Rooftop Films Expands NYC Summer Lineup with Flaco Doc Premiere
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- Rooftop Films announced an expanded 2026 Summer Film Series spanning narrative features, documentaries, and special outdoor presentations across New York City's five boroughs.
- "Wild Inside" — Penny Lane's documentary tracking Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl's escape from the Central Park Zoo through Manhattan — gets its world premiere on the Great Hill in Central Park on July 29, presented with Sandbox Films and HBO Documentary Films.
- "It Ends" — Alex Ullom's directorial debut and NEON's latest existential horror release — screens on the roof of New Design High School in the Lower East Side on Friday, August 14.
- Sam Green's "The Oldest Person in the World" screens at Green-Wood Cemetery on July 23 in partnership with WIRED magazine's WIRED@NIGHT series, followed by a talk between Green and WIRED features director Reyhan Harmanci.
- "Cookie Queens" — Alysa Nahmias' coming-of-age documentary about Girl Scout Cookie season, a Roadside Attractions release — has its New York premiere at Msgr. McGolrick Park on August 4.
- Rooftop Films, the Prospect Park Alliance, and Fort Greene Park Conservancy launched a free "Summer Movies in the Park" series presented by NewYork-Presbyterian, showing "Shrek 2," "Akeelah and the Bee," "Space Jam," and Mira Nair's "The Namesake" on Wednesday nights from August 5 through September 9.
- Additional titles in the slate include Harrison Atkins' US premiere "Sour Minnows" and Tij D'oyen and Michael Calciano's "Gorilla Gorilla," alongside "Disco's Revenge," "Rockers," "Mad Hot Ballroom," and "Newlyweeds."
Why it matters: New York audiences get free or low-cost outdoor cinema in all five boroughs through September, with three of the new feature titles landing their NYC bows alongside marquee institutional partners — Sandbox Films and HBO Documentary Films for "Wild Inside," Roadside Attractions for "Cookie Queens," and WIRED for Sam Green's film — giving independent filmmakers rare big-platform visibility at a public scale.
