In August, the Belcourt Theatre announced its new drive-in series, set to take place in the independent cinema’s small Hillsboro Village parking lot and feature repertory screenings and new releases alike. It was enough to bring a tear to a local cinephile’s eye — seeing classics like The Birds under the late-summer sky, the familiar faces of Belcourt staffers partially obscured behind masks as they guided cars Tetris-style into the theater’s modest lot.
These screenings were the first that the 95-year-old theater had hosted in five-and-a-half months. And while they were a delight and a privilege, a couple of questions still hung over each drive-in showing: When will things return to normal? When can we all go see a movie inside the theater again?
Of course, with cases of COVID-19 still rising all across the country and in Nashville in particular, the answer to the former remains unclear. But the answer to the latter was announced by the Belcourt just this week: The Belcourt will reopen for indoor screenings on Friday, Nov. 13.
“I think we can do this and keep people safe and get them out of their houses,” says Belcourt executive director Stephanie Silverman. In an interview with the Scene, Silverman details the elaborate list of precautions she and her staff are taking as they open doors for limited-capacity screenings of two films this week — the Kate Winslet-starring romantic drama Ammonite and the animated fantasy film Wolfwalkers (see our review of the latter on p. 29).
“We’ve done a lot of research into how to keep people safe,” says Silverman. “And then, we’ve of course been obsessively following the CDC information — distancing, masks. So what we’ve done is we’ve reduced the capacities in both halls, and we actually have a very specific seating map that will allow people to sit together — couples can come together. But everybody will be, most of the time, at least 10 feet apart from anybody else.”
The Belcourt is limiting capacity to a maximum of 56 patrons per screening in both of the downstairs theaters — that’s roughly 17 percent of capacity in the 1925 Hall and 22 percent of the capacity in the 1966 Hall. Programming director Toby Leonard will likely schedule about two showings per hall per day on weekdays, and three per day per hall on weekends. Both staff and customers will be required to wear masks, though once you’re in your seat you’ll be permitted to remove your face covering to enjoy a drink or a snack. The theater is also instituting some high-tech new procedures, including U.V. air scrubbers in both halls, along with an electrostatic mister that will be used to clean each seat between screenings.
“These rooms of course are huge-volume rooms in terms of airflow,” says Silverman. “And then with the added protection of U.V. scrubbing, we feel like we’re making all of the decisions based on the research, based on the work of the National Association of Theater Owners. They have this great CinemaSafe program that we’re following. And then we’re going two steps beyond.”
Upstairs, the Belcourt’s smaller Manzler/Webb Screening Room and Jackson Education and Engagement Space will remain closed. But the cinema will continue to open films online via its virtual screening room, and also continue its virtual education programming. Silverman notes how virtual experiences like this year’s 12 Hours of Terror horror marathon and education and engagement director Allison Inman’s Anatomy of Cinema programs have brought in online participants from all over the country.
There won’t be any further installments in the Belcourt Drive-In series, Silverman tells us, citing both the changing weather and the fact that one of the theaters’ projectors was being used for the outdoor screenings. “As all things, pop-ups look so easy from the outside, but they are of course tremendously complicated from the inside. … I can’t praise all of our staff enough for making that thing happen out of thin air, basically. It was kind of miraculous, and has been so smooth and great, and filled the need for a moment.”
You’ll be able to buy tickets for the Belcourt’s indoor films in person, though the arthouse is strongly encouraging folks to buy them online in advance.
“Toby’s been on the horn pretty constantly,” she says of programming director Leonard’s efforts to bring new films to the theater. “In some ways it’s a unique moment, because we are seeing more of the independent [films] have windows before they have a life online. ... I think we’ll be able to do a pretty good mix of new releases and repertory. But you know, because we’re us, we can rely on just the repertory too and still make it imaginative and good and not just the same-old same-old that you were sort of seeing other theaters open without curators.”
Even with the new precautions in place, and even with some of us sorely — desperately, even — missing the moviegoing experience, Silverman and her colleagues know returning to the cinema will be a difficult decision for many.
“We’re not expecting people to fly out of their houses and fill the theaters immediately — I think it’s all going to take time,” she says, going on to reference a recent memo written by one of the White House’s senior COVID-19 advisers. “But [look] at the latest report from Deborah Birx that came out that said we don’t always have to look at total shutdowns, but we do have to follow the practices we know. This is the thing I wish we were seeing more of — people following those practices so everyone can have confidence. But we’re going to bake [safety precautions] into the way we operate and hope that people are willing to give it a try.”
