Lisa Cohen, left, and Angela Matusik, pictured in Matusik’s backyard, are organizing a backyard movie night to demonstrate the need for a movie theater in Maplewood.
A growing number of Maplewood families will be simultaneously screening “Beetlejuice” from the comfort of their own backyards on Sept. 7.
The event is intended to be a fun night out but also to show that “our creative town needs an in-person movie theater,” according to Angela Matusik, who is one of the organizers.
Matusik and Lisa Cohen, who are longtime residents of Maplewood, reinvigorated the Maplewood Film Society, which was originally run by American documentary filmmaker, Lisa Reznik. The Maplewood Film Society was concepted by Lisa Mainardi of Maplewood Division of Arts & Culture.
Resnick is currently program director for the Summit Film Society and was fine with Matusik and Cohen using the name and taking over. And with the Maplewood Film Society lying dormant and the Maplewood movie theater remaining vacant, Matusik and Cohen decided to build a community to show investors that people in town wanted a cinema.
Not having the theater left Matusik feeling sad and angry. But instead of complaining, she and Cohen decided to do something.
This is not a protest, but more of a rally cry to bring the Maplewood community together, according to Cohen.
“We want to have a cinema in our town,” she said.
“We want people to know, a very creative town just outside New York City is craving alternative programming.”
“There’s nothing to protest,” Matusik added. “We just want to make some noise to people in our town, hopefully local investors. There’s a lot of us. Let’s get together, have some fun watching the movie together, drum some attention to our town.”
Matusik conducted a survey on a local community board on Facebook asking, “Do people want movies in town?” Within 48 hours, she received 250 responses.
“Overwhelmingly, Maplewood would benefit from having an in-person movie theater,” she said. “We had a hunch that we have creative people in town.”
The people who were interested in participating voted on movies.
“Beetlejuice won out,” said Cohen. With the “Beetlejuice” sequel coming out soon, Cohen believes that everyone wants to watch the original first.
Matusik said she’s the biggest Tim Burton fan in the world.
“I’m a former media journalist,” she said. “I’ve interviewed Tim Burton a few times. He’s a great person.”
Cohen also worked creatively as a video editor and creative director at McGraw Hill. The pair met in a local book club.
During the pandemic movie theaters closed in other small towns, not just Maplewood.
“All these little towns have lost their heartbeat,” said Matusik. She fondly remembers a neighbor showing movies in his front yard during lockdown.
“People in our neighborhood drew lines on the lawn so they could social distance. It was so wonderful.”
Backyard Movie Night is growing every day. Cohen said at last count 18 homes across Maplewood said they were going to set up a projector and screen “Beetlejuice.”
For more information about Backyard Movie Night, and the mission of Maplewood Film Society, please contact Angela Matusik and Lisa Cohen at maplewoodfilmsociety@gmail.com, or via @MaplewoodFilmSociety on Instagram or Facebook.
Movie night hopes to draw attention added by Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta on
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