Heights Cinema Manager Discusses
Theater’s Past, Present and Future
By Beth C. Aplin
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – Henry Street’s Brooklyn Heights Cinema has drawn neighborhood cinemaphiles to its two-screen movie theater since the 1970s. With no long ticket lines, brief previews and a snack bar featuring good coffee and locally baked goods, the neighborhood movie house has rightfully earned an unusually devoted clientele.
There are tales of customers choosing to forgo their senior citizen discounts, or lining up to buy concessions even when they aren’t hungry. General Manager Amy Mascena recently recounted an incident that rarely occurs and, under normal circumstances, would be “every movie manager’s nightmare.” On a busy Saturday night, a bulb blew on the film projector, and she had to announce that the show was cancelled.
“One guy yelled at me, ‘That happens every time I come to this theater!’” she recalled. “The crowd turned on him and said, ‘You shut up and leave her alone! We love this theater.’ It turned into this big thing. They were all saying to me, ‘Don’t listen to him.’”
“People really support this theater,” continued Mascena, a visual artist who has managed theaters in Brooklyn for the past 10 years. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Yet even diamond-in-the-rough businesses must stay current or risk falling to the wayside, especially in brownstone Brooklyn. To this end, Mascena revealed to the Brooklyn Eagle that Screen Arts Corporation, the owner of Heights Cinema, is in the beginning stages of expanding the small, art movie-focused theater into Brooklyn’s own Angelika. Plans include building two additional theaters above the existing low-rise building, and renovating the basement — which is a former bakery — into a wine bar/restaurant. Owner Norman Adie has secured a lawyer and architect to work on the renovation plans, she said.
Of course, nothing can be set in stone (or concrete for that matter) in this neighborhood until the city’s Landmarks Preservation Committee approves the plan. It must also meet the 50-foot height limit of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. (Currently the property stands at one story plus a basement.)
Mascena said the additional screens would give the art cinema the ability to open films as soon as they are released. “I’ll get [the movie] two weeks later, which isn’t really a problem because my clientele will wait,” she explained. “But I would really like to get things on the nose, and having four screens means you can hold them longer, and the film companies like that.”
Screen Arts Corporation used to own three movie theaters in Brooklyn, including one in Park Slope and one on Flatbush Avenue. The group has since opened several cinemas in other parts of the Northeast. Here in the Heights, its last Brooklyn holding, Screen Arts has wanted to expand for quite some time, said Mascena.
“We want to take it up a little bit,” Mascena said of Heights Cinema. “It is fine like this, but it needs to change.”
Goal: An Art Film Haven
Just as Heights Cinema is not your average movie house, Mascena is not your average GM. On any given day, the 42-year old New Jersey native can be seen hanging flyers in the windows, running the projection during the day, taking orders at the snack bar or making deals with distributors. Both straightforward and charismatic, Mascena has made it her mission to turn Heights Cinema into an art film haven.
She got into the movie business “by accident,” and is now in the unique position of handling the theater’s daily affairs in addition to booking most of the films. (Most movie theaters hire a “booker” to wine and dine with film distributors; Mascena decides what films she wants to show and will either use Screen Arts’ booker or make the deal herself.)
Before Mascena took the reigns nearly three years ago, she said, Screen Arts didn’t pay a lot of attention to booking at Heights Cinema. Some of the big art films would come, but so would a blockbuster like the “Harry Potter” series. In addition, the same titles would appear week after week.
“I decided to give this a shot, and make it a true arts cinema with foreign film, French films and independent film. It takes a lot of research and work, but the neighborhood supports it, so it is really a pleasure for me,” she said.
“It was really a big dream for me to come over here and try to transform this little theater into something else.”
Nowadays, Heights residents are spoiled by a steady stream of fresh films, from big independent titles like “The Kite Runner” to Guy Maddin’s black-and-white spectacle “Brand Upon the Brain!”
Most mystifying of all, perhaps, is how this laid-back, beloved movie house manages to stay in business — with BAM and Cobble Hill Cinemas, there are other, bigger venues in the borough that screen independent film. Mascena credited her multi-tasking staff of three (the projectionist for example, can also fix the air conditioner as well make coffee) and the neighborhood clientele. But she stressed that is was never easy.
“How do we stay in business? Sometimes I don’t know, quite honestly. Sometimes it’s a wing and a prayer. Believe me, it’s always scraping by. I think that if Norman Adie, the owner, didn’t have other things going so he could pour money in here sometimes, we wouldn’t be here.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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