we just wanted for this movie to get it right in the way that we wanted every single person who plays a puerto rican to be from the latinx community and that was a mandate from the get go. i happen to live here on 110th st in upper manhattan and where i am, it is the official boundary between the upper west side and harlem. so, why am i telling you this? because i m new to the neighbourhood, i m very excited to learn that key scenes in the opening prologue of the original 1961 west side story movie were shot right here on this playground. in fact, several new york city locations were used in the making of a picture that has become a revered classic, with legions of admirers. we thought we d get an appraisal of the 1961 movie by seeking out the opinion of a big fan, eugene hernandez, director of the new york film festival. i think i ve seen the 1961 version of west side story dozens of times, probably more
but many, many productions of west side story have very multiracial cast where the sharks are played by talent, the kind of kids who can sing and dance and that is all that qualifies them. we just wanted for this movie to get it right in the way that we wanted every single person who plays a puerto rican to be from the latin community and that was a mandate from the get go. i happen to live here on 110th st in upper manhattan and where i am, it is the official boundary between the upper it is the official boundary between the upper west side and harlem. so, why am i telling you this? because i m new to the neighbourhood, i m very excited to learn that key scenes in the opening prologue of the original 1961 west side story