Light at the end of the theatre Cinematheque seeks approval to be first movie venue to reopen By: Randall King Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2020 Last Modified: 10:44 AM CDT Thursday, Jul. 16, 2020 Updates

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This article was published 14/07/2020 (1626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For cinema buffs, there’s nothing worse than having a projector quit in mid-movie. Until now.

The interruption has lingered for months. Winnipeg’s sole art-house movie venue, Cinematheque, has been dark since mid-March.

It’s been a challenging time for movie theatres across the country, but especially for those in Manitoba, where active COVID-19 cases are almost at zero. Cinemas have opened in provinces with less favourable numbers, including Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

But there may be a projection light at the end of the tunnel.

“We are actually putting together a formal proposal to the province to see if they will allow us to open our theatre in an extremely safe and socially distanced way,” says Winnipeg Film Group executive director Greg Klymkiw.

The cinema in the Artspace building in the Exchange doesn’t typically attract unruly crowds at the best of times. So of all the cinemas in town, Cinematheque might be the most easily managed.

“We only have 85 seats and we’ve done the math on how we need to actually run the theatre safely,” he says. “It really doesn’t make sense for us to have more than 25 people in the theatre, spread out in the proper increments.

“Also (we could) leave enough time between shows so that seating areas could be completely cleaned and disinfected, while also making sure that people don’t come in off the street to buy tickets but actually have to purchase their tickets online.”

As Klymkiw points out, the doors to the Artspace building are already locked to the public until at least Sept. 1, making it simple for Cinematheque staff to monitor the entrance, allowing one person or one couple at a time to enter and take their seats.

“It’s a really good plan we’re putting together and we’re going to propose it to the province and see what they have to say about it,” he says.

Klymkiw says the theatre’s online service, Cinematheque at Home, has been successful in bringing in some money for its program of online films such as the trippy Brazilian film Bacurau, which launched the program in April, to current films such as Capital in the 21st Century and White Riot.

“Cinematheque at Home is doing really well. People are really making use of it. A lot of our regular Cinematheque patrons are certainly making use of it, but I do think we’re getting a whole new demographic of people who normally don’t even go out to the movies. So that’s a good thing.

“Otherwise, the pandemic has put a huge strain on things,” Klymkiw says, adding that the Winnipeg Film Group’s training workshops have also had to go online.

“That can work for a lot of things, but it doesn’t quite work when you’re trying to do practical hands-on stuff like lighting and blocking and staging and things like that.”

Still, the WFG has been productive even through lockdown. Klymkiw points to the WFG’s 48 Hour Film Contest, an annual event at the Gimli Film Festival that will be streaming at the fest’s online edition Sunday, July 26, at 4 p.m.

This year, Klymkiw and the WFG’s technical manager, Dylan Baillie, gave filmmaker-entrants more than a 48-hour deadline to navigate. (The films were shot, cut and delivered between 5 p.m. on Friday, June 19, and 5 p.m. Sunday, June 21.

This 96-minute feature-length package of shorts is representative of independence at its best — bold, imaginative and reflective of the sheer insanity we’ve all been going through.

“I put together this thing which I called the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic Edition,” Klymkiw says. “We basically said to people, ‘You have to adhere to the new provincial guidelines for film production,’ but we went even further and said, ‘You cannot have a total cast and crew that exceeds nine people. You have to do it pretty much on your own. You can’t do it the way you would normally do a movie.’

“I also wanted everyone to do their films with a self-isolation theme and they all had to refer to COVID-19 as well,” Klymkiw says.

“So basically we are going to be the first arts organization in the world to generate 24 brand new short films that are dealing with the pandemic, which is pretty cool.”

Klymkiw says the 96-minute program “actually captures what people are experiencing lately and what filmmakers are seeing now.

“I think it’s going to be pretty amazing,” he says. “There’s some great films in the bunch.”

Even if Klymkiw fails to get the theatre open in the next few weeks, you may be able to get a Cinematheque fix by late August, says programmer Dave Barber.

“We are going to do a pop-up series with the Winnipeg Art Gallery on the Roof,” Barber says. “They are following protocols for seating.”

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is booked for Aug. 20, a program of Quay brothers short films on Sept. 3 and on Sept. 17 a restoration of Downtown 81. Tickets will be available at wag.ca.  

“You’ve got to keep your name out there,” Barber says.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

Randall King
Reporter

In a way, Randall King was born into the entertainment beat.

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