‘It’s so good for your mental health to get out and feel like you’re part of the community. You can forget about your troubles for a couple of hours.’
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At a time when you can watch anything on a palm-sized screen, one Ottawa grandfather is maintaining the big-screen tradition for new generations of moviegoers — and making sure it doesn’t cost a fortune.
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Jim McNeill has been been running the Ottawa Family Cinema on a volunteer basis for more than 40 years, assisted by family members and a team of about 30 volunteers. After outgrowing a series of venues and then suspending operations during the pandemic, the non-profit organization has landed in a new location for its Saturday-afternoon movie parties.
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They moved to the auditorium of the Rideau Community Hub, formerly Rideau High School, last year, installing a huge screen, state-of-the-art projectors with 3D capabilities and a Dolby Digital 7.1 surround-sound system.
The goal of the organization has always been to provide struggling families with affordable entertainment.
“It’s so good for your mental health to get out and feel like you’re part of the community. You can forget about your troubles for a couple of hours,” said the retired federal government employee. “So that’s why we keep going.”
McNeill grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a family of 10 children. When his father lost his job, it was a challenge to make ends meet.
“We were financially strapped,” McNeill recalled. “The one thing that was good was we were able to get out once a week because movies were so cheap then. That’s what pushed me to start this off when I came to Canada.
“Canada is more prosperous but there are still a lot of underprivileged families. They need their bellies filled but it’s also very important, especially for families, to get out and feel like you’re part of the community and enjoy a good show with everybody else.”
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About 150 people turned out for the Feb. 1 screening of Gracie and Pedro: Pets to the Rescue, a 2024 animated comedy-adventure that didn’t get a wide release in mainstream theatres. McNeill was able to secure the rights to show it at a reasonable cost, and give away more free tickets than usual. At least 100 free tickets are distributed each week, while regularly priced tickets start at $5 for members. Popcorn and other snack-bar items are $2.
Among the attendees Saturday were several large families with three or more children. A Kanata mom who gave her name as Glory E. drove across town to visit the cinema for the first time with her three children, along with friends and their children.
“We loved it,” she said after the movie. “Looking at the distance from Kanata, I wouldn’t have come, but because it’s free, we decided to do it. It’s very family friendly and there are lots of kids so we really felt at home.”
The Ottawa Family Cinema’s sister organization, the Family Movie Trust Fund, is a registered charity created in 2015 to distribute the complimentary tickets and direct any extra money raised to support a local cause.
McNeill, his wife and two adult children all help out with the cinema operations, and now there are five grandchildren to share the love of movies, too.
For more information and to find out what’s on screen in the coming weeks, go to familycinema.ca .
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