Community Members Eye Theater as Cinema Center

Over two years ago, the Sag Harbor Cinema was placed on the market for $12 million by longtime owner Gerry Mallow. Ever since, a group of community members have been working together to maintain the cultural icon, with hopes of preserving the independent art-house theatre for generations to come.

Led by film producer Andrew Fierberg, screenwriter and film curator Giulia D'agnolo Vallan, as well as year-round North Haven resident and artist April Gornik, the committee recently received funding from Save Sag Harbor to develop a plan for the future of the Sag Harbor Cinema, which remains on the market.

According to Fierberg and Vallan, both who have homes in the Hamptons, the concept involves creating a committee to fundraise for a lease of the cinema, which would be renovated to include a smaller screening room. Film related and educational programming would be developed in that smaller theater in a year-round capacity, while the large theater would continue to host cutting edge independent films and documentaries not often found at neighboring movie houses in East Hampton and Southampton.

“Ideally, we have a community full of artists and would like to engage their talent in the cinema as well,” said Vallan, who most recently lent her talents toward selecting American films to screen at the Venice Film Festival.

Vallan envisions the smaller theater hosting film series, using state-of-the-art equipment in order to screen delicate, historic archival films and eventually envisions the cinema as taking a greater cultural role than it already has.

Fierberg said the initiative began after Mallow placed the cinema on the market, and fans of the theater began to panic at the idea of losing the artistic resource.

Fierberg, a film producer whose credits include the cult favorite “Secretary,” as well as a host of other projects including “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus” starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr. and “Never Forever” starring Vera Farmiga, is on the board of the Film Forum, New York City’s leading movie house for independent movies and currently serves on that theater’s finance committee.

“Gerry has done a really great job keeping the cinema out of the multiplex formula,” said Fierberg, noting he felt that changing the theater into a movie house that hosts mainstream films would not be right for the cinema, or the community.

For two years now, the group has worked with architects to come up with a feasible renovation of the building committed to the art-house movie theatre concept. Splitting the space into two screens may help it become more profitable, Fierberg said, and enable its survival as a not-for-profit cinema.

The smaller screening room would be carved out of the back of the existing theater.

Fierberg said the organization would eventually approach Mallow with a serious offer for a long-term lease. In order to accomplish their goal, the group will need to raise between $3 and $5 million to cover operational costs and the cost of renovating the cinema.

Fierberg has met with Mallow and said he was interested in the idea.

“I met him in New York and told him, ‘I don’t know if we are going to be able to find a way to do this, but we will try and it might be three or six months, but when I come back to you it will be with a serious proposal,’” said Fierberg. “The important thing to me is to find a solution. I have a full career and being a theater owner is not what I want to do; but I think we have a successful proposal in front of us.”

In the meantime, Fierberg said the goal is to create a committee of residents, industry-related individuals and people with a background in finance, create a board of directors interested in the not-for-profit and then begin raising funds for the project.

Fierberg said the intention of the group is not to be secretive in its plans, and he hopes the community at large will become involved.

“Gerry has shown films there for many, many years and the good thing is in Sag Harbor there is already a built in audience drawn to a cinema that does not just show mainstream films,” said Vallan.

“Every single person that has been talking about this feels there is a need to truly acknowledge what Gerry has done for this community and keeping this cinema going is a tribute to that work,” said Gornik. “Not only is it iconic, but it represents the cultural impact Sag Harbor has on the Hamptons, offering consistent, profound entertainment to the public and that is something we here value deeply because we are a cultural community.”