The Menninger Foundation used to present one monthly and many of us shrinks in the community would go with our spouses and then adjourn to various friends' homes and discuss them -- Hiroshima, Mon Amour; Wild Strawberries; The Seventh Seal, etc.
Having recently switched churches to the Cathedral, I notice our Dean (great guy, great sermons) actively encourages using the Cathedral for musical concerts (at least 2/mo), displays by artists (monthly), etc., open to the whole community. So I thought why not a series of great films, too? I discussed it with him and he was quite supportive -- he seems to like using the facilities of the Cathedral to serve the community.
So I met with a longtime close friend (psychiatrist & longtime Cathedral member) and a friend of his who goes to the Sundance Festival yearly and we tentatively decided to draw films from these rotating categories: Classics, Animated, Independents, Foreign, Comedies. They'd be shown Wednesday evenings, 1st of each month except when holidays interfere and open to everyone.
I've suggested we draw candidates from 2 sources -- IMDb's list of the top 250 <www.imdb.com> and Roger Ebert's listing of Greatest Films on his website.
I'm most interested in seeing films I've not yet seen -- but among those I've seen that I'd be thrilled to discover in a series like this are: any of the Bergman films; Rashomon; Modern Times; The Lives of Others; The Bicycle Thief; My Dinner with Andre; On Being John Malkovitch; Kiki's Delivery Service; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter....and Spring.
Our public library loans out films and some could come from them (& they could give us free advertising, too). But they don't have many of the greatest films so, maybe, if we have a large enough attendance and free will offering, we could buy those that we need and donate it to the library after our use.
The 3 of us can serve as directors and organizers for awhile but it'd be good to get others to help and to rotate people in (& out) of those positions after serving a term.
Any have experience with such a project? Stumbling blocks? Pitfalls? Things to be aware of?
Will appreciate any words of advice.
Having recently switched churches to the Cathedral, I notice our Dean (great guy, great sermons) actively encourages using the Cathedral for musical concerts (at least 2/mo), displays by artists (monthly), etc., open to the whole community. So I thought why not a series of great films, too? I discussed it with him and he was quite supportive -- he seems to like using the facilities of the Cathedral to serve the community.
So I met with a longtime close friend (psychiatrist & longtime Cathedral member) and a friend of his who goes to the Sundance Festival yearly and we tentatively decided to draw films from these rotating categories: Classics, Animated, Independents, Foreign, Comedies. They'd be shown Wednesday evenings, 1st of each month except when holidays interfere and open to everyone.
I've suggested we draw candidates from 2 sources -- IMDb's list of the top 250 <www.imdb.com> and Roger Ebert's listing of Greatest Films on his website.
I'm most interested in seeing films I've not yet seen -- but among those I've seen that I'd be thrilled to discover in a series like this are: any of the Bergman films; Rashomon; Modern Times; The Lives of Others; The Bicycle Thief; My Dinner with Andre; On Being John Malkovitch; Kiki's Delivery Service; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter....and Spring.
Our public library loans out films and some could come from them (& they could give us free advertising, too). But they don't have many of the greatest films so, maybe, if we have a large enough attendance and free will offering, we could buy those that we need and donate it to the library after our use.
The 3 of us can serve as directors and organizers for awhile but it'd be good to get others to help and to rotate people in (& out) of those positions after serving a term.
Any have experience with such a project? Stumbling blocks? Pitfalls? Things to be aware of?
Will appreciate any words of advice.
