The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Finally! A theater in Wahkiakum ... well, almost. The Skamokawa Grange will host its first “Family Movie Night” celebration this weekend. The featured movie is an incredibly intimate look into the lives of birds and their “Winged Migration.”

The movie event includes two short movies produced by Wahkiakum middle and high school students. The program is sponsored by the WSU Wahkiakum County Extension program (WCE). It is administered by instructor Lisa Frink and overseen by WCE Director Carrie Kennedy

The film event is the brain child of Skamokawa/Seattle resident Mike Rees. As a member of the Skamokawa Grange, Rees said he spoke with fellow grange members about the possibility of showing movies in the grange hall. He said he hopes the event will encourage more families to participate in grange activities. “I hope people will come and learn what a valuable organization the Grange is,” Rees said .

When Rees first developed the Family Movie Night idea, the Grange had neither projector nor screen to show the movies. Rees said that after he received approval from the grange he moved forward with his plans.

"I found the projector screen at the University of Washington’s surplus store.” said Rees, “I hadn’t a clue how to connect the motor that raises and lowers it, or if it even worked.” Rees said he found the screen’s manual on line and he and Grange member Bill Chamberlain “wired it up.”

The 12 foot by 8 foot screen is now probably the largest projection screen in Wahkiakum County. Rees said he hasn’t planned a regular schedule of movies yet but hopes to show a movie every other month, providing he can continue borrowing the Wahkiakum County Extension’s video projector.

“Our WCE program has sponsored the student’s movies for screening at Family Movie Night,” said Wahkiakum County Extension director Carrie Kennedy. “Our students have produced several movies during the past year and they’ve had to learn the technology, how to write scripts, to produce, shoot and edit their videos.”

Kennedy said the WCE program is part of the county’s after school program offered through the Wahkiakum school system. “We have about 21 students and all are learning the different phases of motion picture production.”

The two student-produced movies to be shown during “Family Movie Night” at the Skamokawa Grange are titled The Thirst and School's Out. Kael McKinley is editor of School's Out, “I think the best way to describe it is to say its about “Zombie corporate America eating little people,” he said with a big grin. Dylan Hansen was video editor on The Thirst and he boisterously described the featurette as, “...a boy’s adventure to get a soda.”

Family Movie Night is this Saturday (January 9), 7 p.m., at the Skamokawa Grange Hall, 18 Fairgrounds Road in Skamokawa. Admission is free.