Columbia County Libraries, with the generous support of the Crandell Theatre, have expanded the Kanopy streaming service to all the library users in Columbia County. Watch classic films from The Criterion Collection, learn about every subject imaginable from The Great Courses and PBS, or indulge in festival, indie or world cinema sourced from award-winning filmmakers globally. Kanopy makes it easy to watch any time, to share and discuss films. Check out their FilmColumbia collection, which includes dozens of films previously screened at Chatham’s annual film festival. If you’ve used Kanopy previously through the Chatham Library, you will need to add a membership to the Columbia County Libraries, which you can do by logging into Kanopy through a desktop computer, and setting that membership as the default. For additional questions, or for assistance walking you through the steps, please contact the Chatham Public Library at…

Excerpted from the September 28 edition of the Columbia Paper. The Village Planning Board met for a special meeting Monday, September 23 to review and approve the plans for a new single screen movie theater at 4 Depot Square, currently a vacant lot. The new building that will house the movie theater, faces the historic train station and sits next to the Herrington’s building supply store, will be built by Jack Shear and run by the Crandell Theatre. The Crandell, a 534 seat single screen movie theater at 48 Main Street, is owned by a not-for-profit organization. Read the entire article.

On Wednesday, August 7th, several students from the Chatham Central School’s Language Concepts Summer Program attended an early morning Sensory Free Screening of “The Lion King.” The group has spent several days recently learning about lions and making manes.

European film series kicks off at Chatham’s Crandell Theater CHATHAM — A heavy metal-loving construction worker is fan hired to help build the world’s biggest statue of Christ — yes, bigger than Rio’s mountaintop mammoth — for a Polish village. He’s helping guide the giant Jesus head toward the statue’s neck. Suddenly, there’s a horrible accident. The young builder’s face is mutilated. Talented surgeons choose him to get Poland’s first face transplant. But the villagers’ reaction to his modern medical miracle is medieval. They think his transplant is against God’s will. Read the entire article.

Listen to Joe Donahue’s interview with Larry Kardish, co-artistic director of the Crandell’s annual film festival FilmColumbia, former senior curator for film at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and curator of the Tales of Europe Film series for the Crandell. Tales of Europe returns to Chatham for the second year with a series of five feature-length and seven short award-winning films made by European filmmakers who journey to Greenland, Morocco and Myanmar to tell their tales. Listen to the interview.