This summer families can pack their blankets and huddle outside to enjoy free outdoor movie screenings at Socrates Sculpture Park, the Queens Museum of Art, Noonan Park in Sunnyside and Astoria Park.
Socrates Sculpture Park, at 32-01 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City, will have its 14th Annual International Film Festival, which also includes music, dance and food. The sculpture-filled park that overlooks the Manhattan skyline will host screenings every Wednesday from July 4 until Aug. 22 at sunset.
Before the screening cuts to scene one on July 4, a live stream of fireworks will hypnotize audience members while Moon Hooch, a trumpet band, performs. Food from John Brown Smokehouse will be available for nibbling that evening as well. There will be live music and dance performances before each screening at 7 p.m. if the weather permits. But if mother nature does not cooperate, Aug. 29 is the rain date.
The movies range from 1964 to 2012 and offer a breadth of international film-making. They include “Soul Kitchen,” a German film about a Greek-German restaurant owner, and “Senna,” which is about race car driver Ayrton Senna’s endeavors in Brazil.
The Queens Museum of Art, located near Queens Theatre at 14 United Nations Ave. South in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, also has a cultural-themed movie series dubbed Target Passport Fridays. Its 8th annual film screening will be held every Friday from July 6 to Aug. 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The event will also feature live performances. If it rains, do not hesitate to show up because the event will just be relocated inside the museum.
The highlighted locales, in order of film screening, are Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, Egypt, the West Indies, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The live shows will correspond with the themes of the movies. For example, when the Taiwanese film “Fishing Luck” is screened on Aug. 10, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will perform, and so will the Taiwanese Ensemble of New York.
Also, when “Fire in the Babylon” is screened on Aug. 3, a performance by Something Positive Dance, an African Caribbean dance organization, will celebrate 50 years of independence for Jamaica as well as Trinidad and Tobago.
The screenings are meant to complement “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World,” a new exhibition at the museum about Caribbean culture and history.
Sunnyside Park Movies at Noonan Park, 47th Avenue and 43rd Street, took a different approach, and will be screening ’80s films on July 6 and Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. “The Land Before Time” and “Footloose” are the two featured films of the event. The family-oriented park will allow friends to reminisce while enjoying the flicks. It also will have chairs for the audience.
Astoria Park at Shore Blvd. between Hell Gate Bridge and the pool will show films every Monday in August at 8:30 p.m. Among the movies is the Disney classic “The Lion King.”
For more information on the screenings, visit socratessculpturepark.org, queensmuseum.org, sunnysideshines.org or centralastoria.org.
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