Global Sights & Sounds for the Urban Traveler

Leave your baggage at home and bring a picnic blanket out to Flushing Meadows right next to the majestic Unisphere for this free weekly presentation of live music, dance, and film from one of the many international locales that fuel Queens’ cultural and artistic vitality.

Museum Galleries & Café open late until 8pm. Free hands-on artmaking workshops for the family before the movie starts.

Free & Open to all. In case of rain, program moves inside the Museum.

Aug 14: Cuba

Music: The Cimarron Project An ensemble dedicated to showcasing the diversity of Afro-Cuban music and dance at its most traditional. They educate their listeners by introducing them to lesser known forms such as the Cuban Bata drumming style, Abakua music, Suku Suku, and Changui by weaving these elements into renditions of Rumba and Cuban Son.

Film: Habanastation (Ian Padrón, Cuba, 2012, 87min, Spanish with English ST) Raised in a wealthy neighborhood of Havana, 12-year-old Mayito has everything at his fingertips: loving and affectionate parents including, the latest PlayStation 3. His classmate Carlos, on the other hand, comes from a low-class residential district where he cleans and sells empty beer bottles just so he can save enough money to buy the kite of his dreams. When Mayito steps into the impoverished community for the first time, he discovers a strange new world. Set against the backdrop of socialist labor marches, Habanastation inspires people from all social strata to put aside their differences and come together as one.  Cuba’s Official Oscar Entry.

Watch the Trailer.

Co-presented with African Film Festival and Asho Productions.

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SERIES SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

July 31: India
Music: Sonali Skandan & Jiva Dance create and present compelling and dynamic works based on the timeless idiom of Bharatanatyam, the classical dance form of South India.
Film: The World Before Her (Nisha Pahuja, Canada/India, 2012, 90min, English & Hindi with English ST). Two young women follow completely divergent paths in the new, modernizing India “€“ one wants to become Miss India, the other is a fierce Hindu Nationalist prepared to kill and die for her beliefs.

Aug 7: Brazil
Music & Dance: Batala NYC All Women Afro-Brazilian Drum band playing the music typically heard in Carnival in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. A Sambalanche of music and dancing.

Film: The Mystery of Samba / O Mistério do Samba (Carolina Jabor Lula Buarque de Hollanda, Brazil, 2008, 88min, In Portuguese with English ST) Captures the rich of a veteran musicians and composers from one of Rio’s most revered samba schools, Portela which holds the record for the most titles won in Rio’s carnival. Guided by acclaimed singer-songwriter Marisa Monte, the film delves into Portela’s history and songs from the older musicians that risked being forgotten. Features special appearances by Paulinho da Viola and Zeca Pagodinho.

Co-presented with Cinema Tropical’s Janeiro in New York Series.

Aug 14: Cuba
Music: The Cimarron Project An ensemble dedicated to showcasing the diversity of Afro-Cuban music and dance at its most traditional. They educate their listeners by introducing them to lesser known forms such as the Cuban Bata drumming style, Abakua music, Suku Suku, and Changui by weaving these elements into renditions of Rumba and Cuban Son.

Film: Habanastation (Ian Padrón, Cuba, 2012, 87min, Spanish with English ST) Tracing the lives of two Cuban classmates with different upbringings, Habanastation relates how a privileged student, Mayito, blindly enters into the dangers of Carlos’ neighborhood, La Timba. What follows is an unforgettable journey full of discovery and the formation of a strong friendship.

Co-presented with African Film Festival and Asho Productions.

Aug 21: Korea
Music: Song Hee Lee Dance Company combines a deep knowledge of both modern and Korean dance forms to create their own unique, intensely personal style that is innovative yet anchored in Korean tradition.

Film: Approved for Adpotion (Laurent Boileau & Jung Henin, France/South Korea, 2012, 75 minutes, French with English ST) Animated coming-of-age documentary intercut that traces the unconventional upbringing of the filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted by European families after the end of the Korean War. Combining sepia-toned animated vignettes with super-8 family footage and archival film , track Jung from the day he first meets his new blond siblings into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity cause rifts at home.

Co-presented with Korean Cultural Service NY

Passport Thursdays is supported by Con Edison, J.M. Kaplan Fund, The David Rockefeller Fund, and Astoria Bank. Additional support provided by the 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.