Back in 2018, the Musée de Beaux Arts (MdBA) renovated the Maxwell-Cummings auditorium to create the Cinéma du Musée, a film screening room run in partnership with the Cinéma Beaubien and the Cinéma du Parc. The mission of this particular cinema is focused on education, instead of ‘just’ entertainment.

When Teejay Bhalla joined the cinema last December as the programming coordinator, he brought to the table his passion for history, education and film to create one of the most unique movie programs in the city. We caught up with Teejay at the end of September, and we chatted about his background, mission and favourite films.

Teejay Bhalla, programming coordinator at Cinéma du Musée. | Photograph: Anne-Marie Baribeau

"I grew up in the time of VHS and DVDs, and I remember getting the Matrix on DVD. I must have been like 10 or 11 years old, which was way too young, and I watched it way too much. After the first dozen times of just being excited because of all the action, I started analyzing it more and seeing more. That introduced me to [the idea that] there's more to film than just the story… And I wanted to dive more deeply into that."

After struggling in school and pushing his way through a Concordia history undergrad degree, Teejay spent his last year taking film classes, which led him to an internship at Cinema Moderne when it first opened.

"I was super curious during my internship and wanted to stick around after my shift, learn how to use the projector and try to be available to make this very small project work. … I'm super happy that I put myself out there and did this internship because it showed me [that] as cinephiles, as people who love cinema, we never actually stopped to question how a cinema gets a film? We love going there all the time and we never questioned it. … I found programming was really cool because you kind of are a teacher in that way."

Fantasia at Cinéma du Musée. | Photograph: Clothilde De Swarte

The 2020 pandemic forced Moderne to temporarily shut down. Teejay returned to academia to start a master’s degree, but ended up instead taking a job teaching in Inukjuak for a “life-changing” year. When he made his way back to Montreal, he found himself in the running for a job as programmer for the Cinema du Musée, one that would bring an identity to the cinema.

"I was like, that's a dream project. … I can make these links between the art world, the film world, and history… Coming from an academic background, I found one of my frustrations with doing my master's was that it was so inaccessible to everybody. Education is a privilege, and being a cinephile and going through this academic journey, I found that film is such a direct way to educate people.

I know that there's a huge community of advanced cinephiles that aren't just looking for entertainment when they're watching films. They're looking to be challenged, they're looking to learn, they're looking to pass time in a cinema where they can't watch these films at home. … I definitely went in with that kind of mission of bringing titles that need to be seen in a cinema."

This past year, Teejay has hosted several notable events: A sold-out screening of the documentary The Encampents was followed by a discussion with activists who were involved in the 2024 McGill University pro-Palestinian encampment; also a screening of Union, where Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls showed up to talk about his experiences.

"Films are super important in education, but that added touch of going a little bit further makes the cinema setting much more important than just, you know, streaming Union at home."

The programming makes a point of linking the films to exhibitions happening at the MdBA. In early October, the Cinéma screened the short films by Kent Monkman to highlight the MdBA’s exhibit of his work History is Painted by the Victors. To accompany the previous exhibit about surrealist Alan Glass, Teejay programmed a series of surrealist films, including 1981’s Possession. At the end of October, the cinéma will be showing Stanely Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey to celebrate the re-opening of the MdBA’s Design pavilion, since both the film and the pavilion feature chairs designed by the same artist.

Teejay has also kept the program tied to bigger releases in the mainstream media. Back in February when Korean director Bong Joon-Ho was releasing Mickey 17, Teejay tried to screen his Academy award-winning film Parasite. Though the film was already screening at the Cineplex, he did get Memories of Murder, one of Bong Joon-Ho’s early successes.

"That ended up kind of becoming a part of the identity that I wanted to build. … We did that with Spike Lee and Denzel in August [and then also with Paul Thomas Anderson in September].

There's so many films where it's like, I know I need to watch this, but I'm holding [out for] the perfect moment to watch it, that coincides with it being in a cinema. So I'm trying to bring those moments to Montreal.

I love how diverse the cinema scene is in Montreal. I'm grateful to have worked at Moderne, at Publique, and now for these three cinemas. I just love that there's such a strong community of cinephiles that support independent cinemas."

The cinema's entrance at night, often illuminated by light-based installations of the museum. | Photograph: Richard Mardens

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Cinéma du Musée has become Montreal's classroom for film