Snow is piled high all over Ottawa, but Centretown Movies is already preparing for its annual outdoor summer movie festival in Dundonald Park.
The organization has arranged a Feb. 25 trivia night fundraiser at the Daily Grind, at the corner of Somerset and Percy streets, to help support the upcoming festival.
Centretown Movies is a small, volunteer-based organization and this year is looking for ways to raise more money.
The operation is mainly by the admissions from the people who watch the movies, says Julie Sell, co-president of Centretown Movies.
The admissions to the summer festival, however, are based on a “pay-what-you-can” basis.
While the organization does not need too much money to operate, it does require funds for the rights to publicly screen movies.
“Depending on the movie, the rights can cost anywhere between $300 and $500,” says Sell. “And we are operating on a very tiny budget.”
Centretown Movies’ aim is to simply break even every year.
The organization is also looking into upgrading some of its equipment such as their outdated projector, screen, and soundboard.
Since the launch of Centretown Movies in 2001, the group has yet to upgrade its equipment, something Sell hopes the organization will be able to do if they raise enough money.
Over the years, Centretown Movies has found many ways to subsidize its cost through many local organizations throughout Centretown.
The Centretown Community Health Centre provides the organization with assistance in the form of staffing and bureaucratic duties such as filing forms and dealing with the red tape associated with screening public movies.
Ray Sullivan, executive director of the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, says his organization is happy to help Centretown Movies and that “it’s always great to see the neighbourhood reclaim public space.”
The CCOC provides the festival with a storeroom for the movie equipment, which helps the festival save about $1,660 annually on storage costs.
The festival, entering its 15th year, screens a family-oriented movie every Friday and Saturday evening at 9 p.m. from mid-July through the end of August.
This is the first time Centretown Movies has had a winter fundraising event. The prospect of raising money throughout the entire year, as opposed to simply relying on admission funds is something Sell says the organization is only beginning to do.
Centretown Movies is asking its summer moviegoers, and other local residents to attend the trivia game fundraiser at the Daily Grind and to contribute a minimum of $2. As an incentive, the Daily Grind is offering a $25 gift card for the coffee shop to the winner of the trivia night.
The off-season fundraising effort is partly aimed at trying to find a way to continue to offer a donation-based approach to admissions to the movies in the summer.
In the past, in order to raise money, Centretown Movies has rented out its equipment to Carleton University, which screens movies for its students.
The festival in Dundonald Park will begin this year on July 18 and run until the end of August. Last year’s hit movies included Mrs. Doubtfire and Rent.