Four photographers, four ways of looking at the movie theater. That is the premise of Seeing the Cinema: Photographic Visions of Movie Theaters, the new exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image on 35th Avenue in Astoria, which opened October 10 and runs through March 21, 2027. This week it shares the neighborhood calendar with a free Halloween afternoon and a free Saturday 5K in Astoria Park.

Movie houses, drive-ins and the people who ran the projectors

The show fills the museum's Amphitheater Gallery and treats the movie theater as two things at once: a building and a habit, the place where people gather in the dark to watch a story on a screen. Each photographer takes a different angle on it:

  • Thomas R. Schiff photographs the outsides of neighborhood movie theaters as wide panoramas. The image the museum uses to introduce the show is his view of the Devon Theatre in Attica, Indiana.
  • Hiroshi Sugimoto is represented by his long-exposure photographs of theater auditoriums.
  • John Margolies documented drive-in theaters, the open-air version of the same ritual.
  • Joseph Holmes made portraits of projectionists, the people in the booth whom audiences rarely see.

The museum describes the four as architectural, atmospheric, environmental and occupational views of the same subject. The setting adds something: the museum sits next door to Kaufman Astoria Studios, which opened in 1920 as Paramount's East Coast production hub.

Museum hours and admission

The Museum of the Moving Image is at 36-01 35th Avenue, at 37th Street. It is open Thursday from 2 to 6 pm, Friday from 2 to 8 pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm.

Gallery admission, which covers the special exhibitions, is $20 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and older and for students, and $10 for ages 3 to 17. Members and children under 3 get in free, and admission is free for everyone on Thursdays from 2 to 6 pm. Tickets can be bought online, with a $1.50 fee per ticket, or at the desk; advance purchase is not required. The lobby, the Mon Amour Coffee & Wine cafe and the Kaufman Courtyard (weather permitting) are free to enter during open hours.

The closest subway stops are Steinway Street on the M and R and 36th Avenue on the N and W. From Steinway Street, walk south to 35th Avenue and turn right; the entrance is just past 37th Street.

Saturday: a free 5K in Astoria Park

New York Road Runners holds its free Open Run in Astoria Park on Saturday, October 24, from 8:45 to 11 am. It is a weekly 5K for runners and walkers at any pace, and it starts beside the track near the comfort station. NYC Parks notes that the track was renovated with Anchor Parks funding.

Sunday: Batty Over Halloween on the Great Lawn

On Sunday, October 25, from 1 to 4 pm, NYC Parks hosts Batty Over Halloween on the Great Lawn in Astoria Park, an afternoon for children with a puppet show and candy. Costumes are encouraged and the event is free. Questions go to 718-728-7820.

Astoria Park sits on 19th Street, between Astoria Park South and Ditmars Boulevard. It is also home to the city's oldest and largest public pool, according to NYC Parks.

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