
THE CITIES PROJECT BY HEINEKEN AND TRIBECA STUDIOS DEBUT DOCUMENTARY SHORT AND VIRTUAL REALITY FILM ABOUT NEW YORK'S POOL PROJECT, NARRATED BY NEIL PATRICK HARRIS August 4th, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE CITIES PROJECT BY HEINEKEN AND TRIBECA STUDIOS DEBUTS DOCUMENTARY SHORT AND VIRTUAL REALITY FILM ABOUT NEW YORK'S POOL PROJECT, NARRATED BY NEIL PATRICK HARRIS
Featuring a voiceover by Neil Patrick Harris, the new documentary shows how the world's first water-filtering, floating pool will help New Yorkers reclaim the city's waters
Film encourages viewers to visit SwimInTheRiver.com and sign a free pledge to swim in POOL when it's done; Heineken offers $100,000 in support when 100,000 pledges collected
Companion virtual reality film shows immersive experience of swimming in POOL
WHITE PLAINS, NY- August 4, 2017-Ever wonder what it would be like to swim in New York's rivers? Heineken, together with Tribeca Studios, just debuted a documentary short and a virtual reality film that shows how a first-of-its-kind, floating pool will bring that dream to life.
The 9-minute documentary, Floating an Idea: The POOL Story, can be viewed [here]. Narrated by stage and screen superstar Neil Patrick Harris, the film was created as part of The Cities Project by Heineken to raise awareness of POOL and its latest fundraising push. The Cities Project by Heineken is a multi-year campaign that helps bring to life projects that make great cities even greater. The Cities Project is part of Heineken's larger commitment to Brewing a Better World, which aims to actively connect with and serve the communities in which Heineken does business or calls home.
Heineken brought on Tribeca Studios to produce Floating an Idea: The POOL Story, which was directed by Bianca Giaever of m ss ng p eces. The documentary and virtual reality film debuted August 3 at a premiere party at Watermark Pier 15.
Floating an Idea: The POOL Story tells the inspiring story of the people who are working to make POOL, a water-filtering, floating swimming pool that provides access to NYC's river for swimming, a reality. The film chronicles the history of New Yorkers interacting with their rivers, dating back to floating bathhouses in the early 1900s. Through interviews with POOL's founders and supporters such as Joshua David, co-founder of the High Line, the film explains how a floating, Olympic-sized pool called POOL will filter out contaminants to create swimmable water and clean up to a half-million gallons of water each day.
The documentary aims to generate grassroots excitement around the project and encourage viewers to visit SwimInTheRiver.com to sign a free pledge to swim in POOL when the project is complete. If 100,000 pledges are signed, Heineken will contribute an additional $100,000 to the project's development.
The Cities Project by Heineken is all about raising awareness and providing support for innovative ideas for making great cities even greater, said Raul Esquer, Brand Manager, Heineken USA. This film not only shares the POOL story in a new way in front of new audiences - it also showcases the many milestones that have already been reached, and what supporters can do to help get the project over the finish line.
A separate 360 virtual reality film provides a first-ever, immersive experience simulating what it will be like to swim in POOL when the project is complete. Directed by Ray Tintori and Giaever of m ss ng p eces and produced by Tribeca Studios, the piece transports viewers to the finished pool, allowing them to walk on the deck, swim in the pool and marvel at the New York City and Brooklyn skylines. You can view the virtual reality film [here].
Things happen in this city with 1,000 signatures, says POOL co-founder Archie Lee Coates IV. We're trying to get 100,000 signatures to tell the city we want to swim in the river, and we want to do that with POOL . you can't ignore that.
The short documentary and VR film bring POOL's remarkable story to life in new ways and raise awareness of how Heineken is helping POOL reclaim the waters of New York City, said Paula Weinstein, Executive Vice President of Tribeca Enterprises.
The new films and the $100,000 pledge are part of a broader partnership between The Cities Project by Heineken and POOL. The campaign aligns with POOL's larger goal to inspire people to reclaim their waterways and to publicly demand access to their rivers here in the U.S., and potentially around the world.
The progress of POOLs development can be followed at PlusPool.org, a newly designed website launched with support from Heineken.
As the beer that is enjoyed in the most cities around the world, Heineken launched The Cities Project in 2015 and has supported initiatives and programs like James Murphy's Subway Symphony in New York, Leo Villareal's Bay Lights in San Francisco, Southern California's Beautify Hollywood project and the renovation of Florida's famed Miami Marine Stadium. Most recently, The Cities Project by Heineken and the National Trust for Historic Preservation helped raise more than $400,000 for projects in cities across the country, rewarding donors to the crowdfunding campaigns from Philadelphia to Honolulu with tickets to The Bruno Mars 24K Magic World Tour.
The short documentary and VR project are the latest storytelling-driven work resulting from Heineken's continued partnership with Tribeca Studios. A teaser video debuted on Earth Day during the 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival, where Heineken served as the official beer of the festival.
Learn more about POOL at SwimInTheRiver.com, and stay tuned for plans from Heineken and Tribeca Studios to support additional projects in America's greatest cities.
About HEINEKEN USA
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
15/06/2025
July 2025 in Dublin, Berlin, Amsterdam & London
Photo: Thea Martre
Music Production for Women (MPW) have announced that they will be running a series of fo...
15/06/2025
Composer/producer launches free virtual instruments
Sulcata Sound is the latest venture of Jason Graves, a two-time British Academy Award-winnning composer,...
14/06/2025
NEW YORK Pluto TV and the All Womens Sports Network have launched a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) AWSN channel in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Nor...
14/06/2025
NEW YORK and CINCINNATI E.W. Scripps has announced a new, multiyear agreement with the WNBA that will continue Ions regular-season coverage of the league on Fri...
