Thursday, February 4, 2016

Upcoming and reflecting...

I traveled to the Art House Convergence in Utah in January to learn more about how to do a better job presenting films to the community at the Strand.

Being with others who are doing this work and with distributors and filmmakers who have new films to consider makes a great working vacation for me, because the Strand is a labor of love.

I listened to inspiring presentations by exhibitors who put foreign film, documentaries, independent films, and classics on many more screens than we do. From them I learned or at least gained new perspectives and context. But no matter how many screens or how many seats, we all are doing this because we believe in what we are doing. There is really no other reason: there is no money to be made showing art films at almost any scale.

That's why we and almost all those others are nonprofit organizations. Like ballet, opera, symphony, and even museums, box office receipts will never pay for the programming. And that is exactly what we are providing our community: access to arts.

Bringing our small Mississippi town the same films being discussed in New York City and other major metropolitan areas around the country is an important part of our mission.

Towards that end, we are bringing three films that have been nominated for Oscars to our audience before the Awards ceremony.

Sat. Feb. 6 we have Cartel Land, nominated for best documentary feature. (details above)

Sat. Feb. 20 we present Boy and The World, nominated for Best Animated Feature.

Sat. Feb, 27 we present our annual Best Foreign Language Film contender: Mustang.


Bringing about a better understanding of film and its processes is another part of our mission,  As often as possible we like to host live conversations with filmmakers. A current resident of Mississippi, Arin Michael O'Shayne will be presenting his film, Some Will Fall on Sat. Feb. 13. The film will be followed by a Q&A with him.

So, 2016 is underway at the Strand, and we hope you will join us there, tell your friends, and support our efforts.

Daniel W Boone

Strand Theatre
717 Clay Street
Vicksburg, MS 39183


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