Cinema Under The Stars

 There's something about the collective nature of the moviegoing experience that transcends advancements in technology.  

Despite the ease and convenience of Netflix, Redbox, Video-On-Demand, Internet TV, and premium cable channels, people have a yearning to gather together to enjoy good storytelling.

Cinema is a visual medium that allows each of us enjoy, experience, learn from, and process the human experience.  It's easy to lean back in an easy chair, a bowl of popcorn by our side, and hit the remote.  What's far more enriching is to experience cinema in the company of others-- in the company of strangers even.  It's through cinema that we discover that as humans, our similarities outweigh our differences.  

Now that drive-ins are nearly extinct and movie tickets keep rising, many communities host sponsored summer movie events in outdoor venues.  Many of these are FREE, some request donations, and nearly all the rest are reasonably priced.   Most outdoor summer movie events feature popular audience choices, family favorites, and classic film fare.

Recently, I went to "Screen On The Green" at the National Mall in Washington D.C.  The final offering for the season was Psycho.  It was a picturesque setting to watch a classic Hitchcock film-- one of my favorites indeed.  (Plus, I got to see the sunset at The Washington Monument.)  An amazing amount of people showed up at the event.  They scoped out their territories early, as is usually the case at these events.  Overwhelmingly, this was a young audience.  Some of them may have been seeing Psycho for the very first time.  My friend and I had a blast!

The Academy also introduced Oscar Outdoors at their new open-air theater in Hollywood this year.  Screenings take place on Fri and Sat nights.  The last one I'm aware of is Friday, September 7 (Julie and Julia.)  Be forewarned, many of those screenings have SOLD OUT.  

If you're afraid of the dark and spooked by dead people, you may want to skip this next one.  Cinespia Cemetery Screenings are a popular and a fun option for people who live in and around the L.A. area. There, you can watch films under the stars and amid the headstones-- in case you've ever had a hankering to combine those two things.  

In New York City, The NYC Parks hosts a wide variety of outdoor film festivals and screenings during the summertime.  Other sponsored outdoor movie screenings take place in and around NYC during the summer, too.  Most I saw were FREE.  Recent findings:  Upcoming screenings in Bryant Park, Astoria Park, Staten Island, etc through September 6, 2012.

All communities should have access to cinema because cinema is the history of where we've come from, where we are, and where we're going. 

Check your local listings to see if your area hosts summer movie screenings before the summer's out!

© 2012 by KLiedle