Episode 11: The Roxy Theater moves fall film festivals online
Transcription-
INTRO
Music
WITH YOUR HOST MADELINE BROOM
THANKS FOR TUNING IN TO KBGA, MISSOULA 89.9. MY NAME IS MADELINE BROOM AND I AM THE HOST OF THE KBGA PODCAST THE CLAM BAKE.
TODAY WE HAVE A SPECIAL EPISODE BROUGHT TO YOU BY KBGA GENERAL MANAGER AND JOURNALIST NOELLE HUSER.
NOELLE REPORTS ON THE ROXY THEATER AND HOW IT IS NAVIGATING PROVIDING THE COMMUNITY CINEMATIC EXPERIENCES WITH THE WEATHER GETTING COLDER.
STORY
Noelle Huser-
The Roxy Theater brought Missoula the tiniest semblance of what life “used to be like” this summer with movie showings at the Ogren Park, playing movies like “Purple Rain” that got Missoulians up and dancing together from a safe distance.
In the Roxy’s back parking lot, The Roxy Garden, a small-capacity, make-shift theater was constructed. It doesn't bring in a ton of revenue but it gives people the intimate movie-going experience the Roxy is known for as Missoula’s only arthouse theater.
The pandemic has brought great financial hardship to the movie industry. Regal Cinemas, the second largest theater chain behind AMC, just announced October 3rd, that they will be closing all of their U.S locations. Even the largest theater corporations are going under. Independent movie theaters, which tend to have a much smaller capacity and little-to-no corporate support, are faced with even more challenges staying afloat.
The Roxy is just one of many trying to hold on. The theater’s executive director, Mike Steinberg, said that sales have been a “drop in the bucket” compared to what they used to be, with revenue is down about 30%. He said it would be much worse if it weren't for grants, Roxy memberships and community donations.
Carrier Richer-
“You know, it’s been hard, but I think you know our leadership has done a good job of making choices and really trying to think of all the consequences of those choices.”
Huser-
The theater’s Festival Director, Carrie Richer, said with the weather getting colder and outdoor screenings at the Roxy Garden and Ogren Park ending after Halloween. The theater’s administrative team now has to navigate how to maintain a connection to their community.
Richer-
”I think the Roxy takes the responsibility of being a leader in creating safe spaces really seriously, which is why we resisted opening right when we could.”
Huser-
During a typical fall, The Montana Film Festival brings a particularly vibrant week downtown. This year’s hustle and bustle of hip-looking filmmakers will have to be imagined from our perspective living rooms as the festival shifts online October 8-11th, followed by the Kiddomatic Film Festival, November 13th through the 15th.
Last spring when the pandemic hit in the midst of the International Wildlife Film Festival, the in-person festivities were canceled and the festival became streamable within one day. Filmmakers pushed their own communities to watch, resulting in a huge success with people streaming from nearly every state and 27 countries.
Huser-
Richer said she is curious to see if there is still the same interest months later.
Richer-
”We joke that everybody watched all of Netflix and then we came in and everyone watched the festival, so I am curious to see what… like now that people have...there’s lots of virtual festivals and people have been zooming and everything. I am just curious to see what the interest is. But segwaying into the Roxy...The Roxy has such a loyal community um that we kind of, a lot of virtual festivals have been trying to reach the whole world, kind of style, like we did kind of accidentally sort of. But we are really trying to cater it to the Roxy audience. I'm a big like experience, in-the-flesh kind of person, so it took me a while to come around to this virtual piece. I am a person who really appreciates a live in-person, group experience, so finding myself involved in creating these sort of individually, through-your-computer-screen experience, is weird and like when we first realized we had to do IWFF this March, it took me awhile to come around to it and to really think about it. I really resisted the idea and in a way I think that makes me a good person too think about it because I’m really trying to still create an experience and really looking at what the good parts are about being virtual,”
Huser-: Alana Waksman, the Festival Director for the Montana Film Festival first got involved in the festival attending as a filmmaker. She said the connections built at the festival over the years bleed into each other, cultivating a community.
Alana Waksman: “What’s wonderful about the Roxy and what we amp up to a whole other level with Montana Film Festival is the in person connection and that we're not the industry of filmmaking, we’re about the art of filmmaking and the reason why we making these films. And we have great examples of this happening, establishing really meaningful connections.”
Huser: The in-person experience is core to Montana Film Festival , but she’s trying to still provide interactive opportunities to engage in Q&A forums with the filmmakers. While tactile parts of the festival are lost, she’s proud of this year’s film selection, with a heavy focus on films relevant to and made by the Montana community.
One film, came out of an interaction from the first year of the festival, which opened with “Krisha,” starring Krisha Fairchild. At the time, Montana actress and University of Montana School of Theater and Dance alumni, Lily Gladstone, was working for the festival. Fairchild and Gladstone met and now both co-star in one of this year’s feature films, “Freeland,” directed by Marioo Furloni and Kate Mcleana.
