If you’ve followed this blog much you know I love taking photos of old movie theaters around the country. I’ve posted dozens over the years in my postcards from the road section. Here’s actually one from Natchez, Mississippi that I took when I drove through the town in December. The Ritz there has seen better days.
Contrast that with what Film Streams is doing in Omaha, Nebraska. Their website says they’re an “organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural environment of the Omaha-Council Bluffs (on the Nebraska/Iowa border) area through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form.”
They oversee two cinemas; The Ruth Sokolof Theater and Dundee Theater (Omaha’s longest-running cinema). Film Streams first got on my radar years ago when it was featured on the Criterion Channel website on their Art-House America Series. Executive Director Rachel Jacobson was a key person in this movie revival in Omaha. Another example of what’s going on in unlikely places. My version of that fantasy of a peaceful life on a farm is one that isn’t far from Omaha.
Today’s showings at The Ruth Sokolof Theatre is a good example. It’s just a random Thursday in March, right? Not in Omaha. Today at the Ruth Sokolof Theater they are featuring the Kathryn Bigelow Series. At 3:00 this afternoon you can watch The Hurt Locker, at 6:00 Point Break, and at 8:45 (in 35mm) you can watch Strange Days. Where else in the entire world can you do that today? So Omaha has got it going on.
I’m not sure if Warren Buffett got his fellow Nebraskans together (including his former neighbor in Omaha, Oscar winning writer/director Alexander Payne) and raised a little extra money to have such a dynamic film community, but I think it’s great. I wish I could be there today. Kathryn Bigelow’s direction in that opening scene alone of The Hurt Locker is a tour de force of filmmaking that I’d love to see again on the big screen. She won two Oscars (Best Picture, Best Direction) for her work on The Hurt Locker. And the following “Got a wire” scene is the epitome of a scene full of meaningful conflict loaded with a goal, stakes, and urgency.
Too many theaters in America look like the Ritz in Mississippi did back in December, so it’s exciting to see that they not only have beautiful theaters in Omaha, but a thriving film community. Maybe someone can explain to me what is going on in Omaha that’s making this all possible. Can’t wait to visit those theaters someday.
P.S. And a bonus today, here’s a video Architectural Digest did on the history and evolution of movie theater design,
Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles
Screenwriting from Iowa 