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| still taken from a film I shot about Jenkintown |
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| another still |
The Hiway Theatre is a rare gem of a movie theater. It is a truly indie theater: both independently run as a non-profit (as of 2003) and exhibiting mostly independent films, foreign films, or films that run the festival circuit. The Hiway is a little theater in a little place. Located in my personal hometown, Jenkintown, one can find the Hiway at 212 Old York Rd. Jenkintown, PA. Roughly a mile outside of Philadelphia and square mile in size, Jenkintown is a small suburb that holds a fair amount of charming, cultured places such as the Hiway. With Jenkintown being so small it almost seems fitting that the Hiway is a one-screen movie theater. The building that is now the Hiway was built in 1913 by Albert F. Schenck simply as the Jenkintown Auditorium. It then began showing films in the mid/late-1920s as The Embassy Theater. After the 1930s there were highs and lows in renovations, but in the 1980s a more official revival was made. There is no particular audience, but it really could appeal to anyone. The theater shows mostly indie films (at one point it was almost exclusively foreign cinema) but also shows children's movies and family flicks. It's one of those theaters that as a kid I saw live-action
Scooby-Doo, but as I got older was able to see things like
Black Swan (2010
), The Tree of Life (2011
), and of recent
Amour (2012
). The theater has one screen and shows one movie at a time, so they usually show award-winning movies for a few weeks at a time and wait for a new popular-ish indie film to come out. Something interesting is that as small as it is, Bradley Cooper is from Jenkintown and supports the Hiway as a sponsor, as the theater struggles for money and doesn't yet have a digital projector (needing one ASAP because distributors will be sending them digitally projected films within a couple of months). I really like the Hiway. It's one of those theater's that gives you hope: it's cheaper, great sound quality, simple one screen, friendly service, and in nice little Philadelphian suburb. You can check their wesbite out
here .
