Thinking outside the box, Maplewood Film Society creates cinematic events

CHAD HUNT PHOTOGRAPHY

The Maplewood Film Society screened “The Apprentice” at The Woodland in Maplewood, in October.

We lost another movie house.

On April 30, part of the ceiling of the historic Cranford Theater collapsed. There was no audience inside the affected auditorium at the time — luckily — but the entire building had to be evacuated. It remains shuttered while the damage is assessed.

The 99-year-old picture house plans to reopen — its owners specialize in revitalizing vintage theaters. But it’s hard not to see this as one more nail in the coffin of local movie-going.

The theater in Millburn closed during the pandemic. So did the one in Maplewood. Neither ever reopened. The Millburn space became a Charles Schwab office. The Maplewood theater is still vacant. Meanwhile, the five movie screens at The South Orange Performing Arts Center shut down at the end of March. No new tenant has been announced.

It would be easy for even the most dedicated movie buff to just give up, and retreat to their den and their collection of DVDs.

But the plucky Maplewood Film Society decided to take action.

CHAD HUNT PHOTOGRAPHY

Angela Matusik, left, and Lisa Cohen co-founded The Maplewood Film Society.

Actually, there was no Maplewood Film Society at the time. There were just a couple of Maplewood moviegoers, Angela Matusik and Lisa Cohen, who were sad to see their local theater shuttered. And alarmed to see a subsequent redevelopment plan for that downtown neighborhood didn’t include a replacement.

“There was a proposal for that part, really the heart of Maplewood Village, being conglomerated into one big space,” Matusik says. “A huge apartment complex maybe, with some room for retail — you know, perhaps someone could come in and put in a Sweetgreen. But there was no requirement that there still be a theater, and Lisa and I were ‘This is ridiculous.’ ”

So they started going to town meetings, and encouraging others to join them. They circulated a petition, requesting that any redevelopment plan include space for a theater. They started the Society, which they incorporated as a nonprofit.

And while their ultimate goal is to bring a movie house back to Maplewood, in the meantime, they are bringing movies back to Maplewood, any way they can.

“The first thing we did, on Sept. 13, was a backyard movie event,” Matusik says. “We thought, ‘OK, we don’t have a movie theater right now but we all have backyards, and a lot of us have projectors.’ So we got about 35 households to sign up and on this one night, at the same time, we all showed the original ‘Beetlejuice’ in our backyards. So for that one night, we might not have a theater, but we could still get back that idea of coming together as a community and sharing a movie.”

Since then, they have had other, singular events. On Oct. 28, they took over The Woodland in Maplewood and showed the Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice” — a controversial movie that was having trouble getting theater bookings. Screenwriter Gabriel Sherman came and stayed for a Q-and-A.

The Maplewood Film Society will screen “Wild at Heart” at The Woodland in Maplewood, May 16.

On May 16, they will be back at that space with a tribute to the late David Lynch. They will show “Wild At Heart” — “which you can’t find streaming anywhere,” Matusik points out — and host Lynch’s longtime cinematographer Frederick Elmes. There will also be a “Twin Peaks” photo booth, with guests encouraged to dress as their favorite David Lynch character.

“Since we don’t have a real theater, we think it’s important to make these not just movies, but events,” Matusik says.

Of course, the dream is to have a real theater, although with companies like Bow Tie Cinemas and Cinema Lab pulling out of the area, Matusik knows that’s a battle.

“Running a cinema these days is a very difficult business,” she admits. “Some would argue that you can only do it as a nonprofit, like The Clairidge in Montclair. But with Gov. Murphy saying nonprofit movie houses can now sell beer and wine, that can make nonprofit theaters even more viable. That’s certainly a real possibility for our town. And actually I think all these nearby theaters closing makes the need for a local movie house even clearer. I wanted to see ‘Sinners’ last week and the nearest place showing it was the AMC in Mountainside. And they didn’t have two seats together.”

Matusik — who has worked in entertainment journalism, as well as marketing — knows the movie business has changed. Perhaps to survive now, a theater has to be all things to all people — a place for film, yes, but also occasionally a home for lectures, for open-mike nights, for music. But whatever shape it may take, it would still provide what movie houses always have — a safe center for a small town’s downtown, a comfortable haven for people to come together. A place where, if you really listen, you can hear a community’s beating heart.

“You grow up with your neighborhood theater,” Matusik says. “When you’re a kid, you have your birthday parties there; when you’re a teen, you go there on weekends with friends. As a young parent, you get a babysitter and go there for a date night; as an older couple, it’s easy and affordable entertainment. And, you know, maybe you go downtown early and go out for dinner first, or hang out afterward and go out for dessert. You see your neighbors, you talk — movie theaters bring a community together. I mean, really, how many people have walked into the old Millburn Theater since it’s become a Charles Schwab?”

To find out more about the Maplewood Film Society, subscribe to their newsletter, or purchase advance tickets for the May 16 “Wild At Heart” screening, visit maplewoodfilmsociety.org.

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