Anyone who grew up in a small town and who was interested in movies that could be read about but not easily seen in the years before Netflix or IFC--there must still be one or two of us--will want to read Eric Konigsberg's touching salute to Rachel Jacobson, founder and proprietor of the Film Streams theater in Omaha, Nebraska, and then maybe shake her hand. (Actually, she might appreciate it more if you'd throw in a couple of bucks. Like Konigsberg, who remembers how tough it was for his "film-buff mother" to deal with the local entertainment options in a place where the movie theaters seldom played "anything that didn’t star Henry Fonda or Benji," Jacobson, 29, is a native Omahan, and "is anything but a snob about Omaha — she’s just a film snob." After graduating from the University of Illinois with a major in film studies, Jacobson lit out for New York City and spent five years takinga course in arts administration at NYU (where she had to write "mock press releases" for an imaginary retrospective of films by Alexander Payne) and working for nonprofit arts organizations--galleries, WNYC, theater organizations--all so that she could develop the savvy to return to Omaha and start a nonprofit movie theater. The idea of starting a movie theater in Omaha with an eye towards showing foreign and indie movies for profit was not something that she ever viewed as an option.
Read More...
