The new film “Marqueetown” places us squarely in the middle of downtown Marquette, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
There were once TWO cinemas in the middle town, including The Nordic — an old streamline moderne theater with a wraparound marquee and an astonishing interior. In the film, we learn about The Nordic, and about a man who grew up in Marquette and tries to bring the old arthouse cinema back to life.
The film had its premiere in Traverse City on March 31, with a number of screenings planned across Michigan, including in Manistee, Harbor Springs and Frankfort in April, and more coming later in the year. The Frankfort event, at the Garden Theatre, includes a live Q&A with Andrew Dost, the Grammy-winning artist who composed music for the film.
The film was written and directed by Joe Beyer and Jordan Anderson. Both spoke with IPR about the film. Listen to the conversation via the audio player with this post, and read some interview highlights below.
(And, full disclosure: Joe Beyer also provides arts commentaries to IPR.)
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On learning about The Nordic: "Every theater has a unique story when you start digging deep enough but this one seemed particularly fraught with curiosities and characters and a kind of marquee mafia of people who were involved in making it happen. At the time, in downtown Marquette, this theater should never have existed. It was kind of a technological wonder in 1936." — Joe Beyer
On its closure in 1994, and conversion to a book store: "It was sold, and all of the beautiful architecture was covered up. This incredible curved ceiling, special acoustics — a drop ceiling was put in place. The marquee? Gone from the front of the building. It became just kind of a memory, like maybe the memory of a dream, where you go downtown and you're like, 'Was this even here?'" — Jordan Anderson
On what they hope audiences take away: "We promise that we've done everything humanly possible to make it entertaining, and not academic. You'll be surprised and amused. And I think at the end, what we'd love, is if you left feeling that that was time worth spending with other people in your community. That's really important to us." — Joe Beyer