Gladstone has come up as an actress through Montana FIlm Festival, starting around the attention she developed for her roles in the Smith Brother’s “Winter in the Blood” and “Certain Women,” directed by Kelly Reichardt. This year she appears in three films, two features, “Freeland,” and “Two Eyes,” directed by Travis Fine, and a short called “Little Chief,” directed by Erica Tremblay.
Waksman -
“You know, like everyones lives are short and like, if I'm going to say, if i'm going through Montana FIlm Festival to say “you should watch this film,” I want to really mean it.”
Huser-
Waksman said the Roxy tries to highlight the strongest films of the Montana community as well as new films that offer new points of view. In a predominantly white community, she tries to expose Montana audiences to new perspectives
The festival will be the world premier of a short film called “Waves,” directed by Agazi Desta. The film follows a Black deaf teen who has trouble communicating with a barber while getting his haircut, the audio cuts in and out as he adjusts his hearing aids, showing the world from his perspective.
MTFF has partnered with Xerb, a streaming site that allows small festivals Like Montana Film Festival; to geo-lock certain local films. This allows the festival to exclusively premier for a Montana audience, so as to not disrupt the distribution of a film.
The full program for the festival is viewable at montanafilmfestival.org, which will link to Xerb, where you can purchase a ticket for the entire program, from whatever screen you select Five feature films and 23 short films are included, with some only accessible to people in Montana.
The Roxy will also be using Xerb for the Kiddomatic Film Festival in its 10th year.
Richer said the Festival is a collection of international short and feature films curated to inspire youth and inject new cultural perspectives into their worldview.
Richer-
“ Especially for the Missoula community, it's really important for kids to grow up seeing different places and hearing from different people. So that is something that we really have tried to honor, and keep about the festival.”
Huser-
One of Richer’s favorite films this year’s festival is a short called “Biidaaban: The Dawn Comes,” directed and produced by Amanda Strong. The story follows a non-binary Indigenous youth as they collect sap from maple trees in Ontario and are lead by visions of mystical animals.
Another favorite is “Kamali,” directed by Sasha Rainbow, a short documentary about a young girl, Kamali, skateboarding in India and her mother, Suganthi’s decision to allow her to do so, following her pilgrimage of self discovery.
Richer, a parent herself, knows the dire need parents, teachers and students have for dynamic online curriculum.
Richer-
“We’re really trying to support parents who are teaching their kids and teachers who are trying to write virtual curriculum suddenly and students who are probably really bored sitting on zoom, which sucks,”
Huser-
The Roxy Film Academy (RFA) has designed a free curriculum of pre-recorded videos for this year, incorporating the films into Missoula County Public School curriculum, partnering with SPARK! and catering to grades K-12+.
Laura Lovo, the Roxy Film Academy Teaching Artist in charge of designing the curriculum, said the mission is to enhance the film-going experience while making it accessible for parents, teachers and students, getting the diverse array of content out to a diverse array of children. Whether they are in the public school system or homeschooling, whether they are from Missoula, rural communities or outside of Montana, the material is there for anyone who wants to check it out.
Laura Lovo-
“If there are a lot of people in rural communities who use it, that will be really exciting for me. I grew up in a really rural town and you know if someone had told me something like this was going on, or if this was available, you know at my age, even though the internet was you know, dial up, it would be so exciting to see films like this and be introduced to this other world. I think as someone living in a rural community it would be a real treat.”
Huser-
Kindergarteners will be looking at the color in films and in different seasons, examining the relationship between color and emotion. Third through fifth graders will learn about movie sound, Middle schoolers will be focused on portrait documentaries, taking what they observe and applying it to conduct their own documentary-style interviews.
This curriculum will be available to the public through the Kiddomatic virtual channel on their website kiddomatic.org/education anytime November 1st-12th. The film festival will follow November 13th-15th where a pass will give you access to all the films through the screen of your choosing
Richer said the Roxy still needs a significant amount of community support to stay afloat.
Richer-
“I don’t know, as an artist I just look at it as you have to just start thinking differently and probably all of us have to start thinking differently about just the entire way we approach the world, and sometimes it feels daunting and depressing and awful and sometimes that can feel like an opportunity.”
Huser-
As outdoor screening options grow sparse with cooler weather, now more than ever, the theater’s existence relies on sales revenue from festival passes. The theater strives to bring film to Missoula and beyond. Despite the circumstances, they are finding new ways to engage.
OUTRO
THE ROXY IS ALSO AVAILABLE TO BE RENTED OUT TO SMALL GROUPS, FOR THOSE INTERESTED. TO LEARN MORE GO TO ROXYTHEATRE.ORG
THANKS FOR TUNING IN TO THIS SPECIAL EPISODE.
YOU CAN LISTEN TO US ON AIR, KBGA 89.9 MISSOULA ONLINE AT KBGA.ORG OR LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ON APPLE PODCASTS AND SPOTIFY
THIS EPISODE WAS EDITED AND PRODUCED BY ME, MADELINE BROOM AND REPORTED AND WRITTEN BY NOELLE HUSER.
THANKS TO JAHZZAR FOR THE MUSIC IN THE CLAM BAKE. ALL MUSIC WAS SOURCED FROM THE FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE.