Last night I volunteered at a monthly gathering known as the Celluloid Social Club. Once a month at the ANZA club in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver, filmmaker Paul Armstrong holds this evening event for filmmakers, movie enthusiasts, actors, and many more people to get together, network, drink, and watch some movie previews as well as a couple short films. Paul also hosts an 8-month short film contest called Crazy 8s.
My job was to sign in the special guests for the night and collect payments from other people who showed up for the event. I sat at a table near the entrance with several other volunteers who managed the raffle tickets for a 50/50 draw as well as a door prize draw. I basically collected money from people, gave them change back, and my associate stamped their wrists. But I got to see some of the screenings.
There were previews for short films, top 10 entries for the Cinecoup competition and some short films. First, there were previews for Inheritance, Suspension, Preggoland, and Songs She Wrote About People She Knows.
One film was called Through the Pane, which depicted two lonely neighbours who spot each other through their apartment windows and communicate by writing notes and showing them to each other. Romantic and humorous, but you have to wonder why they didn’t start texting.
Other short films included The Timekeeper, a movie about a watchmaker who also gives away artifacts, and Wendy, a movie about a young woman in the late 1960s on her way to give a letter to her father’s long lost friend.
As always at this club, the screenings were followed by Q&A with the creators — it was pretty quiet last night. I may be back to volunteer at Celluloid Social Club again . . . keeping in mind I work an early shift three mornings a week . . .