The whole world to Hamar

The posts that started Hamar scene- og litteraturvenner, November 2024 · letters to the cinema manager in Hamar, August–November 2024 · Tosca at the cinema, October 2025 · the group isn't active in fall 2026

I've been missing someone to discuss things with in Hamar. I'm also really fascinated by the concept of "kinoscene" — that you can go to the cinema and see theater, ballet, opera, classical concerts... This is something many people maybe haven't thought about, but it can be fantastic. Even though real live performance is "best", you can't always go to New York or even Oslo to see symphonies or operas... Would be cool if more people opened their eyes to this (then the cinema will put on more performances too), and even cooler if you could get together after a performance and discuss... Or even maybe read a bit and prepare beforehand (ambitious...!;)

The cinema I grew up with

I grew up in Hamar, and went to the movies a lot. Have always really appreciated that a small town like Hamar has five screens (I think there were only three when I was young), and a good range between blockbusters and niche... When I was 16 I had a friend, and all it took was calling him and saying "there's a French movie at the cinema", and we'd go, he didn't even want to know the title ;)

Since then I've lived 20 years abroad, and seen a lot of different cinema culture, everything from massive gigaplexes in Canada to Bollywood, Chinese cinema, etc. I've always been curious about how it works, how movies get picked, what role a cinema manager can play. And what the range of possibilities is at a municipal cinema in a small town like Hamar...

I started thinking when I walked out after seeing Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos — a fantastic movie that makes you think and ask questions (was it misogynistic? what was the symbolism in that scene, what references to other works of art had the director thought up, what was the "moral" etc etc)... And as the father of a little boy I usually go to the movies alone (apart from a couple of matinees with my wife), so I had nobody to discuss it with.

Six movies, a hundred subscribers

One thing is how the more niche movies get picked (that Kung Fu Panda gets shown is obvious)... For every Spanish documentary or Israeli drama, there are thousands of other movies from different countries that don't get shown. What percentage of all available movies get shown?

I'm very curious about how it works, purely technically and financially, if Hamar Kino wanted to show an older movie — it must be easier now than when you had to send physical copies around? If it takes a certain number of visitors for it to pay off to put on for example older movies, what if you had a subscription scheme — a program of six movies through the fall, where you have to buy a subscription to all six — and it doesn't happen unless 100 people buy a subscription (for example)? It could be anything from one director, to six Shakespeare plays, to six documentaries that someone has picked and that start with an introduction and end with a discussion...

Lately I've been bitten by the theater bug, and I have subscriptions to the National Theater and The Globe — they have totally fantastic recordings of Shakespeare plays for example, which would be fantastic to see at the cinema (I know National Theater is shown in cinemas in England)... It's tragic that we don't have any streaming platform for theater in Norway (after Fjernsynsteateret stopped), but imagine if you could show Peer Gynt at Gålå at the cinema — for those who don't get the chance to go to Gålå... Also have some thoughts on how being so close to the library and the theater could be used...

From a letter to the cinema manager in Hamar, August 2024

Mahler in Lillehammer

Drove 40 minutes to another city to attend Mahler's 8th Symphony in a cinema... I'm in a small town, so anyway I'd have to travel twice as far to see a real symphony orchestra, and they're not setting up Mahler's 8th anytime soon, so...

28 October 2024 · @houshuang

This was actually my first full symphony orchestra concert in my life. I'm going to Oslo to attend Vivaldi's Four Seasons with an actual orchestra in a few weeks. (And it all started by me watching opera on Youtube!)

28 October 2024 · @houshuang

Of course I'd like to attend live concerts, but I would absolutely do a symphony in a cinema again, at 15$ and with no need to travel far and arrange babysitter etc. Also looking forwards to trying theatre/opera in the cinema.

28 October 2024 · @houshuang

Now Hamar Kino has just put out tickets for Mahler's 8th Symphony in January. I saw this one at the Lillehammer cinema — it was actually my first "stage at the cinema" (since then I've also seen The Nutcracker at the cinema — and a whole lot of theater and opera on the TV at home). So then I finally took the leap and set up the group Hamar scene- og litteraturvenner... It was an experiment...

29,000 in one group

I actually thought a bit about starting a film club, read a bit about Norsk filmklubbforbund etc. But it seems a bit overwhelming, and I don't know how easy it is to get hold of the movies I'm interested in, or how easy it is to get people to agree on what they want to see... What I'm wondering instead is whether I could help support KinoScene... It would be interesting to make a little "Friends of KinoScene" or whatever, a Facebook group maybe with people who get to know each other, maybe have a glass of wine after a performance and discuss, maybe discuss beforehand — before you see an opera you can read about it, share interesting information etc, which can make it much more exciting to go and see it... And if you manage to grow that group a bit, you might eventually have so many people that it's possible for Hamar Kino to bring in more events like that?

I saw that Tosca was going to be broadcast live from the Met Opera this week. What's kind of funny is that I'm now in several Facebook groups, among them one specifically about the Met Live broadcasts, and it was super fun to follow along as people from all over the world reported in that they were at the cinema, how many there were in different cities etc. This is something kind of cool about live broadcasts at the cinema that I hadn't thought about before. That group has 29k members! And the fun thing is that Lise Davidsen from Norway had one of the lead roles — she's gotten very good reviews from most people...

Also came across a really cool concept around an Ibsen book club that worked with a theater to have a group of people who read the play and discussed it together before they went to the theater.

From a letter to the cinema manager in Hamar, October and November 2024

From a letter to a former president of the Storting, April 2025

The ticket is a vote

I'm absolutely no expert, it's only in the last couple of years that I've started to get interested and wanted to learn more about classical literature, classical music, theater and opera. But the more I learn, the more I get out of it.

There's a lot going on in Hamar, but it would be nice to have a little group of people who want to go to things together, and maybe discuss before/after. One thing that especially interests me is KinoScene — that you can see opera, theater and classical concerts at the cinema. It means you get "the whole world to Hamar", and you get a completely different experience than at home in the living room. The more people are interested, the more the cinema will put on.

By buying a ticket you "vote" for us to get more culture at Hamar Kino!

If you haven't tried opera before, give it a chance. And if you haven't tried opera at the cinema before, give it a chance! Tosca is opera at its very best, an exciting story, drama, love, politics, art, and tragedy, and totally fantastic music. Opera is big — the music, the set design, the costumes, the singers — and it works great on a big format with a fantastic sound system. What do you have to lose?

Hamar scene- og litteraturvenner · September and October 2025, Tosca at Hamar Kino

Movies are best at the cinema, and we're lucky to have a great cinema with five screens, that plays both blockbusters and niche movies (and you can even get to see Wagner for five hours on a Sunday morning!). That particular role nobody can replace.

I love the live broadcasts. Saw Barber of Seville and Salome this spring in cinema. Really wish they offered it in my local cinema, have to go to Oslo to see. Luckily am often there for work.

31 July 2025 · @houshuang