September 5 -- Sita Sings the Blues: The ancient story of the Ramayana is given new life by pairing it with a modern day romantic relationship, and some wise-cracking shadow figures who help explain this seminal Hindu to western audiences. This animated film by American artist Nina Paley is done to the soundtrack of 1920s American jazz singer Annette Hanshaw. The animation, done in several colorful styles, is as haunting and unusual as the soundtrack. This film won four international awards, including a Gotham Award for “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.” Not rated, 82 minutes.

To be notified by e-mail of upcoming films in the series, or changes in the film series schedule, subscribe to the Laramie Film Society's e-mail list at Topica.

The Laramie Film Society does not own nor does it operate the Wyo Theatre and it does not choose the films in any film series shown at the Wyo Theatre. LFS suggests movies for the various series that play at the Wyo Theatre, but the final decisions lie solely with theater ownership: Rocky Mountain Resort Cinemas, headquartered in Idaho. LFS does choose roughly half the movies shown at its annual film series shown every summer at the Albany County Public Library.

The Laramie Film Society presented “Easy Street” and “The Goat” during Jubilee Days. The films were shown on July 10 during the Jubilee Days Street Dance on the north wall of Ken's Music Box near the intersection of Second and Grand. Thanks to Ken's Music Box for letting LFS use its wall. Thanks to the Cross Country Connection for letting us use electricity so LFS could plug in its projector. Thanks to the LFS volunteers Ali Grossman and Ali's husband and his friends, who helped us get set up, solicit donations and help carry everything away afterwards. Thanks to El Zarape Mexican Restaurant for letting us set up our projectors on the roof of their catering vehicle.

"Easy Street," released in 1917 is one of Charlie Chaplin's early comedy classics. This 19-minute Mutual studio silent film pits the diminutive Chaplin, who plays a policeman, against a huge street thug played by Eric Campbell. Chaplin also wrote and directed this film. Chaplin creates humor from the unlikely subjects of poverty and violence in some mean city streets.

“The Goat” is a classic 1921 comedy. It is about a man (played by the legendary Buster Keaton) who is mistakenly identified as a murderer in newspapers and posters. He desperately dodges the police, and a variety of other pursuers, displaying incredible acrobatic skills and ingenuity. This film was selected by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences as one of Keaton's two best short films (the other was "The Boat"). Keaton, a legendary movie actor, writer and director, also co-directed and scripted this film with Malcolm St. Clair. Keaton (1895-1966) was one of the true comic geniuses of film, with a brilliant career that spanned decades. His acrobatic physical style of comedy is similar to that of Charlie Chaplain, Harold Lloyd and Jackie Chan.

"The Goat" is the first film purchased by the Laramie Film Society. "Easy Street" was purchased in the summer of 2004. In the past we have rented all of the films we have shown. By shopping around on the Internet, LFS found a source of 16 millimeter films for a reasonable price. We can buy a film for about the same amount of money it costs to rent one.

The Laramie Film Society held a free showing of "The Goat" on August 6, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. at the Eppson Center for Seniors. The showing was a big success. The audience of mostly seniors enjoyed the show. About 30 people attended the showing.

"The Goat," a 25-minute silent film starring Buster Keaton, was originally shown in downtown Laramie during the Jubilee Days Street Dance. "The Goat" is a 1921 comedy about a man (played by Buster Keaton) who is mistakenly identified as a murderer in newspapers and posters. He desperately dodges the police, and a variety of other pursuers, displaying incredible acrobatic skills and ingenuity. The LFS has also shown “Easy Street,” starring Charlie Chaplin, at the senior center.

The IRS has determined that the Laramie Film Society is exempt from federal income tax as described in section 501 (c)(3) of the tax code. The LFS received the determination letter in mid-February.

This is a final determination. Since we have a reasonable assurance that our application was filed before the deadline, all donations to LFS dating back to September 5, 2000 should be eligible for deduction from federal income taxes. Donations are only allowable as deductions to the extent that the donations are gifts. LFS memberships and LFS t-shirts, and LFS movie ticket sales are not really eligible because people receive consideration for those purchases.

