Everything you need to know about watching movies in Sackville
Winter darkness already got you down? Sackville’s two film societies provide a low cost social activity that leaves you feeling happier. Once a month, Sackville Cinematheque screens “classic, cult, and art house cinema” at the Owens Art Gallery free of charge. The upcoming film, HIGH AND LOW, will be screened on Friday, Nov. 21at 7:00 p.m. The Sackville Film Society screens recently released films at the Amherst Theatre on Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. The upcoming film, Koln 75, is screening on Nov. 15. Viewers may purchase a single admission ticket for $12, a six-pack punch card for $66, and a full membership, including 14 films, for $140.
Dino Koutras is the director of programming of the Sackville Cinematheque, as well as a guest lecturer in the Art History Department at Mt.A, and a regular part-time faculty at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. In September of 2022, Koutras started the Sackville Cinematheque because he “felt that the town lacked this programming,” because although Sackville already had a film society, they only screen “recent festival films. They don’t program or screen films from cinema history.” Accompanying each film at Sackville Cinematheque is a preliminary introduction by the programmer which provides historical and contemporary context for the film. Local graphic novelist and Cinematheque board member, Patrick Allaby, is the artist behind the eye-catching posters advertising the monthly films.
In an interview with The Argosy, Koutras says “it’s usually not my favourite film that’s the best experience. Because it’s part of the point of these kinds of initiatives, Film Society too, is to bring people together to experience a film as a group, as an audience.” He elaborates saying “that can change your experience of the film in lots of great ways.” Koutras says one of his favourite experiences was when they screened “Strictly Borrowing” a 90s “sports movie and rom-com” which is “not really considerable in the pantheon and the canon of great cinema,” but “it was one of the best experiences because the audience was just very tuned into the film and we all had a great time watching it. So that’s the kind of thing I’m trying to cultivate.”
Photographer and retired Mt.A professor of photography, Thaddeus Holownia, is the head of the Sackville Film Society, and has been choosing films and organizing the screenings for an impressive 46 years. The Sackville Film Society has been running since 1977, with a focus on recent successful films, showing documentaries, comedies, and dramas made all over the world. The society has an open membership, everyone is invited to come to each screening, providing they pay the admission fee. In 2023, the Sackville Film Society moved locations from the Vogue theatre to the Amherst theatre, located at 47 Church St. in Amherst, Nova Scotia, where it is still located today. Both the Sackville Cinematheque and the Sackville Film Society welcome anyone wanting to see the films that are being screened and are enthusiastic about new joiners.
To find our more about the Sackville Cinematheque and sign-up for their newsletter visit: https://www.sackvillecinematheque.com or follow them on Instagram: @cinesackville
To find out more about the Sackville Film Society, check out their Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152492437136