The Chattanooga Film Festival, which for much of last year was temporarily housed in the former Grocery Bar space on West Main Street, plans to open a permanent location for its art house theater this summer.
In addition to showing independent films on a regular basis, the group organizes the annual Chattanooga Film Festival, set for April 6-9, 2017.
Cine-Rama, as the Main Street location was known, has been closed for several weeks, but film festival director and founder Chris Dortch said it proved Chattanoogans will support such a venue. The location for the new Palace Picture House will be announced in the spring and it should be opened by the summer, he said in a news release.
"The opening of the Palace feels like the next logical step in what has been a seven-plus-year journey to making Chattanooga a safer place for cinema," he said.
"Since the very first days of [Mis En Scenesters] film club this has been our dream, and now we finally have the team in place to make it a permanent reality. I'd ask someone to pinch me, but if this is all some magical hallucination I think I'd like to stay in the dream a bit longer."
Dortch's organization is working with Lamp Post Properties to provide a temporary theater space in the Tomorrow Building to help "keep the momentum going" and to provide a space for fans to watch independent films not shown in larger chain theaters. Also, film festival headquarters will be located within the Tomorrow Building on Patten Parkway long term, he said.
In making the announcement, Dortch also said long-time film festival/Cine-Rama collaborator and Chattanooga Girls Rock organizer Rose Cox will become a full partner in the art house venture. Her organization had also used the Cine-Rama space for events.
The new theater will also be home to Swine, the pop-up art gallery that was located within the space on Main Street. It will reinvent itself with the name Err Space. The gallery "will aim to challenge conventional exhibition methods, allowing for experimentation and creating a safe space to fail [Err], grow, and for rethinking what art is and how it can be displayed," according to the release.
Dortch said he hopes that with a permanent space, partnerships with other organizations in the Chattanooga area, such as Chattanooga Girls Rock who held their first camp in Cine-Rama over the summer, will continue to grow and lead the way for more than just film screenings, Dortch said.
Contact staff writer Barry Courter at bcourter@times freepress.com or 423-757-6354.