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Every summer, two of New York's renowned arts institutions host a free, outdoor,
international film festival in their Queens neighborhood. The American Museum of the Moving Image that
curates a weekly program of foreign films from countries reflect the cultures cohabitating in the neighborhood.
Shown at Socrates Sculpture Park, performers and caterers are booked to complement the cultural theme of each screening.
Our international film series that we run in July and August attracts about 1,200 people a night to see the screenings.
There's so many different countries represented around us in this neighborhoods in Queens, so many populations
And the whole theme of the festival is to celebrate the ethnic diversity of Queens, so we
pick different countries and match up food and music from each country.
Socrates and Museum of the Moving Image do a great job, and
so I've never seen a movie here that I haven't really, really, really liked.
The whole idea is to have a movie, music, meal, and a wonderful view of the Manhattan skyline.
I come here every once in a while because I know that there's always a performance and food related to
the movie and, you know, if there's dancing I like to dance so I figured I'd stand up and learn something.
Earlier in the summer they had some Brazilian-themed music with samba dancing.
Today's from Turkey, and you have some sort of documentary on the musical scene in Turkey.
I was invited for the Turkish film as a belly dancer just to kind of introduce the culture a little bit. Belly
dance is traditionally in Turkey, as well as other countries in the Middle East, but it makes for great
festivities and entertainment. Your energy is feeding off of each other,
so we'll usually get people up to dance with us or show them a few moves.
This is Malawueta
of the many in Astoria, and so I'm going to get some of this fine food and I've also got my girlfriend on
line over there. We're going to get some Turkish food as well tonight.
I'm a chef at the restaurant Malaquetta, and my food is Brazilian cuisine and we have an influence of
Africa, India, and Portugal, and combining this food gives good flavor, color, and good taste.
It's delicious, very good.
Mmmmm
It's sort of a full night. People participate in the pre-screening entertainment, they're very lively, and they get involved.
But once it's time for the screening, they really sit back and settle in, and it gets very silent.
We show films that a lot of people might not have heard of. They're somewhat obscure films and they're
from all around the world and the audience just comes and tries out what we show.
I grew up in New York, and it's one of the things I love about New York, that there's so
many different cultures, and every culture welcomes every other culture.
think it's one of the best features New York has to offer, the free activities on
on great summer nights and a lot of different neighborhoods throughout the city.
My name is Sira, and Socrates Sculpture Park is my park.