COMMUNITY
MV Film Center
Richard Paradise: Providing Education, Enlightment, and Entertainment
By Abby Remer
The MV Film Society, the brainchild of Founder and Executive Director Richard Paradise, is an Island community treasure with its immense diversity of programming. He has created an arthouse cinema that is open year-round, screening some 150 to 200 features annually, even in deep winter. Additionally, Paradise hosts annual festivals, including the MV International Film Festival, Environmental Festival, FILMUSIC Festival, DOC Week, and Women in Film, with speakers sharing insights in Q&As afterward. The Art Exhibition on Film, Metropolitan Opera simulcasts, and National Theater Live are well-loved, and the seats fill up for live music, comedy, and theater events, as well.
Paradise’s passion for film began early, growing up in New Jersey, on the outskirts of New York City. He recalls, “My childhood was a mix of great activity and play with lots of kids in the neighborhood, and also a sense of not quite fitting in. I started watching old Hollywood classic films from the thirties, forties, and fifties on TV when I was 8, 9, 10 years old. I lived vicariously through the characters in the films. They were suave, educated, and dressed well. It was the life I envisioned for myself when I grew up.”
The advent of cable introduced Paradise to foreign-language films, followed, in his late teens, by trips to New York City art-house cinemas. “It was a great education before I literally escaped to college in Wisconsin.”
During his first year, Paradise ran the movie program for the student union. “The most exciting day of the semester would be when I got my catalogs, which I’d pore through to see what films I could show, from ‘Blazing Saddles’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’ to Truffaut films. We’d have about 100 people show up, and the entire campus had only 700-plus students. Sometimes my films were met with great applause, and other times, inquisitive faces, like ‘Rich, why are you showing us this weird, independent film?’”
Paradise pursued a career in magazine publishing and didn’t take up showing movies again until his mid- to late 30s, doing a little of it in Boulder, Colorado. “When I moved to the Vineyard full-time, I started showing films with a small group of volunteers. The group named itself the Silver Screen Society and screened films at The Grange Hall for 8-10 weeks each summer starting in 1999. “We would show an old classic film and sell popcorn and lemonade. “We sold out virtually every week, filling the auditorium of about 125 seats.”
From 2001 to 2011, Paradise screened films in the off-season at the Katharine Cornell Theater. “Over those years, I also expanded by showing movies in all sorts of other places. We were a gypsy organization. I would load the large screen, projector, speakers, sound amplifier, and so forth, into a van and take it to the Tabernacle, Union Chapel, or Featherstone Center for the Arts. I did silent movies at Owen Park because I didn’t want to compete with the noise of the cars or disturb the neighbors.”
In 2006, Paradise created his first International Film Festival, which remains a much-anticipated event in early September. “I never got to screen all the foreign-language films I wanted to over the winter, so I decided to run a Thursday through Sunday festival. For the first seven years, we used three or four different spaces in downtown Vineyard Haven.”
But Paradise had a dream. “I always wanted our own professional, high-end cinema with great seats.” A dream is one thing, but Vineyard real estate is expensive, and there isn’t much that can be repurposed or land zoned for commercial use. Then, 15 years ago, Sam Dunn, a Vineyard developer and architect, began expanding the Tisbury Market Place. He came to Paradise with a proposal to build a cinema in the corner, between Rocco’s Pizza and what used to be a dentist’s office. “It took about a year of planning and permitting, and then I started fundraising. There were seats, a screen, a projector, a sound system, and office equipment to buy,” Paradise says.
In September 2012, the Film Society kicked off opening night with the International Film Festival…and there’s been no looking back. Paradise shares, “Our goals are to educate our audience on a subject, enlighten them and engage in discussion, and to hopefully entertain. When we hit all three, those are my proudest moments.”
He continues, “Our future is bright. Membership has grown from 200 to 2,500 in those 14 years.” When asked what keeps him going, Paradise says, “I guess I’m a natural-born organizer. If I’m not organizing something, I’m not happy. I love putting the pieces together. It brings me so much pleasure to share the films I love with our community.”
For more information, film schedules, trailers, and more, go to: mvfilmsociety.com. You can sign up for their weekly newsletter online, and can find out about the many levels of membership available. The Film Society is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation. A Society membership or donation is tax deductible to the extent the law allows. You can contact Richard Paradise at: rich@mvfilmsociety.com By phone they can be reached at: 508-696-9369.