Missoula group, The International Wildlife Media Center and Film Festival makes plea for donors to save Roxy Theater

The International Wildlife Media Center and Film Festival http://www.wildlifefilms.org/ may inhabit Missoula’s Roxy Theater, but the historic movie house is not yet their own.

In a plea to would-be donors, film festival executive director Janet Rose said the ”Save the Roxy” campaign is $140,000 short of the $400,000 needed to meet an end-of-June bank deadline.

By SHERRY DEVLIN – The Missoulian

http://helenair.com/articles/2004/01/20/montana/a09012004_02.txt

”We are not a money-maker,” Rose said Monday. ”We don’t generate big revenue. We need the public’s support to pay off the Roxy.”

Audiences can number 20 people on a Friday night, and no one is turned away – even if they don’t have the $4 admission, she said. ”So we’re really just bumping along.”

But the media center’s yearly film festival draws thousands of wildlife filmmakers and aficionados, and its educational programs serve thousands more school children, so the work is important, Rose said.

And the Roxy is central to that work.

The Wildlife Media Center contracted to buy the Roxy 18 months ago and moved into the Higgins Avenue theater shortly thereafter.

Since then, the group has opened the Roxy’s three theaters to the community for wildlife films every weekend, and also for workshops on filmmaking, a lending library for teachers and adults, and for lectures and performances by outside groups.

Recently, Rose said she realized that by moving into the Roxy before its funding was secure, the film festival probably gave some members of the public a false impression – namely, that the habitat was secure.

It is not, she said Monday. ”Probably a lot of people think we got the building and don’t need their help anymore. But we don’t have the building and we do need everyone’s help.”

By June 30, the group must raise the final $140,000 needed to pay off a bridge loan at First Security Bank.

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The International Wildlife Media Center and Film Festival

718 S. Higgins (the Roxy Theater)

Missoula, Montana 59801

office hours

9am -4pm, every weekday (except holidays)

Tel: 406.728.9380

Fax: 406.728.2881

email

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And while the 27th annual International Wildlife Film Festival (planned for May 1-8) http://www.wildlifefilms.org/ will certainly help raise part of that money, it will not be enough, Rose said.

The bulk, she said, will have to come from individuals – film festival supporters, schoolchildren, community groups, anyone who wants to preserve both the Roxy and the wildlife film festival.

Already, one wall in the Roxy’s lobby is covered with hand-painted tiles recognizing all of the $50-plus donors to date. Another wall is filling up fast.

”But we need to cover the entire lobby,” Rose said. ”So we need to go out and publicize the need and what it’s for and why it’s important.”

Over the past 18 months, the bulk of the funds raised for the Roxy’s purchase have been small-dollar donations: $100 from an elementary-school class, $1,000 from a patron of the arts, $250 from a family that enjoys wildlife films.

Now, Rose said, she hopes to tap into several segments of the community that haven’t yet donated significant amounts: the medical community, legal community, downtown businesses.

”There’s no doubt we are becoming a fixture downtown,” she said. ”And we’re becoming a major resource for schools and children.”

It’ll never be easy to make ends meet, Rose said. But it’ll at least be possible if the group can raise $140,000 by June.

”If we have a small mortgage, it is certainly manageable,” she said. ”If we get this last $140,000, we’re home free.”

Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at [email protected].