HARRISONBURG
For many Harrisonburg filmmakers, Court Square Theater is the place to premiere. But locals might be facing more competition from out-of-towners seeking the venue as the theater’s rising profile begins to draw more names.
Situated in the old showroom of a defunct car dealership, the theater beams with character. It’s been around since 1998 and, with 260 seats, it’s a moderately sized venue for filmmakers of all sorts.
The latest documentary to premiere here is “Bicycle Dreams,” a film that follows cyclists through the Race Across America. The documentary has received awards from the likes of the Yosemite Film Festival and the Grand Rapids Film Festival, among others. A previous documentary by the filmmaker, Stephen Auerbach, on the same race has been shown on NBC-TV.
“[‘Bicycle Dreams’] came to us because we are sort of getting on the [unofficial] list of documentary film circuits,” Theater Manager Noah McBrayer Jones says.
And while there might not be an official list of film circuit venues, the fact that a few out-of-area filmmakers have recently requested to use the theater suggests that its reputation, along with the Harrisonburg arts scene, is budding, Jones said.
‘Interestingly situated’
“American Meat,” a film about sustainable farming that showed in September, is another non-local film to request the theater as its premiere venue. Court Square Theater began to gather more steam from there.
Josie Showalter, who helped organize a series of films focusing on the national “grow local” movement, was instrumental in bringing “American Meat” to the theater. She introduced the venue to the filmmaker, who subsequently requested to show his film independent of the series.
Jones thinks connections made through that showing attracted producers of “Bicycle Dreams” to the theater.
The recent requests reflect strong grassroots support for the arts in Harrisonburg, he said. A large concentration of young, art-minded people in the area has lent to that support.
“People who wanted to move away to find an artistic community are realizing they don’t [have to move],” Jones said. “Harrisonburg can be the artistic community that we want.”
He noted that a number of efforts, including by government and local artists, are bringing people to the theater.
Plus, the city is in a spot accessible to viewers from many regions, Jones said. It’s just far enough from other independent film hotspots that it doesn’t compete with other theaters, but close enough that some film connoisseurs will still make the trip to see a show they’re looking forward to, he said.
“We are interestingly situated here in Harrisonburg because of our proximity to D.C.,” he said. “[We’re] far enough away so that we don’t compete if a venue is too expensive to rent in D.C. or the timing didn’t work for your release. So we can be that next step and still draw people from D.C. that are still interested.”
An established niche
Showalter began a drive about a year ago to “raise awareness” about local resources available to the community, “like the farmers market and the theater.”
And if her efforts are having an impact on the theater’s prominence, she said she’s happy.
“The theater is a wonderful, wonderful venue,” Showalter said. “It’s just an incredible asset for our community. For the Go Local series, it was perfect because [Court Square Theater was] so great to work with. They weren’t so huge that we couldn’t get [booked].”
Suzi Carter, who came to Harrisonburg to attend James Madison University, learned about the local theater scene at school. Interested in independent film and media, she “always had a special place in my heart [for] our local independent theater.”
“They’ve been doing independent films and music for a long time because the community theater has been going along for years and now it’s just getting a cohesive message together and getting it out to the masses,” Carter said. “Court Square Theater has already found its niche in terms of being the local art house and doing smaller stuff, but it’s really powerful stuff.”
Future plans
As for the theater’s future, Jones hopes to start attracting more independent scripted dramatic films from areas like Richmond (a great place for filming because of its diverse scenery). And the more big-name films he can recruit, the easier it will be to recruit others, he said.
However it happens, though, the theater is dedicated to searching for ways to increase its profile, he said.
“It can’t be all passive,” said Jones. “A lot of it is you just get on a list and people come to you, but with our own programming, we want the most recent out of any [area] — for example New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. I spend hours researching when I can get the next good movie.”
But he’s also realistic about his expectations for the up-and-coming theater.
“I doubt I’ll ever be able to call up Michael Moore,” he said.
Regardless of whether the theater will be able to attract such star power, Jones is hoping to make an impact with the modest theater on the corner of Court Square. And big names or small, the films he aims to recruit are going to be quality.
“I want people to walk into this place and think, quite frankly, ‘I’m surprised this is in Harrisonburg,’ ” he said.
Leave Comment