Mathieu Huot, Ali Arya and Saivash Mohajer are responsible for organizing this year’s lineup for Centretown Movies, after the event nearly shut down when all the volunteers quit last year.
Dundonald Park isn’t a place where parents would normally want their children playing after sundown. Located across from the Beer Store on Somerset Avenue, the park is a stomping ground for late-night drinking and partying and it’s not rare to find broken beer bottles scattered across the grass on a Sunday morning.
But for a few weekends each summer, a group of volunteers has been turning the rough-around-the-edges park into a free movie theatre for Centretown residents. And after nearly shutting down due to lack of manpower, the nine-year-old Centretown Movies Film Festival returns with a new line-up of organizers.
“It’s always kind of exciting. Centretown is seen as being the non-neighbourhood, it was just the place where everyone went to work, so we like to be able to get people outside and entertained together,” said Mathieu Huot, this year’s volunteer co-ordinator.
The events run on Fridays and Saturdays from mid-July to early August, and feature a huge projector screen, four speakers, and admission by donation. All movies in the lineup are family-friendly and past screenings have featured popular films such as Shrek, Little Miss Sunshine and Casablanca.
“That’s why I do it, it’s my favourite thing to sit outside with my friends, get some fresh air and watch a film. Everyone has fun,” said Huot, who has volunteered for the festival for three years.
“It’s good because it’s family oriented and that’s such a sketch park normally, I avoid walking past it at night. It’s nice to sit outside and watch a movie and get drunk,” said Valerie Carew, a Centretown resident and Carleton University student.
Huot said the free movie nights allow a negative space to be used for a positive cause, and help bring members of the community together. He insisted that the park’s proximity to a Beer Store in a neighbourhood full of young people doesn’t cause as many problems as one might think.
“We have a few minor issues maybe, like people yelling, but the police know what’s going on and they are around. If there’s ever a major problem they would be there immediately,” he said.
Pulling the movies, volunteers and audience together has proved to be a challenge, however. A planning committee chooses the line-up, applies for funding from the city and searches for volunteers and community groups to participate.
But last year every committee member moved on, leaving the festival’s future uncertain.
“The reason I joined was that I actually heard that they were looking for people to step up, and I think I was one of a number of people who heard that and came forward. I didn’t want to see the event shut down,” said Jean Forrest, a Centretown Movies committee member.
There was no shortage of people who wanted the festival to continue, but organizing everything is sometimes a problem for the group.
A paid position for the festival co-ordinator remains unfilled, and communication between organizers is poor.
They have had trouble contacting one another to plan meetings, decide on lineups and recruit outside participation.
For example, each year the committee selects local community groups who screen their own film on a Friday night and cover the $300 fee paid to the city for showing the movie.
Previous groups have included Engineers Without Borders and Colours of Africa, but committee member and tech support co-ordinator Ali Arya said this year’s groups haven’t been decided yet, and he doesn’t know when they will.
“I didn’t realize that they were completely replacing the old group, so it was kind of scary at the beginning because everyone is new here. That has been a challenge, but we are working on it. Summer is not for a while yet,” said Arya, who added that he plans to ask the National Capital Vegetarian Association if they would be interested in screening a film.
Arya said the lineup this year will feature family, classic, blockbuster and cult movies, but would only mention The Fifth Element as one possibility. The 2008 schedule is expected to be posted before the end of April on the festival web site.
“I think the lineup will be popular with everyone," he said. "It’s a very important event to me because I love films and meeting new people, and it really brings the neighbourhood together.”