With “fall” in South Florida now here, it’s time to watch movies on outdoor screens. OK, maybe it’ll still be hot, but the SoundScape Cinema Series, Miami Beach’s premiere site for free outdoor cinematic experiences, is boasting an impeccable lineup. It’s no wonder. The person behind this season’s program is Igor Shteyrenberg, Executive Director of the Miami Jewish Film Festival and the Founder/Director of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.
He looked at films from across genres and around the world that could also be considered age appropriate for the general audiences attending the free, public, open-air screenings. Still, you can bet the restriction didn’t keep him from programming some nerve-wracking horror movies around the upcoming Halloween Holiday, including A Quiet Place and The Night of the Living Dead, an indie film that kicked off a new horror genre 50 years ago.
Some standout pictures you’d probably never see on the 7,000-square-foot exterior wall of the New World Center from other programmers include Werner Herzog’s ’80s classic Fitzcarraldo, Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven and Ida, the Polish film that won the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2015 (You can read a review I wrote about that film at Reverseshot.org). Shteyrenberg points out that Ida‘s screening corresponds with Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day, a reference to the movie’s themes.
The series begins this Wednesday featuring that family friendly fantasy ’80s classic The Neverending Story. More contemporary films include Black Panther (Black Panther uses grounded villain to embody complex issues never seen in superhero movies), Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and the Mister Rodgers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor. There are also classics like a 70th anniversary presentation of Powell & Pressburger, The Red Shoes and Nicholas Ray’s essential Rebel Without a Cause.
“This year’s Soundscape Cinema Series,” notes Shteyrenberg in a press release, “celebrates the magnificent diversity of world cinema and is bursting at the seams with revelatory stories that explore new worlds, new perspectives, and new ways of being. Whether high or low, fiction or documentary, art house or grindhouse, classic or deep cut, each of the films in this program offers an exposure to unfamiliar places and ways of life that will entertain, enlighten, excite, and celebrate film’s ability to illuminate the world around us.”
He encourages attendees to bring blankets, lawn chairs, maybe a picnic — even pets are allowed. All screenings are free and open to the public and happen at Miami Beach’s SoundScape Park. With a couple of exceptions, screenings happen every Wednesday at 8 p.m. They start Oct. 3 through May 29. Below you will find the complete schedule for this season:
October
Oct. 3, 2018 – THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984) [35th Anniversary]
Oct. 10, 2018 – ISLE OF DOGS (2018)
Oct. 17, 2018 – THE RED SHOES (1948) [70th Anniversary]
Oct. 24, 2018 – A QUIET PLACE (2018)
Oct. 31, 2018 – THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) [50th Anniversary]
November
Nov. 7, 2018 – PINA (2011)
Nov. 14, 2018 – THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989)
Nov. 21, 2018 – PADDINGTON 2 (2018)
Nov. 28, 2018 – BIG (1988) [30th Anniversary]
December
Dec. 12, 2018 – AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
Dec. 19, 2018 – EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)
Dec. 26, 2018 – BLACK PANTHER (2018)
January
Jan. 2, 2019 – PATHER PANCHALI (1955)
Jan. 9, 2019 – THE BAND’S VISIT (2007)
Jan. 30, 2019 – HARMONIA (2016)
February
Feb. 6, 2019 – HAIRSPRAY (1988)
Feb. 13, 2019 – AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997)
Feb. 20, 2019 – BABETTE’S FEAST (1987)
Feb. 27, 2019 – FITZCARRALDO (1982)
March
March 6, 2019 – WONDER WOMAN (2017)
March 13, 2019 – READY PLAYER ONE (2018)
March 20, 2019 – THE RED TURTLE (2016)
March 27, 2019 – LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986)
April
April 3, 2019 – MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003)
April 10, 2019 – BRIGHT STAR (2009)
April 17, 2019 – WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR (2018)
April 24, 2019 – DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978)
May
May 1, 2019 – IDA (2013)
May 8, 2019 – REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
May 15, 2019 – SORCERER (1977)
May 22, 2019 – THE LAST RESORT (2018)
May 29, 2019 – ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)
