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Boulder to get new art house cinema
posted by
CSWalczak
on
November 17, 2009 at 7:36 am
BOULDER, CO — Boulder has been without a dedicated theater specializing in art, foreign, and independent cinema since Landmark closed the Crossroads Cinema there in 2007. Now, thanks to a benefactor’s gift, a new art cinema will be created in a former TV studio space at the Dairy Center for the Arts.
Officials with the Dairy Center on Wednesday announced their plans to build a state-of-the-art, single-screen movie theater dedicated to independent and art film in the space that used to house Boulder’s cable access studio.
They hope to break ground on the project this spring and open in time for the holidays in 2010.
Read more in the California Chronicle.
Comments (3)
Just the first sentence alone of this article is disgustingly incorrect. There are three arthouse theaters in Boulder,one of which (the International Film Series) is full time. Below is the information.
The International Film Series. This is the oldest operating arthouse film series in the state of Colorado. It started in 1941 screening films in the University Theater on the CU-Boulder Campus. In 1983, it moved to the Muenzinger Theater (which was constructed that year) where it still screens films to this day. In 2006, it also expanded its screenings to the state-of-the-art twin screening rooms in the ATLAS building. It will expand yet again in a 250 seat theater that will be in the Visual Arts Building when construction is finished early 2010. It screens arthouse, independant, classic ans international films Tuesday-Sunday primarily in the 35mm format with some being presented in 16mm or digital. It still employs two experienced union projectionists. It is sponsered by CU Boulder’s Film Studies department and is open to the public.
Canyon Theater, Boulder Public library. Classic, international and arthouse fare is presented here free of charge about 3 times per week and is programed by Boulder’s own Joel Haertling. The shows are an even mix of 16mm and digital.
The Boulder Theater. This historic multi-use theater on the Pearl Street mall shows about 1-2 arthouse films per month on either 35mm or digital.
I am sure these venues are much loved by patrons and deserve to be by embraced film lovers; I can understand that regular attendees might be a bit miffed reading the article. But I think the article was pointing the absence of a full time, seven-days-a-week art theater. Looking at the three venues websites, the need still seems to be present, unless the information there is inaccurate. There won’t be any films showing as a part of the International Film series until January; the Boulder Theater shows only one film (“The Big Lebowski”) between now and the Boulder Film Festival in February, and the library’s film schedule from now into December only shows one feature film showing on a Thursday night (1959’s “Lil Abner” – not exactly art house fare) in addition to a one night special event that is part of a series focusing on dance on a Wednesday night in December.
This story shows you the difference between running a movie theater for profit and running one for non-profit.
If it was a for-profit, you would see the owners sweating the details about whether an area could support a new theater and what kind of rental terms they could get, what they could charge, etc. A company could potentially be on the hook for millions of dollars just to take a chance on opening up a new theater.
For a non-profit, you get below market rate terms, and you can find people willing to donate millions of dollars to build a brand new theater based on nothing more than the feeling that there should be more obscure independent films shown in the city! They’re not even worried if anyone will show up! Amazing!