Each year when the warm weather arrives, people crowd drive-in movies and outdoor film screenings because there’s nothing quite like watching a movie under the stars.

One of New York’s benefits is the ability to see a movie even closer to the stars than one could imagine. For 11 years, Rooftop Films has been screening independently produced films in reclaimed public spaces, many high above the city’s theaters and streets.

Last Thursday night in Greenwich Village, approximately 200 people rode elevators to the 11th floor of Westbeth, which bills itself as the largest live-work artists community in the world. Walking through a large dance studio, they emerged onto a roof with stunning views of the Hudson River and Downtown.

Formerly the Bell Laboratories building, Westbeth was also one of the stops along the High Line, the elevated West Side railroad now under restoration as a public promenade.

In recognition of the locale, Rooftop Films presented a series of short films about reclaimed spaces. The program was co-presented by Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit that helped make the elevated park a reality, and in partnership with IFC.com and New York Magazine.

Not surprisingly, the many moviegoers clung to the roof balcony, their cell-phone cameras clicking away.

“This is probably what a lot of filmmakers dream about for their films,”said Chelsea resident Jennifer Winston. Winston had just returned from travels to several film festivals for screenings of her documentary, “Fisher Poets.” “Rooftops are the place for New Yorkers,” she said as dusk fell and the lights of the West Village and Downtown slowly blinked alive.

Moviegoers also got to mingle to the sounds of recorded trance music and a half-hour live performance by the band Drew and the Mechanical Pen before the film program. The first of a dozen films, Brian Doyle’s “Launch” was a reverie on a decaying NASA launch pad and the surrounding empty houses. A booming soundtrack of birds and visions of curtains fluttering through empty windows was enhanced by the humid evening and cool breezes blowing in from the Hudson River.

And as stars slowly lit the sky and more films lit the screen, every seat in this unique aerie stayed filled.