Wide Angle exhibition shares more than 100 years of Kamloops movie-making, and theatre experience

“I also found there was a great big folder about cinemas in Kamloops and I started leafing through it and then I started thinking, so when did movies start in Kamloops?” explains Stainton, who contributed much of the initial research for the exhibit.

She found the answer – 1908 – and uncovered more stories of early film. It got to the point where Stainton felt it warranted a museum exhibit.

“Kamloops has got a very rich, and a very interesting history. And when you look around this exhibit your realize some of these theatres were just gorgeous. In the early 1900’s they were built with chandeliers and all kinds of extravagant, luxurious seats, et cetera. so, there we are,” she adds.

Wide Angle took a year of work from the museum, the Kamloops Film Society, and dedicated community members who contributed materials for it. It explores how Kamloops enjoyed film, and how the area itself has been used in film.

Kamloops Museum and Archives Supervisor Julia Cyr says it’s a very collaborative museum exhibit.

“And so a lot of the archival materials has been drawn in to give that context to that history,” explains Cyr, “And so you see original letters, and even like beautiful photographs that were taken by the Kamloops Film Commission to entice people to come to have film happen in Kamloops.”

The display have interactive elements, including a Zoetrope, a 3D image creating station, shadow projector station, and more. There’s also a plethora of photographs, videos, and now-antique equipment to look at, including a hand-cranked projector from the early 1900’s that had been found in a Savona dump.

“It’s really cool to see the evolution and for a lot of people who have grown up in Kamloops, I think it’s kind of a little bit of a trip down memory lane to sort of see all the different cinemas that have come and gone,” notes Colette Abbot, the executive director of the Kamloops Film Society.

The exhibition lays out how early film screenings incorporated other performances alongside the movie itself, which is something Abbott says the film society has drawn on with the events, music, and other artistic elements they often include with a movie.

“I think cinema has really come full circle,” she notes, “Especially at the film society. We really want to build events around those film experiences.”

The display has also ramped up their appreciation for the 70-year-old theatre that sparked the idea for the exhibition. Which still brings Kamloops residents out for a movie night, generations later.

Wide Angle is available to museum visitors through the rest of the summer, and wraps up in September.

by Dylana Kneeshaw

Wide Angle exhibition shares more than 100 years of Kamloops movie-making, and theatre experience

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