NYC Launches Walking Tours of Famous Movie and TV Locations in Manhattan

Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, recently announced the launch of “Made in NY: Walking Tours of Film and Television Locations in New York City.” These free and downloadable podcast walking tours offer listeners a fun, informative way to learn about the fascinating history of NYC movie and TV location shooting while they walk the streets of Manhattan.

“Now New Yorkers and visitors will have the opportunity to experience the City’s rich filmmaking history for themselves,” says Oliver. “The podcasts highlight so many of those iconic moments that have made New York City synonymous with film and television. There’s cinematic history on practically every corner, and these podcasts serve as a testament to the thousands of production professionals—both past and present—who call New York City home.”

Narrated by actors Julianna Margulies (“ER”) and Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket), the first two available tours focus on movie and TV scenes shot in Lower Manhattan. Guiding listeners as they walk from one location to the next, the narrators provide fascinating insights into the significance of each location and share behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Featured locations on the tours come from such acclaimed movies as Ghostbusters, Sophie’s Choice, Annie Hall, Enchanted and Men In Black. The two tours, each approximately an hour in length, are linked together so that they may be enjoyed separately or in sequence, and have start and end-points near major subway stations, making them accessible and convenient for New Yorkers and visitors alike.

The podcast tours were inspired by the recent illustrated book Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York, and were written by award-winning writer and architect James Sanders (editor of Scenes and author of Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies). “For more than four decades, filmmakers have been shooting movies and television shows on the streets of lower Manhattan, burnishing its already familiar image as one of the best known urban settings in the world,” says Sanders. “The Mayor’s Office’s free walking tours will be a wonderful way to let people explore that heritage for themselves, by tracing the actual locations where some of the most memorable filmic scenes of the last 40 years were first brought into being.”

To download the “Made in NY” podcasts, view maps highlighting the routes of both tours or to learn more about the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, visit http://www.nyc.gov/film.