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Speakeasy gets projectors rolling

LESLIE BREFELDsummit daily news

BRECKENRIDGE – Summit County’s independent movie theater, The Speakeasy, opens for its summer season Friday with the film “Thank You For Smoking.”Owners Mike Anderson and Guy Natanel handpick the films shown at their location in the CMC building in Breckenridge; they also make the popcorn, run the projector and personally say goodbye to attendants as they leave.The theater invokes the artistic event a film can be with an art gallery showing local artists’ work in the lounge, and informal (and sometimes formal) discussions erupting after the films.They recently added a lounge in the gallery with coffee tables and chairs, allowing movie-goers to arrive early and stay a little later in the atmosphere.Anderson said there are quite a few people who come down to the theater just to discuss movies with the Speakeasy owners.”Some people don’t even read the reviews. They just come every Thursday,” he said. And with the advent of NetFlix, which mails out DVDs to its subscribers in a cycle of return and delivery, some supporters of the moviehouse are pushing for more interaction after the show, he said.Anderson explained why he got into the movie-showing business.”The majority of what Hollywood puts out is crap. Find an independent film not one person has heard of and people will thank you for it. It draws you to find those movies,” he said. He doesn’t, however, exclude the big market films altogether. “Not every movie you want to walk out of crying or depressed, like with a lot of independent films,” he said. After watching “Oceans Eleven,” he said he chose to show the film because it was “cute, snappy and entertaining.”The Speakeasy has recently seen Dillon’s Skyline Cinema play more independent films. He said he noticed last year Skyline had all but three of the Speakeasy’s titles, while in years past more than half were exclusive to his theater. “For a year or two we were worried,” he said. But the sentiment didn’t last long. “It doesn’t seem to hurt us at all. I think it kind of helps. It’s a little more advertising and it gets the name out there.”The Speakeasy Art Gallery will feature the work of longtime local photographer Bob Winsett and his photo essay, “Crossroads.” The powerful piece shows memorial roadside crosses from within the county – and also from across the country – and will stay up through the month of June.The summer lineup at the Speakeasy lends itself to the multitude of families and seniors in town, Anderson said. There will be special showtimes for the showing of Pixar’s “Cars” on the cusp of June and July.The Speakeasy’s regular show hours are 6 and 8:45 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 3, 6 and 8:45 p.m. Sunday.Speakeasy’s upcoming films• June 9-15, “Thank You For Smoking”• June 16-22, “The Proposition”• June 23-29, “Akeelah and the Bee”• June 30 through July 6, “Cars” and “An Inconvenient Truth” (with special showtimes) • July 7-13, “An Inconvenient Truth”Leslie Brefeld can be reached at (970) 668-4626 or lbrefeld@summitdaily.com.


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