The Martlet

Fortieth anniversaries don’t come around everyday, especially for those in the film distribution business. With recent closures of movie rental establishments and theatres, 40 years is a milestone to be celebrated.

Four decades after its founding, Cinecenta is still a community staple for students and the general public alike. Doug Sprenger, once a 17-year-old student film buff, founded Cinecenta in 1971 when he started showing films on 16 mm film two nights a week in what is now the David Lam Auditorium.

Just four years later, Cinecenta was moved into its current home — the 302-seat cinema, located in the Student Union Building (SUB).

Despite the long history of screening films, not much has changed at Cinecenta. Films are now shown using 35-milimetre film, as well as digital projectors to show DVDs and Blurays. But the same, diverse mix of recent and classic Hollywood films, as well as documentaries, foreign films and independent films still make up Cinenta’s lineup.

Cinecenta also continues to participate in film festivals such as the Antimatter Film Festival in October and Latin American and Spanish Film Week in September.

As a non-profit business of the UVic Students’ Society, student fees, as well as revenue brought in by ticket sales, fund Cinecenta. Manager Lisa Sheppard and Programmer Michael Hoppe are the only non-students on staff. Like the rest of the businesses in the SUB, Cinecenta is otherwise staffed by undergrads — providing work opportunities on campus.

Despite being located in the SUB, Sheppard says, “over half of our customers are nonstudent. Having been in Victoria for 40 years, we are a really beloved institution.”

Cinecenta acts as a sort of community for some.

“A lot of older women feel so comfortable here, feel more of a community and they feel really safe,” said Sheppard. “It’s more intimate and you’re more likely to run into people you know.”

Over the 40 years, Cinecenta has seen some exciting events. The theatre played host to local filmmaker Atom Egoyan as he screened his short films, before he was the famous feature length director he is today.

A peculiar incident involving bomb scares and Disney films also makes up some of Cinecenta’s history. The night of a sold out showing of Fantasia in the David Lam Auditorium, there was a bomb scare which forced the showing to be evacuated. It is thought the call possibly came from a disgruntled film patron who was turned away from the sold-out show. Ironically, decades later in 2000, Cinecenta was showing Fantasia’s sequel Fantasia 2000 when the University received another bomb scare, causing the showing once again to be evacuated.

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, a new Cinecenta logo, inspired by the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, was designed. There is also a special door prize that is to be given out at the “Mystery Movie” night in November.

The future of Cinecenta looks bright. There will be a digital update by 2013 to industry-wide standards. There is also hope for adopting satellite technology that will allow for stand-up comedy shows, operas and many more events to be shown live.

“I’m looking a few years down the line, but maybe [Cinecenta] could be more of an entertainment centre than just movies,” Hoppe envisions.