Louisville filmmaker Emmett Swann said about Baxter Avenue Theatres: "Having this place be the birth of basically part of my identity and the reason why I make films is super important to me. And I know other people have that same effect."(Giselle Rhoden / LPM)Recently, rumors across social media suggested Baxter Avenue Theatres could close for good. Its owners say the theater isn’t going anywhere for now, as potential redevelopment plans loom over the Mid City Mall, where Baxter is located. The building went up for sale last year, and now, theater patrons and local filmmakers are speaking out in hopes of convincing the owners to keep it open.Emmett Swann is the creator of Louisville Indie Films, a group that supports independent filmmakers.LPM’s Giselle Rhoden spoke to Swann about why Baxter’s future is crucial to the film community at large.This interview was edited for clarity and length.Giselle Rhoden: You and Louisville Indie Films recently organized a rally in support of Baxter. What did this movement represent for you?Emmett Swann: It represented Louisville's ability to create a community to basically support not only our locals that are lending a hand to creatives, but also the very small, very niche, tightly wound group of creatives and filmmakers like myself that are coming out of Louisville. A place where we've seen, recently, kind of establish itself — or try to with the whole Sundance movement — try to come up with a platform for major studios to come to Louisville. And put it in everyone's mind that this place is and can be, a film hub of sorts.I think there's two ways to do that. There's the way, top-down, where you invite a lot of big studios, and you try to take in the money, and you kind of cater to them and build that place. But there's also the other side of it, where you have people doing low-budget works. You have people with $200 to spare, and they're trying to build a career out of this. Maybe they attended film school, maybe they didn't. Maybe it's a hobby. It's a place to show yourself creatively. There's a lot of people making really impressive bodies of work and projects in Louisville, and they don't really have a say in things, and they don't have a platform, and they don't get the shoutout, which is why I founded Louisville Indie Film's page to begin with. I want to showcase, “Hey, this is a local director. This is their background. This is what they want to do, and this is their latest project, and here's where you can show it,” because we don't have a good connection from filmmaker to audience here.GR: You're also a filmmaker. From your experience, why is it so important for the community to have access to indie films, especially at a place like Baxter Avenue Theatres, where you don't really get them anywhere else?ES: As a filmmaker, you're always looking for methods of reaching the audience. It's always about, “I'm creating this piece. Who is going to see it? How do I target that person?” And how do I get, not only, like a wider customer range, because everyone wants to go viral, everyone wants to have a lot of views, but to target the right people. And I feel like in Louisville’s situation, the right people are going to be those that are going out to locally owned, local artistic businesses and collectives, and I feel like Baxter Avenue is the heart of Louisville's indie film scene. It is the single location when I think film in Louisville, that comes to mind. It is the brick and mortar location. There isn't another place that comes close. It's the place where I've gone countless times to go see people that I know, short films. Film premieres of things that were filmed locally in Louisville or around Louisville.If there's one thing at the end of a production that you don't have an excess of usually it's finances to spend on things like marketing or screening. If you don't have an infinite amount of money or a ton of financial support from other people, then it's going to be hard to find a place to screen it that isn't YouTube or a family living room. There are a couple bars in Louisville that I've gone through that are incredibly supportive, and they will screen it there, usually free or at low cost. But we're talking theater, and the cost between screening at Baxter and elsewhere is $1,000 for the weekday versus $500 at Baxter, or up to $2,500 on the weekend versus $1,000 Baxter. So to have that at the end of the day, as a resource is super incredible.GR: You also created a petition to support keeping Baxter Avenue Theatres open, and it has more than 5,400 signatures so far. Have any of the responses from supporters surprised you?ES: Not a lot of it has been surprising other than the amount of support and love that it's gotten. I knew there was a community and the Highlands and greater Louisville in general that would come, but just the amount of people flooding in with comments and these stories of, you know, the fondest memories that they have there, how it's their only theater, or how it's the only one that's affordable in Louisville, and so they kind of rely on this place to go see independent films, to go see local indie films, to go see films in general. You know, the cost of going to a theater these days is growing, and a lot of people for them, it's the difference between staying at home and waiting a week or a month for something to come out on streaming and just watch it on their couch. It's easier day in and day out, to just stay at home and view things not on a theater screen, and not go out and not pay the money. So having a place like that is just super, super important for people.GR: Where do you hope to see Baxter Avenue Theatres in the next few years?ES: I hope somehow, with the petition and with contacting decision-makers, we can keep it through redevelopment and whatever happens in Mid City Mall, we can keep a little bit of its character with us. And I think nothing speaks to its character and what people want more than the theater that's been there. I hope it is the place where we can reliably go there and screen independent films, foreign regional films that we're not going to see at AMC, that we're not going to see at Cinemark, and be the place where people like me can go and say, “It's time this is ready. I want to put [my film] out there. I want to get the audience,” and it not cost a left foot to screen there.I've actually done a fair amount of research, because I'm going to release this film coming up, and it's night and day. I think it speaks to where the mindset is of the owners and where they want to be with the community that they even offer that at that price. It's not about super profit. It's about creating the space for people, and I think it's done a really good job of that. And I think. If we're going to lose something very special, if it goes. ...read more read less