hottest movie night<\/a> \u2014 drawing hoards of young hipsters and senior citizens alike to share in a feast of decades-old cinema and homecooked meals.<\/p>\nCinema Club Piacere, a monthly film club at the St. Mary\u2019s of the Snow Society in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has been screening classic Italian-American flicks like \u201cMoonstruck\u201d and \u201cMy Cousin Vinny\u201d to large crowds for nearly a year while serving up classic dishes like baked ziti and sausage and peppers.<\/p>\n
Cinema Club Piacere is hidden inside 138-year-old Italian-American social club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Masha Shevel via Cinema Club Piacere<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople appreciate the authenticity of it, the uniqueness of the space: a lot of people are obviously searching for community these days,\u201d said event founder Kevin D\u2019Angelo, who on the last Wednesday of each month holds Club Piacere \u2014 which roughly translates to \u201cnice to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mingling of different communities \u2014 intergenerational ones \u2014 is what I\u2019m really proud of,\u201d D\u2019Angelo, 36, said.<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s one-year anniversary, set for April 29, will be the club\u2019s first watch of one of Italian cinema icon Federico Fellini\u2019s films.<\/p>\n
The familial f\u00eate, which features a rotating menu including oysters, risotto and spaghetti and meatballs, has become so popular by word-of-mouth that its last few events packed the massive hall to the brim with more than 150 attendees.<\/p>\n
The series has also attracted local vendors and international sponsors like Mutti tomatoes, as well as outside volunteers who \u201cjust want to help out and keep the event going,\u201d the founder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become a meaningful part of people\u2019s month.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mingling of different communities \u2014 intergenerational ones \u2014 is what I\u2019m really proud of,\u201d D\u2019Angelo said. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n
The familial f\u00eate has become so popular that its last few events drew more than 150 attendees. Matthew Hsieh via Cinema Club Piacere<\/p>\n
D\u2019Angelo, a filmmaker himself who grew-up going to the society\u2019s events with his grandfather, first began using the storied hall on Graham Avenue as a screening location for his own films.<\/p>\n
It was last April when he realized the venue could be used as a general movie hall to welcome the increasingly-changing, heavily gentrified community around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had been around for so long, we\u2019re a part of the neighborhood \u2014 but the neighborhood is changing, and I think it\u2019s important for us to be acquainted with one another,\u201d D\u2019Angelo said.<\/p>\n
A photo of former Mayor Ed Koch (center left) standing in front of the St. Mary\u2019s of Snow Society. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe neighborhood is changing, and I think it\u2019s important for us to be acquainted with one another,\u201d D\u2019Angelo said. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll see tables of our senior members with a young couple from Bushwick, or like my mom sitting with my friends from Tokyo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t really get that all the time living in New York. You can really be in a bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n
The St. Mary\u2019s of the Snow Society, which started in 1888 and moved into the Graham Avenue hall in the 1950s, once provided vital mutual aid to due-paying members \u2014 including access to doctors, housing and other support for new immigrants arriving from the southern Italian town of Sanza.<\/p>\n
At Cinema Club Piacere, he said, \u201cthere\u2019s definitely a preservation of culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Social club members (L-R) Alessandro Grimaldi, 27, Kevin D\u2019Angelo, 36, and Francesco Ventimiglia, 24, pose behind a mural of Sanza, Italy, inside the Brooklyn hall. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been challenging over the years, especially since no one\u2019s coming over from Italy anymore,\u201d said society Vice President Alessandro Grimaldi, 27, whose mother has cooked up her own red sauce recipes for cinema club goers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019re trying our best, especially as descendants of the people that came here before us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re figuring out what our identity and what our purpose is,\u201d D\u2019Angelo added. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019re figuring that out, the more people that have a relationship with the space, the less likely it is to disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
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