The Queens Museum’s summertime staple, Passport Thursdays: International Dance, Music, and Film Series, returns for another exciting season featuring some of the many international locales that fuel Queens’ cultural and artistic vitality. This year’s adventure includes stops in the Caribbean, Taiwan, India, Colombia, Korea, and South Africa. So leave your baggage at home and bring a picnic blanket out to Flushing Meadows Corona Park for an evening in the shadow of the majestic Unisphere. There will be free artmaking workshops for families before the films start, our galleries and café will remain open until 8pm, and we won’t let a little rain spoil the fun, we’ll just move the whole event indoors.

And if coming to the Park is a little out of the way, this year we are partnering with the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance to bring three of the films out to Rockaway. Destination Rockaway: Passport International Film Series will present three selections from Passport Thursdays in the Rockaway Community Garden. So whether you prefer the beach or the park, we hope you’ll join us on our journey of global sights and sounds.

Music: M.A.K.U. Sound System

M.A.K.U.’s distinctive sound is enriched with a variety of musical backgrounds brought to the table by each of its members including hints of Colombian Folklore, Psychedelic-rock, and Caribbean grooves. It all comes together through a D.I.Y. attitude of getting things done, from composing to releasing independent records; M.A.K.U. is as much about the music as it is about a way of life.

Film: Mateo (Maria Gamboa, Colombia, 72min, Spanish with English ST)

Mateo, collects extortion money on behalf of his uncle and uses his pay to help out his poor mother in a violent neighborhood alongside the Magdalena River valley. Mateo agrees to infiltrate a local theatre group in order to uncover its members’ political activities. As he becomes enthralled with the free-flowing creative lifestyle of the troupe, his uncle escalates demands on him to produce incriminating information on the actors. Under pressure, Mateo must make difficult choices. *Contains some adult language.

Co-presented with CinemaTropical

Passport Thursdays and Destination Rockaway: Passport International Film Series are presented by TD Bank. 

Additional support provided by Nexon,  Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.