 The Roxie Theater marquee in 2009 | |
 | |
| Location | 3117 16th Street San Francisco, California, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°45′53″N122°25′21″W / 37.76472°N 122.42250°W |
| Type | Movie theater |
| Opened | 1912 |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Roxie Theater, also known as the Roxie Cinema or just The Roxie, is a historic movie theater, founded in 1912, at 3117 16th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. It is a non-profit community arthouse cinema.
The Roxie is one of the oldest continuously operating movie theaters in the US, [1] with its history tracing back to the early 1900s.
The 300-seat theater was renovated in 1933, changed its name to the Roxie, and added its unusual marquee with neon sign but no place for movie titles. In 2003, a 49-seat theater dubbed the Little Roxie opened two doors from the main theater. [2]
Other names for the theater:
In the late 1960s with the decline of its neighborhood, The Roxie became a pornography theater. In March 1976, film lovers Robert Christopher Evans, Dick Gaikowski, Peter Moore, and Tom Mayer bought the Roxie, remodeled it, and turned it into an art and independent film center. Between November 1–15, 1979, the Roxie hosted the U.S. premiere of Luis Buñuel's L'Âge d'Or (1930), a film that had been banned for almost 50 years. Over the years, the Roxie has been home to many film festivals such as the Frameline Film Festival, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the Arab Film Festival, San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, [3] SF Indiefest, and many others.
In December 2005, an agreement was announced under which the Roxie was acquired by New College of California, a small liberal arts college also based in the Mission District. It became part of New College's Media Studies Program on January 1, 2006, and was renamed the "Roxie Film Center at New College". An anonymous benefactor paid off the theater's debts, and the college registered it as a non-profit corporation. [4]
On February 26, 2008, New College announced it was closing, thus ending its support of the Roxie. [4] New College Board member Rod Holt and his son Alan subsequently took over the theater’s lease.
In 2010 Alan Holt transitioned from Executive Director to a seat on the Board and community activist and philanthropist Christopher Statton joined the Roxie as Executive Director and member of the Board. [5] Megan Wilson, who began working for the Roxie as a development consultant, became a co-Executive Director; neither received a salary. [2] Over his four-year tenure, Statton established the Roxie as a community-based non-profit, including the creation of the Roxie's Lights. Camera. Action! Awards to honor Bay Area social justice documentary filmmakers. The inaugural awards honored the filmmaking team of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and filmmaker Hima B for their significant contributions in raising awareness of the challenges of living with HIV/AIDS. [2] Statton also raised over $400,000 in contributions to help support the Roxie's programming and operations. [6] In 2013 Statton was awarded the Marlon Riggs Award by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for "his significant contribution to San Francisco’s film community through the Roxie Theater over the past four years". [7] Statton resigned from the Roxie in 2013 due to health concerns. [6]
In December 2013, the Roxie announced Isabel Fondevila, former Board President of Artists' Television Access, as the new director. [8] She further expanded the theater's film festivals and developed RoxCine, an ongoing series of Spanish-language films.
In 2015, Dave Cowen came aboard as executive director, while Fondevila remained at the Roxie in the role of Director of Programming. [9] Over the next two years, Cowen led the theater to profitability [10] with projection and facilities improvements, an increased social media presence, and a successful focus on showing repertory film in 35mm. [11] During this time, the Roxie's classic neon marquee was fully restored, [12] and the Roxie was honored by the California State Assembly in 2017 as Small Business of the Year. [13]
In August 2017, Sundance veteran Elizabeth O'Malley replaced Cowen as executive director, with Operations Director Lex Sloan promoted to general manager. [14] Cowen remains on the Roxie Board of Directors and is now working with Milwaukee Film on their acquisition of the historic Oriental Theatre.
The theatre also is home to Roxie Releasing, an independent film distributor most notably responsible for the 30th anniversary re-release of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead . Roxie Releasing specializes in documentaries.
The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The venue became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window surmounted by a scrolling pediment framing a niche—to the basilica of Mission Dolores nearby. Its designer, Timothy L. Pflueger, also designed Oakland's Paramount Theater and other movie theaters in California during that period. The theater has more than 1,400 seats.
The Grand Lake Theatre is a historic movie palace located at 3200 Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue in the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland, California.
