Middle PAC to Open Film Series with ‘Plight of the Bee’

COURT HOUSE — The Performing Arts Center of Middle Township, which usually is busier than the proverbial bee with its year-long stage programming, will open its new six-month film series on Mon. night, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. with a prize winning documentary that examines the plight of bees around the world.
The Swiss-made film, “More Than Honey,” focuses on the world-wide collapse of bee colonies and the terrible consequences this disappearance could have on mankind and the environment. Albert Einstein once predicted, “If bees were to disappear from the globe, mankind would only have four years to live.”
In some places, it is estimated that 50 to 90 percent of all bees have disappeared during the past 15 years. In the United States alone it is said that 1.5 million out of 2.4 million beehives in 27 states have vanished.
The film was directed and produced by Swiss film-maker Markhus Imhoof, and has won awards at film festivals in Switzerland, China, Australia and Seattle where it played last spring. The buzz in Hollywood is that the film about bees is a good bet to receive an Oscar nomination for best documentary this year.
The catalyst for the local premier of the film and for the entire “Monday Night at the Movies” series of 12 films that will run until April, is MiddleTownship resident Carol Struett, a partner at the advertising agency ProMedia Group which recently opened a movie division and is producing the film series. She got the idea when efforts failed in Cape May to convert its movie house into an arts center which would show critically acclaimed documentaries and independent films not previously available at theaters in this area.
“We had received e-mails from vacation home owners from as far away as Michigan, asking if ProMedia Group could help to find a venue that would be suitable for these types of films. Right away, we thought of the Middle PAC, right here in the center of Cape May County with its huge screen, state-of-the-art equipment, 1,000 seat, comfortable theater and plentiful free parking,” Struett said. ProMedia Group then approached Kay Aspell, managing director of The PAC, who immediately accepted the idea.
“In the past 20 years, The PAC has presented everything from circus acts to opera singers, but this will be the first time that we’ll host a film series,” Aspell said. “It will be an exciting event at our theater.”
Aspell, a former teacher in the Middle Township school system, is also hoping to make a day-time screening of some of the movies available to students in Cape May. “Many of the films are educational as well as entertaining,” she points out.
Struett, meanwhile, is caught up in the Hollywood Oscar scene. For the opening night showing she plans to have a red carpet at the entrance to The PAC, and students acting as paparazzi by photographing movie-goers as they enter the theatre.
Tickets are $8 and may be ordered by calling 609-463-1924. The Performing Arts Center is situated at 212 Bayberry Drive, Cape May Court House, one mile east of exit 10 of the Garden State Parkway.