Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Series

RACETRACK

July 2 – July 22

July 2-22, 2026

Living in New York City can sometimes feel like a constant process of mourning those businesses and institutions that have given the city its flavor and identity through the decades, that have functioned as a bulwark against the forces of gentrification, suburbanization, and encroaching blandness. The latest casualty was the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, the only horse racing facility within New York City, which first opened in 1894. A fixture for the last century-plus, and the site of a vivid and longstanding subculture within New York City, the closure of the Aqueduct truly marks the end of an era.

In honor of the Aqueduct’s long run as a feature of the cultural and sporting life of the city, we offer a short (and eclectic) series of racetrack-themed films. The sport of horse racing and the scene of the racetrack have been a perennial feature of recreational (and of course gambling) culture in the U.S. and abroad through the years, as proven by their centrality in movies of all kinds: this film series comprises short and feature-length films from the 1940s-2020s, including thrillers, comedies, and documentaries, by Phil Karlson, Stanley Kubrick, Werner Herzog, Frederick Wiseman, and others. The Aqueduct Racetrack (among many other dearly departed tracks) may be a thing of memory now, but what are movies if not ways of preserving vanished people and places?

Co-programmed by Julia Sipowicz.

Special thanks to Jack Durwood & Emiah Washington (Paramount); Erica Hill (Zipporah Films); David Jennings & Amy Rynne (Park Circus); and Lucki Stipetic (Werner Herzog Film).

Upcoming Screenings

< Back to Series