Park film series expanding

Entering its second year hosting In the Park After Dark, Capitol City Cinemas has collaborated with the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation, and Forestry Department to introduce In the Park After Dark Summer/Fall Film Series.

Last year, Capitol City Cinema independently hosted two outdoor films, "The Birds" and "Hocus Pocus," which were both well attended.

"We did 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock, that was kind of our first test one, and I want to say we had about 150-200 people," Capitol City Cinemas Board Secretary Cara Alexander said.

"So then we decided to go ahead and do 'Hocus Pocus' and that's when it really blew up," she said. "Our post went viral fairly fast; it had more than 50,000 views. We had thousands say they were coming, and I think we ended up having more than 800 people there."

Because the films were so well attended, Capitol City Cinema wanted to expand the community event to create a four films series with the help of Parks department.

Films will be shown once a month, excluding August, beginning with "Jaws" June 23 and ending in October with another showing of "Hocus Pocus."

"We realized it was the obvious thing to do with the 'Hocus Pocus' movie itself so we tried to pick movies this year that also have the same kind of following with huge mass appeal and being family friendly," Alexander said.

"One of our goals as a cinema is to reach out to the community to have community collaboration and to not only have education through film but to also serve our community and to bring fun things to our community," she added. "I think this in particular film series is a really good way to accomplishing that."

There will also be food truck vendors such as The Big Cheese, Street Dawgs, Love Gelato, Ready Popped Kettle Corn, Three Story Coffee and more available during every film as well as a beer and wine area for adults hosted by Capitol City CORK & Provisions.

Each event will be located at Ellis-Porter Riverside Amphitheater, 1425 Riverside Drive, beginning at 6 p.m. with the film starting between 7-7:30 p.m., depending on sunset. One of the films will also serve as a fundraiser to help renovate the amphitheater.

Admission is $5 per person and children 3 and can join for free. For more information about the films being shown in the series, visit capitolcitycinema.org/in-the-park-after-dark.