We move now to a new endeavor for the Beverly Theater.

Las Vegas is only independent film, house and performance.

Then you recently launched Ink Films, a theatrical distribution arm.

Unlike film distribution, theatrical distribution focuses on releasing films that can only be seen in theaters.

So why did the film House go in this direction?

Joining me for more on that is Kip Kelley, founding creative director and chief experience officer at the Beverly Theater.

Kip, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

What a week.

What an absurd job title that is.

I don't know what the word.

Yeah, it's so long.

I'm sorry you had to read that, but thanks for having me.

Did you make that up?

I did not.

I well, I had a part of it, but the first part was actually Beverly Rogers.

who, for those of you who don't know, is the namesake of the theater.

And also, the foremost champion of arts and education in Southern Nevada, I believe.

And she's always talked about arts and education as it affects people's lives, not just let's save the arts, let's fund the arts.

Let's protect the arts just for art's sake or just for education sake.

It's really about how those things affect or change or transforms people's lives.

And so the theatrical distribution arm of this really, when we started it, it really had to do more with, well, we've built this brick and mortar theater, and we have all these roads that that go to and from when it comes to films coming into the theater, because we do everything at the theater.

And so we, we really kind of built this system, and these roads that can, can go two ways.

If we can receive films and we can book films, and we could probably distribute them, although it wasn't that easy.

I just felt like that made sense at the time.

And so we said, let's try it.

And, the mission of film specifically is really we want to work with filmmakers and partners who are, committed to their mission.

They want to get their film on screen.

They want to get their film in front of a broader audience or a national audience.

And of course, everyone wants to do that.

So it's not like it's hard to find those people, but there's a lot of really good films that, don't have a distribution home or don't have kind of that support to help get them into the into the theaters and on the big screen.

And we, of course, have, a vested interest in getting people into theaters.

We want people to come to our theater.

So we want to work with titles that encourage people to get out to other people's theaters as well.

We kind of have, we want to be a part of people's night out, you know?

And so, that kind of goes both ways with what we do at the Beverly Theater.

And then also what we do with films.

You want to help bring back the time before Covid.

I don't know that we can do that, but I think it's it's if you aim for the stars, you land on the moon and, I do think that there is still something very magical about going to the movies and watching something with friends or with other people.

I love to stream.

I think streaming is is a powerful tool, but that's a very personal thing, kind of people's night in.

If I told people what I streamed at home, they'd probably you know, there's guilty pleasures.

Like, I leave that to the people at home.

Where do you want to stream?

You know, for me, it might be some Dateline episode from 2005.

You know, like, we choose what we choose at home.

But when we talk about being a part of people's night out, it's about encouraging and getting them to inspire or to create or to think or to engage, and be a part of the community which we like.

We we like doing that.

talking about changing people's lives.

This inaugural release, in particular, is going to help the animators that are featured in this film.

How Animation Mixtape, actually is a kind of a spinoff of something called The Animation Show, which, came out in about.

I think it was 2003.

Don Hertzfeld and Mike judge, who are world renowned animators, came out with this, touring animated shorts festival called The Animation Show and is within, in partnership with MTV.

And the ethos of that was really and I think the quote exactly is to release animators from the dungeon of internet exhibition, something like that.

And even at 2003, they were they want they get off of the internet and go see the movies.

And that was 22 years ago.

Wow.

And so, we went to Don and thought that this would be a good idea to kind of do it again.

And he is, a big fan of independent animators.

Obviously, he's one himself.

But he's he's a little more big time now.

He's got a couple of Oscar nominations under his belt, and he's done a lot of big things, and he really wanted to work and to put this project together to benefit other independent animators who haven't had a chance to have their stuff on the big screen yet.

So, not every project we do will be like this, but this one was very close to the heart of what we do in films and what Don and Mike created in 2003.

So to kind of bring it back to life in 2025 with kind of the same goal in mind, which is just to get people into theaters and to help filmmakers, But I do think people who are fans of animation are going to love this.

And if they happen to bring somebody who hates animation or is not a fan, I think this is a good one to kind of, get your feet wet in because it introduces you to some some old animation and some new animation and, all in the spirit of Don Herzfeld, who's beloved as an animator and you mentioned that he released a trailer for this, and we do have that.

So let's show some of that right now.

All right.

You see what he's.

Oh, yeah.

Wow, wow.

Oh, I am okay.

So I've seen this a couple of times now and I laughed and I don't know why.

Yeah.

Me neither.

So a lot of people are probably not familiar.

This is these are kind of Don's, signature characters.

And we were talking off camera.

I was explaining to some of the crew here, we've been calling them clouds.

Others have called them sheep.

Don himself has no idea what they are, so, you can call them.

Yeah, that's also his voice doing all of those.

Those are just kind of his his characters that make, they make appearances throughout a lot of his films and a lot of his projects.

And, they're there's other parts of that trailer as the intro.

If you go see it in film, you'll see it's not just the trailer, it's also the intro to the film, and he's got some pretty gnarly characters that pop up after that.

What would you tell a viewer who just watched that and said, what in the world was that?

I think that's exactly what you should expect.

When you go see anything animated in theaters, like it's, it's I've got somebody who's watched a lot of animation now over the last year.

I still don't get a lot of it, and I but but I think that's okay.

There's a lot of it's open for interpretation.

It's just supposed to be fun.

Like, those guys are just those clouds.

Whatever.

They are just inherently fun.

And you laugh at them and you don't know why.

Chip Kelly, thank you so much.

Thank you Amber I appreciate it.

I love PBS, I love Nevada Week.