Tribeca Film Fest brings the silver screen to Queens
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The Tribeca Film Festival is hosting outdoor screenings in Rockaway, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and Astoria Park. Photo courtesy of Rockaway Film Festival
By Rachel Vick
The Tribeca Film Festival is bringing the screens to Queens as part of a new program to bring the cultural event to all five boroughs starting June 9 in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
Through the Borough to Borough program, more than a dozen screenings of movies new and old will take place in Astoria Park, outside the Beach 30th Street Playground and in Flushing Meadows Corona Park — where the festival is kicking off a citywide premier of “In the Heights.”
“Our founding mission is even more relevant today and we wanted to ensure that we could reach all corners of New York,” said Tribeca Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “Tribeca was started to bring people together, and that’s what we aim to do again this year, to connect communities across all five boroughs and share our festival experience, safely, while supporting local businesses.”
The Rockaway Film Festival is co-hosting two screenings of New York City-based movies — “Belly,” starring Nas and DMX, at 5:30 p.m. on June 10 and “Johnny Mnemonic,” a film starring Keanu Reeves that’s set in 2021, at 6 p.m. on June 11.
“It's exciting for us being such a small community based film festival to partner with one of the big festivals,” Rockaway Film Festival co-founder Sam Fleischner told the Eagle. “It's really cool that they’re spreading out over all the boroughs and especially a place like Rockaway where there's no movie theater.”
Fleischner, who previously submitted a film for consideration at TFF, and his team have been bringing the screens to the Rockaway community since 2018 to fill a gap left when the last movie theater on the peninsula closed in the early 2000s.
He said he hopes that this year's program opens the door for larger festivals like Tribeca “to do more partnering with smaller community groups to find out what might play well.”
“Rockaway has a really vibrant thriving community and there should be a place for people to watch films,” Fleischner added. “That’s what we're trying to do and more [groups that get involved] the merrier.”
All Queens programming is free. Tickets to in-person screenings and events are available for advance reservation at tribecafilm.com/festival
Other screenings in the World’s Borough include:
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Friday, June 18 - 2020 Animated Shorts Curated by Whoopi G, 6:00 p.m.
Friday, June 18 - The Sixth Sense, 8:00 p.m.
Beach 30th Street Playground, Rockaway
Thursday, June 10 - Raising Victor Vargas, 8:00pm
Friday, June 11 - Kiss the Ground, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 12 - Moana, 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 12 - Stateless, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 12 - The Host, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 13 - Perfume de Gardenias, 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 13 - Landfall, 6:30 p.m.
Astoria Park
Saturday, June 19th - Selma, 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 19th - Just Another Girl on the IRT, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 19th - Daughters of the Dust, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 20th - James and the Giant Peach, 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 20th - Love and Basketball, 5:00 p.m.
