The Socratic Method
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

In Manhattan, most outdoor summer movie events are about getting away from the congested streets and the crowded subways, if only for a few hours. But in Queens, the organizers of one outdoor movie series approach the endeavor not as a fleeting escape, but as a recurring event not to be missed.
On Wednesday, Long Island City’s Socrates Sculpture Park will kick off the 10th year of its Outdoor Cinema summer series, a two-month multimedia event presented in conjunction with the Museum of the Moving Image that has become a weekly tradition for many in Queens, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Dubbed a Festival of International Film, Music, Dance and Food, the Socrates spectacle, which offers free admission, combines the programming of an outdoor film festival with a weekly catered picnic and outdoor concert. Every Wednesday through August 20, organizers will select a particular cultural heritage to celebrate, then set about planning food, music, and films to match.
The series will begin by celebrating two cultures in a single evening. The opening slot on the double feature is the 2006 Greek documentary “Who’s on First,” about the nation’s struggle to field a baseball team for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The second is the Palestinian hip-hop documentary “Slingshot Hip Hop,” which was a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Rounding out the evening will be performances by Palestinian musicians Mohammed Al Farra and Abeer (who is featured in the film) and food from the local Greek restaurant Opa! Souvlaki.
“Our objective in bringing together all these different elements is to exemplify the diversity of Queens and the complexity of what Queens has to offer,” Socrates Sculpture Park’s events manager, Shaun Leonardo, said. “Our hope is to call attention to all of the vibrant communities existing right here, and with this year’s lineup, we wanted to choose countries that we haven’t celebrated before, maybe switching it up a little bit to show how the community has altered and grown. We wanted to be sure to include a Mexican film this year, to focus on such places as Palestine, and South Korea — on communities that are fairly new in Queens.”
While the weekly programs differ by culture, Mr. Leonardo said, there is little turnover in the audience from one week to the next. Instead, many of the same faces return week after week, eager to embrace a new menu, genre of music, and cinematic style.
“We always know that nights celebrating Brazil and Cuba are going to be heavy hitters, but this year I was hoping that we could push the limits a little bit,” Mr. Leonardo said. “I don’t think we’ve done France ever, but we wanted to expand the boundaries of what this event can do.”
Judging by the attendance figures — Mr. Leonardo said a recent event attracted more than 1,600 spectators — the community has clearly embraced the event, responding not only to the efforts of those at the sculpture park, but to the programming decisions made by the chief curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, David Schwartz. In choosing films for this year’s seven programs, Mr. Schwartz said, he felt a freedom to take chances thanks to the reliable popularity of the festival.
“One amazing thing about the way this series works is that it’s built up enough of an audience that the crowds aren’t always paying that much attention to the film prior to coming,” Mr. Schwartz said. “They have come to trust our programming decisions, they trust that we’ll do something interesting, and as a result that’s allowed us to be pretty adventurous in bringing exciting movies to the park.”
Indeed, a glance at the 2008 calendar doesn’t turn up such typical outdoor fan favorites as “Jaws” or “Star Wars,” but a slate of contemporary art-house hits, some of which quietly made their way through the city’s theaters this past year. Following this week’s screening of “Slingshot Hip Hop” is the critically lauded African globalization drama “Bamako,” in which Malian villagers assemble a mock court and put the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on trial. On July 23, director Ramin Bahrani will appear in person to introduce his neorealist masterpiece “Chop Shop,” a story of poverty and survival that was shot and takes place in Queens.
Looking out into August, the series will include the light-footed adolescent drama from Mexico, “Duck Soup,” on August 23, and the family-friendly doubleheader of “Persepolis” and “The Red Balloon,” both from France.
“We try to reach out and feature movies like this — titles that have been in the press, people may have heard of them, but huge audiences didn’t get a chance to see them,” Mr. Leonardo said. “Particularly in Queens, I don’t even know if some of these have shown theatrically. They’ve opened in Manhattan, played in places like Cambridge and Minneapolis, but our crowds haven’t had a chance to see them in their own neighborhood. This is a wonderful place to kick back, let go, and discover movies of this quality.”
ssnyder@nysun.com
“Outdoor Cinema 2008” runs at the Socrates Sculpture Park each Wednesday through August 27. For more information, visit socratessculpturepark.org.