Why Kristen Stewart is Saving This Historic LA Movie Theatre

[upbeat music]

People are watching movies on their tablets and their TVs

and likely watching a couple of things at once.

There's no like reflective period I guess

to be had in scenarios like that.

Buying the Highland Park Theater,

I want it to be somewhere that families can go

and that also filmmakers can go

and so we can kind of be in service of each other

and we can be in actual communication with people

and not cut off from each other.

I don't think it's a nostalgic

or sort of overly sentimental idea.

I think people are kind of like, you know,

really desperate for it.

[upbeat music]

So we're on the roof of the Highland Park Theater.

My connection to this place is fairly new.

I've been driving by all of these theaters

that had been turned into stores or were just sort of empty

and I was just like, God, I wanna get in there.

I wanna like look inside all these spaces.

The timing of this thing becoming available was shocking

because I was just really percolating on the idea

of going to the movies, not dying.

I'm from the Valley and I moved to Los Feliz.

You know, I have like the Los Feliz 3 in the Vista,

but this was not my drippy little

kind of dingy small theater experience,

but it was a lot of my friends

and I think the street is filled with incredible like stores

and bars and like little hangs,

but I think these bars are like filled

with people complaining

that they're not working on movies right now.

And so, I don't know, I think everything kind of came

to a head and made me realize that this was something

that was worth biting off

and really like seeing if we could chew

even though it is a large bite

and that we're gonna need help in a huge,

massive collective, whatever.

But like the building means to me

that there's like something of our original grandeur

that we kind of aspire to here in Hollywood,

but from a place of integrity

and like ambition that I think that we need so badly.

And so I was like, Let's fucking go.

Even when I see a movie that I don't like very much,

that's like just fuel.

Also having time to actually drive all the way there,

it's a huge investment of your time

and every time I do it, I feel like so lucky

and genuinely grateful that we're allowed to do that.

Like we're busy all the time and there's always something

more important to do and like you could always catch it

on an airplane or you could catch it

like, you know, before or after work

or something or maybe in a couple pieces.

And there are certain kind of poetic washes

that you wanna like, you know, sounds cheesy

but like sort of hold the proverbial hand

of all of us at once

and you just can't do that by yourself.

And so like every time I get to go to the movies,

I feel like, you know, we're lucky to be alive.

It's like stolen time

and it's usually one of the first places

you get to go as a kid unaccompanied

and you're like, Yeah, I'm just gonna be dropped off

at the movies and then picked up again.

You do get to kind of cultivate your taste

and go, Yeah, I mean, that's my favorite movie.

Like some kids got off on going

to see like Empire Records a ton of times

and that was because you got to like see your homies

also there being like, Yeah, this movie is tight.

I don't know, you get to like kind of like find your others.

It's Misfit-y stuff too.

It feels like you're kind of under the bleachers.

Everything that's already living here is so beautiful.

It just needs like to be taken care of.

I mean the place is falling down.

We definitely need like a lot of help, but it's worth it

because we can play music here,

we can have conversations here, we can do Q&As here.

We can have our professional engagements here

and then we can engage people who actually live here

and invite them into something

that doesn't feel so corporate.

Maybe we play like Felix the Cat on Saturdays.

In other words, what I'm saying is it would be nice

to take little corners

of what I think is like high art cinema culture

and normal audience members families.

There aren't such differences between us.

I think it'd be nice to have like a sort of community center

that not only has, you know, the movies

that are played in theaters nationwide and worldwide,

but also have programs that kind of ingratiate people

to cinema and kind of make it for everyone.

I mean, at this point,

it is sort of like we're conceiving of,

dreaming of and creating the breadth

of the endeavor kind of in a vacuum

until we find our partners

that can actually like really make this happen with us.

But like two theaters downstairs

and a big huge Grand Palace venue space upstairs

with 70 millimeter projection abilities.

Then there's also gonna be like public spaces

where you can hang out after

and let the movie wash over you.

We could do small scale theater even.

It's about getting people together

in order to like figure out

how they wanna express themselves

and giving them the space to do so.

I've been lucky enough to get to know the people

that run the downtown Women's Center.

Just the most compassionate, hardworking

and incredibly diligent, committed human beings,

helping women get on their feet

and find paths towards having sort

of dignified and sustainable lives.

And I can't wait for them to come work here,

hang here, host events here.

I do believe in the kind

of non-performative hustle that happens here.

It is the realest most snap back

kind of like prideful place to come from.

There's no way to have this conversation without leaning in

fully to the sort of darker aspects of it.

There are people that own this place,

that make this place live and survive

and float that don't feel safe walking down the street.

Like these are our people.

These are the people that we've all grown up with.

And I do think that we want

and deserve to want and want more.

And this is one way that I think that I'm gonna try

and, you know, maybe suggest that we take care of each other

and that we offer spaces to be super vocal

and not be afraid to say what you wanna say.

And I would like to set the stage for that to happen.

I also have never really felt like I lived

in like Hollywood, even though making movies

is paramount to the things that I value.

And it has been since I was a little kid.

Like my mom was a script supervisor.

My dad's an ED, my brothers are grips,

all my friends are outta work.

All we wanna do is make movies.

There just has to be some sort of way

around all of the big hard nos.

The reason I'm excited to be living in LA

and working in LA right now,

there's mad hope and people are so hungry.

When people are desperate,

they start doing desperate things.

And I think buying this theater feels a little desperate

in like the most beautiful way.

[upbeat music]