Friday, June 19
ADAMS -- The Topia Theatre is launching its summer season with classics of the silver screen that all relate in some way to the Berkshires. From films shot in the county to filmmakers and special effects artists that call the Berkshires home -- Film Topia will run every Sunday until September. As an added bonus, certain screenings will be preceded by talks from some of those individuals involved in the films' productions.

"The idea for the whole series was films made in the Berkshires or by Berkshire residents," said Topia co-owner Nana Simopoulos. "The few people we were able to contact are those still living in the area and willing to speak about their experiences."

Some of the special speakers will include the legendary Douglas Trumbull, special effects supervisor on such films as "Star Trek the Motion Picture", "Blade Runner", "Silent Running", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "2001: A Space Odyssey". The three latter flicks will be shown on July 5 (Close Encounters 2 p.m. and Silent Running 5 p.m.) and July 12 for 2001 when Trumbull will speak to the crowd.

"We're thrilled to be having him. It's huge," Trumbull said. "Can you imagine having him come to Adams?"

Film Topia will have four special speakers through out the summer including Jeff Kleiser, special effects artist on "The One" to be shown July 26, Diane Pearlman, visual effects produce on "The Matrix" and Bob O'Haver special effects artiston "Stargate".

"It should be very fun and very informative," Simopoulos said. "Especially for younger people, teenagers who otherwise wouldn't have a chance to learn first hand about this."

Allowing this silver screen event to take place is a combination of the 37-foot screen that was installed on Wednesday and a brand new high definition projector system that came courtesy of South Adams Savings Bank.

"The projector is a high definition projector and we had a little in-house screening and the picture quality is just amazing," Simopoulos said. "The sound quality in there is also very special. The Adams Theater was known through out the Berkshires as having the best sound quality. So between the sound and the picture, I think people are going to get blown away. It's really exciting."

The theater currently seats 170 people but only 100 will be allowed in for each screening because the building requires a sprinkler system to hold more. Topia bought the old Adams Theater in Armory Court in October 2004 with plans to renovate it into a flexible, multimedia arts center and theater. It has since played host to a number of musical and theatrical acts in the last few years. The theater recently received a donation of 192 seats from Images Cinema in Williamstown and managed to find an additional 80 seats on Craigslist.com from the Provincetown Theater. This bumped the seating up from only 100 to nearly 300 and by an amazing coincidence, both sets of seats were of identical make and model.

"What we have here, is something that has almost become obsolete in our day and age -- a single screen theater," Simopoulos said. "One of the reasons why this theater closed in 1968 was because it was overtaken but the multiplexes. They were smaller theaters, fewer seats but gave you more choices. The film experiences people had before that was way larger than life in a large space. And that's what we're excited about bringing back."

Film Topia kicks off on Sunday at 2 p.m. with a showing of "The Jungle Book" and at 6 p.m. with a screening of "Freedom Writers".

"I'm looking forward to `2001: A Space Odyssey'," Simopoulos said. "I never got to see it on a big screen. I hate to say it but I missed a lot of the movies on the big screen and I was around in the 70s and 80s so see them. I also didn't see the Lord of the Rings Trilogy so I'm psyched about that as well. It's an amazing selection that we were able to find so they'll all be good."



Source:  http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_12626160