Cranberry Community Hall is making a step into the cinematic spotlight after receiving a grant from the Powell River Council for Arts, Culture and Heritage this year.
As the result of the grant, and a newly purchased screen and projector, Cranberry Community Hall Association board member Karen Skadsheim said she hopes to make Cran Hall Film Night a regular event at the former home of the Knights of Pythias.
“We’d like to bring in the kind of films you don’t normally see at the Patricia Theatre,” said Skadsheim, “perhaps older or lesser-known films.”
The funds were given to the association to help transform the hall into a usable venue for next year’s Rossander World Community Film Festival, named for Powell River activist Martin Rossander.
The by-donation film night at the hall will be set up with tables and chairs similar to a coffee house and have a capacity of just under 80 people.
“Whoever is the host will bring a genre and style,” said Skadsheim, “and will perhaps foster discussion of the film after.”
The film night is part of an effort to turn Cran Hall, already used by other community groups for activities and events, into a cultural hub.
“The hardest thing about the movie night,” said Skadsheim, “is finding a regular night that is not already booked up.”
Cranberry Hall’s first film night is being curated by local filmmaker Theo Angell, who is showing his own non-traditional holiday feature described as a “rollicking and hilarious buddy film with a mytho-theological twist.”
Skadsheim she hopes community curators will speak up during discussion following Angell’s’ film and offer to organize future film nights at the hall.
Skadsheim said if more curators are interested in stepping forward, whether with B-movies or even science-fiction marathons, Cran Hall Film Night can be a regular monthly event.
The first Cran Hall Film Night starts at 7 pm on Tuesday, December 17. For more information on Cran Hall Film Night, readers can go to facebook.com/events/870967619688605.
