A night at the movies for many generations has always been a special occasion.

Despite the onset of home theatre viewing, the people behind Those Other Movies (TOM) hold true to keeping the wonder of the screen alive for Haliburton with another season of provocative films.

TOM, which is in its seventh season, shows movies over 10 months, from September through June, screening two shows at 4:15 pm and 7:15 p.m. at the Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion located at the Haliburton Highlands Secondary School. It is usually on the second Thursday of the month.
This year’s lineup includes Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Sept. 13), Anonymous (Nov. 8) and The Intouchables (Dec. 13). The October screening has yet to be decided.

The first two movies promise to be “light romantic comedies” while Anonymous is a “historical drama.” The remaining movies will be announced later.

“Each season, we sell anywhere from 250 (our highest number) to about 150
season's passes. Many of our seasons pass holders have been buying passes since the beginning and have been very supportive over the years,” TOM committee member Roberta Coles said in an email. “As well as season's pass holders, we also have many people who buy individual movie tickets at the theatre door for each screening.”

Movie passes for 10 movies cost $60 and passes are transferable. Tickets at the door are $8.
TOM also hosts the annual Haliburton International Film Festival (HIFF). It features a diverse collection of international movies, including industry guests.

On Sunday, Nov. 4 will feature the debut of The Land In Between at 3:30 p.m. It will end the festival and will be free to the public. This year’s lineup includes A Separation, which was this year’s best foreign language film winner from Iran, Poetry, Poetry of South Korea, Café de Flore, a Canadian film of two intertwined love stories, and Le Havre, a poignant Finnish/French light dramatic comedy about human compassion to name a few.

This autumn event celebrates its sixth season and is scheduled from Nov. 2 to 4.

In October, passes for HIFF will go on sale. A VIP $42 pass all seven feature films, a collection of short films and admission to the Gala reception at Hali’s Bistro on Saturday. Individual tickets are $8 and available at the door. Gala reception tickets are $10.

Coles said there are six committee members, Carol McLennan, Marci Mandel, Peggy Cassils, Lisa Kerr, Tammy Rea and herself.  McLennan, Rea and Coles have been with the project from the beginning.
“We started at the Molou Theatre screening 35 mm films and then went to the
Northern Lights Pavilion where we purchased a projector and other equipment to screen DVDs. We donated this equipment to The Northern Lights Pavilion a few years ago. We also screened films at the newly renovated Beaver Theatre for a few months, before the theatre was closed,” Coles said. “Since we have been using the DVD format, we have been donating the DVDs that we have purchased to the Haliburton County Public Library system. We've donated more than 80 DVDs so far.”
The movies chosen are decided by committee members who attend a couple of film festivals each year to see films before selections are made. This September Rea and Mandel are going to the Toronto International Film Festival and all six will go to the Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival in Sudbury at the end of September.

Those Other Movies is a member of TIFFs Film Circuit. The Film Circuit's mandate
is to make quality films more accessible. Their website is
http://tiff.net/filmcircuit/ and ours is www.haliburton-movies.com
- with files from Roberta Coles