TAYLOR (of L.C. Cinema): Hi!
KAITLIN: Hey! How are you?
T: I’m good, how are you? I’m Taylor by the way.
K: I’m Kaitlin, It’s good to finally be talking to you!
T: It’s good to be talking to you! I love your Substack. I was reading it after you reached out.
K: Thank you! I love the whole thing you’re doing with the pop-up cinema. What gave you the idea to do that?
T: Yeah, I mean, I never studied film formally at all. I just love movies. I always really have. So this is an idea that’s been rolling around in my head since High School. Just: wouldn’t it be cool to have a pop-up cinema? And yeah, I moved back to Richmond– I went to VCU for a hot minute, then finished college in North Carolina and moved to New York. Then in 2020, I moved back to Richmond.
K: So, hoppin’ around a little bit!
T: [she laughs] Yeah! Movin’ around! When I got back to Richmond, it felt so welcoming. There’s a real artistic pulse and curiosity there, and such a cool DIY scene that it felt like the place where this could finally happen. So, I decided to give it a go.
K: It’s crazy that there isn’t already a sort of established Indie Movie Scene here. Most theaters are only showing the hits. You’d have to drive out to Midlothian to see an Indie Movie, they don’t really show them here– which is a little nuts. So, what you’re doing is actually very needed for the community.
T: I’m happy to hear that!
K: What has been your reception from people since you started launching the pop-up film project?
T: It’s been great! I am so grateful that people are interested. When I started, I kind of thought of it as like, my “Community Service” [she laughs].
K: [joins the laughter] Kind of giving back a little bit!
T: Well, yeah! Just an act of love for a city that I love! So, it’s been so nice that people really love it. People go on dates there or they’ll bring their daughter or their kid to see a movie– it’s really sweet. It’s nice to see people come back to different films and hang out with their friends afterwards to talk about what they saw. I’m psyched that people are interested and enjoying it.
K: I saw you did a round-up on your Instagram that you’ve done 10 movie showings this year. What has been your favorite showing so far?
T: [considers the question for the moment] I mean…. The debut series was at the Branch Museum and every series since then has been somewhat thematic. There’s been a “Body Horror” Halloween Special and other fun themes. But for the Branch series, I wanted to kick off with three movies that made an impact on me when I first saw them.
K: Come out the gates running.
T: Exactly– with some heavy hitters. So, I loved that one because I was able to share those and have people experience them in a group. Because they were all movies with intense emotional arcs, so, to be in a room with a group of people and feel that tension rise and release was really special. But at the last screening of the year, we closed out with doing the second Before film in Richard Linklater’s trilogy: Before Sunset with Second Bottle (they did wines to pair with the film) and that experience was so great because everyone seemed to really, really be invested in the film. That’s part of the reason why I love doing them so much– because it’s rare that you can be in a room with a lot of people who are all feeling the same. Especially today, when you watch movies, people might be on their phones or distracted with something else. To have everyone singularly focused on this one story and emoting together but reacting differently to different things, It’s really special. There's magic in that. So, I feel like the Branch Series and the Before screenings have really felt like the strongest for that. They’ve probably been my favorite.
K: The real magic of watching a movie all together.
T: Yeah, yeah!
K: I wanted to touch on– it’s funny you brought it up– when you go to movies today, they feel pretty empty. I went to see Babylon recently and I was one of five people in the entire theater. Now, I feel this is mostly due to the transition into streaming. Everyone feels like: why would I spend all this money to see a movie in theaters when I could wait a couple weeks and watch it on my couch? What has been your reaction to this trend? Do you see it as a positive thing? More accessibility to movies? Or a negative thing, kind of destroying the communal movie magic you were talking about?
T: That’s something I think about a lot. I went to Bowtie to see Tár recently and there were four other people there in this huge theater. So, it’s definitely something I think about a lot. In the experiment of doing L.C., I really want to make it an experience. So, I think you have to offer something else.
K: Some kind of novelty with it?
