The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporian
Arts closes their fifth annual KIDflix film festival on Aug.
27 with Sidney Lumet’s 1978 musical, "The Wiz."
This Motown incarnation of the 1939 MGM musical "The Wizard
of Oz" features (from left to right) Michael Jackson as
The Scarecrow, Diana Ross as Dorothy, Ted Ross as The Lion and
Nipsey Russell as The Tin Man. (Ted Ross reprises his role from
Ben Harper’s Broadway show, "The Wiz," for which he
won a best supporting actor Tony.)
The film also features Richard Pryor as The Wiz and Lumet’s mother-in-law
– Brooklyn’s own Lena Horne – as Glinda the Good.
"The Wiz" was shot at Astoria Studios and on the streets
of New York City including the World Trade Center complex (which
became the Emerald City); the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station,
where the A train roars by; Coney Island, where the Tin Man is
discovered beneath the Cyclone roller coaster; and Bedford-Stuyvesant,
where Dorothy lives with her Aunt Em.
The screening of the film – a sing-a-long, dance-a-long finale
to the series – begins at 8:30 pm in Fulton Park (Stuyvesant
Avenue and Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy). The rain date is Saturday,
Aug. 28. For more information about the free screening, visit
www.mocada.org or call (718)
602-4041. The festival is sponsored by Target.
