Some films are better with company. You laugh louder, you gasp together, and afterwards you argue happily over coffee about what the ending meant. That’s the whole idea behind a film society, and Calgary has a good one.
Cinematheque Calgary began in March 2007, when a group of local arts professionals, filmmakers, critics and educators formed a non-profit, the Calgary Cinematheque Society. They saw a gap in the city’s film community and decided to fill it themselves. No big studio, no giant budget. Just people who cared about cinema and wanted a room to share it in.
It found that room at the Globe Cinema, 617 8th Avenue SW, in the middle of downtown. The stated mission is simple and warm: “bringing people together to experience significant cinema.” The group’s vision is a “critical cinema culture thriving in Calgary,” which is a mouthful, though you get the point. They want you to watch well and talk about it.
Within six months of starting, the society launched a series called Talking Pictures. The format is clever. A film plays, and a speaker joins it, maybe a director or somebody who knows the subject inside out. Instead of walking out into the night with a head full of questions, you get a smart voice to help you chew on the film. Those talks turn a screening into an evening.
The growth tells its own story. Cinematheque went from nine titles in 2007 to more than 25 by 2019. It became a registered charity, with operating support from Calgary Arts Development and charitable gaming funds from the Alberta government. In 2014 it began organizing its programming into thematic series and movements, and it added a contemporary international cinema series built around acclaimed festival titles. That’s the kind of planning that turns a few screenings into a season you can mark on your calendar.
Think about what that means for you. Picture a film you’ve never heard of, shown on a big screen the way its maker meant it to be seen, in a room full of curious strangers. Streaming can’t quite do that.
Calgary has always loved a night at the pictures, from the grand old houses we covered in our look at the city’s local cinemas to the movie-house family story in our Allen family profile. Cinematheque is the modern chapter of that same story, and it’s still being written.
So here’s the nudge. Check the current calendar on the Cinematheque Calgary website, pick one title you’ve never heard of, and go. Bring a friend and plan to talk afterwards.
Cinematheque Calgary began in March 2007, when a group of local arts professionals, filmmakers, critics and educators formed the Calgary Cinematheque Society, a nonprofit. Within six months it launched a series called Talking Pictures, where a speaker joins a film screening. Cinematheque Calgary found its home at the Globe Cinema, 617 8th Avenue SW, in the middle of downtown Calgary. Check the current calendar on the Cinematheque Calgary website before you go, since the program changes. Its stated mission is bringing people together to experience significant cinema, and its vision is a critical cinema culture thriving in Calgary. It became a registered charity, with operating support from Calgary Arts Development and charitable gaming funds from the Alberta government. Cinematheque went from nine titles in 2007 to more than 25 by 2019. In 2014 it began organizing its programming into thematic series and movements, and it added a contemporary international cinema series built around acclaimed festival titles. That planning turned a few screenings into a season.Quick answers
There’s more where this came from. Start with From 8,000 Fans to Nearly 30,000, CIFF Is Calgary’s Film Moment, or jump to ACTRA Alberta Backs Performers With Grants, Tips and Stunt Trophies.
More from the archive: Calgary Underground Film Festival and CIFF and What Each One Is Known For and Nell Shipman and the Alberta silent film that cleaned up.
