It’s been more than a half century since the old Hill Theater was torn down — but that was the start of a remarkable effort that continues to bring classic movies to the area today.
It was then that Martha Repman, who was head of the Chestnut Hill Library, co-created Tuesday Nights at the Movies, and in her honor, the Chestnut Hill Film Group, which she founded, will be showing her favorite film “Brigadoon,” on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Woodmere, 9201 Germantown Ave.
Repman has been instrumental in keeping repertory film alive in the area and by screening this film, …
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It’s been more than a half century since the old Hill Theater was torn down — but that was the start of a remarkable effort that continues to bring classic movies to the area today.
It was then that Martha Repman, who was head of the Chestnut Hill Library, co-created Tuesday Nights at the Movies, and in her honor, the Chestnut Hill Film Group, which she founded, will be showing her favorite film “Brigadoon,” on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Woodmere, 9201 Germantown Ave.
Repman has been instrumental in keeping repertory film alive in the area and by screening this film, the group is recognizing her decades of service to the community. A reception at 6:30 p.m. will precede the 1954 musical, starring Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse, and directed by Vincente Minnelli.
In 1973, Repman came to Chestnut Hill as the library’s branch head and fell in love with the community. In the 1970s, the Free Library of Philadelphia had enough funding to encourage its librarians to venture out into the community and nurture relationships. She embraced this opportunity, becoming involved in the Chestnut Hill Community Association and opening the doors of the Chestnut Hill Library to new programming, said Ralph Hirshorn, a movie buff and co-creator of Tuesday Nights at the Movies.
“I cannot think of anyone easier to rely on,” Hirshorn said, calling Repman “scrupulously honest and considerate.”
One of the most notable of her endeavors is the Chestnut Hill Film Group, which began with Repman and Hirshorn unspooling a 16mm print of 1951’s “The African Queen,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, on the library’s interior wall in 1973. Uniting with fellow community cineastes like Judith and David Mallery (a founding trustee of the American Film Institute), Carolyn and John Friedman, Judith and David Buten, Elizabeth Caulk, and Mary Ann and Paul Dodge – most are still involved today – the pair created and hosted what has turned into season after season of classic cinema repertory, with a recent movie occasionally thrown in.
Today, some of those recent films are established classics, and the film group has moved from the library to Woodmere, where it’s still going strong.
