Randall Beach: You want new friends? Join this circle of movie critics

Members of the Silver Screen Movie Club last Wednesday night at the North Haven Parks and Recreation building. Front row, from left: Lee Fermo, Marge Quinn, Rich Ziemba, Dyann Zusi and Linda Kiely. Back row: Paula Schneider, Cathy Conklin, Kathy Tenedine, Ellen Hansen, Chris Zusi and Tom Tenedine. Contributed photo — Brianna Cipollini

Rich Ziemba had an idea: why not get a group of people together, after they’ve all agreed to see the same movie, and have them talk about why they liked it or hated it?

And so Ziemba, a retired North Havener who loves movies and has plenty of opinions which he’s not shy about sharing, put a small ad in the town newspaper and recruited a base of about 15 members.

The Silver Screen Movie Club was off and running.

After six months, the group is stable enough to attract 10 to 15 people to most of its sessions. They meet on the second Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the North Haven Parks and Recreation building. Most of the members are from North Haven or Hamden.

There are no dues. All you pay for is the movie that’s selected. The participants go out to whichever local theater is showing that film.

See, it’s like a book club except it takes less time to take in a movie than to read a book that’s several hundred pages long.

“I have a strong interest in movies and I wanted to share my interest,” said Ziemba, who at one time had his own advertising agency specializing in producing radio and TV commercials. “But the primary reason for the club is to bring people together and make new friends.”

If you want to be a member, he said, “Just show up and join.” (For information, you can call him at 203-494-3002).

Ziemba invited me to come out and sit in on a meeting. He recommended I see the selected movie of the month: “Sully,” the amazing true-life account of how Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III, a U.S. Airways pilot, managed to land a plane in the Hudson River after its engines were disabled by a flock of birds. All of the 155 people on board were saved. Click here to continue reading.