By Bak Keung Ko
Did you know that New York City has a drive-in movie theatre!? In collaboration with the New York Hall of Science, Empire Drive-In brings 12 nights of movie extravaganza in a temporary drive-in installment. Themed with junk cars and a giant screen, New Yorkers can watch different films every October weekend (Thurs-Sun) old school style! On opening night on Friday, October 4, organizers Todd Chandler and Jeff Stark made opening remarks followed by multiple shorts including those by Charlie Chaplin.
On Saturday night, Empire Drive-In featured a Bollywood twist with featured artists DJ Zakhr and Reena Shah. DJ Zakhr played Bollywood music all night while choreographer Reena Shah performed. Shah is renowned for being a professional classical Indian dancer of Bharata Natyam. She taught the audience basic moves as shown in the film of the night, “Bunty Aur Babli”. After an exhausting hour of practice, everyone finally got to enjoy the film. Some sat inside the junk cars, while others lay on top of the hood. Although it was a chilly night, people enjoyed the romantic comedy feature. Half-way into the movie, Bollywood dance mob! Music, lights, action! Everyone got up, and started dancing to the same song with the same moves that they had learned an hour previously! It was awesome! The audience had so much energy and fun dancing to the catchy music. The music was so alluring that it even attracted the local insects!
After the movie ended, people took pictures of the rare drive-in scenery and commented on how much fun they had. This, by far, was the most unique drive-in event with music and movie. What’s next? Stay tuned and find out! Every Thursday through Sunday until October 20th, you can attend a movie night and during the day, you can check out the junk car exhibition in the Hall of Science parking lot!
For more information about Empire Drive-In and upcoming movies, visit www.empiredrivein.com.
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