City Cinema launches fundraising campaign to replace damaged equipment

City Cinema in Charlottetown has launched a fundraising effort to replace some damaged equipment.

The cinema continues to experience technical issues after power outages earlier this month, which left thousands across P.E.I., in the dark.   

The local theatre — known for screening independent films, documentaries and Islander-made movies — has been unable to proceed with scheduled programming since Aug. 16.

The non-profit Charlottetown Film Society took ownership of the theatre in March, said Carol Horne, the society's president.

"We thought it was just a circuit board first but learned then that the projector had also been affected, which is a pretty big deal. These are very specialized projectors and not that commonly available," Horne said. 

According to a Facebook post made by the society on Sunday morning, the outage impacted the server that decodes and sends films to the theatre's projector, despite having an expensive surge protector on site.  

After a closer look, staff realized the matching card projector for the system was also damaged.

Horne said repair costs will be steep.

"It's going to be a big hit ... to not be able to show the films or keep to schedule that we've publicized," she said. "It's worrisome to us because we want to do a really great job of running this cinema."

A combination of new and used equipment is expected to be installed by Wednesday, but the cost will most likely amount to $15,000, putting the non-profit in a difficult situation, Horne said.

The hope is to have the theatre up and running by Thursday. 

There are a lot of community supporters and fans of the cinema and they really do come forward.— Carol Horne

A GoFundMe page has been launched with the aim of raising money for the expensive equipment that was damaged, Horne said. 

The fundraising campaign raised more than $1,600 raised in just one day, she said.

"There are a lot of community supporters and fans of the cinema and they really do come forward," she said. 

In addition, the theatre is also looking to sell a few more on-screen advertisement slots, which would take place before film presentations, Horne said. 

"They're only a few seconds but they help us with a little more income to try and cover things like these repairs," she said. 

For now, the theatre is presenting films in Blu-ray format. An updated schedule is available on the cinema's website. 

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