Nearly 45 years ago, a group of Maine movie buffs began projecting foreign films on 16mm government-issued projectors in an old Waterville barn. They did not set out to make any money or get any recognition. They just loved the movies, and they wanted to share the movies they loved with others.
decades later, Reelroad Square Cinema and Maine Film Centerthe nonprofit that grew out of those DIY movie experiences, will move next month to the new, $18 million Paul J. Schupf Center for the Arts, along with art galleries, a café, and the center’s parent organization, Waterville Creates.
For co-founder Ken Eisen, who was among the group of film geeks screening the films of Ingmar Bergman and Bernardo Bertolucci in a working-class mill town of Maine in the late 1970s, it’s hard to fathom how far all that has progressed.
“If you had told us at the time that something like this was going to happen when we opened our tiny little theater with $15,000 we would have put it together, we would have found that quite ridiculous,” Eisen said. “All we wanted at the time was to stay open as long as possible. And here we are. It’s kind of unbelievable to think about.”
For decades, Railroad Square Cinemas has been a beacon for movie fans across eastern and central Maine. Even in the age of streaming media, everyone from college students to retirees has gone to Waterville to watch movies you can’t see at your local broadcast complex. If you live within an hour of Waterville and want to see the latest film from directors like Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson or Richard Linklater, you’ll probably go to the railroad yard.
That’s still true, even after streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon revolutionized the way people watch movies, and the pandemic closed cinemas for most of 2020 and 2021.
Mike Perrault, executive director of the Maine Film Center, the organization founded in 1998 that now runs both the Maine Film Festival and the Maine International Film Festival, said movie houses and independent cinemas are as much community-building spaces as they are forums for film art.
“The cinemas at Arthus enhance the cultural life and economic vitality of their communities,” said Perrault. “For many, Railroad Square Cinema has embodied these values for 44 years, and this is just the beginning of what the Maine Film Center intends to do for decades to come.”
There are only a few independent cinemas left in Maine, including Reel Pizza Cinerama in Bar Harbor, Eveningstar Cinema in Brunswick, Narrow Gauge Cinema in Farmington, Magic Lantern in Bridgton, Harbor Theater in Boothbay Harbor and Alamo Theater In Bucksport – The latter two are programmed by Eisen and Maine Film Center. Colonial theater in Belfast Closed indefinitely in SeptemberWaiting for a new owner of the cinema. Several multi-purpose theaters also show films, including the Strand Theater in Rockland, Central Theater in Dover-Foxcroft, and Criterion Theater in Bar Harbor.
The new Maine Film Center space will feature three cinemas, with the main theater space – dubbed Reelroad Square Cinema – seating 115 and offering both enhanced laser projection and Dolby sound, as well as the ability to project 35mm films. The other two cinemas will have a capacity of 43 and 22, respectively. It will also make the heavily developed home of the Maine International Film Festival, the 10-day festival held each July in Waterville, founded nearly 25 years ago by Aizen and his company.
Paul J. Schupf Center for the Arts It is the culmination of years of work by Colby College, Waterville Creates, the City of Waterville, and a number of benefactors to help revitalize Downtown. Other projects in this effort include the Bill and Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, an apartment complex of about 200 students from Colby; The Lockwood Hotel, now open to the public; and Greene Block + Studios, a programming space for events and the arts.
The old three-screen Railroad Square Cinema, located at 17 Railroad Square in Waterville, opened in 1995, shortly after its original location across the street burned down. The cinema will screen its latest films on November 23 with a screening of “Casablanca” preceded by a farewell party. Until the last day, the cinema will screen a range of classic and independent films, from “Harold and Maude” to “Do The Right Thing” to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and an interactive screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. It will reopen in the new space on December 17th.
For Aizen, who has spent thousands of hours in the cinema but now splits his time between Maine and Argentina with his wife Karen, saying goodbye to old theater is bittersweet — but as they famously said in “Casablanca,” it really is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
“It definitely feels weird. There are a lot of great memories,” he said. “But for me, it’s about more than just Art House movies, or independent films. It’s really about the community.”
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