Throughout September, downtown patrons will be able to enjoy an outdoor movie theater in the center of the city as River City Company presents “Movies at the 700 Block.” The series will be free to the public and will feature an opening documentary followed by a ‘80s classic. The movies will be shown at 728 Market Street, a property River City Company took over in December of 2011. Currently, the property is an empty gravel lot.
“This block is important to downtown and to the growth of this area. While working through different options with developers, we thought this would be a great way to animate the center of the city and bring life to the block,” said Kim White, president of River City Company.
“Movies at the 700 Block” will feature the following:
Sept. 1: “Build Me a World: Story of the Howard School” follows the lives of four Howard High School students. The featured film will be “The Goonies.”
Sept. 8: “Lunch Hour” explores the National School Lunch Program, childhood obesity and our addiction to unhealthy foods. The featured film is “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.”
Sept. 22: “Urbanized” looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features leading architects, planners, policymakers, builders and thinkers. A short film on the creation of the Passage at Ross’s Landing called “One Road” will show after the initial film. The featured film will be “Back to the Future.”
Collaboration with the Arts and Education Council is making the screening of the featured documentaries possible. Chattanooga is currently the only southern city to host a screening of “Lunch Hour.” James Costa, the director, will take part in the screening as well as address the topic of the National School Lunch Program while visiting Chattanooga.
“We’re proud of the documentary line up we have in place. We wanted to show films that would engage young adults, so rather than just having a movie series, we’re actually creating an education opportunity,” stated Tiffanie Robinson, director of creative strategies at River City Company.
Each “Movies at the 700 Block” event starts at 8:45 p.m. Movies will be projected off the buildings surrounding the 700 block. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chair. Food trucks will be present along with a cash bar for beer sales.
Source: River City Company