BALTIMORE (AP) - The old Parkway, where filmmaker John Waters once sipped espresso and “looked at women’s breasts and Ingmar Berman movies” decades ago, is about to be reborn as Baltimore’s newest movie theater and the home of the Maryland Film Festival.
The $18 million Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Film Center in Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District will open its doors to film fans on Wednesday, nearly 40 years after the original Parkway Theater, which opened in 1915, closed for good. It’s made up of a 414-seat theater in the building’s original auditorium, and two additional smaller theaters.
The Maryland Film Festival organizers hope the theater will support and foster the city’s already robust art and film community.
Waters, known for such cult classics as “Pink Flamingos,” said movie theaters, like independent bookstores, both define and support creative communities. The new Parkway, he says, will aim to do just that.
“It will be a place that can show any kind of movie that I grew up with, where I had to go to a totally different world: horror, sexploitation, art, radical, indies - they can all show here,” said Waters, who is on the film festival’s board of directors. “And that’s the point.”
Films that will be screened at this year’s festival are several from local filmmakers and artists:
-“Rat Film,” a documentary by Theo Anthony explores Baltimore’s rat problem.
-Filmmaker Tarek Turkey, an Iraqi refugee who was resettled in the United States by the International Rescue Committee in Baltimore, will screen a short documentary “Nidal,” shot at a camp in Lebanon.
-“Finding Joseph I: The HR From Bad Brains Documentary,” delves into the life of the famed front man of Washington-based, all black punk band Bad Brains.
-“Sylvio,” a narrative feature film about a gorilla experiencing an existential crisis, was filmed in Baltimore.
Eric Hatch, the director of programming for the festival, wants the theater to foster creativity among local artists, and be a meeting place where filmmakers can watch each other’s movies and hopefully, form relationships.
“Bringing this theater back to life is great for the cultural revival that’s happening right here in Station North,” Hatch said.
The neighborhood has another movie theater, The Charles, and several venues that often host local bands and artists.
“More specifically, having a movie theater that can be a nonprofit, exhibit local work and first films from young voices and challenging viewpoints will really inspire the Baltimore arts community and a lot of people who might not otherwise pick up a camera, will,” Hatch said.
Fittingly, the first post-festival film to screen at the Parkway will be Waters’ “Female Trouble.”
What makes Baltimore such a great place for art and film?
“It’s still cheap enough to have bohemia,” Waters said. “It’s the only city left.”
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