Final Flicks
A wise person once said, “all good things must come to an end”. With the arrival of November comes your last chance to catch some fab flicks on the big screen at our beloved Deckchair Cinema.
Another wise person also once said, “good things come to those who wait”, and our fingers are crossed film fanatics can look forward to returning to the Deckie in 2021 for a full season of cinematic gems.
In what has been a challenging year, there have been silver linings for the team at the Deckie. General Manager James Parker says opening the doors was an achievement in itself.
“It was hard. Getting everything in place to meet the regulations and keeping our customers and staff safe. We can usually fit in 420 but we dropped down to about 200, and we’ve now been able to bump up to 230, which feels comfortable,” he says.
“We experimented a bit to get the right number, just to make sure everyone could safely distance.”
Another huge achievement for the cinema can be seen by all, up on the big screen.
“The new projector for the cinema – it was such a huge deal for us. We saved for a really long time, and it’s immediately noticeable how good it looks. We can screen earlier than we’ve ever screened before,” Parker says.
“We noticed more younger kids coming through last month’s holiday program and, as I don’t have kids myself, I wasn’t quite sure what impact the earlier screening would have. But you can really notice more children coming to the cinema – even though it’s just half an hour, it’s made a really big difference.”
Another feather in the cap of the Deckchair’s 2020 season is the Darwin International Film Festival, aka DIFF 2020: Take One – the first physical international film festival to roll out in Australia since restrictions were lifted. Parker says DIFF Manager Blandine Ruffo should be commended for her efforts during such uncertain times.
“It was incredible. The festival was received really well by our audience and Darwin in general, who just really appreciated having that level of festival and that amount of entertainment available to them,” he says.
“Blandine did an incredible job even scheduling a festival, considering in March we were told there wouldn’t be events for six months. Then she managed to pull off an international film festival, and really involved everyday local artists, including bands and painters throughout the festival, which was fantastic.”
Deckchair Cinema
WHEN DAILY UNTIL SUN 15 NOV
INFO deckchaircinema.com
Header photo: Paz Tassone
