After 15 months on pause, The Athena Cinema finally pressing play on first-floor movie screenings. The beloved movie theater, located at 20 S. Court St., has experienced closures since May of 2023 and plans to welcome an audience back into one of their downstairs theaters on Sept. 5.
According to Alexandra Kamody, the Athena’s director, the cinema initially closed its doors “due to the need for some structural repairs.”
“It was definitely surprising,” said Eli Kaltenecker, a junior studying film and an Athena employee of the past two years. “I was a little worried, but then again not even our bosses knew what was next because it all came at once.”
Once the renovations were underway, the leaders of the cinema were able to start planning events to keep employees busy and the community engaged.
“People showed a lot of support for us and … we really just wanted to make sure our team was still able to be employed,” Kamody said. “We were able to do that, we were warmed up from the pandemic closure so we were in a mode where we were used to thinking creatively.”
This creative thinking led to the Movies on the Rooftop series at the Athens City Parking Garage and select showings at The Ridges, two unfamiliar settings and formats that required a fair share of troubleshooting.
“We had a lot of challenges with making sure the presentations went well due to light pollution and sound issues, and just trying to learn how to use an outdoor cinema setup really quickly,” said Kamody.
Despite the abnormality of the events and the additional commute to some screenings, they were met with full-fledged local support.
“Any sort of thing we came up with … the community was all for it,” said Kaltenecker.
Kaltenecker works as a projectionist, a job which will soon be revised based on some new additions brought by the renovation.
“We’ve been using Xenon bulb DCP projectors for as long as the lifespan of those things is, so getting two brand new 4K laser projectors is very cool,” said the cinema's Head Projectionist, Rachel Allegra. “We also got all new lighting in both theaters and we’re getting a new sound system in Theater Two as well.”
The top floor of the building was reopened in January 2024, but the two theaters on the bottom floor remained closed while the new projectors were being installed. Theater One will be reopening Thursday with a screening of “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,” but Theater Two is still without a new projector and won’t be reopening until later in the season.
“I’m really excited to welcome people back into the theater, especially Theater One which is actually my favorite theater that we have,” said Kamody.
Despite being a regular patron of the Athena before graduating from Ohio University in 2019, Allegra only began working at the cinema within the past year and is looking forward to seeing the theater in full swing.
“I’m really excited about having more movies playing at the same time,” she said. “We really only had one or two, usually just one going at a time, but I’m really excited to have up to three movies going at the same time.”
Although a full reopening of the Athena Cinema is still in the works, the return of Theater One marks an approach to the light at the end of the tunnel. After a long hiatus, local theatergoers will soon find themselves with popcorn in hand entering the limitless world of film that the Athena Cinema has been providing for over a century.
