Four day drive-in film festival hits silver screen at St. John’s

The Festival of Cinema NYC begins tonight with drive-in screenings at the St. John’s University campus. Photo via DIscover Lehigh Valley/Flikr

By Rachel Vick

The annual Festival of Cinema NYC is adapting to COVID-19 restrictions by taking the event outside, with a five-story projection screen playing more than two dozen independent films.

The drive-in film festival will take over parking lots at St. John’s University starting today with the premier of seven short films from local creators. Subjects range from a film-noir parody to a drama about a changing mother-daughter relationship in New York City called “A New Chapter.”

 “A New Chapter’ is, in many ways, based on the relationship of writer and co-star Madia Hill Scott and her mother, she told talk show host Stephen Miller, 

“She wrote these really complicated, complex women that, at least for me, jump off of the page,” director Susanna Wolk told Miller, praising Scott’s writing. “In the short film format, it gave us a slice of life that’s super raw and vulnerable.

A total of 28 independent films will be shown over the four-day festival, which is broken down into six categories, including documentaries, international short films, crime and family-friendly animation.

The annual festival has taken place every summer since 2017 and organizers were determined to make the best of a bad situation. 

“Being that our organization is an Arts & Cultural not-for-profit, we hit pretty hard as was the rest of the Arts and Entertainment industry,” founder and executive director Jayson Simba told the Eagle. “With movie theaters shut down in New York City, we had to postpone our summer event and figure out a new way to deliver our content and present the work of the many filmmakers whose work we selected to screen at the 2020 film festival.”
Patrons will have to remain in their car and arrive in time for a safety briefing. Tickets are available online, and can be used for a car of five.