There’s nothing like a highly contagious global pandemic to teach us all just how fragile some of our favorite institutions are. And few have proven more vulnerable than local, independent movie theaters. Maybe it’s something to do with people being rightly wary of gathering for a few hours in an enclosed space, but that’s just a guess.
Regardless, for Maine’s indie theaters it’s been an unprecedentedly rough two-plus years. Just ask Kyle Walton, the operator and digital media director of The Colonial Theatre, Belfast’s gem of an independent movie house. “Like everyone else in March 2020, we shut down, thinking that we might stay closed for weeks, not even months,” recalled Walton, ruefully, noting that The Colonial eventually shut down for nearly a year and a half.
The Colonial eventually did reopen to the public, albeit at 50 percent capacity and with new air filtration and stringent patron safety guidelines installed. They even set up a “proof of vaccination Wednesday” series, in an attempt to make COVID-wary filmgoers feel a little safer, even if just for a night. Like a lot of local theaters, The Colonial also introduced virtual screenings, which, as Walton notes, hardly made up for the loss of regular, in-person revenue, even though he’s still happy to have provided some entertainment to the midcoast. “We still have people come up to us and say, ‘You gave us something to watch in a really dark time,’” he said.
And that’s all great. One of the major themes of this column has been my assertion that a local, independent movie house is the true heart of a community. And The Colonial, with its responsible policies, varied booking of big-budget and independent films, and live onstage music and stand-up events, has, indeed, functioned as an entertainment hub for all of Waldo County.
But, as the pandemic’s effects continue to hit small businesses like The Colonial hard, the theater’s owners, Therese Bagnardi and Michael Hurley, have made the decision to completely change The Colonial’s screening model – at least for now.
Citing the pandemic’s effect on the public’s willingness to go out to the movies, Walton explains that The Colonial is largely abandoning first-run exhibition for the time being. Instead, the theater will concentrate on themed revival nights featuring enduringly popular older films that most fans have never been able to see on the big screen.
The first such screening will be the Coen Brothers’ universally beloved cult classic “The Big Lebowski” on Saturday, an event for which, Walton says, The Colonial is going all out, with canned White Russians, prizes and a raffle – possibly for a rug to “really tie the room together.”
As Belfast native and filmmaker Walton explains, during the pandemic, a few big Hollywood movies (starring the likes of James Bond and Spider-Man) helped out, but other, less blockbuster-style indie films only helped the theater “staunch the bleeding.” So, for the time being, The Colonial is shifting gears, in the way only a creative, local, independent movie house can do. Walton says The Colonial’s upcoming screenings are still in flux, but that Edgar Wright’s nearly perfect so-called Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” and “The World’s End”) is coming in the near future as well.
In addition, Walton (who’s worked at his hometown theater over the years in various capacities since he was a “popcorn shoveler” as a teen) has announced that The Colonial is opening its screens to Maine filmmakers as part of this new direction. Noting that “Truth Tellers,” Maine director Richard Kane’s documentary on painter Robert Shetterly, recently did big numbers for the theater, Walton says that it’s part of The Colonial’s plan to be a prime destination for other Maine filmmakers to use this century-old theater as the venue for their films.
“I’m from this area,” said Walton,” and it’s a very lonely existence being a Maine filmmaker. We want to, as much as possible, be a conduit to getting Maine filmmakers seen. There’s just so much creative energy in the area, both with local filmmakers and others who’ve migrated here from major media markets. With all these forces combined, our plan is to book more local films, more independent films, and small collections of work.”
As for the future, “the way the pandemic unravels will dictate a lot of that,” Walton said. “Ideally, we’ll be a hybrid of first-run exhibition and our already built-up relationships with Maine filmmakers and organizations. There were already a lot of issues, pre-pandemic, with how we were able to do business.”
The Colonial is exactly the sort of locally minded, vibrantly creative independent movie theater Maine needs more of (in Portland, for one glaring example). And it’s people like Kyle Walton and owners Therese Bagnardi and Michael Hurley who are ensuring Belfast’s exemplary movie palace lives on. Even through all of this.
To learn more about The Colonial Theatre (and to explore screening options if you’re a Maine filmmaker), check out colonialtheater.com.
Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and cat.
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