At the one-year anniversary of the purchase of the Patricia Theatre, Powell River Film Society is continuing to strive for the facility to be the community’s entertainment hub.
Gary Shilling, executive director of the society, said during the past year, COVID-19 restrictions have lifted and audiences are starting to return. He said production companies are starting to release more first-run films exclusively in theatres.
“Top Gun: Maverick was a good example of a film that was only in the theatre, and in fact, Tom Cruise came on at the beginning of the film and thanked people for coming to the movie theatre,” said Shilling. “I’d love to have Tom Cruise welcome everybody at every film.”
Shilling said the landscape of film distribution has changed, and distributors such as Disney are putting releases on streaming services much more rapidly than in the past, so people are just waiting a couple of weeks and watching at home.
“There’s still the challenge of getting people off their couches and into the theatre, but I’m convinced that once people come back and experience the theatre, have some popcorn and hang out with friends, watch the movie and talk about it afterward, it’s a great experience.”
Feature film
Shilling said October 1 is the anniversary of the reopening under society ownership, which opened with a selection of films from the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). He said the Patricia is doing that again this year, starting September 30, which is the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
The theatre will be screening a production called Bones of Crows, a film about residential schools, which was partially filmed in Tla’amin Nation territory. Tla’amin singers and drummers will be in attendance to welcome theatergoers, and also in attendance will be Eileen Francis and Koosen Pielle, who served as cultural and translation advisors for the film. The screening takes place at 7 pm.
Shilling said there will be six more films from VIFF shown up to October 4.
He said theatre manager Laura Wilson and staff have been doing a great job of welcoming people to the Patricia, mixing up the programming with first run movies and old favourites. Art films are being shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“The community experience is the thing that motivates me most to keep the theatre going,” added Shilling.
He said the audience still skews toward the seniors side of the demographic. The Patricia isn’t attracting youth the same way some theatres do, and that’s a challenge, but it is trending toward increased audiences, he added.
Work to restore the canopy that extends over the entrance is continuing; the society is working on getting a building permit from City of Powell River to undertake the restoration.
Architect Donald Luxton, who specializes in architectural conservation when heritage issues come up, has been hired.
“We’ve contracted him to do an evaluation of the theatre, architecturally, historically and what would be the right directions to go for various improvements,” said Shilling. “He fully supports the restoration of the canopy and came up with a colour scheme based on a little bit of historic colour.
“We have a structural engineer who has approved the anchor points. We now have our development permit so the city has to issue a building permit. Once we have the building permit, then I can complete the documentation so we can get the grant we were awarded from Powell River Community Forest.”
Shilling said the community forest is funding the canopy and the exit stairs off of the balcony. This will allow the balcony to be used in some capacity.
He said there have been conversations with Tla’amin on how to right the wrongs of the past when Tla’amin residents were excluded from being in the theatre, except for the balcony.
“We’re looking at some kind of ceremony as a beginning to help reconcile those past wrongs,” added Shilling.
Technology upgrades
The theatre has undertaken some sound upgrades. Shilling said the woofers had worn out in a couple of speakers, so the bass response would not emanate from new speakers. A sound engineer has come in and balanced the sound inside to add to the aural experience.
The theatre will also be getting a server upgrade. The new server will allow plugging into digital delivery, which is becoming more commonplace, so distributors don’t have to ship films on hard drives to be ingested into a server.
Shilling said the first year of the society’s operation of the Patricia has been a learning experience for everyone.
“We have great staff who step up all of the time in this almost 100-year-old building,” said Shilling. “Every week, something happens that is unexpected and dealing with that stuff sometimes is as much a challenge as anything else.
“We have a community that really does support us. With people feeling safer and with the movie business putting out more films, we’re hoping that more people will enjoy the theatre experience.”
Shilling said the theatre and society have joined an organization called the Network of Independent Film Exhibitors (NICE); he was in Toronto for its launch at the Toronto International Film Festival. The hope is that it will increase the leverage independent theatres have in terms of distribution and getting deals, he added.
“The distributors don’t really care much about the Patricia Theatre as a market, but if we are represented by a whole Canada-wide network, we can get a little bit better distribution deals,” said Shilling. “We’re looking forward to delivering great entertainment for years to come. We want the theatre to be here for generations.
“We have a solid foundation to continue to develop as a place where the community continues to come and to gather, laugh, cry, and do all of those emotional things we do at the movies.”
