The Scene: A Third-Anniversary Celebration For Bantam Cinema
The cinema celebrated its third anniversary as a community-supported, nonprofit movie theater.
Board member Judith Auchincloss, Margery Feldberg, and Dr. Jeremy Levin
The lights were on, there were faux cameras as decorations, and there was action and entertainment at Bantam Cinema & Arts Center’s celebration on Saturday, November 9. The event commemorated the third anniversary of the theater’s incarnation as a community-supported cinema and arts center. The Bantam Cinema, which started life in 1929 as the Rivoli Theater, closed due to COVID-19, but a group of local movie lovers acquired the property and established it as a nonprofit. Guests convened at the Washington Club Hall in Washington, Connecticut for an evening of arts entertainment, cocktails and canapes, and the launch of the new “sizzle” reel about the cinema featuring local cinephiles. Executive Director Robert Kwalick introduced Jack Gilpin, a stage and screen actor (he can currently be seen in the HBO series “The Gilded Age; he’s also an ordained priest and served as Rector of St. John’s in New Milford for eight years). Gilpin performed a monologue from “Scenes from American Life” by A.R. Gurney. Next, MOMIX, the Washington, Connecticut-based, internationally known company of dancer-illusionists, performed a set of wildly inventive, prop-heavy pieces from their repertoire.
Executive Director Rober Kwalick and actor/rector Jack Gilpin
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
