- Yeah, we're here outside the Independent Picture House, a new movie theater in an old industrial area just off of Sugar Creek Road, the Independent, bringing the neighborhood a little Hollywood, you know, lights... (upbeat music) (audience cheering) Camera... - [Producer] Showtime!

- [Jeff] Action... (guns shooting) - We got company!

- [Jeff] These are movie clips from the summer of 1984.

Modern classics all back on the big screen again, four decades later here at the Independent, along with cutting edge new films that you won't see at other theaters.

- The discoveries come thick and fast here.

They're not just throwing stuff up, going, "Hope you like it."

- [Jeff] And Lawrence Toppman, the arts critic for the Charlotte Ledger, says after two years now of coming to IPH for films that he calls hard to find and good to see, growing audiences are also discovering a similar mix of old and new that's growing up around the theater.

- Well, and it's sort of like what happened with NoDa maybe 30 years ago.

There are hundreds and hundreds of apartments going up.

I had no idea.

This place is gonna be really vibrant.

And one of the reasons, not the only one, is this house that we're sitting in, this Independent Picture House.

You'll be able to walk down and eat, get a glass of wine, see a movie.

If you feel like coming here and you don't feel like driving, the blue line puts you out within sight of the theater if you get off at the Sugar Creek stop.

- [Jeff] Toppman sums up the theater's early success with a memorable movie line.

- If you build it, they will come.

- That is going to be...

The top will be the projection booth.

- Oh, okay.

- Where the projector is.

- [Jeff] Brad Ritter is the executive director of IPH walking us through the challenges... - So again we go in the hallway, there's a little vestibule here.

- [Jeff] Of turning this old warehouse... - We wish that this was another 10 feet higher, but it's not-- - [Jeff] Into a new picture house.

- And we'll be holding film premieres, educational classes, and just all kinds of red carpet events.

- [Jeff] The Independent adding a new fourth auditorium with 150 more seats, plus a special events room expanding the theater to keep up with its early success.

There's even a new coffee shop and cafe next door.

- There's some sleepless nights, but, yeah, I think everything turned out well.

- [Jeff] Ritter himself spent 27 years at the Old Manor Theater on Providence Road working every job and hearing every rumor.

- The Manor was on life support, and, you know, the Manor's gonna close.

And then word would get out, and, you know, the community would be like, "Whoa, you can't close the Manor."

- [Jeff] But when the Manor finally did close during COVID, it created a celluloid void here in Charlotte, no space or place for these movie lovers to see the Indian foreign language films they used to show at the Manor.

- And that was devastating.

And, honestly, I think that really helped us with what we did with Independent Picture House, because there was an outcry.

We took the outcry of the community about the Manor closing and turned that into motivation.

We knew that there's a demand for a community-based cinema.

(upbeat music) - [Jeff] Today there are displays here at the Independent of faded photos and old movie ads honoring the Manor theater's 74 year history and the other old Charlotte movie houses that came and went before the Manor.

Even the movie popcorn here at IPH comes from the Manor theater's old lobby popcorn machine.

But the Independent Picture House is more than just Manor theater memories.

- With having the fourth screen, it's, like, more space means you can do more things, which means people will feel more ownership, I think, of the actual cinema.

- From his cluttered office here at UNC Charlotte, senior film lecturer, Jay Marong, is also the IPH creative director.

Not just booking art house films for the community, but also sharing the theater with the community so they can screen their own local films.

- You need those homegrown things that are here and can kind of see the shifting sands of a city.

And I think the unexpected success has at least shown us this is something people want.

There are enough people who will support these things, but you have to help them.

(upbeat music) - This is not just a movie theater that you come, you get some popcorn, and you watch a film.

But to sit in a theater and hear other people reacting to your work, that's really what it's all about.

It's an opportunity to experience storytelling with people around you.

- [Jeff] IPH board member, Setu Raval, is talking about something else that the Manor theater navigated.

- All of the movement beyond that is real movement.

The actress had something to look at the entire time.

- [Jeff] These theater talk-backs between the film experts or the film makers.

- [Jay] They force a character to make a really hard choice.

- [Jeff] And the IPH audience that comes to see these films.

- You need to be ready for the surprise.

And I think this movie does that.

- This place does want your input, because it wants your ideas to help shape what it's going to be.

- This is a space for people to come and talk about stories.

- And I think people will gravitate to that.

You don't see that at the megaplexes.

You just... You don't.

(upbeat music) - And here's one more thing you don't see at most movie theaters, Saturday morning cartoons on the big screen here at the Independent once a month, every month.

There's even milk and cookies for the kids, although it's hard to resist the old Manor Theater popcorn.

They're still popping fresh here at IPH.