Tune-In Alert: NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment Announces the Premiere of Two New Series on NYC Media

Date While You Wait – Wednesday, October 13, 8pm on the NYC Life Channel
NYC Women's Fund Showcase – Friday, October 15, 8pm on the NYC Life Channel
(Check local listing for stations)

NEW YORK – The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) announces premiere dates for two new NYC Media series, Date While You Wait and NYC Women's Fund Showcase.

"We are pleased to introduce a new slate of original programming on NYC Life, the flagship channel of the city's broadcast network NYC Media," said the Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Anne del Castillo. "From the experiences of everyday New Yorkers to the rich storytelling of our Women's Fund filmmakers, these two new shows celebrate the diversity of New York stories.

Date While You Wait, the award-winning 13-episode series produced by David Harris Katz Entertainment, Inc., will have its NY broadcast television debut on the NYC Life Channel on Wednesday, October 13 at 8pm, with new episodes airing weekly. Date While You Wait is a love letter to New York City, shot during the pandemic. It. follows Thomas C Knox, born and raised in Brooklyn, as he invites strangers to sit down for a chat or a game against the backdrop of the NYC subway system. Thomas also ventures outside the subway and visits some of the city's iconic landmarks, including McSorley's Old Ale House and Ferrara Bakery & Café. Knox's mission is not the romantic notion of a date, but instead aims to create human connections through simple conversation.

Previously available to viewers on his website, the series has already received critical acclaim from media and academy members alike for its positive message aiming to bring New Yorkers together. The show received two Emmy Award-nominations, and BuzzFeed listed Date While You Wait as one of the "33 Incredibly New York Things That Have Happened During the Pandemic That Show How New Yorkers Feel About the Coronavirus."

"Joining the NYC Life family is an honor for me," said show host Thomas C Knox. "My original goal was to simply sit in the subway and bring people together. Now, millions of New Yorkers can join in on the conversation, and hopefully, together, we can change the world."

A Promo for the show is available here: https://f.io/nCbiasSn

NYC Women's Fund Showcase debuts on the NYC Life Channel on Friday, October 15 at 8pm, with new episodes airing weekly. A mix of documentary and comedy shorts, feature and series length work, this inaugural four-part showcase chronicles the mosaic of artist, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ life in New York City created by past recipients of the NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre.

The fund, which is currently accepting applications for its third round at nyfa.org/nycwomensfund, was established by the NYC's Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment in 2019 to advance equal representation for films made by, for, or about those who identify as women. It is administered by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). The projects featured in this showcase reflect the voices and perspectives of eight 2019 NYC Women's Fund recipients of finishing grants:

• Episode 1, premiering Friday, October 15 at 8pm, features 2 NYC Women's Fund awarded projects; Sanctuary and Folx: a queer documentary series.
  • Sanctuary, the debut film by New York-based Mexican filmmaker Andrea Cordoba, follows main character Amanda Morales on her family's journey to claim sanctuary in New York, publicly resisting her deportation within a NYC church that ICE recognizes as protected. The film was the top winner at the 2019 Brooklyn Film Festival, winning the Grand Chameleon Award for Best film, as well as the Best Documentary Award.
  • Directed by Krystalline Armendariz, Folx: a queer documentary series explores the strength, diversity, and often overlooked experiences of queer lives through intimate 60-second portraits.

• Episode 2, premiering Friday, October 22 at 8pm, highlights the documentary web series AIDS Burials on Hart Island, directed by Melinda Hunt and produced by the Hart Island Project.
  • AIDS Burials on Hart Island unearths the stories of five New Yorkers who died of AIDS and disappeared onto Hart Island, which serves as the burial site for anyone who dies in New York City whose body is not collected by a licensed funeral director.

• Episode 3, premiering Friday, October 29 at 8 pm, showcase the Documentary short, Narmin's Birthday, the documentary web series, L'Unicorns, and the Fiction Short, Shield.
  • From directors Lydia Cornett and Jenny Groza, Narmin's Birthday tells the story of 15-year-old Narmin and her 84-year-old grandmother Ismat, who share a bedroom in their family's tiny Sheepshead Bay apartment. Though their nights are spent no more than four feet away from each other on parallel beds, the cultural identities they've each chosen are worlds apart.
  • L'Unicorns is the first Latinx LGBTQ community in Staten Island under the umbrella of La Colmena Community Job Center. It is a group that aims to create a safe space for the LGBTQ Latinx community centered in the voices of transgender women. This short tells their life stories of immigration and asylum while collaborating in a socially engaged art project with artist Sol Aramendi.
  • From director Danielle Eliska Lyle comes Shield, the story of Zoe, who was put in foster care after the death of her brother. Trauma made it difficult to place her in a permanent home until a new friend embraces the challenge.

• Episode 4, premiering on Friday, November 5 at 8 pm, features the fiction web series Stupid Cupid, and the documentary short Lorrie Goulet: Spirit into Stone.
  • Directed by Sarah Randall Hunt, Stupid Cupid is a relatable and entertaining new web series about four best friends who attempt to fix modern love by creating a dating app—too bad they're the worst people for the job. When the app takes on a mind of its own, they're forced back into the dating scene to figure out what went wrong, only to discover their own shortcomings in love.
  • Directed by Lucy Adams, the award-winning documentary Lorrie Goulet: Spirit into Stone takes a look at 94-year-old master sculptor Lorrie Goulet — her life and work, and her mentoring relationship with the filmmaker.