Reporter Leon Neyfakh wrote a nice article in the New York Sun about tonight’s screening of CONEY ISLAND: AN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE in JJ Byrne Park at 8:30 p.m.

He did, however, get a couple of things wrong: Brooklyn Reading Works is a reading series for the public not a book club. And the subject matter is not Brooklyn-related. We have Brooklyn writers, Manhattan writers, writers from all over. Go to the BRW web/blog to see next year’s schedule. 

But other than that, Neyfakh wrote great story about a great event. Tonight. Be there. Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. Here’s the story:

The era of old-time Coney Island nostalgia may be all but over in light of developer Joseph Sitt’s $1 billion renovation plans, but tonight an open-air film screening in Park Slope’s JJ Byrne Park will give Brooklyn residents a chance to revisit the amusement park’s storied past.

"Coney Island used to be totally nostalgia — faded glory," says Louise Crawford, who organized tonight’s screening of Ric Burns’s documentary titled, "Coney Island: The American Experience" as part of her outdoor Brooklyn Film Series. "It was rusty and dirty. It just didn’t have its former luster. What I feel now is that it’s a real and living place. People have sort of rediscovered it."

In light of that resurgence — marked most recently by the relighting of the long-dormant Parachute Jump by Brooklyn president, Marty Markowitz — Mr. Burns’s film may serve as a welcome history lesson as it traces the park’s development since the turn of the 20th century.

This is the second Coney Island-related film Ms. Crawford has shown in her series, which had its inaugural screening last Tuesday with 1953’s "Little Fugitive." That film, shot in black- and-white on the streets of Brooklyn and Coney Island, follows a young runaway as he rides the rollercoasters, plays with animals, and eats the hot dogs that made the place such a glorious national attraction in its heyday.

The screening of "Little Fugitive" was a collaborative effort, Ms. Crawford says, made possible by a fleet of Brooklyn locals who helped secure and set up the state-of-the-art projector, the 12-by-15 foot screen, the garbage truck that supports it, and the lawn upon which the guests spread their blankets and watched the movie.

"Nobody had ever heard of the film, but they were game. It’s this big movie in the park — our park!" Ms. Crawford says, estimating last Tuesday’s turnout at about 100.

Ms. Crawford hopes tonight’s screening, which will begin after sundown, will attract locals curious to "learn the stories behind the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel, and the Parachute Jump."

Ms. Crawford’s fixation on Coney Island, which until recently was considered by some to be a rusty dump past its prime, is appropriate enough considering the location of the screenings. JJ Byrne Park, Ms. Crawford says, has enjoyed a renaissance of its own in the past two years.

The park, she says, situated on Fifth Avenue between Third and Fourth streets in Park Slope, has benefited from the gentrification of the surrounding area.

"Before, Fifth Avenue wasn’t happening. It’s gone through this major transition. As Park Slope’s star has risen, so has Fifth Avenue’s."

JJ Byrne, she says, has traditionally been "a really poor cousin of Prospect Park." In the past two years, the dust that used to cover the park’s main area was replaced with a lawn, and a dog run was built off to the side.

Now, Ms. Crawford says, there are activities being hosted there "pretty much three to five nights per week, whether it’s theater, readings, music, or stuff for kids."

The recent blossoming, she says, is owed in large part to the Old Stone House, a museum dedicated to the Battle of Brooklyn that has, in the past two years, started regularly opening its doors for community events.

The director of the Old Stone House,
Kim Maier, came up with the idea for the Brooklyn Film Series Works. Ms. Crawford
says. The concept grew out of the Brooklyn Reading Series Works, a book club   reading series curated
by Ms. Crawford (note: and supported by the Brooklyn Arts Council).