Jacob Burns Film Center

Hello everybody!

Today, I am going to write a blog post about a place that I surprisingly haven’t talked about yet: The Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville! 

For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a nonprofit cultural arts center that shows independent and documentary films, and hosts a variety of special events including discussions with filmmakers, critics, and people from the industry following screenings.

In this blog post, I will be discussing its history, interesting guests they have had over the years, and its possible impact on Pleasantville, in hopes that all of you reading will want to check it out.

The space that it occupies used to belong to The Rome Theater, which was built in 1925 and was also the first movie theater in Westchester County. This theater also featured movie palace designs that were popular at the time, including leather seats, friezes, velvet curtains, and an original Photolayer pipe organ. The Rome Theater screened movies for many years, until it closed in 1987 and became an office building.

Years later in 1998, a man named Stephen Apkon purchased the building of the old theater, and a 6,000 square foot land parcel next door for $1 million, and over the next three years, another $4 million was spent for design and construction.

The center finally opened in June 2001, covering a total of 18,500 square feet, having a total of three theaters that each have 249 seats, 135 seats, and 72 seats, and it was also named in honor of Jacob Burns, a lawyer and businessman whose family foundation gave $1.5 million towards the renovation efforts.

There were more changes in 2008, as the Jacob Burns Film Center opened a $15 million Media Arts Lab and started new programs targeting digital literacy in the surrounding area. The main purpose of the Media Arts Lab was to serve as part of the center’s larger digital literacy education efforts, which included sending staff members to prisons in Venezuela to teach prisoners and teachers there about digital literacy. 

On April 11, 2024, the center saw another fascinating change with the opening of Take 3 Wine Bar & Cafe. It offers moviegoers a variety of wines, other drinks, and snacks to enjoy during the movie, and it is also located on the top floor of the theater. Everything on their menu is also from local businesses, including Second Mouse Cheese Shop, which is located almost across the street from the center, pretzels from Posh Pretzels in Tarrytown, beer from the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company and Soul Brewing Company, and cider from Thompson’s Cider Mill.

Another notable thing about the Jacob Burns Film Center is the fact that not only does it have screenings of movies, it also features appearances from celebrities that are involved with those movies in some way. Though it took a while for me to find information, I was lucky to eventually find a playlist they created on YouTube of all the special guests that have been there in the past, and almost all of them were interviewed by a New York Times critic named Janet Maslin.

The first special guest in the playlist was a topiary artist named Pearl Fryar, who was doing a Q&A for the documentary film he was the subject of, A Man Named Pearl.

The next special guest they had was actress Patricia Clarkson, who discussed her role in the movie Elegy following a preview screening of the film.

The next special guests they had were Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who were there to discuss their film Crazy Heart.

The next special guests they had were Danny Boyle and Dev Patel, the director and star of Slumdog Millionaire respectively, who were there for a Q&A about the movie.

The next special guest they had was director Lee Daniels, who was there for a Q&A following a screening of his film Precious.

The next special guest they had was director John Cameron Mitchell, who was there to discuss his film Rabbit Hole, which had just been screened.

The next special guest they had was Tony Kushner, who discussed what it was like writing the screenplay for Lincoln.

The next special guest they had was actor Bruce Dern, who was there following a screening of his film Nebraska.

The next special guest they had was Jason Segel, who was there for his movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The next two special guests they had were actor Jake Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski, who were there for their movie Prisoners.

The next special guest they had was Billy Crystal, who was there for his book Still Foolin’ ‘Em.

The next special guest they had was actor Oscar Isaac, who was there for his movie Inside Llewyn Davis.

The next special guest they had was Andy Cohen. Yes, THAT Andy Cohen. The one from Bravo. He was apparently there for something involving Broadcast News.

The next special guest they had was Bebe Neuwirth from Cheers and Broadway, who was there for An Evening with Bebe Neuwirth and Friends.

The next special guest they had is one that I think has actually been there several times, actor Richard Gere, who either lives or used to live in the area.

The next special guest they had was director Noah Baumbach, who was there for his movie Frances Ha.

The next special guest they had was talk show host Dick Cavett, who was there for An Evening With Dick Cavett.

The next special guest they had was actor Geoffrey Rush, who was there for his movie The Book Thief.

The next special guest they had was actor Ben Stiller, who was there for a presentation of short films called Haiti Optimiste.

The next special guest they had was actor and playwright Wallace Shawn, who was there for his movie A Master Builder.

The next special guests they had were director Jonathan Demme and singer David Byrne from Talking Heads, who were there for the concert movie Stop Making Sense.

