Chatham Crandell Theatre Marquee

Considerations on Re-Opening the Crandell

Dear Friends: As a result of the pandemic, the Crandell has been closed since March. During that time, our staff and board have been so grateful for the support of our members and friends. Although the Crandell screen may be dark, we have been busy all the while. We have developed schematic drawings toward the long-desired renovation of our beloved theater. We used our PPP grant to do a cleanup of the theater. Our newly-created Community Programming Committee has presented two well-attended, well-received programs thus far: one about the food chain, and our Farm Film Festival. Each week, we offer several films for home viewing on various streaming platforms. And, through our collaboration with local libraries and Kanopy, 30,000 films are available for free. This week, the Governor allowed movie theaters to re-open, at up to 25% capacity. As we…

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Behind the Screen: FilmColumbia

In the latest Behind The Screen — a peek behind the Crandell’s velvet curtain — FilmColumbia managing director Calliope Nicholas discusses our signature annual event. FilmColumbia celebrated its 20th anniversary last fall with thousands of film lovers attending. How the world has changed since then! All of us involved with the Crandell Theatre & FilmColumbia have been grappling with next steps throughout the pandemic and closely following the film industry in its latest evolutions. FilmColumbia was created in 1999 to a humble start of a few films over a weekend. In 2000, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gave our audiences an early screening before going on to win the Oscar for best foreign film. At that time the 35mm projector was the only format available, with large film canisters delivered daily to the theater. It was a fascinating process to watch…

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