Musings from Mooselookmeguntic
Juliet Goodfriend
Executive Director, Bryn Mawr Film Institute
My summer meanderings included some BMFI-related activities I thought you’d be interested in. We visited Bucksport , Maine and the wonderful Alamo Theater which houses the truly fascinating Northeast Historic Film organization. David Weiss, the founder and executive director, gave us a tour and told us about the origins of what has become a huge archive of films made in or about New England . The Alamo Theater, built in 1916, became the “front end” of this archiving enterprise when the number of films outgrew Weiss’ home office and the town of Bucksport wanted their old theater restored as an economic stimulant to Main Street . Renovation has been creative, with an auditorium for both live and filmed performances, a lobby that displays historic equipment (including an old and operating popcorn machine), and other educational exhibits, and a second floor with a great deal of technical and office space. Current movies are shown on a Thursday through Monday schedule and are preceded by wonderful, informative, and charming old New England shorts taken from their archives.
The archives are housed in a huge new building, the “Cube” attached to the back of the theater and containing tens of thousands of films and videos in a chilled, controlled, and secure environment. Technical staff are available for help with old film preservation, with educational outreach, and to conduct lectures or hold symposia, etc. In addition to storing films for the likes of Harvard University , Northeast Historic Films is making many movies and videos available to the public. The film catalogue for purchases can be viewed on their website and I know you will enjoy some of these documentaries and features, as I have, of early fishing excursions, logging, maple sugaring, etc.
Make sure you visit Bucksport next time you are Down East. Other sights are Fort Knox and the 400ft high observatory atop the new bridge.
Our Maine stay on Lake Mooselookmeguntic included initiating—by popular demand—a film discussion group that meets after some of the movies screened at our local theater, The Lakeside. Called MooselookMovieLookers, this group met several times to discuss Wall-E, Fugitive Pieces, and Then She Found Me. Starting this group resulted in my discovering the great coincidence that the owner of the Lakeside, Joanne Dunlap, our local theater was a year behind me at Bryn Mawr College and, like me, has come to movies as a second career!
Finally, we visited the Sundance Cinema 608 in Madison , Wisconsin to see how Robert Redford’s new theater looked and felt. It is lovely, all right, especially the roof-top bar under a full moon. The furniture in lobbies and meeting places is Redford “ranch” style and quite inviting. This multiplex has done a good job on food display and restaurant options along with a great schedule of movies. It sits in the upscale Hilldale Mall and is deeply into merchandising with its own Sundance store and lots of catalogue displays from Sundance. So, with that visit, we saw “what money can buy”.
Juliet Goodfriend
JGoodfriend@BrynMawrFilm.org