23rd Annual ImageNation Outdoors
Film & Music Festival
The summer’s most anticipated free cultural celebration is back!
The ImageNation OUTDOORS Film & Music Festival returns to Harlem from August 16–31, transforming public spaces into vibrant hubs of community, culture, and cinematic brilliance. This year’s theme — “Community, Culture & Connection” — comes alive through an electrifying schedule of FREE outdoor films, live music, DJ sets, a roller-skating dance party, and soulful tributes under the stars.
Saturday, August 16th at 6PM
HARLEM WEEK ROLLER SKATE PARTY & ROOFTOP DOCUMENTARY
Location: St. Nicholas Park Plaza
Wednesday, August 27th
GOD SAID GIVE EM’ DRUM MACHINES
Location: Harlem State Office Building
Thursday, August 28th at 6PM
SOUL TRAIN TRIBUTE: WE WANT THE FUNK
Location: Marcus Garvey Park
Saturday, August 30th at 7PM
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT w/ Sheila P/Shift
Location: Marcus Garvey Park
Sunday, August 31st at 6PM
NYC/ATL Back To School Event: LEFT BEHIND
New York Location: SCR’s PEACE PLEX Garden
Atlanta Location: Thurman Springs Park
Saturday, August 16
Official HARLEM WEEK event ROOFTOP DOCUMENTARY
Location: St. Nicholas Park Plaza (135th St. & St. Nicholas Ave)
Time: 6:00 PM Skaters Dance Party | 8:00 PM Film Screening
Celebrate HARLEM WEEK with a roller-skating dance party featuring DJ Spivey (from Magnificent 7) and surprise celebrity guest DJs tba, followed by a screening of THE ROOFTOP DOCUMENTARY, a documentary film honoring Harlem’s legendary rooftop skating rink — a sacred space of hip-hop origins and Black joy.
THE ROOFTOP was a legendary roller skating rink in Harlem from 1979-1989. This is where street life, music and fashion collided and introduced themselves to the world. Owned by Harlem's own icons, Mr. Willie and Robert “Gusto” Wells (founder of the Rucker League), The Rooftop provided a place where future music executives, fashion icons, legendary recording artists and producers and gangsters cooked up a gumbo of what would be later known as hip-hop culture. From LL Cool J to Rich Porter, Teddy Riley to DJ Hollywood, The Rooftop was a unique space for the youth of Harlem and beyond. Part one of this three-part documentary takes you on a journey on what and who ruled the '80s in Harlem and how that one spot in 155th and 8th Avenue made a world and gave that world to the world. With appearances by “The World Famous” Brucie B, Teddy Riley, Gusto Wells, Alpo Martinez, Michael “Mike Boogie” Hollingsworth, The Gucci Girls, Kevin Chiles, Reika Carter and more...The Rooftop is where that swag in hip-hop all starts a text block, edit the text here.
Wednesday, August 27
MADE YOU LOOK: GOD SAID GIVE EM’ DRUM MACHINES
Location: On the plaza of the Harlem State Office Building. 163 W 125th St.
Free outdoor community film screening of the film GOD SAID GIVE EM’ DRUM MACHINES presented by Senator Cordell Cleare’s Office, H2O (Hip Hop Odyssey), ImageNation OUTDOORS and Maysles Cinema.
GOD SAID GIVE EM’ DRUM MACHINES is a 2022 documentary about the origins of techno music in Detroit, Michigan, focusing on the Black artists who pioneered the genre. It explores how this music transformed dance music internationally and became a billion-dollar industry, while also highlighting the mismanaged success, damaged friendships, and raw inspiration within the Detroit techno scene. The film features key figures like Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, Eddie Fowlkes, and Santonio Echols.
