MOVIES

Milwaukee Film will close the Oriental Theatre in July to add restrooms, better projection

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When the operator of the Milwaukee Film Festival takes over the Oriental Theatre July 1, the first thing it will do is close the place.

It's not permanent.

As soon as it moves in, Milwaukee Film plans to carry out the first phase of its plan to update and upgrade the 91-year-old movie palace at 2230 N. Farwell Ave., including expanding restrooms on the first floor and improving sound and projection systems.

At the same time, the nonprofit organization is working through the process of getting the Oriental on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Milwaukee Film has "high hopes" for reopening the theater by early August, said Sara Meaney, Milwaukee Film's chief marketing officer.

The statue of a lion watches over the Oriental Theatre's lobby from the balcony.

Later phases of Milwaukee Film's plan for the Oriental include expanding the theater's concessions area in the lobby, improving seating in the balcony, adding a bar and concessions in the mezzanine level, and upgrading second-floor restrooms.

Milwaukee Film is working with Kubala Washatko Architects and Beyer Construction on the improvements on the building, which is owned by New Land Enterprises.

"We're taking huge care with how we're doing these renovations," said Jonathan Jackson, chief executive officer and artistic director of Milwaukee Film.

Fundraising is planned to finance the upgrades, Jackson and Meaney said.

Last summer, Milwaukee Film announced it was taking over the Oriental, which has been run by Landmark Theatres since 1976. At the time, the organization said it had a $10 million plan to revitalize the three-screen theater.

The new projection equipment in the first-phase renovations includes 70- and 35-millimeter projectors, giving the film festival operator "access to any (film) archive in the country," Jackson said.

After the 2018 Milwaukee Film Festival, which runs Oct. 18 to Nov. 1, Milwaukee Film plans to begin its programming transformation of the Oriental, Jackson said.

The "new" Oriental will show three times as many movies as were screening during Landmark's recent tenure, with more split-screen engagements. The objective, Jackson said, is to have the Oriental "return (to) a calendar house," with a mix of more international fare, classic movies and thematic programming — much like what the theater featured there when it was a single-screen venue in the 1970s and '80s.