“Movie Man” is a Canadian documentary about 5 very special theatres and the man that created them.
Keith Stata started construction of Highland Cinema in 1975 and in 1979 the theatre opened and through gradual expansion there are now 5 cinemas. Stata bluntly states it was his “stupid idea” to build Highland Cinemas.
Architecturally you might say that Highland Cinemas is a compound not of Scientology but of movie history and ephemera of decades that has been created and maintained by Stata to spark memories. Organized by the decade I can certainly attest to it connecting me with time past much of which I had consciously forgotten.
“Movie Man” is permeated with Stata’s love of cinema and its connection with time. The documentary reminds one of “The Fablemans”, “Cinema Paradiso” and “The Last Picture Show”.
Stata started his love of cinema making his own pictures in his younger years but realized his future would not be in film production but construction and with those construction skills built and or designed the complex.
Stata’s favourite movie is “The Time Machine” a 1960 film based on H.G. Well’s novel of the same name. Stata is a man mindful of time and says the only significance we have is what we do here and his significance was building the cinemas in the middle of nowhere. His view of multiplex cinemas is that they are crap, plastic and advertisements. Not so with Highland Cinemas he says as it is an experience you’ll never forget.
The patrons are often cottagers vacationing in the area and tourists from all points in the globe. It opens in May and closes after Thanksgiving. Rainy days are good for business!
The cinemas are unique, cozy and may I say the La Scala of the anti multiplex movement! The complex is also a museum to different points of the time spectrum with ephemera of the decades, a hall of horror and a collection of projectors nestled in twenty acres just outside the town of Kinmount, Ontario about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Toronto. Kinmount was a great lumber centre with 6 mills but massive fires decimated the town in 1900 and 1942. Highland Cinemas have become the lifeblood of Kinmount with its population of 300.
It is clear there is a massive amount of effort on Stata’s part to operate and maintain the theatres and he is getting on in age. COVID almost polished off Highland Cinemas but he hung on. And there are the 52 cats he has collected and housed in their own mini complexes.
What is the fate of Highland Cinemas? I can’t travel in time but who out there has the vision and tenacity to continue operation of Highland Cinemas after Stata steps aside?
Could it be the sterile multiplex has had its run and cinemas with soul and personality will make a comeback. I must say I enjoyed a movie theatre for the first time in 40 years. It may well be you have the same experience.
Director is Matt Finlin and the producer is Ed Robertson.
You can watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/691467989
On demand in Canada on Hollywood Suite on 1August2024 with linear broadcasts as of 7August2024.
RKS 2024 Film Rating 93/100.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 