Sunshine Coast’s film society picks up where 2020 left off

The pandemic’s first wave caught the Sunshine Coast Film Society mid-season with films yet to air.  

In the two years since, a whole lot has changed – and the society’s 20th birthday has passed – but the three films scheduled for those early months of lockdown still hadn’t had their moment on the Coast’s silver screen.  

So, with the pandemic’s pall lifting, the film society is back and screening the last three movies of its 2020 season.  

Back to the beginning 

Twenty years ago, the society started as a more traditional film society, board chair Doug Dyment told Coast Reporter.  

“They would tend to show more avant garde films and filmy kind of things,” he said. But, about 10 years ago, society realized that’s not really what the Sunshine Coast needs. “What the Sunshine Coast really needs is an option to the two existing theaters, which tend to show first-run, Hollywoody kind of movies.” 

‘Movies for grown-ups’ 

So, Dyment describes the movies they show as films for grown-ups. “They’re not cartoons, they’re not superheroes. They’re not huge budget Hollywood productions.” 

There tend to be a lot of foreign films but that’s not necessarily on purpose – “It’s just there seems to be a lot of good foreign films for grown-ups. 

“We’ve actually been pretty lucky over the years, we’ve managed to pick and screen Oscar winners…before anybody knew that they were going to be Oscar winners!” 

Past films selected for showing have included: Parasite, Boy Erased, The Grizzlies, Colette, Ash is Purest White, The Big Sick,  The Other Side of Hope and Call Me by Your Name.  

And with the shift in focus, the membership grew from numbers in the 200 range to more than 800 when the pandemic suspended normal operations.  

Returning 

The society usually shows 16 films a year – eight between September and December and eight between January and April. There’s generally one screening at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons and one screening at the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt. 

They have two membership tiers: an annual membership, which is lower but means there is a cost for every movie one attends, or a friend of the film society membership, which covers one’s attendance to any and all screenings. Pre-pandemic memberships are being honoured for the rest of this season. 

Many movies are ones that would be shown in a regular theatre in a bigger city, but there’s not enough screentime on the Coast for much other than blockbusters, explains Dyment.  

Members do have to be over 18, because of regulations around rating systems (if they only allow adults, then they can bring in any film they want, regardless of rating).  

The last three screenings of the “2020” season span two films: the Biggest Little Farm (see details in Art Beat) and Wild Rose, which is showing in early April.  

Then, (barring any more “unprecedented” crises) the society with be back in September with a full slate of films. 

Find more information at scfs.ca.