Movies are coming back to downtown Burlington.
Partizanfilm, a grassroots, member-run nonprofit, plans to open a two-screen art-house cinema at 230 College Street this fall to offer first-run independent and foreign films seven days a week, along with occasional repertory fare. Vermont’s largest city has been without a commercial movie theater since Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas closed in November.
Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas in Burlington to Close
Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas in Burlington to Close
By Mary Ann Lickteig
Theater
“I really didn’t want to live in a city without a movie theater,” Partizanfilm president Brett Yates said on Monday as he offered Seven Days a tour of the 2,000-square-foot space his nonprofit bought. It has been vacant since the Restock Shop closed nearly two and half years ago. Forthcoming renovations will create two intimate screening rooms — one with 19 seats, the other with 31 — along with a café and a small used-book store in the lobby.
The cinema is designed to be a cultural center to “enhance the city’s political and intellectual life,” said Yates, a 37-year-old freelance writer and ski lift operator. Movies spark conversation and creativity, he said, adding, “My hope is that Partizanfilm will be a place where ideas are exchanged.”
Yates scooped popcorn and sold tickets at two art-house theaters when he was in his twenties. That, he believes, constitutes the only theater experience among the five founders, all of whom live in Burlington. The others are Yates’ wife, Michelle Sagalchik, 31, a Burlington High School social studies teacher; Antonio Golán, 47, a lecturer in communications at the University of Vermont; Gretchen Schissel, 29, a UVM curricular program specialist; and Ali Hamedani, 43, a physical therapist.
They began talking about starting a theater last summer when Merrill Jarvis III announced that his six-screen Roxy might close. That building is now for sale. Jarvis, whose family also owns Majestic 10 cinemas in Williston, said last summer that the terms of any sale would not allow a new owner to operate a movie theater.
Partizanfilm is just around the corner. Its founders understand that financial burdens brought on by the pandemic, the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, and the rise of at-home streaming have forced many movie theaters to close. They hope their concept will be more sustainable.
“I think the mini cinema model can offer a way to keep movies alive in the age of streaming,” Yates said.
Partizanfilm will operate as a consumer cooperative. Annual membership, on sale now, costs $60 and provides a discount on movie tickets. Nonmember ticket prices will range from $7.50 for a weekday matinee to $12 for an evening show. Members will be eligible to serve on the cinema’s board of directors and can weigh in on operations at the organization’s annual meeting.
“We want the theater to belong to the people of Burlington,” Yates said.
The new theater plans to show the same type of films that are already screening blocks away at Main Street Landing. The Vermont International Film Foundation increased its offerings there after the Roxy closed: It now presents films in its 34-seat Screening Room and the 120-seat Film House, though not daily. The foundation also presents two annual film festivals.
Executive director Steve MacQueen said he has shared resources with Yates, who, along with his wife, is a VTIFF member. “I’m really hoping we can work together and create a really dynamic cinema scene in Burlington,” MacQueen said.
Yates said he believes Burlington can accommodate both film presenters. “The world is full of interesting movies,” he said. “There are many more than Partizanfilm’s two screens will be able to fit.”