Only one institution in the world provides a comprehensive look at how moving images are made, marketed and shown. That’s the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. Opened in 1988, it is housed in a historic film studio complex that once played host to Gloria Swanson, W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers and other stars of cinema’s early days.
February 1996 marked the debut of the museum’s expanded core exhibition, Behind the Screen. Re-designed at a cost of USD 3 million, the 14,000-square-foot exhibition incorporates some of the most advanced technology in today’s moving image industries. The stories of the many people who work together to create movies and TV shows are told with artifacts, interactive displays, video screenings, live demonstrations by museum educators, commissioned artworks and text.
Interactive stations give visitors first-hand experience of jobs such as sound editing, computer graphics design, bluescreen effects, automatic dialogue replacement and animation. The work of cinematographers, TV directors, special effects artists, screenwriters, musical composers and others is introduced through screenings of documentaries and historic works of film and television shown on monitors and in mini-theaters throughout the exhibition.
Behind the Screen presents a selection of about 1,000 artifacts from the museum’s collection. These include the original Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back, a golden chariot from 1959’s Ben Hur, fan magazines, celebrity portraits, and other examples of what historians call the “material culture” of movies and television.
How to Get There
Take the R train to Steinway Street; use the 34th Avenue exit.
Where to Eat
Astoria is the largest Greek-speaking enclave outside of Greece. There’s no shortage of good Greek restaurants to choose from along Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Avenue. Manducati’s is an Italian restaurant in nearby Long Island City, and is popular with those who work at the Kaufman-Astoria Studios and Silvercup Studios. Water’s Edge is an upscale restaurant in Queens’ only skyscraper, serving American cuisine.
