IFC Center
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40°43′52″N74°00′05″W/ 40.731149°N 74.001516°W
IFC Centeris anart housemovie theater inGreenwich Village,Manhattan,New York City.Located at 323Sixth Avenue(Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly theWaverly Theater,an art house movie theater. IFC Center is owned byAMC Networks(known until July 1, 2011, as Rainbow Media), the entertainment company that owns the cable channelsAMC,BBC America(49.99% stake and a joint venture withBBC Studios),IFC,We TVandSundance TVand the offshoot film companyIFC Films.
Description and history
[edit]AMC Networkshas positioned the theater as an extension of its cable channel IFC (Independent Film Channel) because IFC was to take over the building. IFC has converted the historic building, originally built as a church in the early 19th century, into a three-, and eventually five-theater facility. The theater is equipped to screen 35mm and high-definition digital video. The complex originally included digital editing suites, a meeting area, and a restaurant called The Waverly, in recognition of the site's past, but those spaces have since been converted. (The Waverly restaurant was closed and renovated into two additional screens, bringing the theater's total screen count to five in 2009.)[1]In addition to regularly scheduled films, the Center plays host to special screenings such as premieres, educational programs and film festival screenings.
IFC Center opened on June 17, 2005 with the filmMe and You and Everyone We Know,distributed byIFC Films.The opening was not without controversy; for the first several weeks, patrons were welcomed to the theater by apicket lineand a giantinflatable rat.The center had opened employing only non-union projectionists prompting a protest from theIATSElocal 306.[2]
It currently hosts theDOC NYCfestival, and co-hosts theHuman Rights WatchFilm Festival.
IFC's weekly series, formerly titled "At The Angelika" (filmed at the nearbyAngelika Theater) relocated to IFC Center and thus the show was retitled "At The IFC". The show ran through the mid-2000s.
In popular culture
[edit]The Waverly Theatre is referenced numerous times in the 1968 Broadway musicalHair,including the song "Frank Mills" sung by the character Crissy at the end of Act One.
The Waverly was also known as the original home of the midnight audience-participation screenings of the movie version ofThe Rocky Horror Picture Show,which ran there for many years, spawning similar showings in other cities.
Back to the Well,the making-of documentary forClerks 2has a scene filmed at the IFC Center where atest screeningis held forClerks 2withBob Weinsteinin attendance.
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^Itzkoff, Dave (October 3, 2009)."IFC Center Plans to Add Two Movie Screens".The New York Times.RetrievedApril 27,2024.
- ^Halter, Ed (July 26, 2005)."Celebrities get involved as IFC Center union protests continue".The Village Voice.Archived fromthe originalon April 24, 2006.RetrievedMarch 31,2006.
External links
[edit]- IFC Center
- Offbeat Movie Theaters in NYCatNY.com
- Gimme Danger, Gimme Great Films: Both at the IFC - 2016 review and history[1]ArchivedJanuary 18, 2017, at theWayback Machine