Regent Screening Shows What Could Be

Eric Richardson

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — As advertised, last night Old Bank DVD held a screening of "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" at the old Regent Theater on Main street. I didn't make the event itself thanks to our lengthy DLANC meeting, but stopped by afterward to see inside and check how it had gone.

It seems that the showing was a success. I didn't see the crowd for myself, but I was told that somewhere around 100 people turned up. Tom Gilmore was there and it's said he was quite excited with the chance to see the place with some energy in it and start to visualize what it'll be like once he gets the chance to put some work into the place.

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My first impression of the Regent is that it's an empty box. Everything's been stripped out. The floor's bare concrete. Everything else is white, at least partially the result of a quick whitewash to prepare for the event last night.

The thing that strikes me about theaters like the Regent and the Tower is how narrow the prosceniums are. They were built in a different time, when movie screens were much smaller and of a different proportion than they are today. The Regent will never hold even a Laemmle-sized screen, but it could have one far bigger than the TV in my living room. The stage is also certainly deep enough for concerts, and I'm sure that's where a lot of the active nights will come from.

I take a couple things away from last night: a) Old Bank needs to do more of these nights, whatever the content is. I'm all about a regular Downtown picture show. And b) the Regent has so much potential as a neighborhood space. Even in its largely untouched state it's very workable. What it would be with a little work is very cool to think about.