February 14, 2003
Erin Strickland
Montana Kaimin
The Crystal Theatre is up
and running again with the help of some friends at the University of Montana's
Wilderness and Civilization Program.
The students help with
advertising, take tickets, make popcorn and sell organic sodas and cookies from
local bakeries. It's a project meant to bring the local community together, not
only for the Crystal's sake, but for the sake of continuing to address
important global and local issues with the films that are shown.
"It's a way to extend
the learning they've done to the greater community," said Nicky Phear, a
wilderness and civilization program instructor.
The Wilderness and
Civilization Program is a yearlong program that integrates classroom learning
and field study to educate students in wilderness policy, ecology, economics
and Native American studies. They go on trips all over western Montana,
immersing themselves in the surroundings they study.
They also work for a local
non-profit organization.
"We try to engage them
with the community," Phear said.
Each spring semester the
students do a service project that is "consistent with the ideas and
philosophy of the program," she said.
This year, that means volunteering
at the theater so the New Crystal, a non-profit organization that has run it in
the past, can continue to bring more alternative, educational and documentary
films to Missoula.
In July, New Crystal decided
not to rent the theater seven days a week as it had been doing. For awhile they
showed films at the Roxy, then worked out a deal with Shirley Juhl, the owner
of the Bridge/Crystal building, to rent it four nights per month.
Peter Nelson, one of 15
wilderness and civilization students, is the theater's director. He recruited
the other students in the program, "seeing it as a great way to interact
with the Missoula community," Phear said.
"It was sad for a lot
of them that the Crystal would be gone," she said. "So they're
reviving the alternative theater in town. It's really about importance of
community and place."
Phear added that the
relationship with the students and the theater isn't going to last forever, but
for now it gives the New Crystal more time to find funding.
"By no means is it
gone, or dead," said Juhl, who has owned the building for 31 years.
"It's more diverse," she said. She now rents it out to various groups
for things other than films.
"There are things
happening all the time."