Cinephiles celebrate the return of film society screenings

It has been a tough 12 months for cinema lovers, who’ve had to endure limited access to the silver screen.

But the Orange Film Society is back with a choice selection of some of the best films from around the globe.

“You get to experience films you may never heard of or thought of going to see,” said Karen Somers, the newly elected president of the Orange Film Society.

Karen is a relative newcomer to Orange, having spent 30 years teaching in Parkes. With no local cinema she has made the most of the Odeon 5 since moving here.

“We never really had a cinema, nor decent films in Parkes and I have a passion for films, so when I moved here, I joined things that I was interested in and joined the film society,” said Karen.

“I just went along to one of the film nights with the film society. Then I went to a committee meeting and I was straight away on the committee. It is nice to go and decide on films and talk about the films with other people. A lot of our members are very, very into films and very knowledgeable about them.”

A member of the Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak, Karen also organises film fundraisers.

“I was the polio representative for the fundraising in this region and so every year I've done probably two movies for fundraising. Not only for polio, but we did one for the women's refuge too,” she said.

The Orange Film Society was formed in 1983 and, until the interruption due to COVID, has run consistently ever since apart from a one-year break when the Odeon first opened and Orange had nine screens to choose from.

But the member missed the experience of getting together to watch and talk about films.

“I'm really passionate about wanting to keep the film society going,” said Karen. “And we are getting more younger people coming in. With COVID it has really slowed things down a bit, but our last film Only the Animals was fabulous and we had 55 people there so the theatre was full, with the COVID spacing.”

The next Orange Film Society Screening is the Polish fil Corpus Christi on Sunday March 28.

Karen invited people to come along and join them for drinks afterwards.

“You don't have to be on the committee or even in the Film Society, just come along to the film,” said Karen. We are going to go have drinks after so anyone who wants to chat about the films can.”