The Roxy Theater sees historic restoration

The Roxy Theater, located in downtown Missoula and home of Montana Film Festival, has undergone a historic restoration this summer. On August 9th, a new marquee was installed, complete with Art Deco period accurate neon.

The restoration project will mark its completion with an 80th birthday party for the theater on September 24th, just before the 3rd annual Montana Film Festival.

Read more from the Missoulian here and be sure to check out the new facade at MTFF, October 5th – 8th at The Roxy Theater.

Montana Film Festival Presents: Desert Hearts (1986)

Year round at The Roxy Theater, Montana Film Festival now presents a new release in independent cinema each month, one night only.

This month, Montana Film Festival brings a new reissue of the 1986 film Desert Hearts, the film from Donna Deitch that became a landmark in queer cinema and the depiction of women in romantic relationships on the silver screen.

“In the 1959-set film, an adaptation of a beloved novel by Jane Rule, straitlaced East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) arrives in Reno to file for divorce, but winds up catching the eye of someone new, the younger free spirit Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), touching off a slow seduction that unfolds against the breathtaking desert landscape.” (Slate)

Desert Hearts came at the start of cinematographer Robert Elswit’s career, who would go on to gorgeously capture some of the great films of the late 20th and early 21st century, most notably all of the films to date from Paul Thomas Anderson. The picture will be from a print newly restored by The Criterion Collection and projected in crisp DCP format.

Montana Film Fest Presents: Raw (2017)

Year round at The Roxy Theater, Montana Film Festival now presents a new release in independent cinema each month, one night only This month brings a controversial yet beautiful new horror film, Raw. June 16th at 9 pm, The Roxy Theater. 

“If you can see past the rain of blood, Raw is a gorgeously moving film” – The New Republic

Julia Ducournau’s feature debut has quickly become one of the more polarizing films of the year, in and outside of the horror genre. After a win at Cannes in 2016, Raw went on to Toronto where members of the audience reportedly fainted or fell ill during the screening. The film follows a young vegetarian woman who has just started vet school when, during a hazing ritual, she is forced to eat meat. This encounter plummets her down a ravenous spell of meat consumption, ultimately leading to a cannibal nightmare.

Raw has been lauded as an brilliant art house horror in-line with Suspiria. The AV Club praised the film, particular its fresh voice: “The strongest of the female-led films I’ve screened so far at the festival is Raw, Julia Ducournau’s beautifully realized, symbolically rich, and disturbingly erotic meditation on primal hungers of all kinds.

Catch the trailer for Raw here, and be sure to come out to the screening at The Roxy Theater on June 16th.

Buy tickets online here

‘Cultural treasure’: Governor announces new facade renovation funding for Roxy Theater

Calling the little Roxy Theater on Missoula’s Hip Strip a cultural icon of statewide importance, Gov. Steve Bullock announced a $167,605 award  in tourism infrastructure and community development grant block money to fund the restoration of the historic movie theater.

“We’re here to celebrate a great partnership of public and private resources united by that common goal to restore, enhance and preserve one of Missoula’s – and indeed one of Montana’s – great treasures,” Bullock said. “The Roxy really does represent more than just what you all think of as your community theater. It’s sort of that intersection of art, culture and history – all important parts of our entire state’s identity.”

via Missoulian

2017 Montana Film Festival Dates Announced