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The Yonkers Public Schools officially opened a new school Wednesday aimed at educating students for the film and television industry.
The Robert Halmi Sr. Academy of Film and Television is located in a leased building formerly used by Rising Ground, a nonprofit social services agency. The school will start with grades 6 and 9 this year but will add grades until it becomes a full middle/high school for grades 6 to 12.
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The school, termed a “high level trade school,” was conceived by Robert Halmi, a producer of more than 400 film and television projects and the founder of Great Point Studios in Yonkers. Halmi, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and the Yonkers Board of Education agreed to name the school after Halmi’s late father, Robert Halmi Sr., a photographer for Life magazine who went on to produce movies and mini-series for TV.
The school’s curriculum was developed in partnership with Great Point Studios, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Creative Artists Agency. “The students will gain proficiency in production technologies used in film, television, and theater, while learning the business aspects of the arts,” the city said in a statement. Students will be able to study fabrication and design, social media marketing, project management, event planning, sound design, audio technology, and musical and theatrical performance.
Yonkers also debuted a brand new school building this fall, the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School in southwest Yonkers. Justice Sotomayor attended the ribbon-cutting on Sept. 16.