The complete IRS determination letter can be accessed by clicking on this link. This determination letter has been scanned into text, so there may be some typos. E-mail me (Robert Roten) so I can fix any typos you might spot. My e-mail address can be found on my web page Laramie Movie Scope. A copy of IRS Publication 1771 which outlines the rules for charitable donations was included with the decision letter. This short, two page document is well worth reading if you plan to donate anything to any non-profit organization. I was unable to scan this document into a text file, but I found a copy of it on the Internet (it is not available at the IRS site for some reason). A copy of Publication 1771 is included with the copy of the decision letter linked above. To read it, click on this link.

The 501 (c)(3) application for recognition of exemption (forms 1023, 8718, and 872-C) was delivered to the IRS office in Kentucky at 9 a.m. December 28, 2001, according to the UPS Internet delivery tracking system.

The delivery was three days before the deadline (the end of the 15th month from the date of incorporation). That means donations to LFS back to the date of incorporation (Sept. 5, 2000) should be tax-deductible. I have one copy of the application and I have made two others so that LFS Secretary Lynn Hamblin and Treasurer Casey Woods can keep them on file. I will also keep a copy on file. By law, a copy of the application must be kept on file for public inspection for three years.

The application uses form 872-C to "consent fixing period of limitation upon assessment of tax under section 4890 of the Internal Revenue Code." The reason for including this form in the application is that it is required when seeking an "advance ruling" rather than a "definitive ruling" on our tax- exempt status. Rather than making an advance ruling, however, the IRS chose to make a final ruling, so that form was evidently not needed. Who knew?

The Wyo is under new management, again

(Written in 2001) The Wyo Theatre is once again under the management of Rocky Mountain Resort Cinemas, the company that currently owns the Wyo Theatre building in Laramie. Trans-Lux Corporation, as you may recall, closed the Wyo Theatre last year when it operated the facility. A recent tenant, Bijou, Inc., partnered with Movie Palaces, ceased operations on May 18, 2001. Reportedly, there was conflict between Trans-Lux and Bijou, Inc. Trans-Lux has the power to enforce an agreement which limits what films may be shown in the Wyo.

Marshall Smith, owner of Rocky Mountain Resort Cinemas, has bought all the equipment purchased for the Wyo by the Bijou Inc. and Movie Palaces partners. Smith said although Trans-Lux will operate the theater, Smith himself will be doing all the bookings for the Wyo. Smith is continuing the spring and fall film series as he did in the past, as well as adding a new summer kids film series, co-sponsored by Laramie parent-teacher associations.

Smith said the theater will continue to be run the way it was under Bijou with some minor changes (snacks are cheaper and the matinee discount has been discontinued). Smith is booking the same kinds of "mid-run" movies that were shown earlier this year. The changeover was on May 18. Smith is open to suggestions from LFS on the annual spring and fall film series. Numerous films suggested by LFS have been played in the two annual film series since Smith has re-opened the Wyo.

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History of the Laramie Film Society

The Laramie Film Society was established as a Wyoming not-for-profit corporation in September of 2000 after the Wyo closed. It held its first general meeting and appointed a Board of Directors, with well-known Laramie film critic and writer Robert Roten as Chairman. The LFS was formed both to preserve the theater and to promote the appreciation of cinema in general in Laramie. Now that the Wyo is open again, one of the main goals of the organization has been met. While the LFS is in no way connected to the current group managing the Wyo Theatre, the LFS is very interested in making sure the theater stays open. The LFS wants to work with the management of the Wyo Theatre in the future to try to make better movies available in Laramie.

January 26, 2001 was a busy day. The Wyo Theatre reopened that day (featuring "Charlie's Angels," "Unbreakable" and "102 Dalmatians"), and the Laramie Film Society showed "All About My Mother" (Todo Sobre Mi Madre) at the Laramie Plains Civic Center that same evening. We talked this over with Randy Pryde, a partner of the company leasing the Wyo. He indicated the theater's opening was a little uncertain at that time (more on the Wyo below), so we decided to go ahead with our movie as planned. The LFS movie, the Laramie premier of "All About My Mother," winner of the 1999 Academy Award for best foreign film, was a big success. LFS, with the help of four sponsoring organizations attracted 150 people, five times the turnout of our previous feature, "A Christmas Story." We probably outdrew "Charlie's Angels." LFS feels the success of this show, despite the competition from seven other movies at the Fox and Wyo, and despite the fact that our movie was already out on video, vindicates our belief that there is a strong market for high quality films in Laramie.

