Story Screen has been operating in Beacon, NY for over the past two years, showcasing films from all walks of life at various businesses and locations throughout our bright and ever-growing city. We’ve screened love stories, science fiction epics, groundbreaking documentaries, timeless classics, hidden independent gems, life-changing foreign films and so much more. We have created a community built around watching and appreciating films together, and celebrating them for the true works of art that they are. We’ve come a long way from the small makeshift screen at the once Main Squeeze Juice Bar, to the cleared backwoods just off Fishkill Creek, to a permanent screening room in More Good on Main Street, and finally to transforming over a dozen businesses into one night only screening events.
And that doesn’t even include our hard work outside of screening amazing films: creating a website featuring articles, reviews and podcasts from local lovers of all things film. Our design department has commissioned original artwork for each of the movies we’ve screened, created by local artists from all different mediums and walks of life.
We’ve listened to punk rockers perform before the showing of Green Room, enjoyed burgers and fries especially prepared for our screening of Reservoir Dogs, supported #52FilmsByWomen, handed out slices of cheese pizza at Home Alone, distributed wrapped presents at all of our December screenings, and even hosted a live piano player and lounge singer at our Casablanca event, just to name a few of the things we are the most proud of during our 2 ½ years of operation. We at Story Screen have sought to elevate the community film watching experience using all the materials and opportunities available to us, and we are not too modest to say that we think it has turned out pretty fantastic thus far.
Now it’s time to take the next step, (more of a gigantic leap), into the world of film exhibition.
We are proud to unveil our plans for transforming part of the once Beacon Theater into the future home of Story Screen’s very own cinema. Teaming up with More Good and Small Town Drama, Story Screen will open its doors to film lovers of the Hudson Valley and beyond.
We have so much magic and fun planned for our permanent space: live music, speakers, Q&A’s, performance art, conventions, movie marathons, immersive art exhibitions, private parties, game competitions, live podcasts, open discussion forums, and of course, multiple screenings every week of new, old, foreign and arthouse films. We are insanely excited to bring this platform to Beacon, the city that has helped us grow from a small 15 seat room in a juice bar showing Groundhog Day, to selling out a packed house of over 50 guests at Oak Vino Wine Bar for Casablanca just last week.
While the plans to open our permanent space are being developed, rest assured, we will continue our programming at local businesses and special events over the next few months. We have an amazing program of seven films lined up for March. (You can check out the trailer here) We will be donating all proceeds from these screenings to some organizations that are currently fighting on the front lines of some of the most topical issues facing our culture and society in this ever changing world. We hope to help in the best way we know how: by educating and uplifting others through film.
The celebration of film has always been, not only the key driving force of why we started Story Screen, but also the reason it has become so successful. In a time where virtually any media can be sourced, streamed or viewed at home, film still serves as a particularly powerful form of art, one that has the strength to break down cultural barriers and generational differences, and the ability to make you both laugh and cry within ten seconds of each other. (You can learn more about our thoughts on that here). We want to continue this pastime - that is as exciting and timeless as any other - of gathering together in a dark room with a group of fellow film lovers, and enjoying everything a movie has to offer.
We hope you are just as excited as we are to watch some stories together.
Mike Burdge
Founder of and programmer for Story Screen. Lover of stories and pizza in the dark. When he isn't watching movies, you can find him reading things about people watching movies. He lives in Beacon, NY with his cat who is named after Kevin Bacon's character from Friday the 13th.
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