During the month of September, downtown patrons can enjoy a pop-up, outdoor movie theater right in the center of downtown.
River City Company will launch a movie series event, Movies at the 700 Block, Sept. 1. The series will be free to the public and will feature an opening documentary, followed by a 1980s classic.
The movie series will be located at 728 Market St., a piece of property that River City Company took possession of in December of 2011. Currently, the property is an empty gravel lot prime for development and has been the subject of an Urban Design Challenge proposal.
“We know how important this block is to downtown and to the growth of this area. While working through different options with developers, we thought this would be a great way to animate the center of the city and bring life to the block,” Kim White, president of River City Company, said.
Movies at the 700 Block will feature the following:
—Saturday, Sept. 1: "Build Me a World: Story of the Howard School," a local documentary created by the film group Fancy Rhino, follows the lives of four Howard High School students. The featured film is "The Goonies," the 1985 classic about a group of kids that attempts to save their neighborhood from demolition but stumbles into a treasure chase adventure.
—Saturday, Sept. 8: "Lunch Hour," directed by James Costa, is a feature-length documentary that explores the National School Lunch Program, childhood obesity and our addiction to unhealthy foods, starring Rachael Ray, Robin Quivers, Marion Nestle and Alex Jamieson. The featured film is "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," filmed in 1982, which tells the story of a meek and alienated little boy finding a stranded extraterrestrial. He has to find the courage to defy the authorities to help the alien return to its home planet.
—Saturday, Sept. 22: "Urbanized" is a feature-length documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders and thinkers. A short film on the creation of the Passage at Ross’s Landing created by locals Ann Coulter and Mary Barnett, called "One Road," will show after the initial film airs. The featured film is "Back to the Future," starring Michael J. Fox. Set in 1985, Doc Brown invents time travel; in 1955, Marty McFly accidentally prevents his parents from meeting, putting his own existence at stake.
The screening of the featured documentaries was made possible by collaboration with the Arts & Education Council. Chattanooga is currently the only southern city to host a screening of "Lunch Hour." James Costa, the director, will take part in the screening as well as address the topic of our National School Lunch Program while visiting Chattanooga.
“We’re especially proud of the documentary lineup we have in place. We wanted to show films that young adults would be engaged in, so rather than just having a movie series, we’re actually creating an education opportunity,” Tiffanie Robinson, director of creative strategies at River City Company, said.
Movies at the 700 Block is free to the public. The event starts at 8:45 p.m. each night. Movies will be projected off the buildings surrounding the 700 block. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs. Food trucks will be present, along with a cash bar for beer sales.
For more information, please visit River City Company’s Facebook page or website.
