With the presidential election scheduled for next month, we wanted one more opportunity to celebrate the Season of Friendship with a screening of the quintessential “humans and aliens can be friends” flick: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s a reminder that if we can befriend the aliens, we can befriend anybody, no matter how alien they seem to us. 

Before the film screening, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and the Washington Heights Community Choir will perform a newly arranged vocal interpretation of the iconic “conversation” between humans and aliens from the movie's climax—a rendition that, to our knowledge, has never been performed vocally before. 

Following the screening will be a brief discussion between investigative reporter Leslie Kean and Joel Kady, founder of Future Folklore, about the parts of the movie that accurately reflect the reality of the UFO phenomenon. We will then open this up to a Q & A with the audience to explore the bigger questions evoked by the film. Leslie and Joel are both Washington Heights residents.    

The 1977 sci-fi Oscar winner explores how humans would respond to alien contact through the lenses of shady government agencies, an Indiana electric lineman, and a single mother. 

Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by: Steven Spielberg, Hal Barwood, Jerry Belson 

The movie runtime is 2 hours and 18 minutes, Rated PG, and will be screened on DCP.