T: Something else to get people to want to come out. So yeah, I try not to feel one way or the other about it– because it’s kind of a moving train now. You can’t really stop it, you know? I think people still want to go out and have movies to go to but I think the best way to do that is to have something that offers something else too. Which is why I always have thematic snacks that go with my films, or have a Food and Bev partner like Second Bottle or Spotty Dog, or the music and clips I play before every screening– they are all part of the experience. I want to immerse you in the film you’re about to see. But, streaming has definitely changed the way people watch movies forever.
K: That is something that you’re offering. You’re making it something special– like a big Night Out. You’re not just sitting in a theater and then it’s done, it’s a full experience. You mentioned you partnered with the Branch Museum and you also have a working relationship with Second Bottle. How did these partnerships begin?
T: I’m just lucky! I reached out to several places that I thought might be good locations for screenings and might be mutually beneficial to have an event there. The Branch was just super gracious in hosting me. They have a beautiful space, which is so nice because it worked well with the movies we were showing. We showed Paul Schrader’s Comfort of Strangers in their sort of Gothic space, which was very similar to all the freaky Venetian architecture that’s in that movie. Then Second Bottle, I live in Church Hill, so I’m always seeing the owners at that wine shop and we became friends and started talking about how we could work together. I want to keep doing that in the New Year.
K: You mentioned securing licensing for the movies, what is that process like? Is it really lengthy?
T: Not really! It’s just like…. It’s so funny, like I said, I’ve never studied film, I’ve never worked in programming at all so it was a lot of me reading a bunch of forums and NYU Film School materials that’s free on the web to learn about, like, public performance licenses.
K: Google University, I’ve been there too.
T: Yep, yep, yep. But once you get your foot in the door, It’s really wonderful to see how a lot of arthouse distributors really want to support small cinema and community cinema. So once you develop those relationships and you kind of have a network of distributors that you know have X movie, X movie, X movie, you can kind of go from there. But it’s a lot of Googling.
K: Does your working relationships with your distributors affect your programming in any way? Like, you know this is their stock, so this is what I have to pick from?
T: Totally. It means that if I want to show something a bit more obscure, I have to do some serious digging to figure out who has the rights for that. If I want to show something a bit bigger, I have to do my budgeting beforehand so I know I can afford to pay for something that’s licensed by Warner Brothers or Sony or something like that. Whereas getting something from Janus Films, it’s gonna be a bit easier on your budget.
K: I would say budgeting is probably the biggest reason that people in the Business World see Movie Theaters as a failing business. Like, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep this building open and pay rent on it, when people can just watch that same movie without utilizing that space. Has that been a hurdle for you in any way? Trying to put on these pop-up films while still maintaining it as a business?
T: Totally. Totally. It is absolutely a labor of love for me. Something that I saved up to do because it was a passion project that I wanted to see come to fruition. So much of that kind of perfect movie experience that is the goal of L.C. Cinema to provide on a DIY budget to me makes it like, much more interesting and much more special. You just have to get creative. Yes, it’s much more of a challenge and movie theaters typically use concession sales as what they can keep their profits on to keep it going, you just have to kind of work backwards into your ticket price for your showing to be able to keep it going. But, for me, I’m a bit lucky that that’s all I'm trying to do: just keep it going. It’s been a struggle because rights are expensive but I kind of like being forced to be creative about it. Being forced to create trades with partners to be able to show the movies. It really fosters these community relationships which is what the project is all about.
K: Do you see L.C. Cinema ever becoming a brick-and-mortar space? Like becoming a dedicated theater in the community?
T: That would be a dream. For this next year, I’m hoping to keep showing movies and partner with businesses to make it happen. If things evolve on their own and there seems to be a demand for it, that would be a total dream for me. Even to have it kind of enter a community arts space where people could rent their own equipment to show films themselves or to make movies, or a space to have discussions or talks or festivals, that would be a dream. Because the whole point is: I want everything to be as accessible as possible.
For more information about L.C. Cinema and their upcoming screenings, please visit @lc.cinema on Instagram.
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