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written by
Will Sands
photos by Ben Eng
As the credits rolled
up the silver screen and people began to file out of the
theatre, a long-standing patron leaned over to Tom Bartels
and said, “Once again, I come in to the Abbey, and
I leave changed.”
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| Tom Bartels, owner
of the Abbey Theatre, raises a glass during an impromptu
screening of “Down From the Mountain.”
The film ran last week as one of several encore presentations
celebrating the Abbey's fifth anniversary. |
As of this Friday, Nov. 22, the Abbey
Theatre, Durango’s single-screen, independent cinema,
and its owner, Bartels, have been changing perceptions
in Durango for five years. And Bartels said he plans on
screening “off-beat niche films” and serving
up local microbrews for many years to come.
In the not-so-distant past, the Abbey
Theatre was a venue for Irish-themed dinner theater. In
fact, the College Avenue building was built to house a
restaurant called Katie O’Brian’s; an Irish-themed
pub named Clancy’s; and the Abbey, a name borrowed
from the renowned Dublin theatre.
When Bartels bought the Abbey Theatre
five years ago, dinner theatre had long been forgotten,
and the theatre was being used as a pool hall with extremely
high ceilings. At that time, he was fresh off several
years of recording the sights and sounds of the Four Corners
region. During that time, he shot 17,000 slides, recorded
sounds in the field and hired local musicians to produce
a digital soundtrack. The result became the multimedia
presentation called “Spirit of the Southwest,”
a show that still shows at the Abbey every day during
summer months.
 “Originally,
I wanted to open the Abbey for an environmental presentation
called ‘Spirit of the Southwest,’” says
Bartels. “That was going to be the mainstay and
the anchor that would run every day. It was entertainment
with a message.”
Inspiring good conversations
This desire to present entertainment
with a message quickly led the Abbey Theatre in new directions,
specifically the screening of impactful, independent films.
Bartels was quick to note that much of film amounts to
escapism, an opportunity to forget your life with the
help of a dark theatre and a bright screen. He added that
purely escapist films have their place, but not at the
Abbey.
“I wanted to start doing projects
here that were a little different, projects that had messages,”
he said. “Anything that inspires a really good conversation,
that’s what we like to show at the Abbey.”
And over the years, the Abbey Theatre
became more than a screen and started hosting lectures,
concerts, fund-raisers and community events. “I
designed it as a chameleon that would adapt to whatever
need was in town,” said Bartels.
Mentioning the Abbey as a venue for
the simulcast of the Snowdown Follies, the Durango Film
Festival and the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown, Bartels added,
“We moved into events that existed or were emerging
in the Durango landscape.”
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| Tom Bartels mans
the taps at the Abbey on Monday. |
Master of the black art
In spite of these events, Bartels
maintained that independent film is the theatre’s
lifeblood and reason for being. During the course of past
years, the Abbey has screened everything from Chinese,
Indian, European and Nepalese films that you’d be
lucky to catch in Greenwich Village and documentaries
on Shackleton’s fantastic Antarctic survival and
World War II’s Navajo code talkers to Hollywood
sleepers like “Memento” and “Requiem
for a Dream.” Selecting films that will get Durangoans
out of the house and into the theater has been the secret
and solution to the Abbey’s longevity.
“Choosing the films is a real
black art because you’ve got to know what the community
and the audience is feeling,” he said.
Once a film is selected, Bartels has
to try to track it down and persuade companies to send
their films to his small cinema in this relatively small
community. “You’ve got to be creative,”
he says. “I’m a tiny speck in the film market.
I do a lot of juggling to get film contracts.”
Last Monday, light was shed on the
selection process when an impromptu conversation ignited
between Bartels and Kathleen Costello, the theatre’s
manager. Bartels had mentioned an event that featured
singer and river activist Katie Lee and said that Lee
might be returning to Durango with a film called “Troubled
Waters.” Costello replied that she’d seen
the film and found it a “little flat.” Bartels
then responded, “A film about decommissioning dams
can’t be all bad.”
