Like so many art-house pioneers — those perpetually optimistic souls who devote their lives to the restoration and preservation of institutions and cherish the notion that cinema should go beyond the big-budget sequel — Juliet Goodfriend said she never imagined that she would one day found and lead a film institute. In many ways, it was a mission that chose her.

Seven years ago, Ms. Goodfriend was sitting on the Board of Trustees at Bryn Mawr College, located just west of Philadelphia, when she began hearing rumors that the local downtown movie theater was about to be sold to a developer who wanted to turn it into a fitness center. She was immediately mortified by the prospect of losing this Bryn Mawr landmark, an old-time movie palace that served nearly 30,000 students and even more year-round residents as an anchor in the downtown business district.

“I was sitting there, hearing this, and I thought, ‘Well, another theater lost down the tubes, another disappointment and decrease in the quality of life,” Ms. Goodfriend said. “So I formed a nonprofit, went about fund-raising, and after five rounds of negotiations — they didn’t want to sell it to us — we were finally able to buy it.”

Those five negotiations, however, represent about five years of persistent fighting and fund-raising. To hear Ms. Goodfriend describe the half-decade battle she waged until early 2005, when one major donor finally provided the desperately needed $2 million collateral, it seems like nothing short of a miracle saved the venue. Facing challenges from the theater owners and the local government, which wanted to change the zoning rules of the lot, Ms. Goodfriend fell back on her business training and recruited area college presidents to attend the meetings of the local zoning committee, petitioning local officials to aid the group in their goal of purchasing and preserving the theater.

The resulting success was the birth of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, one of the newest art-house and educational film venues in the country, now about to enter its third year as one of the region’s most prominent film organizations. Its survival and growth since arriving at the brink of destruction in 2000, are not just a testament to the way a community can unite and save a floundering establishment, but also proof that nonprofits have risen to the challenge of filling the gap left by lagging or dying single-screen art-houses across the country.

“We’re not the only ones facing these challenges,” Pat Wesley, the Institute’s director of development, said. “The state of Pennsylvania is well aware that all these tiny towns that grew up over the last century each had at their heart a movie theater, and that with the changing times and changing economics, these 80- and 90-year-old movie palaces are suffering. Many of them are in need of tremendous amounts of work, and the base isn’t there to support them any more.”

In recognition of this erosion of so many old-time movie houses, Ms. Wesley said that Pennsylvania has instituted programs to offer financial aid to venues with historical importance, as well as to buildings that serve as anchors for small communities. Just as the Bryn Mawr Film Institute has successfully campaigned to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, so too has it successfully lobbied for public assistance in a multi-million dollar repair and renovation campaign.

By augmenting these public funds with private donations, the Institute has also reached out to its community, through everything from membership drives to the outsourcing of its educational faculty to local schools. In the past two years, as the programming has expanded to include specialized children’s events, live film courses for adults (three courses are scheduled to begin between September 4–10), special premieres, repertory screenings (Ken Burns’s new 14-hour documentary “The War” will screen on September 19), and first-run titles that compete with area multiplexes, the Institute’s membership has soared to 6,000 active members — more than twice the goal set forth when it opened in 2005.

But what’s even more impressive is the way that success has been leveraged into a five-phase, $9 million capital campaign, geared at expanding the current operation into an outfit that can survive in the 21st century. The first phase, already completed, involved the renovation of the venue’s first floor and an installation of a new marquee. Phase two will bring an elevator and repairs to the second floor, giving the Institute additional educational space. Phase three will involve the restoration of a massive, recently discovered skylight, essential to the venue’s architectural reputation, while phases four and five will entail adding another theater to give the Institute a means of closing down the two existing screens for renovations. Ms. Goodfriend and Ms. Wesley agreed that raising money for a venue that was nearly impossible to purchase and still requires nearly $10 million of repairs is a grueling, difficult process. But in today’s blockbuster era, when the only new theaters opening are the 10-to-20-screen, multi-million dollar multiplexes, Ms. Goodfriend said that the Bryn Mawr model — of operating while renovating, and fund-raising while programming — is the only viable strategy for today’s art houses.

“We could never have done this if we were a for-profit organization,” Ms. Goodfriend said. “You can’t raise the money you need to repair and expand the operation as needed. If you filled both theaters with 300 people every night of the year, you would still not have enough to restore the building. It could only be done with a non-profit model. You’ve got to be able to raise money through donations and grants and memberships and other fundraising devices.”

All of which points to a different kind of future for independent film houses. Unlike the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island, which has been able to grow its business and deepen its base of support over 30 years, or the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, which has enjoyed the luxury of big donors, the Bryn Mawr Film Institute is a modern twist to the classic art-house tale, of what’s required by these aging, small-screen venues in balancing a steady stream revenue with an ambitious bit of fundraising.

“And now I have people calling me, saying, ‘We have this old theater, can you help us figure out how to run it,'” Ms. Goodfriend said. “I think it’s very hard unless you have some angel who’s helping you to raise money, and a large amount of community support — not just from colleges, because I’m surprised how hard it is sometimes to get college kids out of their dorm rooms, but a community that is willing to be a partner in supporting something like this. It’s not something you find many places any more.”

Directions

THE BRYN MAWR FILM INSTITUTE
824 W. Lancaster Ave.
Bryn Mawr, Pa.

BY CAR: New Jersey Turnpike South turns into 276 West; after 24 miles take 476 South to exit 13 (US 30 / East Lancaster Ave.) Go east for 3 miles and you will arrive at the Institute.

BY TRAIN: Take New Jersey Transit from Penn Station to Trenton, N.J. Transfer to the connecting line that goes into Philadelphia. At 30th St. station, connect to the SEPTA line. Take R5 Paoli / Thorndale to the Bryn Mawr Train Station. The Film Institute is only a few blocks away.