Movie-buff couple Sean Hoessli and Lindie Kuzmich moved from Montreal to midcoast Maine to make sure Brunswick’s 45-year-old single-screen cinema stays in business.
The Eveningstar Cinema, located on Maine Street in downtown Brunswick, first opened in 1979. It has changed ownership a few times since, and now, Hoessli and Kuzmich have big plans for it.
They’re part of a new class of owners who are working to revive or maintain a handful of independent theaters that are located across the midcoast, as well as the rest of Maine. In another case, the Colonial Theatre in Belfast reopened just over a year ago, after the more-than-century old institution closed in 2022. It took a new nonprofit organization to reopen that one’s doors.
Movie theater attendance, and therefore profits, has been declining in recent years due to several factors — most notably the COVID-19 pandemic. With the increase in streaming services, people are now more comfortable watching movies from home. Another, older challenge for the small cinemas is that they must compete with big national multiplex chains that have moved into some bigger service center communities and can show a wider variety of films on any given day or weekend.
The solution, according to some new and more established independent theater operators, is to make their venues a place for more than just watching movies.
Anna Frangiosa, the box office manager of the Strand in Rockland, recently said that the theater holds special events to bring the community in, such as a recent live storytelling event that accompanied the screening of horror movies on Halloween.
The Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro has also expanded the range of programming that it offers since a major renovation was completed in 2021.
Kyle Walton, the director of the Colonial Theatre, said that it’s been focusing on becoming a “third space” — or a gathering spot where people can watch movies, comedy, shows, book readings and more.
“We are all very fatigued from the nights where we’ve gone home, planned to watch something entertaining and ended up spending tons of time on the [streaming service] tiles,” Walton said. “The more creative, and frankly, the more risks that [independent theatres] take with what they put on stage and on screen often is as much, if not more, fiscally and culturally rewarding.”
Hoessli and Kuzmich agree, and are hoping to make the Eveningstar Cinema into a similar kind of gathering place. They’re planning on adding a stage, hosting more family events and even showing educational films. For the latter, they hope to bring in guests to talk through the issues raised in those films. They also hope to begin showing Maine films and selling Maine products.
“We’re going to do some trial and error stuff to see what’s going to stick,” Kuzmich said.
The new owners aren’t new to the film scene.
In fact, the duo met on a film set in 1993 and have worked on Hollywood movies as producers, directors and even on-set medics. Hoessli himself appears in the visual effects credits for “The Suicide Squad,” “Sin City,” “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl” and “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.” Kuzmich also has helped on some films, though in California, she focused more on nursing.
After living in Montreal for four years while Hoessli worked on blockbuster films, they decided to move to Brunswick after falling in love with the town, the state and the little theater they now own.
“We want our audience to grow with us,” Hoessli said.
