Brooklyn College to Open Film School in Navy Yard

Brooklyn College will open a graduate school of cinema inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 2013, creating a major new training ground for budding cinephiles right on the edge of Clinton Hill, officials announced on Friday.

The new school that will occupy two stories of a building on Washington Avenue will operate alongside Steiner Studios, which is one of the largest studios this side of the Mississippi.

"This will be the only public school on the Eastern Seaboard providing an affordable graduate education in all aspects of mainstream cinema production and post-production,” said Karen L. Gould, President of Brooklyn College.

The announcement, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg mentioned during his address on Wednesday, is the latest major addition to the Navy Yard.

Construction workers are expected to also break ground on a massive new ShopRite Supermarket at Flushing Avenue and Navy Street next year, though the project hinges upon the renovation of the dilapidated Timber Shed building nearby.

There are also early plans to build a Naval Hospital Cemetery Memorial near Williamsburg Street between Kent and Flushing avenues that will also serve as a new greenspace.

Navy Yard officials touted the economic benefits of the latest deal, which they said will create the only grad school that operates within a working film lot.

“This will fuel further diversity in the content creation business,” said Douglas Steiner, the Chairman of Steiner Studios. “We are training a workforce for the 21st century, for good-paying jobs.”

The announcement also represents a major expansion for Brooklyn College far beyond the confines of its Midwood campus, and will be a rare opportunity for students attending a public university — Brooklyn College is part of the CUNY system — to rub elbows with people working in the film business.