Library Movie Weekends Continue Sunday with ‘Yesterday’

NORWALK, Conn. — Grab some popcorn and candy!

Norwalk Public Library (NPL), located at 1 Belden Ave., will show a free screening of the film “Yesterday” this Sunday, July 27, at 1:30 p.m. as part of NPL Movie Weekends.

A partnership of the Norwalk Film Festival and Norwalk Public Library, NPL Movie Weekends are a series of free films (no registration required) being shown at the library every other month on a Sunday. 

After screening the classic 1985 movie “The Goonies” on May 18, the 2019 film “Yesterday,” about a musician who wakes up in a world where The Beatles never existed, will be shown this coming Sunday at NPL.

The library will then screen the 1978 film “Superman” on Sept. 28 and will wrap up the 2025 series with “Interstellar” (2014) on Nov. 16. 

Aldo Araujo, a library assistant in the technical services department at Norwalk Public Library who spearheads the movie series, said showing films at the library was a regular occurrence prior to COVID-19.

“But that shut down after the pandemic,” said Araujo, a self-described “huge movie fan” who began NPL Movie Weekends last year.

“We have an auditorium on our second floor with a 120-inch projector with a pretty good sound system, so I figured, why don’t we use it to show movies to the community?” said Araujo. 

“And doing something like a movie in the afternoon … allows people to come in and relax, take a seat, and maybe enjoy something from their youth or maybe a more recent movie. It’s just another service we offer here,” he added.

About 10 to 15 people typically attend NPL Movie Weekends, though “that can depend on the movie itself,” said Araujo. 

Last fall, for example, a screening of the original “Ghostbusters” film drew quite a large crowd. 

“I was able to communicate with a New York-based Ghostbusters group, so they all came in costume, and they had the Ecto-1 vehicle from the movie,” he recalled. “For that one, we had more people, so it depends on the film itself.”

The screening of “The Goonies” in May also drew a large crowd. “That obviously has nostalgia written all over it; a lot of families came in to watch that,” said Araujo.

When it comes to what’s shown on NPL Movie Weekends, Araujo said, “I do tend to show a range of movies—action, romance, comedies, could be documentaries—just a wide array.”

Araujo explained that NPL is an “open library,” meaning, “we don’t really have any restrictions in terms of content—be it with books or, in this case, movies. So, I am not really restricted in that regard, but I am also not really looking for movies that are gratuitous.”

Araujo does have to make sure he chooses a film he is authorized to show. 

“Because we are a library, I am technically not allowed to show any movie I want—there is a list of movies that we are legally able to show because there are copyrights and all that stuff,” he explained. “We have a partnership with a company that handles copyright issues or the legalities for libraries, schools, things like that. And they have a master list of movies I can pick and choose from.”

NPL Movie Weekends are a partnership between the library and the Norwalk Film Festival.

“They reached out to me when I was initially coming up with the idea for the program and said, ‘We love this, we are all about movies. How can we help?’” Araujo said of the film festival. “So, they come in, they’ll drop off flyers, and they’ll drop off some snacks for patrons to enjoy during the film.”

While attendees can bring their own snacks and drinks, Araujo also provides some complimentary sweets for folks to nibble on.

Along with enjoying a free movie, Araujo said movie weekends also provide an opportunity to showcase the bustling community that is the Norwalk Public Library.

“People assume when they hear ‘library’ that it’s just a big place with a bunch of dusty books—but a library really is so much more than that,” he said. 

For more information, visit www.norwalkpl.org.