Stand clear of the closing doors, please: A Brooklyn film series takes moviegoers underground

WNYC News | Apr 7

In a scene from the 1990 puppet superhero movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the television journalist April O’Neill storms out of New York City Hall and heads straight into a subway station. Above her head, the words “City Hall” dangle in big block letters. 

But, behind that scene, there’s a secret. She’s not where the movie says she is.

“April O'Neill comes down out of City Hall as the ace reporter and then walks into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station,” said Brooklyn Academy of Music Director of Programming Jesse Trussel. 

That secret, that the downtown Brooklyn station is subbing in for the City Hall stop, is at the heart of an upcoming film series at BAM’s Rose Cinemas, called “Hoyt-Schermerhorn: Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.” Every movie being shown contains scenes shot in and around the station.

WNYC's Verónica Del Valle explains. 

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