Barak Epstein
Member Profile
How has Cinema United membership been impactful to you and/or your business?The Texas Theatre has been around since 1931! It was originally a Robb & Rowley theater, which became Rowley and United which became United Artists. We have been running the Texas Theatre since 2010 and have been a Cinema United member since then. Its been a great resource in various ways over the years, most obviously during Covid as the supportive communication really ramped up and Cinema United’s involvement in the SVOG and other incentives was instrumental and game changing for the industry.
I actually worked at other United Artists theaters in Dallas in the 90’s! I took a break from showing movies to go to film school to make movies and have been involved in other parts of the media production business, but returned back to it so we could find a place to screen independent and rep movies!
Probably when people applaud at the end of a repertory screening. It happens all the time now, even without a filmmaker in the room, and it’s great to see.
I’ll share a recent one. We hosted Oliver Stone at the Texas Theatre for a screening of the directors cut of JFK. There were almost 700 people there. During the scene in the film where they catch Gary Oldman at the Texas Theatre everyone turned around in their seat to see who was sitting in the Oswald seat, and it was Oliver Stone!
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If I’m picking non-Texas Theatre ones – I’ll have to say its probably a cross between a 70mm print of 2001 at GC Northpark in the late 90’s and a 2019 screening of the 4k restoration of Apocalypse Now at Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna.
I think the future of movie exhibition is being nimble and not following one specific model or industry trend. At The Texas we program a mix of repertory movie events, live music, comedy, independent filmmaker hosted screenings and some first run films. We don’t put our eggs in one specific basket and we keep busy that way!
Just jump back there and start making popcorn. The rest will come.
