The Uptown Film Center (a 501c3) is raising funds to transform the landmarked, long-abandoned Metro Theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side (Bway & 99th) into a 5-screen arthouse cinema and education center. It will be a vibrant cultural hub, bringing multigenerational and multicultural communities together through independent cinema, education, and shared storytelling experiences. As legendary film critic Roger Ebert profoundly noted, ?Movies are empathy machines,? capable of transporting us into the lives and experiences of others.