Story and photo by Lisa Trapasso
When Ron Kopp was a kid in Madison, Wisconsin in 1964, an event took
place that would shape the course of his life.
He saw the Walt Disney film Mary Poppins on the big screen.
By the third grade, his taste in movies had changed slightly. He snuck
off to the movies to see Bonnie and Clyde, the romanticized
account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple.
"The experience of seeing the film was definitely a formative
influence on my taste," Kopp recalled.
Today, the boyish-looking Kopp is an adjunct professor, teaching film
studies at the City College of New York's Center for Worker Education
and Marymount Manhattan College and writes a weekly column prescribing
movie medicine called Dr. Video which appears in North
County News. He is also the film program manager at Peekskill's
Paramount Center for the Arts, deciding each week what will be shown
on the movie palace's big screen.
Kopp recently came full circle in a sense. A few weeks ago he brought
a free screening of the film he loved as a child, Mary Poppins, to
downtown Peekskill.
Kopp sat down for an interview with North County News at
the Paramount on a recent Friday night just before the screening of
Cache, a French film by controversial writer/director Michael
Haneke about a bourgeois Parisian family living under surveillance.
Kopp, who does everything for movie nights from writing the promotional
material to sweeping up popcorn talked about his job, how he goes
about deciding what films will appear and the big plans sure to affect
the Paramount's big screen.
Kopp is a graduate of Lawrence University in Wisconsin where he ran
film societies. He went on to film school at Columbia University in
Manhattan, where he still lives today.
Now entering his second year with the Paramount, Kopp shared his vision.
"I see our mission as bringing films into the community that
otherwise wouldn't get played here for the most part."
He said the Paramount, which was originally built as a 1,025-seat
movie palace by Publix Pictures and first opened its doors to the
public in 1930, now shows mostly independent, foreign and classic
films. He said although he likes to stick with those genres, occasionally
the Paramount will screen crossover films like the recent releases
Capote and March of the Penguins.
Booking the films shown weekly in three to four day runs is a process.
A committee meets and gives Kopp their suggestions on what should
be shown.
"We decide on films and what would be best for the Paramount,"
Kopp explained.
Kopp said that because of the limited number of times the Paramount
actually shows a film, it makes it difficult to book newer films from
distributors. He explained that, like other movie theaters, the Paramount
pays the distributor a percentage of their box office revenue for
the rental of a film.
To get the films Kopp wants, he said he sends distributors a guarantee
up front, which can be anything from $150 to $400.
"Normally I pretty much know what's out there and what's available,"
Kopp explained. "I track down what company has what film."
The movies Kopp chooses will often determine the turnout.
"Typically we're happy on a weekend if we get 150 people which
is a nice crowd for us," he said.
"A lot of our films now are drawing over 300 a run which is certainly
better than we were doing a year ago," he continued. "I
think we're averaging about 100 more for every run."
Kopp recalled some of his personal favorites that appeared on the
Paramount's big screen in the past year including Head-On,
a German film about two suicidal Turkish immigrants who fall in love
and The Best of Youth, a six-hour Italian movie about a pair
of Italian brothers that spans 40 years of their lives.
"It's an amazing movie," he said excitedly. "It has
the depth and breadth of a novel."
Kopp is also enthusiastic about a new addition to the Paramount's
movie theater.
"We are very excited because we just got a digital projector
so we'll be able to take a DVD and show it on our screen," he
said.
Having lived and worked in movie circles for so long has many advantages.
Kopp has made a number of friends along the way who have made guest
appearances at the Paramount to screen their films and do Q&A
sessions.
Actor/director Campbell Scott, a college friend of Kopp's from Lawrence
University visited the Paramount to screen his film Off the Map
as has another pal, actor/director Lodge Kerrigan to promote his movie
Keane.
"It's fun to have my friends come up to do Q&As," Kopp
said. "I think people get very excited about meeting filmmakers."
He said he wants to "expand on bringing more actors and directors
to the Paramount."
Kopp also runs a discussion series every Sunday after the featured
film.
"I think it's really great for the community especially if we
show a controversial film."
In January, he said, the theater screened Private, a drama
about a Palestinian family's home, located halfway between a Palestinian
village and an Israeli settlement, which has been occupied by the
Israeli army.
"We had people who were very strongly pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian
and (the conversation) got heated," Kopp said.
He recalled that after the intense discussion, people who had been
adversaries actually exchanged phone numbers.
"I think we had done something that was really essential for
the community."
Kopp is looking forward to not only expanding on programs already
in place, but instituting new ones.
"Sort of a pet project of mine is to teach a film class here
through the Paramount," he said.
He invites anyone who has not yet seen a film at the Paramount to
come by and experience the magic that he has made his life's work.
Admission is $7 on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and $9 on Friday
and Saturday.
"Film helps us to find who we are," he said. "It's
a cheap form of travel and I think what film does with a unique kind
of power, it allows us to experience what it's like to be another
person. It takes us out of ourselves."
The Paramount's next film is Director Stephen Frears' Mrs. Henderson
Presents, the true story of London's infamous Windmill Theater. Judi
Dench plays the society widow who purchases the venue and turns it
into a Paris-style revue. It will be shown April 5 & 6 at 8 p.m.
and April 9 at 3 p.m. For more information call (914) 739-2333 or
visit www.paramountcenter.org.
