The Peru Gazette

The Strand Center for the Arts will be hosting the Inaugural Lake Champlain International Film Festival this weekend showcasing our new equipment. “Filmmakers from over 23 countries submitted films for this year’s festival. The stories they are presenting showcase a tremendous creative range with highly-developed plot-lines, picturesque cinematography and professional-level production value. Audience members should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to meet some of the filmmakers who will be in Plattsburgh for the festival and checkout their films,” said Jessica Dulle, Executive Director of The Strand Center for the Arts.

The Strand Center for the Arts has completed the installation of its new state-of-the-art digital cinema equipment, with the goal of becoming the North Country’s premier artistic movie house showing classic films, documentaries and showcasing the Wurlitzer organ with silent movies. It is not our intention to compete with the regular movie options in Plattsburgh, but offer what is not currently available to the community.

The Strand Theatre was one of the 12 independent movie theatres that were involved with ANCA’s “Go Digital or Go Dark” movement to help small theatres convert to expensive digital equipment to stay in business, as film versions would no longer be available. The Strand Theatre also received partial funding through a grant of $78,000 from the New York State Council of the Arts, as part of the North Country Economic Councils CFA process for this digital conversion. We have been able to raise the addition $78,000 to match this grant with the continued generosity of our financial community.

Installed is a NEC 2000C digital projector with a Dolby server plus a blue-ray player. We have also installed a JBL surround sound system with crown amplifiers along with a 16 x 32 ft screen that is motorized and can be raised and lowered as needed.

The Strand Theatre restoration process is just about finished but the organization still needs $400,000 to install the remaining rigging, lighting and sound equipment needed to become a professional performance venue for the North Country.