Film Society opens another fall season Thursday with a Leonard Cohen biopic, 'Hallelujah'

A still from the trailer for the film ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song’ Image: Youtube

The story of a one-inch tall shell named Marcel. Documentaries exploring the musical lives of Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and the little-known women of electronic music. An animated feature inspired by the life of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, and a fiery love story told through archival footage shot by late volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. Plus feature films telling stories of inter-dimensional ruptures, three thousand year old genies, and the fate of a factory in a small Spanish town (starring the likes of Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton, Michelle Yeoh, and Javier Bardem.)

It’s all packed into the new fall season of the Sackville Film Society, opening this Thursday at the Vogue Cinema in downtown Sackville.

The Sackville Film Society has been a stalwart of the local cultural scene for decades, even continuing to offer programming through difficult early pandemic years. CHMA called up director Thaddeus Holownia to ask what’s new:

After two years operating on a seasons pass system, the Society will be opening its box office for individual ticket sales, in addition to offering full season and six-pack passes.

“We’re cautiously going to reopen the box office, under guidance from people in the community saying that there are people who can’t afford a six pack” says Holownia. “And I’m sensitive to that.”

Holownia is still hoping for strong year in full membership sales, to put the Society on a solid footing. “I hope people will continue to support the Society in the spirit of COVID.” He says that out of roughly 100 members last year, about 60 people came to each film showing, meaning people chose to support the society even without going to each film.

“So we’ll just go for it and hope that lots of the membership continues to just buy memberships,” says Holownia, “that’s certainly been the case.”

The full season of films has been booked save for two TBA dates in December, says Holownia. “I’m hoping to put in a couple of real barn burners in December,” he says, with films that are currently in festivals and not yet available for booking.

Holownia says he’s always seen the Society as a community-based endeavour, but over the decades he has seen the majority of the audience change from Mount Allison students and faculty to other town residents. “I’ve never seen it as a Mount A thing,” says Holownia, “that’s why it’s called the Sackville Film Society.”

“We’re lucky to have [the Vogue Cinema] in town,” says Holownia. “I love and I firmly believe in the importance of that, of getting real cinema going so people can experience what it’s like to go to a movie the way it should be viewed, in a collective spirit. And you know, people emotionally taking in something that’s on a big screen.”

Holownia says that he will advise film society attendees to wear masks on their way into the theatre, and he expects some people will continue to wear them through the screenings.

The film society opens this week with a biopic about Leonard Cohen. The show starts at 7:30pm at the Vogue Cinema on Bridge Street in Sackville. For information on how to get passes in advance, email holownia @ mta.ca. Passes for the full 13 week series cost $130, and six-pack punch cards cost $60. Payments can be etransfered to Sackvillefilmsociety @ gmail.com.