Carbon Arc Cinema is a film organization in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which screens a regular program of films at the city's Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. [1] The organization concentrates principally on a rep theatre program of independent Canadian and international films that are not otherwise screening at the city's commercial movie theatres. [1]
The organization was launched in 2010. [2] It initially screened films at The Khyber arts centre, [3] before moving to the museum after the Khyber shut down due to financial difficulties in the mid-2010s.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the organization shifted to a virtual cinema model. [2] The committee attributed the volunteer-run organization's survival to the fact that they normally screened movies at a government facility, and thus didn't need as much money to operate as they would if they needed to pay operational and maintenance costs on their own dedicated theatre. [2]
The organization also stages several annual specialty film festivals, including the Hellifax Horror Film Festival for horror films [4] and the Nova Scotia Retro Film Festo, dedicated to screening Nova Scotia films that are no longer in commercial distribution. [5] The inaugural edition of the Retro Film Festo screened the films Touch & Go , Poor Boy's Game , New Waterford Girl and Love That Boy . [6]