Struggling Tiburon movie theater gets help from neighbors
Camilla Meoli smiled and led a handful of neighbors with donations for a silent auction into the colorful lobby of Tiburon’s Cinelounge movie theater and community center.
“Our lovely friends at Malibu Farm have gotten behind us and are hosting a special evening for us,” Meoli said, adding that a co-owner of that nearby eatery is a director whose movie she and her husband Christian showed after remodeling and reopening the old Tiburon Playhouse in 2022.
“It’s so fabulous to go full circle and now he’s supporting us,” she said. “There’s going to be oysters, fresh food, signature cocktails, drinks. There’s going to be a full moon that night.”
The April 29 fundraiser is part of a homegrown effort to keep one of Marin County’s few independent movie houses from closing.
In the past two weeks, the Meolis have raised $138,000 from a GoFundMe campaign at bit.ly/3YJb5JR and private donations to the Belvedere Tiburon Film Society, their recently formed nonprofit that runs Cinelounge. The goal is to raise $476,000 to pay off debts and position the theater to continue and expand its programs.
“About 10 days ago, we really were not sure if we were going to be able to keep the place open,” Christian Meoli said Wednesday. “I have to say that my heart is so wide open and so grateful for the response that has come in – one, from this community, the residents of the Belvedere-Tiburon peninsula, and also the community that we’ve connected with online.”
Cinelounge looks and feels more like a series of large living rooms than a typical movie theater. The orange-themed lobby recalls a playful PG or teen movie set. The two viewing rooms have rows of plush reclining chairs and sofas whose color schemes match the carpet. A third big room has a performance stage. Posters and photos of movies shot in the Bay Area pepper the walls.
This setting and its films and events have captivated neighbors like Uri Savid, an entrepreneur who became one of the fundraising campaign’s first donors.
“We discovered Cinelounge one day and said, my God, what an amazing thing. I wonder what this is going to be?” he said. “And as Christian started talking about his vision for storytelling, I thought this is kind of unique.”
“We don’t have a lot of cultural centers in the middle of Tiburon,” Savid said. “And this could be a unique one that’s about storytelling through cinema. You could look at historical films and unusual films and artistic films as well as current films. … So I just fell in love with that vision and started to apply myself to: How do we make that sustainable?’”
Another neighbor drawn to this vision is Brian Swift, a retired investment banker. He and his wife have seen performances like a livestream of Taylor Swift’s recent tour – they aren’t related – and heard the theater was struggling.
“I wanted to get involved because this is important to both the towns of Belvedere and Tiburon,” he said. “It’s important to the landlord to keep this business because it draws people to their other clients, the restaurants in particular, are very dependent on this flow of customers.”
“It’s important to have a theater not close down,” Swift said. “And our approach has been to convert the theater from a for-profit business into a nonprofit business and support the things that Christian wants to be doing.”
Those goals include relaunching the Tiburon Film Festival and a children’s film festival, partnering with San Francisco film organizations, and connecting youths to local filmmakers, Meoli said.
“The only way that neighborhood theaters can survive now is with the nonprofit model,” he said. “But, you know what, we are ultimately in the bringing-people-together business. … if you’re doing something communally, it becomes a place for the community.”