LFS also showed "A Christmas Story" at the civic center theater on December 15. The December showing was the first featuring a sound system donated by Dr. Charles Ksir, dean of the UW College of Education. It was also the first LFS film shown at the Civic Center. The sound system worked well, being a vast improvement over our previous sound equipment, but it was generally felt there was too much "boom" in the sound reproduction. LFS technicians reduced the bass and boosted the treble for "All About My Mother." "A Christmas Story," also has a number of lines of dialogue spoken by Darren McGavin which are intentionally garbled to indicate he is swearing.

LFS used a rented projector (which did not work well) in its first film and a borrowed projector (which worked very well) for second film. Now LFS owns three Bell and Howell 16 millimeter projectors. Two of the higher quality projectors will be used for showing the films and the third is a backup unit in case of a projector breakdown. The older, Bell and Howell 1850 projector was donated to LFS by me (Robert Roten). I bought it for $10 from a guy who bought it several years ago for $1. It is an old UW surplus unit. New, these projectors cost over $1,000, but most have been devalued because of the popularity of low-cost video cassette players. LFS recently purchased two newer Bell and Howell 2585 projectors for about $80 apiece from Ebay. During the showing of "All About My Mother" a projector bulb burned out. Projectionist Casey Wood (also a board member) quickly switched projectors, using our spare, and the show went on. The only thing that slowed us down was the burned out bulb. It was so hot we had to let it cool a bit before we could replace the bulb. Recently, LFS purchased a number of spare projector bulbs.

"Duck Soup" and "A Christmas Story" were rented from Swank Motion Pictures for about $125 apiece, not counting shipping. "Duck Soup" was shown at our first fundraising event, "Soup and Cinema," held Dec. 3, 2000, from 4-7 p.m. at the Alice Hardie Stevens Center. "All About My Mother" cost $400 (from a different distributor) plus $40 for shipping and handling, so we found some sponsors to cover part of the costs. LFS also raised the admission price $1.50 for this film, to cover a portion of the higher costs. We also paid $50 for renting the Civic Center Theater for two hours, so our total costs for showing this film was about $500 (all labor is volunteer), versus about $200 for our first two films. We lost money on "A Christmas Story" due to a low turnout. That was partly due to the fact that "A Christmas Story" is shown a lot on television, there was a snow storm that evening, and the Laramie Daily Boomerang failed to run an advertisement for the movie that day LFS had contracted for.

Since "All About My Mother" was about three times as expensive as the previous LFS film (which we lost money on), we sought sponsors to help us offset the high cost of the film. We'd like to thank the sponsors of "All About My Mother." Sponsors include, The Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, custodian of the Matthew Shepard Fund; La Radio Montañesa: Voz de la Gente; University of Wyoming Women's Center, and the University of Wyoming Office of Multicultural Affairs (Hispanic Programs).

You can join LFS by sending $15 to the Laramie Film Society, along with a self-addressed stamped envelope to: The Laramie Film Society, 3019 Pope Springs Road, Laramie, WY, 82070. Donations to LFS can be sent to the same address. Donations are tax deductible.

If you have trouble subscribing to the e-mail list via the Web links above, you can also subscribe to the announcement list by sending a message to film.laramie.wy.us-subscribe@topica.com. You can subscribe to the discussion list by visiting this website http://groups.google.com/group/laramie-film-society-discussions?hl=en. If all else fails, e-mail Robert Roten (address at bottom of page) and ask him to send you invitations to either list.

Web space for this site provided by LARIAT, Laramie's Community Network and Internet Users' Group.
Web page design by Brett Glass. Photo of the Wyo Theater by Robert Roten (E-mail at )