Madalena Library Auditorium marks its 10th anniversary with four major films on September 5 and 6, in a special program presented by the Municipality and MiratecArts
For ten years, the Madalena Library Auditorium has been a place where stories have found an audience, where culture has gathered a community, and where an island in the middle of the Atlantic has remained connected to the larger imaginative world beyond its shores. This September, the venue will celebrate that milestone in the language of the big screen.
The Municipality of Madalena and MiratecArts are marking the 10th anniversary of the Library Auditorium building with a special weekend of cinema on September 5 and 6, bringing four major international films to what organizers describe as the largest cinema screen in the Triangle islands.
“The films are chosen for their quality, educational value and maximum entertainment,” explains MiratecArts artistic director Terry Costa, who sees the anniversary program as an opportunity to bring generations together through stories ranging from beloved animation to epic cinema.
The celebration begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 5, with Toy Story 5. For Costa, the continuing adventures associated with Buzz Lightyear carry particular emotional resonance for a generation that grew up with the promise of going “to infinity and beyond.” This new chapter, he notes, places friendship within the increasingly complex world of technology—a theme with particular relevance for younger audiences growing up in an age where human relationships and digital life are becoming ever more intertwined.
At 10 p.m., the program continues with Super-Homem: Um Novo Dia, presented as another major summer attraction and featuring a prominent ensemble cast.
Sunday, September 6, begins with cinema for the entire family. At 5 p.m., Mínimos & Monstros brings animated comedy, monsters and spectacular disorder to the Madalena screen. More than a decade after their creation, the Minions have become among the most recognizable animated characters of their generation, crossing languages and borders through a particularly exuberant form of visual humor.
The anniversary weekend concludes with A Odisseia, presented as an ambitious cinematic adaptation inspired by Homer’s ancient epic poem. With an ensemble cast including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron and Zendaya, the film brings one of Western literature’s foundational narratives of voyage, separation, endurance and homecoming to the screen.
Its inclusion provides a fitting conclusion to a weekend celebrating the power of storytelling. Homer’s Odyssey has crossed millennia because beneath its gods, seas, monsters and adventures lies an essentially human question: how far must we travel before we understand what it means to return home?
On Pico, an island whose own history has been shaped by departures and returns, by ocean crossings and distant horizons, that ancient question possesses an almost natural resonance.
“We have planned a program of incredible stories, cinematography at its best, and some of the most beloved animation,” Terry Costa says, describing the weekend as an opportunity to experience major cinema “in one of the best auditoriums in the archipelago.”
The box office will open two hours before each screening.
Ten years after opening its doors, the Madalena Library Auditorium celebrates not simply an anniversary, but the purpose for which cultural spaces ultimately exist: to gather people around stories.
And perhaps there could be no more appropriate celebration on Pico. For on an island forever facing the immensity of the Atlantic, the cinema offers another kind of horizon—a darkened room, an illuminated screen, and, for a few hours, the possibility of traveling infinitely far without ever leaving home.
Based on a Press Release from MiratecArts. Images from MiratecArts.