The historic Parkway Theatre will embark upon its fifth life when the historic movie palace reopens to the public later this year as a multi-purpose event facility that will include a hefty dose of film screenings.
The announcement of a revitalized role for the 109-year-old theater comes just as the 25th Maryland Film Festival returns Thursday — the second piece of good news for cinephiles in less than a week. The Parkway has been shuttered since January 2023, when financial pressures caused the board of directors to suspend operations and lay off staff.
“When we paused the Maryland Film Festival last year, we said that we would bring the festival back in 2024,” said Scot Spencer, chairman of the Parkway’s board of directors. “We’re doing it. When we paused operations, we also said we would be back with a new way forward for the Parkway. We’re doing that, too.”
The public is invited to a May 28 meeting at 7 p.m. at the Parkway to learn more details of the theater’s new mission. But Spencer said that the theater could reopen this summer or fall as a venue for spoken word performances, jazz combos, college graduations and more.
The Parkway, founded in 1915 as a vaudeville hall, operates the film festival and has had more reincarnations that the mythical phoenix. It was closed at least four times for extended periods, starting in 1952. And each time, the terra cotta and beige brick structure has risen, if not out of the ashes, then out of cobwebs and debris and disappointed hopes.
“We have a vision,” Spencer said, “for a brighter future for the Parkway and the Maryland Film Festival.”
Spencer said the board decided against operating the Parkway exclusively as a movie theater because fewer people are visiting the cinema than they did before the pandemic. Last fall, the National Endowment for the Arts released a survey that found film attendance by U.S. adults dropped 15.5% in five years, from 58.6% in 2017 to 43.1% in 2022.
“We know that people’s viewing habits have changed for good,” Spencer said. “So what do we have to do to make sure that the anchor institution that is the Parkway can be open and busy for seven days a week from 9 am to 10 pm?”
Shortly after the Parkway went dark last winter, the board of directors hired Washington’s DeVos Institute of Arts Management to help it devise a plan to restore the organization to fiscal health. The board later convened an advisory committee of local artists, community members and business and educational leaders that met for nine months. All told, about 500 Maryland residents weighed in with their thoughts about the Parkway’s future.
But Spencer said the board thought it was essential to include film screenings as part of the new model.
“Yes, there has been a demographic shift in movie-going habits,” Spencer said. “But while we need to provide programming that meets the needs of the next generation, we cannot and should not wholesale abandon what was attractive to people in the first place.”
The organization’s first sign of new life is the 25th Maryland Film Festival, which was launched in 1999 and has been held every year except 2023. At its peak in 2018, the festival brought 12,000 visitors into the Station North neighborhood.
This year, the festival will operate for four days, from May 2-5, and will include 31 full-length feature films and 84 shorts. Roughly a third will be by Maryland filmmakers, according to KJ Mohr, the film festival’s director of programming.
She said the 2024 festival will put a renewed emphasis on movies made by filmmakers of color, women, LGBTQ artists, the transgender community and other historically marginalized populations.
“It’s really important to us that the audience can recognize themselves in what they see on the screen,” Mohr said.
Some highlights of the 25th festival, from the opening night documentary, “Luther: Never Too Much,” about the legendary soul and R&B singer Luther Vandross, as well as John Waters’ presentation of the 2019 Tyler Cornack film, “Butt Boy” have been previously announced. For a full listing of film screenings and events and to purchase tickets, visit mdfilmfest.com.
Below are some of the changes and additions film lovers can expect to find at the 25th festival:
- CineTech: For the first time in the festival’s history, audience members can experiment with the intersection of cinema and technology, which according to the program guide, “blurs the line between viewer and story.” Moviegoers can participate in immersive narratives, put on virtual reality headsets and play interactive video games on the Parkway’s second and third floor. “Gaming is a huger industry, bigger than music and film both,” Mohr said, “and some of the animation is really beautiful.”
- Family programming: Mohr is the mother of twins, so it was a priority for her to have offerings for moviegoers of all ages — including a free program of shorts Saturday morning and a free screening of the animated film “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds” on Sunday morning. In addition, a private event will be held for middle-school students on Friday with Maryland first lady Dawn Moore presenting the film “Robot Dreams.”
- “Squeegee”: This documentary explores the realities of growing up in Baltimore as it is experienced by four young people who squeegee to make a living and who shot some of the footage themselves. The 12:45 p.m. Sunday screening will be followed by a panel discussion about the ethics of working with minors that will include some of the young filmmakers.
- More after-parties: In addition to the traditional opening and closing night celebrations, attendees will have at least two other opportunities to party like a rock star. The world premiere of “More Than Hype,” a documentary celebrating the history of hip-hop and Baltimore club music, will be followed by a dance club party at The Garage. And the program of LGBTQ+ shorts and trans shorts on Saturday — co-curated by Lilly Wachowski of “The Matrix” trilogy — will wind up with a Pride Party at 10 p.m. at The Crown.
- Retro MDFF: The festival also will include a “retro” component that will bring back some of the most beloved films from the Parkway’s past, such as ‘The Hip-Hop Fellow” from 2014 about Grammy Award-winning producer Patrick Douthit’s stint at Harvard University, and “Divine Trash” from 1998, which features behind-the-scenes footage of the making of John Waters’ notorious “Pink Flamingoes.”
Fittingly, the festival will wrap with a slate of short movies by emerging filmmakers that anticipates the future of American cinema, the future of the Maryland Film Festival — and the future of the Parkway itself.
“As hard as it was to pause,” Spencer said, “we did it for a reason. We took a collective look at our business model and put together a plan that has something for everyone in the community.
“We are back, and we have a new way forward.”
For a full program of screenings and events and to purchase tickets, visit mdfilmfest.com.
