Carson City Classic Cinema Club rallies for kids by bringing 'Golden Age' films to community

For the past five years the Carson City Classic Cinema Club has been showing the great 'Golden Age of Hollywood' films to local moviegoers as a way to promote art education in the community. The club's founder notes its acceptance thus far has been slow going but, so far, successful.

Around 10 years ago, the club’s founder Rhonda Abend learned just how many children and family’s are either homeless, in transition, or generally at risk in our own community, and her first questions was, “where do they play?”

“I was stunned, absolutely stunned,” said Abend. “My dominant right brain just kept saying, where do they play, kids have to be able to play and have the opportunity to relax and rejuvenate and experience arts that are being cut from the schools.”

Abend left the meeting in tears, she said, and vowed to find a way to help the children in our community.

It wouldn’t be until several years later that the Cinema Club came into existence after she learned a friend of hers had a fly-fishing club that worked with the local schools to help kids. She realized she could do something similar — though, with less fish.

On July 1, 2014 they showed their first movie at Sassafras in their previous location downtown. A total of 8 people showed up; the restaurant was cold, a bit cramped, and that night the owner of Sassafras told Abend they lost their lease.

But the idea had been planted, and started to grow.

Over the years they moved through Sassafras to Pizza Factory to Red’s Old 395 Grill, where they began “Dinner and Movie” and more and more members joined.

“We outgrew it all,” she said. “Finally we found our way to the Brewery Arts Center, and we’ve been there three years now. It’s our home, and we love it there.”

They first began in the black box theatre until one night, a scheduling issue moved them into the performance hall at the church across the street, which worked perfectly for their needs.

Now, when you attend a screening from the Cinema Club, you will walk through the big doors of the old church, and into the lobby where you’ll find raffle tickets raising money for a school in the district, or an arts program for students, with a member-run concession stand and, the best part of all, free popcorn.

The reason classic cinema is the focus of the club is simply because Abend herself adores classic cinema, and wanted to bring that love to the community in order to help raise funds and awareness for youth art programs for local kids.

“If I was stranded on an island, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) would be all I need,” said Abend with a laugh. “These films were groundbreaking in their time, they shaped what we consider cinema today. They were brave and creative and unique. Today’s movies don’t have the same quality as the golden age of Hollywood.”

On Tuesday, the November movie was “An American in Paris” starring Gene Kelly, which has brilliant choreography, impressive sets, beautiful music, all wrapped up into a how-to guide on getting arrested in 2019 for harassing women.

Before the movie, Wired Wednesday Digital Arts Association gave a lecture on ways to improve audio in films, discussing mic techniques, how to get the best audio in different situations, and what to do if you’re audio didn’t come through.

The Cinema Club began collaborating with Wired Wednesdays after learning their missions overlap, specifically, bringing arts to the community for youth.

Each year in October, Wired Wednesday and the Cinema Club host the excellent and spooky “Carson Creepies,” the local short horror film competition.

The Cinema Club raises money to continue bringing low-cost classic movies to the community, and to help programs and students wherever they can.

For Mark Twain Elementary School, for example, on early release days Abend takes art supplies to the school to run projects for students, and teachers around town will approach the Club for help for their students who may need assistance funding their projects.

Currently, the club is fundraising for the students of Carson High School to play at a music festival.

“We’ve been letting people know, ‘if you have kids that need anything, let me know,’” said Abend. “When teachers recognize students that need help affording things, they let me know now.”

All Abend wants in return for the Club’s help, is simply for more people to get involved.

“Right now, I would love for more people to get involved so the events go more smoothly, and if we could have more people donating art supplies or cash for art supplies.”

Each time Abend goes to Mark Twain to provide art projects to the students, it costs about $200, which is funded by the Club.

All of the movies the Club chooses are family friendly, and generally produced before 1970 with the exception of the sponsored outdoor summer movies. This is a simple task, said Abend, because all of the blockbuster movies in the golden age didn’t include inappropriate language, nudity, violence, or anything that might make your grandmother or grandson squirm. When someone attends a screening from the Cinema Club, they can rest assure the films will be entertaining for any age group.

This year, the free outdoor summer movies will begin June 10th, and will screen every Wednesday evening.

The regular Cinema Club screenings each month happen on the first Tuesday, at the Performance Hall of the Brewery Arts Center, and admission is $4 for non-members and non-students, but free to members ($40 per year) and free to students.

The upcoming regularly-scheduled monthly movies for 2020 (not including the free outdoor movies) are as follows:

• January 7: Captain Blood
• February 4: Lady Eve
• March 3: Can’t Take it with You
• April 7: Great Expectations
• May 5: San Fransisco
• June 2: Shane
• July 7: Blue Max
• August 4: Kiss me Deadly
• September 1: Shadow of a Doubt
• October 6: Gaslight
• November 3: Carmen Jones
• December 1: Susan Slept Here

You can learn more about the Carson City Classic Cinema Club, their schedule, information on membership or sponsoring a summer movie (only a few are left!) and more by visiting their website at this link: https://ccclassiccinema.org/