56 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • APRIL 20, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM buzz Watch these fi lms for free on the Long Island City waterfront at Socrates Sculpture Park BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected] @AngelaMatua One of the longest running summer fi lm festivals takes place in Long Island City, and this year Outdoor Cinema at Socrates Sculpture Park will present eight movies that celebrate the cultural diversity of Queens. Now in its 19th season, the festival will feature eight weeks of movies from July through August from an array of countries including Mauritania, Greece, Sweden, Venezuela, Spain, America and more. Each movie will be accompanied by a musical performance by artists from each respective country. Performances will start at 7 p.m. and the movies will be screened right aft er. In addition to the music, local restaurants will off er cuisine from each fi lm’s country at Socrates Sculpture Park, which is located at 32-01 Vernon Blvd. Th e musicians and food vendors will be announced one week before each screening takes place. Th e festival will open on July 5 with a screening of Timbuktu, a fi lm from Mauritania and France about a family of shepherds whose neighborhood is overtaken by a group of radical jihadists who impose Sharia law. “Easy Money,” a Swedish fi lm, follows JW as he becomes a drug runner to make money. As the movie progresses, his fate becomes entangled with two other characters including a crook and mob hit man. Other fi lms include “Chevalier” from Greece, which is a story about several men on vacation on a luxury yacht who compete to see who is “the best in general” to ward off boredom. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Maki Maki Th e 2005 fi lm Romance & Cigarettes, starring James Gandolfi ni, Astoria native Christopher Walken, Kate Winslet and Susan Sarandon, will be screened on Aug. 16. For a full list of movies and showtimes, visit socratessculpturepark.org. With tours, tulips and trainings, Queens hosts diverse Earth Day fests all weekend BY ROB MACKAY Queens Tourism Council Earth Day celebrations are in full bloom in the borough this weekend, as local venues host everything from eco-workshops to nature tours to artistic endeavors. Follow the wonderful scents to the Queens Botanical Garden for Tulip Time! on April 22 and April 23 from noon to 4 p.m. on both weekend days. It’s the peak of the season, and thousands of these bulbous, herbaceous perennials will be blossoming throughout the Flushing green space. Plus, employees will facilitate tours, planting demonstrations and children’s craft s. A few blocks away at the Voelker Orth Museum, multi-genre artist Nancy Rakoczy will be on hand for Green Garden/Green Planet on April 22 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Th e LIC-based handicraft er will be involved in some hands-on activities, while eco-friendly agencies such as NYC H20 and Shorewalkers will provide information on recycling, composting, urban wildlife and other earth-friendly activities. Meanwhile out in Douglaston, the Alley Pond Environmental Center will celebrate Earth Day with Wine Glass Painting on April 21 at 7 p.m. Masa Kitani, a professional art entertainer, will lead this adults-only event, taking attendees through the step-by-step process of decorating in a way that refl ects nature’s beauty. (Of course, those present will sample some wine in their new creations at the end.) Th e merriment will continue with a family-friendly stroll through Alley Pond’s trails on April 22 at 7 p.m. Aft er frolicking with the springtime fl owerets, participants will gather by an outdoor fi re for Native American stories and music honoring Mother Earth and nature’s precious balance. Th e New York Hall of Science thinks globally and acts locally with a two-hour Reuse, Recycle, Rethink activity on April 21, starting at 2:30 p.m. Th e event repeats the next day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Trained educators will lead activities that teach how personal choices impact the environment and help create strategies to respond. Topics include the following: - Extreme Events — Explore the impact that green infrastructure has on managing water runoff in the face of extreme events. - Empty Spaces — Act as landscape architects to redesign a vacant lot while considering diff erent solution strategies. - Hidden Cost Café — Explore the carbon footprints of your favorite foods. - Hot Spots — Explore diff erences in the surface temperatures of locations across NYC and discuss solutions to keep the city cool. - Get to the Game — Explore the carbon footprint of game day food and transportation choices. - Choices in the ‘Hood — Identify which green energy choices are available by stacking diff erent colored Legos on a map. - Digital Map — Upload stories, videos, data and pictures related to local climate change impacts or programs and see what friends and neighbors are sharing. Socrates Sculpture Park will screen free movies throughout the summer.
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