He then turned and remarked that this
was a little look into some of the behind the scenes at
the Abbey. “We’re constantly editing, reviewing,
critiquing, asking ourselves, ‘Is it good enough,
and should we have it?’” he says.
1 Giant Leap
One review and critique that recently
paid off hugely was the month-long screening of the film
“1 Giant Leap,” which traced the paths of
two filmmakers through the music, culture and spirituality
of 20 countries. The theatre was packed with people on
each of the nights, some of whom had seen the picture
eight times. On its final night, more than 100 people
poured into the Abbey to catch a final glimpse of the
long-running film. Bartels commented that during one showing
a patron took him aside and said, “That’s
the best $6 buzz in town.”
What was most unique about “1
Giant Leap” was that the Abbey was only the second
cinema in the country to screen the film, Bartels says.
“They had opened it at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood
and that was it.”
KSUT’s Stasia Lanier had heard
about “1 Giant Leap” and passed word onto
Bartels, who contacted Palm Pictures. “I made them
an offer to show it here as a test market,” he said.
Palm Pictures agreed and sent him a 2BD-hour unedited
copy. Bartels whittled it down in the editing room and
had the extremely successful month-long run. Based on
the Abbey’s numbers, Palm Pictures has decided to
release “1 Giant Leap” nationwide beginning
in February. In addition, the company has chosen to use
Bartels’ edit as a template for the national release.
“Usually, it works in the opposite
direction,” said Bartels. “It plays nationwide,
and we might get the leftovers. ‘1 Giant Leap’
showed that the model is bendable.”
Some of the greatest hits
Bartels said that other Abbey Theatre
highlights include a close-knit concert with Martin Sexton;
25 talents on stage for the climax of this year’s
Bluegrass Meltdown; screening “Endurance,”
the Shackleton documentary, a week and a half after it
opened in New York City; having several Navajo code talkers
on hand for a documentary on their contribution to World
War II; and watching and helping the Durango Film Festival
develop into an effort that Movie Maker magazine recently
called one of the “best of the newer fests.”
As the Durango Film Festival approaches
its third year, executive director Sofia van Surksum was
unabashed in her praise of and thanks to Bartels and the
Abbey Theatre. Last year, the Abbey showed 56 films for
the festival, and van Surksum said without the Abbey’s
support, the film festival would not be possible.
“There just isn’t any
place else we’d be able to show films if it weren’t
for the Abbey,” she said.
Van Surksum noted that the Abbey is
a “community asset” throughout the rest of
the year as well. “It’s incredible to have
an independent screen in Durango,” she said. “Not
only that, it’s great to have popcorn, a beer and
watch a film in that kind of setting. That kind of thing
is becoming rarer and rarer all over the country.”
The next five
With an eye to the past and the future,
van Surksum added, “Tom’s doing a great job
and I’d like to congratulate him on five years and
look forward to our partnership for many more years.”
Bartels said he also is looking forward
to many more years, especially with a growing consciousness
about independent film in Durango. “I think it will
just keep growing with the town supporting independent
film more and more,” he said. “The more people
who show up, the better films I can bring. So far it’s
been a great, mutually beneficial relationship.”
The Abbey Theatre also has made it
through five years without sacrificing the original ideals
of showing films with a meaning and message, according
to Bartels. “In a town this size, it’s pretty
rare to have a single-screen theatre that’s survived
on good, quality films and not by doing ‘Rugrats
No. 10,’” he said. “I think a lot of
that deals with the sophistication of the Durango audience.”
Whether it’s this week for Michael
Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” or later
in the month for the Inuit directed and produced film
“Fast Runner” or five years from now for the
eighth annual Durango Film Festival, Bartels will probably
be seeing you and serving you up a pint at Durango’s
independent cinema.
“People want a group of
people around them, they want a beer in their hands, and
they want to enjoy themselves,” he concludes. “This
is why films have withstood the challenge of 600 TV channels,
and it’s why they’ll be around for a long
time to come.”
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