Man crossing at Amsterdam and West 63rd Street, 1956. New York City Parks Photo Archive.

Film still of former San Juan Hill resident Mavis Swire, 2023. Photo by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

San Juan Hill, 1939. Lee Sievan (1907 - 1990). Museum of the City of New York. 92.70.1.

Film still of former Phipps Houses resident T.S. Monk, 2023. Photo by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Film still of former San Juan Hill resident Louis Patalano, 2023. Photo by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

THIS EVENT HAS PASSED

A 62nd New York Film Festival Special Event

Join us for the world premiere of San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood, an hour-long documentary directed by Emmy Award winner Stanley Nelson, a preeminent documentarian of the African American experience. In the first half of the twentieth century, the area where Lincoln Center now stands was known by another name: San Juan Hill. Predating the golden age of the Harlem Renaissance, musical phenomena like Bebop and the Charleston bloomed in this cultural mecca; San Juan Hill’s clubs and theaters nurtured creative geniuses like James P. Johnson, Josephine Baker, Rogelio “Ram” Ramirez, and Thelonious Monk; and businesses and community centers bustled throughout the neighborhood.

Home to a largely working-class community, San Juan Hill was redlined in the 1930s and targeted by “urban renewal” in the 1940s and 1950s, when thousands of residents were displaced to make way for Amsterdam Houses, Lincoln Center, Fordham University, and additional developments. Their stories of home, belonging, and resilience have gone untold for far too long… until now. Through never-before-accessed historical footage, expert commentary, first-person storytelling with former residents, and narration by Academy Award-winning actress Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood traces the neighborhood’s rise and fall—and celebrates the people, arts, and culture whose enduring legacy still resonates today.

Presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in association with Film at Lincoln Center. This film is made possible by support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

About the Director

Film Credits

THIS EVENT HAS PASSED
Venue
Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway, New York, NY 10023

For general inquiries, call Guest Experience at 212-875-5456 or email [email protected].

Performances take place on the Adrienne Arsht Stage, within the warm wood veneers of the Starr Theater. In addition to world-class chamber music, Alice Tully Hall hosts numerous virtuoso concerts on its cathedral-sized, Swiss-made pipe organ. Learn more »

Accessibility

Health & Safety

Accessible seating and designated aisle seats; Accessible restrooms and accessible routes icon
Accessible to wheelchair users; Accessible restrooms and accessible routes
FM assistive listening devices with headsets and neck loops icon
FM assistive listening devices with headsets and neck loops
Noise-reducing headphones, fidgets and sensory items icon
Noise-reducing headphones, fidgets and sensory items
 

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