True West Film Center Comes to Healdsburg!

A rendering of the new theater. The film center has since unveiled their new name: Trust West Film Center..

All imagery (c) AV Film.

Few things are better than a night out at the talkies…..spontaneously rolling out to a movie,  popcorn popping, fizzy coke crackling , a pack of junior mints and catching the previews of whats-to-come.   Unfortunately for Healdsburg, the closing of our town’s beloved Raven movie theater, means that locals must now travel all the way to Santa Rosa or beyond to enjoy the silver screen. But that is all about to change… as soon as early next year. Enter Kathryn Hecht, a former stage actress from New York by way of Texas, who made her way to Sonoma County when her husband, on a whim (after google-searching “movie theaters for sale”)  bought the Clover Theater in Cloverdale. Once they moved here, Kathryn, a film buff in her own right, founded the Alexander Valley Film Festival 10 years ago. 

 Now known as AVFest, the film festival provides retrospectives, drive-in movie nights, screenings in the Plaza and other outdoor venues, and film education, for Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Geyserville, and other districts around Sonoma County. This summer, they plan to break ground on a jewel box of a movie theater, right here in town, behind the former Bear Republic space, around the corner from Troubadour.  The theater, True West Film Center, will be a focal point of the non-profit intended to serve the community with education, media literacy and cinema arts.  “Neighborhood movie theaters must adapt to a mission-driven model to directly serve the communities they support,” Kathryn says.

The ground-level movie theater will have three screening rooms, with 23 , 54 and 27 seats respectively. At any given time they plan to screen two blockbusters and one independent, foreign or vintage movie.  Think: Transformers, Barbie, and a Billie Holiday retrospective.  Oppenheimer, Trolls, and Anatomy of a Fall.  The top floor community and educational center (The Studio) will provide gathering space for film and media arts education for all, and a state-of-the-art maker space for storytellers. They plan to have programming all day long, for early birds, and mattinee-ers, and the evening dates.

With shuttles planned from the North Village to town, Kathryn is excited at the thought of increased accessibility, particularly for a dear friend who is a resident of Enso Village.  “My friend loves movies, and we have been to multiple film festivals together in Seattle,” says Kathryn. “Now that she’s here in town, I get to provide her with a movie theater of her own catered to her tastes and schedule. How thrilling is that?” 

True West Film Center is meant to be a place where the community will spend its time engaging with one another…where families celebrate birthdays, bigger kids get dropped off to spend a safe evening with friends, or we’ll be able to head upstairs for a workshop on how to edit videos using your smartphone. “I can’t overstate the importance of media skills and media literacy,” says Kathryn. “By teaching each other how to use these tools and how to interpret and process what we see on the screen, we create more informed citizens. Plus, with a focus on representation in our work, we have a place where everyone in the community can see themselves. Today, that matters more than ever.”

Recently, the organization revealed a new name and brand and open up fundraising efforts to the entire community, as they continue to plan for longevity. True West Film Center will roll out over the summer as they continue their wildly popular summer camp programs for kids age 6-14- where students get hands-on experience and learn the behind-the-scenes skills that go into making feature films and documentaries.  And by fall, we should be seeing our local theater coming together.  To Kathryn and her team, it’s all in the details. “We want to create a place that has popcorn with real butter, the coldest cokes, and an excellent wine list.”  We can nearly taste it, and will be among the first to reserve our seats.

 AVFilm (soon to be True West Film Center) recently announced that they have received a generous local donation, bringing their fundraising total to $2.2M! They are hovering over the start of construction and hope to get shovels in the ground this summer, and toward that end, are asking the community to help raise the last $1.3M needed to complete construction. Every dollar donated during the 10th Annual AVFest, April 26-May 5, will be matched up to $350K! 

This Friday marks the beginning of AVFest, celebrating ten years of film, food, wine and filmmakers in conversation in Sonoma County. You can check out their myriad events, from film screenings to filmmaker interviews, and a student competition, here.

For more information on AVFilm, soon to be True West Film Center, please visit :

 https://avfilmpresents.org