The next special guest they had was actor Cary Elwes, who was there for The Princess Bride.

The next special guest they had was Anjelica Huston, and while I’m not entirely sure what her purpose for being there was, she did talk about her role in The Addams Family for some reason.

The next special guest they had was Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was there to talk about Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey.

The next special guest they had was Jon Stewart, who was there to talk about Rosewater, the movie he directed.

The next special guest they had was director Shawn Levy, who was there for his movie This Is Where I Leave You.

The next special guest they had was director Bong Joon-Ho, who was there for his movie Snowpiercer.

The next special guest they had was Jesse Eisenberg, who was there for his movie The Double.

The next special guest they had was singer Natalie Merchant, who was there as the director of the documentary Paradise Is There.

The next special guest they had was Matthew Broderick, who was there for his movie Rules Don’t Apply.

The next special guest they had was filmmaker Damien Chazelle, who was there for La La Land.

The next special guest they had was Ron Howard, who was there for his movie The Beatles: Eight Days A Week.

The next special guest they had over Skype was actor Sam Neill from Jurassic Park, who talked about his movie Hunt For The Wilderpeople.

The next special guests they had were actors Tim Blake Nelson and Sam Waterston, who were there to discuss their movie Anesthesia.

The next special guests they had were actress Diane Lane and filmmaker Eleanor Coppola, who were there to discuss the movie Paris Can Wait.

The next special guest they had was Greta Gerwig, who was there for her movie Lady Bird.

The next special guest they had was Steven Spielberg, who was there to discuss his movie The Post.

The next special guest they had was actor Sam Rockwell, who was there to discuss the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The next special guest they had was Anna Kendrick, and while I’m not sure what she was there to discuss, it looks like some of what she talked about was Pitch Perfect.

The next special guest they had was Alec Baldwin, who was there to discuss something, but the video the center uploaded unfortunately didn’t say what it was.

The next special guest they had over Skype was Alan Arkin, who was there for his movie The In-Laws.

The next special guest they had was actress Edie Falco, who was there for her movie Outside In.

The next special guest they had was Rose Byrne, who was there for her movie Juliet, Naked.

The next special guest they had was actor John Cho, who was there for his movie Searching.

The next special guest they had was Viggo Mortensen, who was there for his movie Green Book.

The next special guest they had was actor and filmmaker Alex Winter from Bill & Ted, who was there for his movie The Panama Papers.

The next special guest they had was actor and filmmaker Edward Norton, who was there for his movie Motherless Brooklyn.

The next special guest they had was actor Michael Douglas, who was just there for An Evening with Michael Douglas.

The next special guest they had was author John Grisham, who was there for his book The Guardians.

The next special guest they had was filmmaker Todd Phillips, who was there for his movie Joker.

The next special guest they had was Alan Cumming from The Traitors, who was there as part of something called Life On The Stage.

The next special guest they had was Questlove, who was there for his movie Summer Of Soul.

The next special guest they had was actor Peter Sarsgaard, who was there for his movie Memory.

The next special guests they had were director Gia Coppola and Pamela Anderson, who were there for the movie The Last Showgirl.

The next special guests they had were actress Alicia Silverstone and fashion designer Christian Siriano, who were there for a Q&A after a screening of the movie Clueless.

The next special guest they had was actor Brendan Fraser, who was there for a screening of his movie Rental Family.

The last special guest they had was actress Christine Ebersole, who was there for a Q&A.

They are also showing several movies right now, which are How To Make A Killing, Midwinter Break, Pillion, and Wuthering Heights.

Me and my family also have some history with the Jacob Burns Film Center, as both me and my brother went on field trips to it when we were in elementary school, the center is where my brother saw the movies Uncut Gems and Friendship, it’s where my brother and my mom saw Wicked For Good, and it’s where my mom saw the movie Song Sung Blue.

Another thing that my mom said about the center is that it has had an impact on Pleasantville with regards to restaurants. What she means is that in recent years, it seems that more restaurants have opened up there, many of them within walking distance of the center. By that logic, it might not be a coincidence that two restaurants that are chains recently opened in Pleasantville, which are The Taco Project, which has five other locations in Westchester County and Stamford, and Wonder, which is a delivery-first food hall that allows customers to order from multiple restaurant brands that are often backed by celebrity chefs, and one restaurant called Southern Table Kitchen & Bar, which was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand. In a way, the center has made Pleasantville a destination town.

Overall, this is one of the most fascinating places in Westchester County, so go ahead and check it out!