Neighborhood theatre lives ... in Allen Park

The old fashioned neighbourhood cinema lives…in Allen Park. The Allen Park Cinema has long been a fixture in the downriver community and is owned by Mike Mihalich, the man who owns MJR Digital Cinemas, known for their state-of-the-art multiplexes. He bought it in 1993. Dennis Redmer, VP of operations for MJR, told Windsor Detroit Film the venue has always been “a good neighborhood theatre.” After all, he should know. He grew up in Allen Park and his first job in 1971 was working at the theatre. Until about the year 2000 there were still several smaller movie houses in metro Detroit that offered second-run flicks at deep discount prices. Now there’s just the Allen Park. Yet the theatre still attracts a strong audience, despite even more competition from sources like online streaming. Why? Partly it’s the neighborhood atmosphere, with nearby local restaurants where people can eat before or after a movie. And “not only have you got our parking lot in the back, but there’s just a ton of city parking across the street,” Redmer says. The prices are amazing: $1 beore 6 pm and $1.50 after 6. And yet the theatre still makes a profit, Redmer said. Surprisingly, for the smallish looking building, there are five screens inside. “It used to be one big one,” Redmer says, then divided and divided again and the final auditorium came after the theatre bought the old attached Kowalski sausage store.

I regret to inform that the online independent cinema site FilmStruck is closing. I got the email today. I took out a $100 (US) FilmStruck subscription earlier this year (it can only be accessed stateside) and it was like having an art house theatre in your computer, with classic indies from the French New Wave, British and Asian cinema and beyond, including the Criterion Collection - 1800 flicks altogether.  The site closes officially Nov. 29. It had only been around for two years.  According to show business bible Variety, “The move appeared to be the latest by WarnerMedia, under AT&T’s ownership, to streamline operations by cutting niche-oriented business ventures.” 

The Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) kicks off Sunday and rolls until Nov. 4. There will be 143 films (218 screenings) at three locations in downtown Windsor including the new University of Windsor Armouries (creative arts) building (photo left), which should be an interesting location. Individual tickets are $14 adult (pass $195), students and youth $9 (pass $70), with opening and closing night films $25 each.  There’s also the renamed 48-Hour Flick Fest for Mark Boscariol, one of the founders of the festival, now in its 14th edition, who died an untimely death earlier this year. The Opening Night film is Capernaum (Nadine Labaki) set in Beirut, and the closing night movie is Cold War set in Poland, by director Pawel Pawlikowski. This is the little festival that could and now is one of the premier film festivals in Ontario. Yet, as someone who travels widely in Metro Detroit, virtually no one on the US side of the border knows about it. And IMO it’s the best film festival in the entire region.