The news landed with sledgehammer force for movie lovers throughout Atlanta and the region: The beloved Tara Theatre shut its doors for good Nov. 10, with its owner, Regal Cinemas, announcing they were closing the location as part of its real-estate optimization strategy. The future of the building remains up in the air.
Loew’s opened the theater in 1968, and the location became a favorite to local cinephiles. In 1980, arthouse film guru George Lefont took over and began screening independent fare that almost no other Atlanta theaters were showing. Those specialty films, as well as the ambience, became the Tara’s trademark.
For Kenny Blank, executive and artistic director of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the closing of the Tara is a personal and professional loss.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
“I think we have a nostalgia for establishments like this, especially in a place like Atlanta where there doesn’t seem to be a lot of reverence for long-standing institutions,” he says. “Like the phoenix we are, we are reinventing ourselves and rebuilding, and things don’t last a long time (here). To lose it is sad. It wasn’t the most glamorous theater, the most contemporary or refined, but the curation of films was often (something) you couldn’t see anywhere else. You always remember the films you saw there and the experiences.”
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival routinely used the Tara as one of its screening venues. “Our audience has an appreciation for great international cinema and seeing films with an audience and a deep emotional attachment to the movie-going experience. The Tara was always a popular venue, not just because it was geographically convenient and accessible, but because of its history.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@
Over the years, many Atlanta theaters specializing in arthouse/independent fare have gone under, including the Lefont Garden Hills, Toco Hills Theatre and the Screening Room. With the Tara now gone, the remaining area theaters that frequently program arthouse fare are the Plaza Theatre, the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema and The Springs Cinema & Taphouse in Sandy Springs. Landmark Theatres has a chain of theaters across the country, and — in addition to higher-profile arthouse fare — the company used to offer a calendar series of smaller films that would open for a week and maybe stay longer, depending on box-office returns. When programmer Ruth Hayler retired in 2020, however, Landmark did not continue this series.
Brandt Gully took over The Springs Cinema & Taphouse, formerly the Lefont Sandy Springs, in 2017. A financial advisor for movie theater chains, he got to know George Lefont while maintaining office space upstairs at the theater. After some discussions over the years, Lefont eventually called Gully and said he was ready to sell the theater to him.
Gully spent the next few years learning the ropes of the business and renovating until the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 forced theaters around the world to close.
Once he reopened the theater, Gully learned that he needed to be creative moving forward. The Springs Cinema began offering popular drive-in screenings, as well as high-school graduation ceremonies, church masses and other private events. “We began expanding the business to do things we didn’t know we could,” Gully says. “We could not rely entirely on Hollywood for product and had to scramble to find ways to stay relevant.”
The other two theaters have learned to adapt as well. The Midtown Art Cinema has continued to offer private events and festivals, and recently added preferred-seating capabilities, while the Plaza relied on drive-in events in 2020, retrospective screenings and the addition of two new 40-seat auditoriums.
“It’s becoming more about the overall experience and less about the movie,” says Gully. “Plaza does an amazing job of programming and getting creative, not just waiting for great movies to come to them. They curate and make movies fun again and do it better than the Tara was able to do.”
He adds that many people just like to get out of the house and do something fun with others, and that many purists will always prefer an in-cinema experience to watching at home.
When Gully bought the theater, it was pure arthouse. He decided to strike more of a balance. “I thought eight screens was too much for pure art. There just aren’t enough films. If I called us an arthouse cinema, the arthouse community would get upset and say we are not because we do commercial films. My objective has been to do both since day one, and I think there is a place for both. The key is to do good movies. We show the same movies Lefont showed — we just don’t keep them around as long.”
Chris Escobar, who has served as the executive director of the Atlanta Film Festival for 11 years, bought the Plaza Theatre in 2017. He’s concerned about the Tara’s closing, given that he feels Atlanta already has a disproportionately low number of arthouse cinemas for a city of its size.
When it comes to the theater’s scheduling philosophies, he and programmer Richard Martin realize the Plaza is an anomaly. It attracts a younger audience, and roughly half of its titles are repertory. The model works well, not just in that the theater can eventize its offerings but that it’s economically more sustainable. “New movies cost a whole lot more and also come with a higher guarantee,” says Escobar. “Older movies cost (less), and you can play that movie as much as the demand allows. New movies, you have to play them sometimes every day for weeks. That limits choice, flexibility and experimentation. That existed pre-COVID and is an antiquated model.”
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
Escobar used to feel that he would need to program big studio movies from time to time in order to stay afloat. Yet, he was pleasantly surprised that the engagement of the independent release “Neptune Frost” had stronger legs at the Plaza than “Jurassic World: Dominion” this summer — and John Carpenter’s original “Halloween” was a bigger draw than October’s “Halloween Ends.”
The Plaza is not trying to do what everyone else is doing, says Escobar, but it must build a connection with its audience and have them constantly check the website for updated events and not rely on outside marketing.
The bottom line is that arthouse cinemas are not dead, but those operating them must continue to find ways to be innovative. The closing of the Tara is a reminder that patrons cannot take cultural spaces and institutions for granted. “It’s not enough to like that something is in your town; you have to spend actual money with it,” says Escobar. “Even if you don’t have time and can’t go — donate or buy tickets. If you would lament in it not existing, then you need to participate in its existence.”
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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