Mission

Film Streams’ mission is to enhance the cultural environment of the Omaha-Council Bluffs area through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form.


Timeline

• January 2005:  Saddle Creek Records heads Jason Kulbel and Robb Nansel approach Rachel about incorporating her idea for a nonprofit arthouse cinema into a development project they are planning in downtown Omaha.
  
  
• February 2005:  Rachel founds Film Streams, the name referencing both her hometown of Omaha (which means “above all others on a stream”) and John Cassavetes' LOVE STREAMS. Her father, Kutak Rock LLP managing partner David Jacobson, signs on as board chair.
  
  
• May 2005:  With the pro-bono legal help of Kutak Rock, Film Streams receives 501(c)3 status. Together, Rachel and David begin to recruit a board of directors and advisory board. They initiate a start-up capital campaign to equip a new, two-screen theater in downtown Omaha and to establish a financial foundation that will secure the organization’s future.
  
  
• June 2005:  Rachel moves back to Omaha, Casey signs on as a volunteer, assisting with grant-writing, press releases, and together they work on Film Streams' business plan. Rachel begins working with Robb and Jason from Saddle Creek Records and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture on the design and layout of the building. Alley Poyner Macchietto later donates their services to Film Streams for the entire build-out process.
  
  
• October 2005:  The Sokolof-Javitch family pledges an early, significant naming gift to Film Streams’ capital campaign. Oxide Design agrees to work with Film Streams as our in-kind design partner.
  
  
• November 2005:  Alexander Payne joins the Film Streams Board of Directors.
  
  
• December 2005:  Film Streams receives a $200,000 challenge grant from the Peter Kiewit Foundation to complete our $1.2 million capital campaign goal.
  
  
• January 2006:  First National pledges a generous corporate gift to the Film Streams Start-Up Capital Campaign.
  
  
• January 13, 2006:  Film Streams launches a 10-film series at Joslyn Art Museum with Preston Sturges' classic romantic comedy THE LADY EVE. The series is sponsored by the Nebraska Arts Council and America First Foundation. Subsequent films include BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, THE MAGIC FLUTE, NOTORIOUS, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, RASHOMON, IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL, DOWN BY LAW, and TSOTSI.
  
  
• July 22, 2006:  Film Streams partners with the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts to present a free matinee screening of two landmark surrealist films: Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU and L'ÂGE D'OR.
  
  
• October 7, 2006:  Film Streams collaborates with Saddle Creek Records artist Orenda Fink to present a fundraising concert for our capital campaign. Hosted by the Omaha Healing Arts Center, the concert features Orenda and her band performing to imagery from the experimental films of Maya Deren.
  
  
• October 2006:  Film Streams reaches our initial $1.2 million capital campaign goal. Due to increased project costs, we raise our goal to $1.5 million, and Dick Holland pledges the remainder.
  
  
• January 2007:    A generous donation from philanthropists Fred Simon and Dick Holland enables Film Streams to equip our cinema with digital High-Definition projection capabilities, allowing us to present the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” presentations.
  
  
• March 2007:  The New York Times publishes a Travel Magazine piece by Kurt Andersen about Omaha's indie arts scene. The story mentions places such as Jackson Street Booksellers, the Bemis Center, Kaneko, and the Saddle Creek Records development: "About a mile north of the Old Market, Saddle Creek is almost finished building a complex that will have retail space, a restaurant, apartments, the record company’s offices, a music venue and a nonprofit film art house called Film Streams."
  
  
• April 2007:  Film Streams announces that our new cinema will be named the Ruth Sokolof Theater, in recognition of an early and pivotal gift from the Sokolof-Javitch family and in honor of longtime Omaha teacher Ruth Sokolof.
  
  
• June 2007:  Construction of the theater is completed, and we begin building out the theaters and concession spaces, moving into our new offices, and preparing for a late July 2007 grand opening.
  
  
• July 24 & 26, 2007:  Alexander Payne hosts a pair of grand opening events thanking Film Streams capital campaign supporters for their help in creating a new cinema for the Omaha-Council Bluffs area. Alexander presents clips from the 10 films he selected for our opening repertory series and speaks about their importance to him as a cineaste and filmmaker.
  
  
• July 27, 2007:  Film Streams opens the Ruth Sokolof Theater to the public with screenings of the Edith Piaf biopic LA VIE EN ROSE and Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI.
  
  
• July 28, 2007:  Hundreds attend an open house at our new cinema, enjoying classic campy trailers playing on loop in both theaters.
  
  
• July 27 - August 30, 2007:  Film Streams Repertory Series: Alexander Payne Presents (10 movies selected by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne).
  
  
• August 2007:  Film Streams collaborates with Omaha's Darfur Community Organization, the Anti-Defamation League, and Lutheran Family Services on a speciall screening of the documentary THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK, followed by a post-show discussion about the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.
  
  
• August 31 - October 4, 2007:  Film Streams Repertory Series: Adaptations (10 films adapted from, inspired by, or vaguely reminiscent of literary works). The series is presented in partnership with the Omaha Library and [Downtown] Omaha Lit Fest and supported by the Nebraska Arts Council.
  
  
• September 14, 2007:  Film Streams, the Omaha Public Library, and the [Downtown] Omaha Lit Fest host "Liquor, Junk, Madness, and the Underwood Portable: The Portrait of the Author in Film," a panel discussion following a screening of David Cronenberg's NAKED LUNCH. Participants include Debra Di Blasi, Ron Hogan, Rivkah Sass, Gerald Shapiro, and Timothy Schaffert.
  
  
• October 5 - November 1, 2007:  Film Streams Repertory Series:  Great Directors: Sturges & Wilder, (10-film, dual retrospective celebrating the work of Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder), sponsored by Omaha Steaks.
  
  
• November 2 - November 8, 2007:  Film Streams presents Two Films by Charles Burnett: KILLER OF SHEEP and MY BROTHER'S WEDDING. 
  
  
• November 9, 2007:  Director Aaron Woolf participates in a post-show Q&A at Film Streams on the opening night of his documentary KING CORN.
  
  
• November 10, 2007:  Film Streams and Slowdown throw a tribute to Nirvana concert featuring performances by Baby Walrus, Bear Country, C.J. Olson, Coyote Bones, Flamboyant Gods, Flowers Forever, Outlaw Con Bandana, Stefanie Drootin & Derek Presnall, The Shanks, Thunder Power!!! and others.  
  
  
• November 16 - December 13, 2007:  Film Streams Repertory Series: Out There: Nebraska and the Great Plains in the Movies (curated by author, public radio host, and Film Streams Advisory Board Member Kurt Andersen).
  
  
• November 16, 2007:  Kurt Andersen returns to Omaha to open the "Out There" series with a special screening of Terrence Malick's BADLANDS. A sold-out crowd attends the film, followed by a post-show discussion with Kurt.
  
  
• November 27, 2007:  Film Streams screens the 1966 documentary A TIME FOR BURNING and hosts a post-show discussion, led by the African American Achievement Council's Ben Gray, on how race relations in Omaha have and have not changed in the decades since the film’s release.
  
  
• December 15, 2007:  Film Streams Screens First Met Opera “Live in HD” performance: ROMEO ET JULIETTE to a sold out crowd in our large theater.
  
  
• January 12, 2007:  Director Jennifer Venditti participates in a pair of post-screening Q&A's at Film Streams during the opening weekend of her documentary BILLY THE KID.