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This is a letter of support and testimonial as to the incredible value and transformational work of the amazing alternative-cinema-that-could: Sudbury Indie Cinema.
It was both shocking and heartbreaking to learn that Sudbury Indie Cinema is being turfed out of its venue with no regard for the value of its partnership or equity in return for its years of investment and engagement in one of Sudbury’s toughest neighbourhoods.
And I am extremely sorry to learn that the Indie's Board, staff and members have had to live through the same utter nightmare of sleepless nights and days spent searching for alternative quarters that we at the Art Gallery of Sudbury have experienced since we were turfed out of our space without notice on Oct. 6, 2023.
Sudbury Indie Cinema incorporated as a mission-driven, co-op arts organization in 2014. It is a member-owned, community-oriented organization, with 1,500 lifetime members.
Sudbury Indie Cinema evidences a culture of practical collaboration with the emphasis on community. The Indie has genuinely manifested theories of transformational change in its daily practice — and through its persistence.
Amazingly, within just five years of incorporating, the new organization raised $650,000 and purpose-built and opened its own bricks-and-mortar alternative cinema by re-purposing a defunct school gym at 162 Mackenzie Street.
This incredible facility, still virtually new, completed with the assistance of volunteers, features 170 seats, with additional wheelchair seating, accessible washrooms, a Christie Digital Projector, Dolby Surround Sound with 13 speakers, a 26 x 16 ft screen, full connectivity from a podium at the front of the theatre, a box office and classic movie theatre concessions booth. Sudbury Indie Cinema operates as plastic-free, zero waste, utilizing compostable single-use and recyclables throughout the venue.
Sometimes I wonder if everyone really understands what a grassroots investment of $650,000 in capital costs means to the volunteers of an arts organization and to the local arts ecology.
Not to mention everything Sudbury Indie Cinema has given back to the community both through its incredibly active programming, year after year, every day of every year, but also in terms of investing back into the local economy on a year-to-year basis.
The Indie presents more than 800 new and independent films on screen every year to audiences numbering in the tens of thousands.
Its pioneering programs include the Junction North International Documentary Film Festival; First Peoples Thursday, launched fall of 2019, an Indigenous-themed film series, happening on a Thursday each month; the Queer North Film Festival, now one of the largest LGBTQ-themed film festivals in Ontario (currently the only queer film festival in Northern Ontario); Samedi Cinema, a series of high-quality films, rarely presented in Northern Ontario, bringing together Francophones, Francophiles and cinephiles under one roof; Women in Film Wednesdays, a monthly showcase of the work of woman directors; Sudbury’s Tiny Underground Film Festival (STUFF), and; Sudbury Outdoor Adventure Reels (SOAR).
Sudbury Indie Cinema is an absolute inspiration to other arts organizations not only in Greater Sudbury, or in Northern Ontario, but in Canada. Whoever steps up and partners with Sudbury Indie Cinema going forward is extremely lucky, genuinely visionary, and prescient.
On the cusp of its second decade, Sudbury Indie Cinema requires a new infusion of capital, an investment phase that is totally normal for any young arts organization that is also five years into operating a new facility. As the Indie not only survives but thrives, it will continue to give the same back to residents and visitors to Greater Sudbury for decades more to come.
Demetra Christakos
Director / Curator
Art Gallery of Sudbury