Movies on the Square return Friday with “National Treasure,” an action-packed adventure film that takes viewers on a treasure hunt across the nation’s iconic landmarks.
The film is the first of five planned for the summer into early fall. Friday’s showing begins at 8 p.m. on the courthouse square and includes food vendors who will set up shop around 7 p.m.
The event is free to the public.
This is the fifth year for the successful movie nights, which were initiated by Wild Bloom Coffee owners Myra and Gabe Gleason.
Beginning this year, the Bowlus Fine Arts Center is taking the series under its umbrella.
When researching how the Bowlus might incorporate the film series, Bowlus director Mandy Moyer said she was surprised how it was tailor-made for such a project.
“Honestly, it made me appreciate the people who came up with the Bowlus. They thought of everything. They saw the big picture of how the Bowlus could become the arts hub of the community,” Moyer said Wednesday morning.
Adopting the film series was already written in Bowlus bylaws, Moyer said.
“I thought maybe we’d need to create an arts council or something, so I reached out to the Americans for the Arts for advice,” Moyer said of the national association. “After their review of our bylaws they said, ‘Nope, it’s all done.’ And that it would be redundant to do anything more.”
Moyer said such forethought by Bowlus founders is how it was also able to bring the Iola Community Theatre and the Iola Area Symphony Orchestra under its umbrella.
Because the premise of the Movies on the Square is to bring cultural arts to the community, it easily qualified, Moyer said.
For Moyer, the events remind her of going to the former Majestic Drive-In in Gas City as a youth.
“I don’t want to take that away from the 200 kids who look forward to these outdoor movie nights,” she said.
Myra Gleason said the transition means they’ll be able to secure more current movies.
“Mandy can get us better movies,” Gleason said. “Before, we could only afford movies from the 1980s or ’90s.”
Movie rights typically cost between $500 and $600. Through the Bowlus’s connections with Swank Movie Licensing, which they used for its Buster Keaton Festivals, it can secure the movies for about $460 apiece, said Moyer.
