Summer has come, and with it the wistful nostalgia for drive-ins and the desire to maximize outdoor time to the greatest extent possible. The Parks Department, along with the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy and other city agencies have organized dozens of screenings in Queens that turn moviegoing into a communal activity. QNS has selected 10 of them spanning the borough.
The Parks Department’s Movies Under the Stars program will screen “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. May 25 at the Frederick B Judge Playground at 111-01 134th St., South Ozone Park. In this new chapter of the Spiderman story, told through an inventive animation process, a black-Latino teenager in Brooklyn gets bit by the radioactive spider and gets thrown into a plot involving many multi-dimensional versions of Spider-Man. This event is free.
Movies Under the Stars will screen “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. May 31 at Paul Raimonda Playground at 47th Street and 20th Avenue in the Ditmars Steinway area of Astoria. Spielberg’s masterpiece tells the story of Elliot, a lonely boy who befriends a homesick alien stranded on Earth and attempts to help him escape from the clutches of the government to get back to his home planet. This event is free.
Movies Under the Stars will screen “Frozen” from 8:30 to 10 p.m. June 5 at Bulova Park in the Louis C. Moser Playground, 25th Avenue and 76th Street, East Elmhurst. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” it tells the story of a princess who sets off on a journey to end a curse that has frozen her kingdom in eternal winter. This event is free.
Movies Under the Stars will screen “Black Panther” from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. June 21 at 149th Street and 25th Avenue, Flushing. The Parks Department will partner with Councilman Paul Vallone and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. In this Marvel blockbuster featuring a predominantly black cast, T’Challa returns home to the Afrofuturist nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. The event is free and wheelchair accessible.
Movies Under the Stars will screen “Smallfoot” from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. June 26 at Yellowstone Park, 106-21 68th Ave., Forest Hills. Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment will present this animated adventure about a yeti who discovers a human and tries to bring the news back to his home village. This event is free.
The Parks Department’s Outdoor Cinema will present “Cielo” from 7 to 10:30 p.m. July 3 at Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City. This documentary focuses on the night sky above the Atacama Desert in Chile, interviewing astronomers, peasants, cowboys and miners about the celestial body. This event is free.
Hunters Point Parks Conservancy’s CinemaLIC program will screen “Dirty Dancing” from 8 to 10 p.m. July 18 at Hunters Point South Park, 51st Avenue and Borden Avenue, Long Island City. In this ’80s teen classic, a wide-eyed high schooler falls for a handsome dance instructor as she discovers the late night dance culture at a 1960s Catskills resort.
Movies On The Waterfront Series will present “Clueless” from 8:15 to 10:15 p.m. July 29 on the Astoria Park Lawn, 19 19th St., Astoria. Based loosely on Jane Austen’s “Emma,” this ’90s romantic comedy follows Cher, a Beverly Hills “it” girl, as she stumbles through valley girl romance. The event is free and wheelchair accessible.
Movies Under the Stars will screen “Carousel” from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Aug. 5 at George Seuffert Bandshell on Forest Park Drive, Woodhaven. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, a rough-talking, handsome carousel barker who is told that he can return to Earth for one day to make amends to his widow and their daughter. The event is free.
CinemaLIC will screen “Jaws” Aug. 15 at Hunters Point Park South, 51st Avenue and Borden Avenue, Long Island City. Speilberg’s pivotal horror film tells the story of the crew hired to hunt a man-eating great white shark that had been attacking beachgoers off the Massachusetts coast.