Thursday, August 28
ImageNation ’s Annual SOUL TRAIN TRIBUTE: WE WANT THE FUNK
Celebrating Firelight Media’s 25th Anniversary
Location: Marcus Garvey Park
Time: 5:30PM - 10PM
Afterparty at Shrine World Music Venue | 9:30PM - 2AM
A tribute to Firelight Media’s 25th Anniversary, featuring: Funk Dance Party with DJ Stormin’ Norman(Sundae Sermon) Soul Train Dance Line Live, Sly Stone Funk Tributes by Marcus Machado & The Purple Vibes With Special Guests Nate Turley, Irene Blackman, L.A.W. & V. Jeffery Smith (co-founder of The Family Stand) Special Talkback with Firelight founders Stanley Nelson & Marcia Smith.Screening of film WE WANT THE FUNK by Stanley Nelson. Then go to the Afterparty at Shrine: w/ live performances, DJs, birthday salute to Marcia Smith, and funk dance party 10PM to 2AM.
WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul, and early jazz roots, to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown's dynamism, the extraterrestrial funk of George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle, and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, the story also traces funk's influences on both new wave and hip-hop.
About Firelight Media
Documentary storytelling is among the most powerful tools for artistic expression and advancing social justice. For more than a century, people of color have harnessed the power of image-making to showcase and celebrate our full humanity and to cultivate communities of action. This collective work has created new visual languages, moved the arc of history toward justice, inspired audiences, and, ultimately, created a new canon of BIPOC cinema. We see our work as a continuation of this legacy.
Saturday, August 30
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT Screening
Location: Marcus Garvey Park
Time: 7PM DJ Set w/ SheJay Sheila P/Shift and 8PM Film
ImageNation OUTDOORS and Black Public Media (BPM) for an unforgettable evening under the stars at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park on Saturday, August 30, as part of the annual ImageNation OUTDOORS Film & Music Festival. This free community celebration features a live DJ set by SheJay Sheila P/Shift at 7 p.m. and the highly anticipated screening of The Disappearance of Miss Scott — a powerful new documentary by Nicole London that explores the life and legacy of the iconic entertainer Hazel Scott — at 8 p.m. London will be in attendance for the Labor Day Weekend event.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MISS SCOTT uncovers the largely forgotten story of Hazel Scott — a prodigious jazz pianist, acclaimed Hollywood actress and fearless labor and civil rights pioneer. Born in Trinidad and raised in Harlem, Scott captivated audiences with her musical brilliance, shattered racial and gender barriers and became the first Black American woman to host her own nationally syndicated TV show. But Scott’s uncompromising activism against racism and political repression during the McCarthy era and her work on behalf of the fair treatment of Black actors came at a price. Her opponents blacklisted and ultimately erased her from mainstream culture. Through rare archival footage, intimate interviews and commentary from artists such as Mickey Guyton, Alicia Keys, Jason Moran, Amanda Seales, Tracie Thoms and Camille Thurman — and Sheryl Lee Ralphas the voice of Hazel Scott — this moving film resurrects Scott’s legacy, placing her back at the center of American cultural history where she belongs.
Saturday, August 31st
NYC/ATL Back to School Event: LEFT BEHIND
New York Location: SCR’s PEACE PLEX Garden, 100B W 131st St.
Atlanta Location: Thurman Springs Park, 4485 Pineview Dr
Time: 6:30PM
ImageNation OUTDOORS and Street Corner Resources (SCR) presents a back to school film and discussion event in New York City and Atlanta. The film LEFT BEHIND will screen in the two cities with a video conference Talk-back connecting the cites. Preceding screening will be book bag and school supply give away, an arts and crafts workshop, face painting, games and more.
About the film LEFT BEHIND
Approximately 200,000 New York City public school students are dyslexic, yet there is no public initiative that provides the specialized skill and care necessary for these learners. Frustrated that they had to remove their own kids from the public school system, a group of determined moms band together to do something that’s never been done before – open New York City’s first public school for dyslexic students. The journey is not a smooth ride, and they face both institutional and personal hurdles as they try to upend a system. A new mayoral candidate bolsters their fight after he reveals his own dyslexia. But will they be able to convince a bureaucratic education system to overhaul outdated politics to ensure a brighter future for the city’s dyslexic youth?