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Junk Car Drive-In Movie Coming To Flushing Meadows
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 19, 2013
Modified Sep 19, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 19, 2013
Modified Sep 19, 2013
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You guys didn't hear us, but yesterday we were talking about how the closest Drive-In movie theater to New York City is like... two hours away. It might as well be in Sunny California. So this morning it was almost as if someone did hear us talking because our inbox contained a heads up about a junk car drive-in theater at the Queens Museum in October. You know what this means: OUTDOOR FALL MOVIES. We never read The Secret, is this how it works?
The Empire Drive-In will kick off October 4th, and here's what to expect that first night:
"Empire Drive-In’s opening night features Greg Saunier of the band Deerhoof and 30 pianists on old Casio keyboards. Saunier composed pieces for three silent comedies and will play percussion on an amplified junk car. Keyboards and pianists wrangled by Maestra Missy Mazzoli. Films include One Week starring Buster Keaton (scored by Aye Aye Rabbit: Greg Saunier on drums, guitarist Indigo Street, and Ed Pastorini on keyboards), One A.M. starring Charlie Chaplin, and Kid Speed starring Oliver Hardy. Followed by Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth, an anthology of five different cab drivers in five cities on the same night."
Right now the site makes it look like you just get to sit near junked cars, but they promise this is "a full-scale theater made out of wrecked cars and a 40-foot screen constructed of salvaged wood. Audiences climb in and out of cars rescued from the junkyard to watch films projected on the big screen. Low-power radio transmits stereo audio directly to each car." It will be interactive in other ways, too, so don't expect to get your own car to neck with your steady in—they encourage people explore the cars, climb on top of them, and dig through the "artifacts" in the glove compartments.
The events (held outside the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park) will run through October 20th (see the full ineup here), and cost $15 a ticket.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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