UC Theatre’s closing leaves Jewish Film Festival in limbo

Shortly after the closing credits of the last show at Berkeley's UC Theatre on March 29 -- the typically esoteric 1969 flick "De Sade" -- moving crews had already packed up the art house's vintage posters, lighting fixtures and the projection equipment, leaving behind 1,300 creaky seats and 25 years worth of accumulated chewing gum and movie memories.

Also almost definitely taken away was the longtime East Bay home of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which has hosted sold-out shows at the mammoth theater since the mid-1980s.

"We're exploring all of our possibilities, which includes not doing it [in the East Bay] at all," said Janis Plotkin, executive director of the festival, which is scheduled to show films in the East Bay from July 28 to Aug. 2. "If we can't find a suitable venue and cannot afford what's available, we may have to reconsider. But we are trying very hard to find an alternative site."

Plotkin's deadline to find another venue is imminent. The festival's schedule will soon be set in stone, going to the graphics designer in less than a month.

And while alternative sites do exist, there is simply no movie house that even remotely approaches the seating capacity of the UC, a throwback theater hearkening back to the days of art deco, single-screen cinemas.

In the early 1980s, before the film festival acquired the huge following that warranted its move to the sizable UC, the festival's East Bay showings were in Wheeler Auditorium on the U.C. Berkeley campus. A grandiose, marble building featuring a main lecture hall equipped with a wide screen, Wheeler seats 760.

That's still far less than the UC.

"In anywhere from three to five shows at the festival, more than 10,000 people attended," said Plotkin of film fests past. "No matter what happens this summer, people have to be prepared to be in smaller theaters, and plan accordingly."

In addition to Wheeler Hall, the film festival used to hold showings in Gilman Street's Rialto Theatre, which has since been torn down. Plotkin hopes the festival may land in Wheeler or U.C. Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, whose screening rooms seat a scant 320.

In addition to handling thousands of moviegoers in a one-week period, any replacement home for the festival will also need to accommodate its old-fashioned technology.

The festival shows both 16 and 35 millimeter films and, unlike most modern theaters -- which weave all of a film's reels onto a large "platter," to be fed through an automated camera system -- the Jewish Film Festival still switches manually between reels. Alternating reels is impossible in most modern theaters.

On a more basic level, few area theaters would want to interrupt their regular programming to house a weeklong film festival.

"If we worked with a commercial theater that booked Hollywood films, we'd have to make some kind of deal so they won't lose their arrangement," explained Plotkin. "If, say, 'Gladiator' was released in the middle of July, it's unlikely they'd want to pull 'Gladiator' for a week of the Jewish Film Festival. It's better for the film festival to be in a repertory house that's on a calendar."

The UC was just such a venue and Gary Meyer takes its closing personally. He co-founded the Landmark art house chain when he opened up the UC on April Fool's Day 1976. Although he's no longer associated with Landmark and currently owns and operates San Francisco's Balboa Theatre, he still feels attached to the UC and is sorry to see it go.

Searching for a silver lining, he pointed out it may be something of a blessing in disguise for the Jewish Film Festival.

"Maybe it'll be good for the festival. For the shows that draw only 200 or 300, people may be more comfortable in a smaller theater. And for the others, some shows just may need to have two screenings," said Meyer, a former board member and current adviser to the Jewish Film Festival. "I try to look on the positive side of things."

And while the UC Theatre's doors may be shut for now, Meyer hopes the story may yet have a happy ending.

"The theater has been deteriorating for years, and no one was willing to do what was necessary because it was a big, single-screen theatre that, with the exception of the Jewish Film Festival and a few other events, rarely filled up the place," he said. "I have a vision of an art theater, and not just films and film festivals but performances, the Berkeley Symphony, operas and lectures. It's on the edge of the arts district and downtown Berkeley is really coming back -- things are really happening. There's a lot of opportunity there."