Film School Opens in New York

Big names support the trend-setting Cinema School in The Bronx

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

This September will see the grand opening of the Cinema School, the first public high school dedicated to film studies to open in The Bronx, New York.

Funded by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Cinema School will sit on the grounds of Monroe High, and will welcome 80 freshman for its inaugural class.

Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, Catherine Hardwicke, Whit Stillman, and David O. Russell are amongst the filmmakers who supported the conservatory-styled curriculum of the new school, which was founded by independent movie producer Rachael Horovitz (About Schmidt) and Joe Hall, a former soical worker.

"It gives a lot of inner-city kids a chance," said Mayor's Film Office head Katherine Oliver, in an interview with Variety magazine. Oliver thinks the Cinema School will open doors for less fortunate students who want to break into the film industry.