The Island of Faith Lutheran Church will host a free monthly movie for their Faith and Film Ministry at the Nolan Center over the next two and a half years, thanks to a $3,000 grant from the Alaska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
“We’re trying to do lots of genres, from ‘Galaxy Quest’ to ‘Magnificent Seven’ (the 1960 version),” said the church’s pastor, Sue Bahleda.
The next movie will be “The Princess Bride” on Tuesday, April, 16 at 6 p.m. The concession stand will be open.
Movies that have already been shown as part of their project include “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Other movies to be featured will include, in no particular order, the 1954 version of “Sabrina,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Matilda,” “Rio Bravo” and “Secondhand Lions.”
Bahleda and her church have been considering for some time the specific needs of the community. “That’s the essence of ministry: defining a need and filling that need,” she said. “And we are richly blessed in this community that many faith congregations address many needs. There’s the food pantry. There’s youth activities and studies … so we really spent some time discussing what this community needed.”
She noted that there have lately been fewer movies for the town. “We thought maybe that could be the need that needs filling in our community,” she said. “Some way of the community having fun on an evening, and we decided to fill it.”
While the movies are meant to be family-friendly, they won’t all necessarily be kid-oriented, but rather a variety of films that will appeal to a lot of tastes. “We hope that sometimes it’s a night out for mom and dad,” Bahleda said.
Film choices that may be lesser known include “The Straight Story” with Richard Farnsworth and Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 Australian romantic comedy “Strictly Ballroom.”
“We’re being very intentional about not choosing necessarily really biblical or God-themed or heavily religious movies, because we feel like most of our daily life as people of faith is lived in daily interactions,” Bahleda said.
She added that regular movies feature a lot of the same challenges and adherence to values that most people have in their normal, daily lives such as the highs and lows of various kinds of relationships, the consequences of dishonesty, how to repair broken trust, and daring to have adventures. “Probably those movies that we’re drawn to are those movies that create a family.”
Bahleda stressed that part of what a community needs is consistency, and having the grant enables them to be consistent with this monthly movie for the next two and a half years. “This is something we’re going to do for the community, whether four people show up, whether 50 people show up, that we’re going to do it every month, and it’s free,” she said.
She added that there would be no requests for donations during the films. “Just come, sit with other people, introduce yourself. ... Just come and have fun. And that’s a real gift for the community.”
The goal is to offer a movie viewing every third Tuesday at 6 p.m., so as not to interfere with the Nolan Center’s weekend events, unless there’s a conflict with the center’s schedule.
“Tuesday was a night when there were the fewest conflicting activities,” Bahleda said. “We also chose the third Tuesday because we know (the borough) assembly meets on second and fourth Tuesdays. We did a lot of intricate planning so that we could serve as many people as could come.”
Bahleda said people who come for the movie will also be invited to take part in a discussion afterward.
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