Belcourt Theatre (Nashville, TN)

The current Belcourt Theatre organization rose out of a community movement that successfully saved the theater after several failed attempts to make it a viable, operating film house. Built in 1925, the Belcourt is the last of Nashville's neighborhood theaters with significant connections to Nashville's cultural past including as the onetime stage for the venerable Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s. Though still utilized as a music venue, the current Belcourt Theatre was saved to be a significant home for film for Nashville and the surrounding Middle Tennessee community.

What is special about your organization?

The Belcourt has been a community project from the start. When the theatre was shut down for the second time in two years it looked like it would be lost to developers or other community efforts. Through community meetings, yard sign campaigns and truly grassroots initiatives our organization was launched and has seen remarkable growth in ten years. In 1997, the organization purchased the theater at the same time we were seeing adventuresome film audiences growing and financial support from the community increasing. 2009 was another year dynamic growth and 2010 is shaping up to be the same.

What is your organization currently working on that excites you?

The Belcourt has been extremely involved with the Art House Convergence, an annual meeting of art houses that grew out of the Sundance Institute's Art House Project. The Convergence will have it's fourth annual gathering January 17-20, 2011. The project grew innocently out of staff members from 14 film houses meeting each other at the Sundance Film Festival and beginning to share ideas, successes & frustrations. Through those informal conversations we realized there was a strong model for a healthy art house and if we banded together and helped each other we'd increase the health of the field.

What is the future of your organization? What are you striving for?

We are in the early stages of planning for capital improvements to the Belcourt Theatre including growing from two theatres to three. Two of the theatres would be fully dedicated to film with the historic 1925 Hall still used largely for film but also for other events--everything from concerts to burlesque shows to political debates. We're also working to launch a much more significant visual literacy program in collaboration with area schools inspired by the amazing work our of the Jacob Burns Film Center, one of our Art House Convergence partners.

What else do you want the media arts community to know about your organization?

Nashville is a great film town. In addition to the Belcourt we have several strong festivals and great film writing in our weekly. Come visit & make sure and stop by the Belcourt. You can check us out at belcourt.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@belcourt).
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