By Quentin Yarolem
From today through Saturday, the classic 1978 film Superman: The Movie will grace the screen at FilmScene as the latest installment in its youth-oriented Picture Show series.
“FilmScene’s mission is to challenge, inspire, educate, and entertain through the art of film,” said Andrew Sherburne, FilmScene’s marketing director and cofounder. “The Picture Show is our way of fostering a love of cinema in young audiences.”
While the goal of FilmScene, 118 E. College St., has long been to educate through art, it also received support for the Picture Show from a collaborator, MidWestOne Bank, 102 S. Clinton St.
“MidWestOne Bank is a strong supporter of arts, community, and youth and was a natural partner,” Sherburne said. “The MidWestOne leadership shared our interest in providing access to good movies for families in our community and eagerly agreed to support the series.”
FilmScene has screened a variety of movies as part of the series, ensuring to expose children to numerous cultures and time periods.
“We try to offer a lot of variety for our kids’ shows — E.T., Frozen, The Sandlot, Spiderman, Willy Wonka. We just played Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, which is a silent film from the ’20s,” said Emily Salmonson, FilmScene’s director of operations. “It is so cool that there are films that are nearly 100 years old that don’t have any animation or CGI and that still make kids laugh out loud.”
Children are like sponges, absorbing and learning from everything, she said, and projects such as the Picture Show are beneficial in providing children with a space to not only learn but also to be entertained.
“It’s awesome to see kids having a great time at the movies. They choose to have this community experience rather than [watching] a movie on their phone or tablet at home,” Salmonson said. “Kids are a huge part of FilmScene. They’re the next generation of moviegoers, and we want to preserve that excitement and memory that comes with seeing a movie on the big screen.”
With the world of technology changing so rapidly, many structures of the “old days” have vanished. Drive-ins, theaters, and rental stores are all becoming scarce as the streaming revolution continues. Series such as Picture Show enable children to be exposed to a part of film culture that may be in danger of going extinct
“Our culture is saturated with more images than ever before, so it’s crucial children learn how to process those images in a meaningful way,” said Andy Brodie, FilmScene’s program director. “We provide an environment that encourages engagement and discussion. The Picture Show is an important piece of a larger strategy and programming puzzle that fulfills our mission as a 501c3 nonprofit, providing a home for film in our community and treating it with the same respect and love that the other arts enjoy.”
The Picture Show series makes the important decisions to keep parts of film culture alive by engaging and educating children. In doing so, it also inspires the next generation of filmmakers and film viewers.
“The Picture Show is essential and goes to the heart of that effort,” Brodie said. “There’s no better way to discover and appreciate the magic and power of cinema than by going to the movies and having that big-screen experience.”
