Film Streams is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural environment of the Omaha-Council Bluffs area through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form. In July 2007, we opened the Ruth Sokolof Theater, our two-screen cinema located within the Saddle Creek Records development in downtown Omaha.

Open seven days a week, our cinema hosts four principal programs:

First Run Films
American independents, documentaries, and foreign films making their theatrical premieres in Omaha and the surrounding region. Some examples of our 2007/08 first-run programming include:

• American Independents:  Broken English, Great World of Sound
• Documentaries:  Ghosts of Cite Soleil, No End In Sight, Deep Water, Kurt Cobain: About a Son, Billy the Kid, Taxi to the Dark Side
• Foreign Films:  Lady Chatterley, Lust, Caution, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Repertory Selections
Classic films, themed series, and director retrospectives, featuring an impressive cast of guest curators. Examples of our repertory programming in 2007/08 include:

• Alexander Payne Presents
• Adaptations
• Great Directors: Sturges & Wilder
• Two Films by Charles Burnett
• Out There: Nebraska & the Great Plains in the Movies (curated by Kurt Andersen)
• Herzog & Kinski
• Great Directors: Hitchcock
• Great Directors: Akira Kurosawa (Coming March 28)

Arts in Education
Diverse programming teaching area high school students how to interpret films in a cultural context, empathize with characters in ways that are beneficial to their own personal development, and analyze film as an art form.

These objectives will be realized through two complimentary components: an enrichment program that brings high school students into Film Streams' Ruth Sokolof Theater and introduces them to our programming; and a curriculum guide to be introduced in Omaha-area classrooms in Fall 2008.


Community Development

Lectures, forums, Q&A sessions with film professionals, partnerships with other nonprofits and community groups on film-based events, special one-time screenings for area filmmakers, and other activities that engage the public in a continuous dialogue about film and contribute to a vibrant local arts community. 

Since opening in July 2007, we've had the pleasure of welcoming three filmmakers to the theater: Alexander Payne for our grand opening; Aaron Woolf for a post-show Q&A following his documentary KING CORN; and Jennifer Venditti for two screenings of her documentary BILLY THE KID.  In November 2007, best-selling author and public radio host Kurt Andersen hosted a special screening of Terrence Malick's BADLANDS to open the series "Out There: Nebraska & the Great Plains in the Movies." Other post-show discussions at the theater have included such subjects as the nexus of literature and film, the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, and race relations in Omaha.

This year, we've also had the pleasure of working with such groups as the Omaha Public Library, [Downtown] Omaha Lit Fest, the Anti-Defamation League, Omaha's Darfur Community Organization, Lutheran Family Services, Boys & Girls Club, Girls Inc. of Omaha, Conference for Inclusive Communities, and Creighton University, among others.

As a nonprofit committed to screening films based on their creative, artistic, and social merits, Film Streams depends on the support of our membership program, individual donors, grants from foundations, corporations and government organizations, and community volunteers.

JIM JARMUSCH:

“The beauty of a movie is that you walk in, you don't know anything about it, you enter a world that's new to you, and that's the magic of being transported.”