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It has been a full semester since the Collins Center for the Arts first began their foray into artistic cinema. Moving forward from the success of their Thursday night independent film series, the CCA is now expanding their program to include an Alfred Hitchcock film series on Saturday nights, concessions and showings of Oscar-buzz movies.
“I didn’t expect it to take off immediately, but it has been building,” said special projects manager Brett Zeigler.
Attendance for the films averages around 30 to 40, according to Zeigler, but has hit as high as the 90s.
The Hitchcock film series, titled “Hi-Def Hitch” features eight of the director’s films. The compilation was put together by one of the CCA’s film distributors, according to Zeigler.
“I don’t know about the actual process of converting from celluloid to 1’s and 0’s but it looks really remarkable,” Zeigler said. “The ones that I’ve seen, they’re crisp and clear and the audio is good. Prints get damaged just in shipping, so you’d be hard pressed to see a Hitchcock movie on film that looked this good.”
The compilation is one of three special packages the distributors offer — the others are a series called “Essential Art House” and a package of movies by French filmmaker Jacques Tati. Zeigler plans to bring the others to the CCA later in the year.
The Thursday night series will be continuing as well, including Academy Award front runner “Precious” on February 4.
“It’s like the week after [The Oscars] so we’ll do it on a Thursday night … but I was thinking of doing another late show of ‘Precious’ on Saturday night,” Zeigler said. He was unsure if the movie will be played at any other local theater.
Also coming in February is “Antichrist” starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. This controversial filmed earned Gainsbourg an award for best actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
The concessions stand opening has been held up by technical problems but should be fixed in the very near future, according to Zeigler.
“We’ll be selling popcorn, candy and soda at our movies as well as at Kickin’ Flicks,” Zeigler said. “We will not be able to accept dining funds or Black Bear Bucks, but we also won’t be charging conventional movie concession prices — more like half.”
According to Zeigler, the audiences have primarily consisted of community members and faculty, not students. The independent films offer an artistic outlet, but aren’t big sellers.
“Maybe there’s a double edge sword to making an independent movie,” Zeigler said. “You have the creative freedom to step outside the normal realm of cinema but you miss out on that brutally effective marketing and distribution machine. That’s why people are more apt to recognize and go see “The Hot Chick” versus “Waltz with Bashir.”
While the films may not be as packed as the blockbusters shown on during Kickin’ Flicks, Zeigler still considers the program to be a financial and artist success.
“The more we do, the better, because it doesn’t really cost us anything to show them,” Zeigler said. “It’s only six bucks and you’re not going to see these [films] anywhere else on the big screen.”
