Outdoor Screenings at Dusk Return Uptown

Film Works Alfresco, the free outdoor film series screening English- and Spanish-language movies, is returning in 2021 after a hiatus due to the pandemic. “Our festival was one of the first ones cancelled, so I’m really pleased that we’re running one of the first uptown arts events to come back,” said Aaron Simms, curator of Film Works Alfresco.

Resilience and a sense of community said to drive recovery in Inwood

Standup Comedian Kevin Berrey is just emerging from the isolation of the pandemic. “You’re the first person I’ve seen without a mask for it feels like about six years,” Berrey said to Aaron Simms, as he started his podcast, “Inwood Art Works On Air.”

Simms started promoting Inwood art and artists a decade ago, and launched his podcast as the pandemic hit. “This community was hit pretty hard by the pandemic,” Simms said.

Jobs They Love: Creative Producer

New York City theater manager Aaron Simms has an impressive list of credits on his resume. He’s helped raise the curtain on scores of successful Broadway and Off-Broadway productions over the past 12 years. As anyone in theater can tell you, that’s a lot of long days and nights of hard work, managing ever-shifting schedules and promotions, paying the bills, keeping hordes of actors and directors and crew from strangling each other and creatively solving a million unexpected glitches on the fly.

When he does get to finally go home for the night, Aaron takes the subway to Manhattan’s northernmost neighborhood, Inwood, peacefully hidden away from the hubbub of Times Square and the Village. That is where Aaron eventually undertook his biggest production of all, Inwood Art Works, an organization that promotes the works of the many creatives who live in his own back yard.

Inwood Art Works launches filmmaker fund

A new filmmaker fund has been launched to inspire the creation of cinema within the Inwood community.

Provided by Inwood Art Works, the grant will allow local filmmakers to access up to $5,000 to fund film projects made between September 2019 and August 2020.

Film Works Alfresco: Free Summer Movies in Inwood Hill Park

Film Works Al Fresco

Every year New Yorkers engage in an important rite of summer. We dig out lawn chairs and blankets from small, overstuffed closets and—snack-filled tote bags in hand—we stream into various city parks at dusk to watch movies under the stars.

For the third year in a row, Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan can count itself among those parks offering free summer films. This is thanks to Film Works Alfresco, a cinema series started by Aaron Simms.

Free Outdoor Film Series Returns To Inwood

A free outdoor film series will return to Inwood Hill Park for the second consecutive year, the arts group that hosts the series announced Monday.

Inwood Art Works will host eleven free screenings at Inwood Hill Park’s Gaelic Field every Monday between June 4 and August 27 as part of its Film Works Alfresco series, Inwood Art Works said in a press release. Film Works Alfresco is New York City’s only English and Spanish language free outdoor screening series, the group said.