Preserve Me A Seat to premier

Candleshoe · Post by **Candleshoe** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:39 am

A film about efforts to save historic theaters in Boston, Omaha, Salt Lake and Chicago "Preserve Me A Seat", directed by Jim Fields.

World Premier is Wednesday evening, July 26th at the historic Grand Theater in downtown Grand Island, followed with an Omaha premier on Thursday the 27th at the historic Dundee Theater.

Details and trailers are at: http://apartment101films.com/

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:59 am

Just curious why this is being shown in g.i.? Is someone who made it from there?

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:39 am

It's being shown in Grand Island, Omaha, and Lincoln in three successive days.

I think it's more of an effort to get people talking about it...perhaps G.I. has a historic theater that we don't know about.

praymojo420 · Post by **praymojo420** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:31 am

Or maybe it's just to make Joe jealous.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:40 am

Who's Joe? anyway I get it now. I thought is was airing for some special reasons.
GI has a cool looking old theater all though it stinks and needs better management it is cool. Being a downtown theater and all.

Candleshoe · Post by **Candleshoe** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:24 pm

GI has a cool looking old theater all though it stinks and needs better management it is cool. Being a downtown theater and all.

Are you referring to the former owners, the Fridley people or the all volunteer board that now owns and runs the theater? I was under the impression that the new board was doing good things there, what with the indy films now coming in, the better than average second run films and the live concerts, free matinees on occasion and the fact that you can get a big-|expletive| popcorn and drink for considerably less than ten bucks.

I'm only guessing here, but perhaps the reason the world premeir is at the Grand is that it's close to home for the director and it's an old, old, downtown art-deco theater that's still survived against all odds. It's been rescued twice. It's not as all out cool and huge as the Capitol Theater was (the Grand has 660 seats), but the auditorium still has great paint, cool lighting and the old blue face clock above the screen still tells the correct time. Best of all, the sound system has been upgraded a ton.

Again, I don't really know the real reason why GI is hosting the world premeir, but Jim Fields must have his reasons.

The theaters website is at: http://www.grandmovietheatre.com/

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:17 pm

I watched one of the movie trailers..This looks like an interestimg film..

Thanks for the heads up and link Candleshoe!..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

Candleshoe · Post by **Candleshoe** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:47 pm

The rest of the premiere story... from the GI Independent, April 16, 2006:

Grand Theater to host premiere of documentary
Film on preservation of old theaters to be shown in Grand Island in July

By Mike Bockoven
[email protected]

It took the demolition of a grand old movie theater to get Jim Fields and Mark Stephenson to pick up a camera.

The filmmakers, who founded Apartment 101 Films, started shooting a documentary film, then titled "Saving the Indian Hills," about the illustrious old movie theater in Omaha that was reduced to rubble to build a parking lot for a hospital.

The project grew from the story of one theater that was lost into how communities saved historic silver-screen palaces. Their documentary, now called "Preserve Me a Seat," is near completion and will have its world premiere at the Grand Theater in downtown Grand Island.

The showing is scheduled for early July.

Jim Pohl, manager at the Grand, said the theater got involved when the filmmakers contacted him directly after seeing a newspaper story about the Grand. The documentary fits well with the philosophies and ideas behind the Grand and its recent history, Pohl said.

Link to rest of article: http://www.theindependent.com/stories/0 ... er16.shtml

praymojo420 · Post by **praymojo420** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:42 pm

MTO wrote:Who's Joe? anyway I get it now. I thought is was airing for some special reasons.
GI has a cool looking old theater all though it stinks and needs better management it is cool. Being a downtown theater and all.

Geez, do I have to explain GI Joe to you?

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:32 am

Bump ^

"Preserve Me a Seat", a Documentary on Saving Old Theaters

The Indian Hills story is a compelling one of loss and misguided goodwill, and perfect for Fields to hang his film on. The most glorious of all the Cinerama theaters that sprung up in the 1950s and 60s (its sister complexes included Minnesota's Cooper Theater, a cherished and frequently missed stomping ground of mine as a child that was bulldozed in 1991), "Preserve" records the fight to turn it into a parking lot by Nebraska Methodist Health Systems, and the grass-roots campaign by the ragtag Indian Hills Preservation Society to stop them. It's David versus Goliath, but in this story, Goliath had some excellent lawyers, and the Indian Hills met its fate in 2001.

Fields encapsulates the clammy fury of the theater's vocal fans vividly. They staged demonstrations, encouraged Hollywood stars such a Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston to write the city government asking them to stop the demolition, and eventually persuaded the powers that be to classify the Indian Hills as a historical landmark (a major focus of the third act). Of course, in America, this means absolutely nothing, further driving home the point that these theaters have no shot of surviving in a society that doesn't consider these churches of the celluloid to be places of historical significance. For the children of cinema, it's a horrible situation that's difficult to change.

Has anyone seen this yet - or even seen it around yet?

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:56 pm

It played at the Dundee Theater on July 27th. It's not "in theaters", that is unless a major distributor sees it at one of the festivals it's in and decides to give it a wide release.

I think you can buy a DVD from their website.

http://www.apartment101films.com/