The CineVegas series starts with a trial run of four weeks, and other films scheduled for release during this period include Jan Svankmajer's Lunacy and Come Early Morning, starring Ashley Judd, on January 19; Terry Gilliam's Tideland on January 26; and the acclaimed indie drama Old Joy on February 2. Both Plante and Tropicana Cinemas owner Rod Fox hope to see the series continue beyond that point. "Whatever direction the demand grows, we want to be able to fulfill that for the community," says Fox. Although the Village Square (owned by Regal Cinemas) and Suncoast (owned by Cinemark, which recently acquired previous owner Century Theaters) theaters regularly book independent and arthouse fare, both are located across town from the Tropicana, on the west side, within blocks of each other. Plante doesn't see any overlap between what he's planning to show and the kind of films that the two west-side theaters have been booking for years. "I think if it is, maybe one film a year," he says. "We're not in business to compete."
Indeed, the films that Plante has booked so far are ones that distributors initially passed on offering to other local theaters, and it's been at times an uphill battle to convince them to bring these films to Las Vegas. "No distributors have told me out and out what they think of Vegas, other than art films haven't been successful there," Plante says. "No distributor will tell me why."
Denise Gurin, the senior vice president of alternative film for Regal, agrees that Vegas is a tough market. "Las Vegas so far, unfortunately, the market hasn't really shown that it can handle more than one or two runs of the smaller pictures," she says. She's also skeptical about the viability of an east-side venue for independent film. "We have had a lot of comment cards from people who live out in the Henderson area where we have the Colonnade and the Green Valley Ranch asking for the product out there, but then we play it and we don't really get much of a response," she says. "So I'm not certain how the east side's going to do."
Plante is nothing but optimistic, and he and his CineVegas cohorts are willing to put in more of a grass-roots effort to promote their films than would come from large corporations like Regal and Cinemark. "In order to be successful with these types of films, or with any sort of different type of entertainment in Vegas, you just have to be comfortable with educating the people who own the entertainment," he says. "We can go that extra mile of making fliers, of going to First Friday, of getting a screener to not just the critics of the weeklies, but also [UNLV's] Rebel Yell. Or also, like if we have a gay film, QVegas. I think it's a certain amount of manpower and dedication, and since we only have to worry about one city, we're able to do it."
CineVegas also hope to bring in filmmakers for question-and-answer sessions with their films, as they're doing with Goldthwait, who will be at two screenings of Sleeping Dogs Lie, at 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. on January 12. "We're in good shape with these types of films, because the director is usually still behind it months after it's been released," Plante says. He's already looking to future bookings, mentioning the documentary Iraq in Fragments as a strong possibility, as well as reissues from Rialto Pictures, who've got a new print of Jean-Luc Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her that Plante has his eye on. And he still hopes to bring films to the Brenden Theatres inside the Palms, host to the festival itself, where a CineVegas-sponsored run of John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus met with success back in November.
It's not only CineVegas that's pushing for new avenues for alternative film in Vegas. The Tropicana is also implementing its own series of classic film showings, starting January 12. Exact titles were still being finalized at press time, but owner Fox mentions the Indiana Jones series, Casablanca and films from the 1970s, including Chinatown, as possibilities. While the CineVegas showings are $8 for general admission and $6 for students and seniors, only slightly lower than admission to other theaters around town, the classics series will carry admission prices of either $2.50 or $3, about what Tropicana charges for its current slate of second-run mainstream films.
There's also the relatively new Onyx Theater, inside Downtown clothing store The Rack in Commercial Center, a 96-seat one-screen theater that opened in September and in October was host to NeonFest, the gay and lesbian film festival that in previous years had run at the theaters inside Neonopolis. Theater manager Allen Welborn says that in addition to monthly screenings of highlights from NeonFest and showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (with live cast performances from troupe Divine Decadence), he hopes to bring in film series focusing on cult figures like John Waters and Bettie Page. Right now, Welborn is searching for a licensing agent whose fees aren't cost-prohibitive, and the venue is filling most of its nights with live theatrical productions.
As always, alternative film in Vegas faces an uncertain future, but it's never without its champions. "I think these are the types of films that if somebody wants to see it, they're going to go see it," Plante says of the CineVegas series. And despite her skepticism, Regal's Gurin wishes Plante and his associates the best. "The more people that know and see this kind of product, the better," she says. "It makes it better for everybody." Plante puts it simply: "We feel the audience is there, and I would love to see them in the seats."
*CineVegas is owned by the same people who own the Weekly. We're doing the story anyway.