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ART OUSEOVIEHEATERSRE ARTFTHEMERICANABRIC,AKINGAMMUNITIESWHEREHEYAVEURVIVEDOREIVABLE.OHOWOWE EEPHEMITAL?hisyear he AngelikaFilm Center n New YorkCity will mark a quarter-centuryof screeningarthouse are. Thetheaterhas becomewell knownfor its eclecticofferings.Besides selectnumber ofstudio-driven ilms, its programmersencourage n-dependentmoviemal

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1/VINTER014focusedon the art form and benefitting their community," hesaid. It's both a communitarian andcultural wayof thinkingabout he cinemabusiness.""Beingconnected o your community,you havea role indefiningthat community,"he r,rrites n his blog at arthousecon-vergence.org.Many of our neighborsseem o need he experi-enceof gatheringcommunally o experience toriesand receiveinformation. The art house s that place,because t is the com-munity's living room, or better still, the communalcampfirewherepeoplecan earn,be entertainedand transportedbystories hat arespun by that most brilliant of story tellers-themotionpicture."At the HollywoodTheatre n Portland,Oregon, hat senseof neighborhoodseemsalive and well. The theater,whichopened n 1,926o hostvaudevillen addition o movies, nd sIisted n the NationalRegister f Historic Places, ad fallen intodisrepairand demoted o a second-rundiscount movie house.In 7997 the nonproflt Film Action Oregonbought the buildingand has since ransformed he theater nto a localcenter orfilm screeningand education."We'vebeenvery luclqz. ortland s a movie-goingown.Percapita,we havemore screenshan anyr,vherelse n thecountry," saidJustenHarn, he Hollyr,vood heatre'sDirectorof Programsand Community Engagement.Peopleareget-ting to know their neighbors. think there's ntergenerationalexchange oingon. And I think alsowe're bringing artiststogether o collaborate n ways hey may not otherwise."Wehave eallymade t a priority to reachout to artists, llm-makers, ommunitymembers, o incorporatehem into ourprocessJ hat we'redoing hereat the theater.We alsomal

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68encircled he building holding handsand eventually aisedthe funds to purchaset. Today he Coolidge, uilt in 1906as a church and then renovatedas a movie palace n 1933,leasests spaceas a nonprofit foundation. t welcomes200,000attendeesannually to a wide-ranging slate of independent,foreign-language,documentary and animated films."We'rea destinationpoint. Peoplecome o CoolidgeCornerto seea movie hereand go to the restaurantsand shops.think that's grown quite a bit in the past 15 years,"Thompsonsaid. There'sa lot of local families,students rom BostonUni-versity and other schoolsnearby,and there's a largepopula-tion of seniorcitizens ight in the immediateneighborhood."Collins' Michigan Theaterhosts a varied audienceaswelland maintains a strong relationship with University of Michi-gan'sScreenArts and Culture Department (Collinshimselfteachesat EasternMichigan University, ust sevenmiles away).He attributes the longevityof his theater, around for 34 years,to Ann Arbor's "lon$ tradition of celebratingcinema," eventhrough the cable-TVand home-videobooms.His theory isthat the town developedls passionor cinemaas ar backasthe beginning of the automobile ndustry which drew collegestudents nterested n technology o Michigan. At that time,fllm alsowas a burgeoning and innovative technology.But just as discerningdrt house are fosters.community,so too doescommunify determine what that fare should be.In some areas,better-knor,tmndies and even a bit of main-stream commercial stuff may be on the movie menu. As Harnnoted, art housecinema is about showing passionatepeoplethings they're enthusiasticabout. Otherwise, he outcome ismuch lessmeaningfuland mpactful."Itls entirely about your market," assertedPatrick Corco-ran, Vice Presidentand Chief Communications Officer forthe National Associationof Theater Owners(NATO),whichhandles he public imageof the film industry and assistswith industry-wide issues nvolving the studios.governmentand reguiators. Ifyou look at a largercircuit or chain that'sknown for art house, ike Landmark, n a lot of their loca-tions they've moved nto sort of a hybrid of playing obscureindependents,mainstream ndependentsand also ust main-stream Hollywood movies,as well, to provide a mix. Thatagain s going to dependon the sizeof your market, the sizeof your theater, how many screens.you've ot."Collins agreed: What the expectation s in New York City ismuch different than a small ov,'n n western Gnsas.A NewYork art house maydo a few commercialmovies and a fewmovies hat maystretch heir audience'snterest, omehistor-ical retrospectives, ocumentaries,oreign-languagellms." As

.,THESEINDEPENDENTINEMASTNEE]Itl]THINKlFTHEMSETVENtlTUST SBUSINESSES,UTSACUITURAIIYNAMICHATANt|PERATEFFECTIVELYITHNACIIMMUNITY.''manyart housesare nonproflts, in contrast o big-box heaters,their mission allows or a tremendousamount of flexibility andrisk-taking n programming.Collins himself embraces martprogrammingof a broadernature. At the Michigan Theaterthis May,we played(BazLurhmann's) TheGreatGatsbg.Whl?We'rea 1920smovie palace,so doing a movie that celebratesthe 1920swasa nice it. Second,t opened he Cannes ilmFestival, o he art houseaudiencewas nterested n that."Betweendistributors, film festivals,other pro$rammersandlocal indie moviemakers,art house bookers haveplenty ofchannels o mine for material. Someeven nvest in produc-tion and then screen heir completedprojects.The Holly-wood Theatre, or example,offers a flscal sponsorshippro-gram that vets applicants with its board. Potential recipientsmust demonstrate hey have he experienceand resourcesnecessary o bring their projects to fruition. The theater hasworked extensivelywith Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher,helping fund their Independent Spirit Award-nominatedOctoberCountrg support for which enabled ts releaseon35mm), aswell as heir second iImOffLabeLTheir third fllmis currently in preproduction.Apart from the material, however, related programmingand presentationare key to keeping viewerscoming,andtherein lies the need for constant innovation. Many art hous-es,particularly nonprofits, provide some degreeof education,

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whether t's teaching he art form or offering ilm apprecia-tlon classes. herealsoareQ&Aswith fllmmakers, hemedseries uchas he CoolidgeCorner'sScience n Screen, ndspecialie- ins o create more mmersive xperience,i l