The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) is an annual film festival organized by the California Film Institute. It takes place each October in Mill Valley, California and welcomes more than 200 filmmakers, representing more than 50 countries, each year.
James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.
The San Francisco International Film Festival, organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution. In 2009, it served around 82,000 patrons, with screenings held in San Francisco and Berkeley.
Berlin & Beyond Film Festival is an annual film festival based in San Francisco, California featuring new cinema from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The UC Theatre is a music venue on University Avenue near Shattuck Avenue in Downtown Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States. From 1976 until 2001, it was a movie theater known for a revival house presentation of films. In 2013, The Berkeley Music Group was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission to renovate and operate the UC Theater as live music venue. It reopened its doors on April 7, 2016.
Prince Gomolvilas is a Thai American playwright. He has written many plays which have been produced in the United States and won several distinctive awards, including a PEN Center USA West Literary Award for Drama.
SFFILM, formerly known as The San Francisco Film Society, is a nonprofit arts organization located in San Francisco, California, that presents year-round programs and events in film exhibition, media education, and filmmaker services.
Victoria Theatre is a 480-seat theater in San Francisco's Mission District, which presents locally produced original plays, live concerts, film festivals, musicals, performances by international performing companies and other kinds of events. The theater is located at 2961-16th Street in San Francisco, California. It was not connected to the Red Vic, a now-closed repertory movie theater in the Haight.
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest Jewish film festival in the world, and currently the largest with a 2016 attendance figure of 40,000 at screenings in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, San Rafael, and Palo Alto. The three-week summer festival is held in San Francisco, California, usually at the Castro Theater in San Francisco and other cinemas in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, San Rafael, and Palo Alto, and features contemporary and classic independent Jewish film from around the world. In 2015, the organization re-branded itself as the Jewish Film Institute, retaining the name "San Francisco Jewish Film Festival" for the annual film festival.
Marc Huestis is an American filmmaker, camp impresario and social activist. He is best known for his motion picture Sex Is... and his in-person tributes/benefit events feting celebrities from Hollywood's Golden Age and cult personas at San Francisco's Castro Theatre.
The Lark Theater is a single-screen Art Deco cinema in Larkspur, California, United States.
The San Francisco Green Film Festival was an environmental film festival which was held annually from 2011 to 2019.
The School of Cinema is an academic unit in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts at San Francisco State University, a public research university in San Francisco. It has Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts, and Master of Fine Arts in cinema programs. These programs have been frequently included in the annual "Top 25 American Film Schools" rankings published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Jonathan Moscone is an American theater director and arts consultant, having most recently served as a Council member then Executive Director of the California Arts Council under Governor Gavin Newsom's administration. Formerly the Chief Producer of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), and artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater in Berkeley and Orinda, California for 16 years, Moscone received the inaugural Zelda Fichandler Award, given by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation for his transformative work in theater in 2009.
Christopher Statton is an American artist and arts administrator, community activist, and philanthropist, and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Statton is best known for his role in establishing San Francisco's oldest continuously running theater, the Roxie Theater as a non-profit during his four-year tenure as executive director, 2010 – 2013. In 2013 he was awarded the Marlon Riggs Award by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for “his significant contribution to San Francisco’s film community through the Roxie Theater over the past four years.” Ryan Coogler also received the award for his film Fruitvale Station. In 2013, San Francisco District 9 Supervisor David Campos awarded Statton with a Certificate of Honor for his “important and tireless work with the Roxie.” Statton resigned from the Roxie in 2013 due to health concerns.
Madeleine Lim is a filmmaker, producer, director, cinematographer and LGBTQ activist. She is the founding Executive Director of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), and an adjunct professor of film studies at the University of San Francisco. Lim is also a co-founder of SAMBAL and the US Asian Lesbian Network in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) is the world's oldest transgender film festival. Originally named Tranny Fest, the Festival was co-founded by Christopher Lee and Alex Austin in 1997, with Elise Hurwitz as technical director. Lee and Austin produced the Festival until 2002; in 2003, Shawna Virago took over as Artistic Director.
The San Francisco Independent Film Festival, known as IndieFest, is an annual film festival, held in January or February, that recognizes contemporary independent film. It is run by SF IndieFest, a non-profit organization, and based at the Roxie Theater in the Mission District.