14/06/2025
WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters highlighted the hidden importance of spectrum in the production of major sporting events and described wha...
14/06/2025
WASHINGTON Sunsetting ATSC 1.0, expanding business opportunities for NextGen Broadcast and increasing international adoption of the ATSC 3.0 standard were top o...
14/06/2025
SAN FRANCISCO Samba TV and Acxiom have announced that they will dramatically expand their longstanding relationship....
14/06/2025
July 2025 in Dublin, Berlin, Amsterdam & London
Photo: Thea Martre
Music Production for Women (MPW) have announced that they will be running a series of fo...
14/06/2025
San Francisco State University's School of Cinema Uses Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton June 13, 2025
0 Comments
More than 40 Blackmagic Design came...
14/06/2025
Boris FX Mocha Pro Adds New AI Tools To Tackle VFX Tasks Fast
Jessie Electa Petrov June 13, 2025
0 Comments
The 2025.5 release helps artists work more...
14/06/2025
AJA Debuts DRM2-Plus Mini-Converter Frame at InfoComm 2025
Brie Clayton June 13, 2025
0 Comments
Next-gen frame addresses diverse rackmount needs wit...
13/06/2025
(L-R) Lindsay Utz, Michelle Walshe, and The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Prime Minister at Eccles T...
13/06/2025
Photo credit: Atsushi Nishijima
If you're a true lover of rom-coms, chances...
13/06/2025
Pure Drama and Fierce Rivalries set to dominate the world's most iconic spor...
13/06/2025
Johannesburg, 12 June 2025 - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an a...
13/06/2025
ABILENE. Texas A severe storm knocked down the tower and severely damaged the news studio and main facility of Sinclair-owned KTXS here on Sunday, June 8....
13/06/2025
Berklee's Music Business/Management Department Recognized by the Music Biz A...
13/06/2025
WASHINGTON The ATSC, the Broadcast Standards Association, honored veteran technologist Aldo Cugnini and Clarence Hau, Senior Vice President of Standards, Policy...
13/06/2025
(Editor's note: The 2025 UFL Championship Game between the D.C. Defenders and Michigan Panthers kicks off Saturday, June 14, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The game wil...
13/06/2025
New iPad/iPhone synth App announced
Following on from last year's release of Gradient Synth - which reached #6 on the App Store's Paid Music charts ...
13/06/2025
LONDON Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that HBO Max will launch direct-to-consumer in multiple new countries this July as the streamer becomes available in...
13/06/2025
AI voice transcription and captioning platform Verbit has added a new feature to its Captivate ASR solution the ability to identify specific features in automat...
13/06/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission member Anna Gomez has wrapped up two weeks in California visiting broadcasters, television studio executives, enter...
13/06/2025
WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives voted mostly along party lines to approve a rescission package that would cancel $9.4 billion in previously approve...
13/06/2025
At InfoComm 2025, AJA Video Systems announced DRM2-Plus, an intuitive, high-capacity 3RU frame that can neatly house up to 24 AJA Mini-Converters. Tailored to s...
13/06/2025
Cinema advertising leader to leverage AOS and suite of AI-enabled solutions to optimize forecasting, yield management, and streamlined ad sales and operations a...
13/06/2025
Manfrotto has launched the ONE Hybrid Tripod, a new support system designed specifically for professional content creators working with mirrorless cameras acros...
13/06/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that its Media Edge Gateway (MEG), an ATSC 3.0 software-based IRD, now supports Device Security requ...
13/06/2025
LiveU, the global leader in live IP-video contribution, production and distribution solutions, is deepening its commitment to the German-speaking market with th...
13/06/2025
Chaos, the leader in architectural visualisation software, today announces Chaos Corona 13, giving archviz designers new ways to add eye-catching style and flai...
13/06/2025
PALI's Nena Music Video Shot with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton June 12, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve Studio b...
13/06/2025
OddBeast Powers Up iRobot's Newest Roombas with Suite of CGI Launch Assets
Brie Clayton June 12, 2025
0 Comments
The motion design and production ...
13/06/2025
On Chick Coreas Birthday, a Newly Uncovered Archival Release The Visitors, composed by Corea and performed by vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Kirill Gers...
13/06/2025
In fulfilment of a recommendation by the Government's Expert Advisory Commit...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Backblaze's Gleb Budman Talks Products, Partnerships, and the ...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup ...
13/06/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Vecima Networks' Paul Strickland on How Improving QoE...
13/06/2025
Pitch Perspective: Where's Next for Specialty Cameras in Soccer? Leaders from Sky Austria and ACS discuss the possibilities of camera placement pitchside B...
13/06/2025
Premiership Rugby Final 2025: Vintage clash between Bath and Leicester gets full...
13/06/2025
Premiership Rugby Final 2025: TNT Sports gears up for Bath vs Leicester battle w...
13/06/2025
NCAA Men's College World Series: ESPN Adds Two-Point SupraCam, Invests in Ne...
13/06/2025
New FSWX signal and spectrum analyzer with novel architecture overcomes limits o...
13/06/2025
Apple today announced the addition of iPad to Self Service Repair, providing iPad owners with access to repair manuals, genuine Apple parts, Apple Diagnostics t...
13/06/2025
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today previewed iOS 26, a major update that brings a beautiful new design, intelligent experiences, and improvements to the apps use...
13/06/2025
At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple unveiled Apple Games, an all-new destination designed to help players jump back into the games they...
13/06/2025
Industrial AI isn't slowing down. Germany is ready.
Following London Tech Week and GTC Paris at VivaTech, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang's Europea...
12/06/2025
In 2018, Spotify launched Heart & Soul, a mental health initiative developed to ...
12/06/2025
50 Years Strong: SBS and NITV Supercharge NAIDOC Week 2025 in a joint 50th celeb...