Girl Scouts sew new seat covers for storied movie house

Now in its second year, Benicia Film Festival already is expanding: Films will be shown in three venues this year when the festival begins Sept. 4.

One is a new business in a historic building, and one has been the setting for other area film presentations. But the third venue has some downtown businesses buzzing: The final day of the festival will see films screened at the Majestic Theatre, 710 First St., a movie house that first opened about 1920.

The festival is organized by the Benicia Arts and Culture Commission as a way to give residents a chance to see motion picture shorts and full-length features made by both youth and adults.

Inspired by local filmmaker Kenny Hall, the festival made its debut last year at the Veterans Memorial Building and Benicia Public Library. Among those included in the slate of films was Sundance Film Festival winner and Academy Award-nominated “The Invisible War.” Another film focused on Benicia’s internationally known choir, VOENA.

This year’s lineup will be chosen soon, said Helaine Bowles, outreach and volunteer coordinator at Benicia Public Library. The festival will show 35 to 40 movies that have arrived from all over the world, she said, narrowed from 120 entries.

Carter’s Biz Café, in the historic Commanding Officer’s Quarters at 1 Commandant’s Lane, will kick things off with a “garden style gala” at 6 p.m. on Sept. 4, the first night of the festival.

Bowles said Rankin, who owns the business accommodations company that leases the Commanding Officer’s Quarters, is a festival committee member who offered the site for the opening-night gala.

An outdoor section will be roped off, and Plan-It Interactive, a local company, will provide decorations, including a red carpet. Food and wine will be served outside, then 12 short films will be shown in three of the historic building’s rooms, Bowles said.

The festival resumes at 10 a.m. Sept. 5 in the Haley Horn Auditorium at Benicia High School, 1101 Military West. Bowles said the city can use the auditorium — the site of several Benicia showings of LunaFest, a national traveling festival of short films made by women and focusing on women’s subjects — at no charge; two students will handle the movies’ projection.

But what has some in Benicia most excited is the final day of the festival, starting at noon Sept. 6, because that portion of the event will take place at the Majestic Theatre.

Bowles said several committee members had the same thought when discussing possible locations for the festival’s third venue, asking, “What about the Majestic?”

“Leah told me she’s looking forward to this,” Bowles said, referring to Leah Shelhorn, owner of Studio 41, the theater’s neighbor at 700 First St., and chairperson of the Downtown Business Alliance, a group active in local efforts to promote First Street shopping.

Last year the festival was on the north end of First Street, Bowles noted. Now it will be in the center of the downtown shopping district, and “We’re excited about it.”

Marlena Rodrigues, a member of the film festival committee, echoed Bowles’s sentiment.

She said she and Deborah Davis, another committee member who volunteers with Girl Scouts, met several times about the possiblity of the festival taking place at the Majestic.

Once it was determined the theater was suitable and available, the two decided the special occasion called for covers, sewed by Girl Scouts, for some of the seats in the theater.

Rodrigues said festival organizers were thrilled when The Majestic’s owner, Robert Reichert, agreed. Reichert also paid for the fabric and made a donation to the local scouting program.

Rodrigues made the pattern, and then several members of Benicia Girl Scouts stitched the fabric.

Rodrigues and Davis knew some of the girls didn’t sew. To help them with the project, they conducted short sewing classes to teach the girls to make seams and attach elastic to the durable fabric.

“It was a little difficult,” Kiera Sauter, a Girl Scout Cadet, said Thursday as the Scouts showed off their handiwork at the theater. “But the more you try, the easier it gets.”

Moviegoers will be able to spot the covers the Scouts made — they’re a dark blue, resembling the “Benicia Blue” color of the city shopping district’s street lamps.

“I like sewing. I’ve done sewing in the past,” said Isabel Blaettler, a former Girl Scout Ambassador.

“My grandmother was a seamstress, and I wanted to learn,” Amanda Carvalho, anothert Girl Scout Cadet, said.

The covers made by Kaelyn Campbell, another Girl Scout Cadet, were sewn on a Singer machine that may predate the theater itself — the machine, a gift, is a century old. It has an electric pedal, she said, and “It worked really well.”

Members of the film festival committee first began talking to the Scouts in January about the covers for the special event, said Kerry Sullivan, a Girl Scout leader.

“The Scouts were sewing in May and June,” she said. The girls made 140 of the covers for the festival, meeting in six sessions to do the work.

Maggie Tanner and Amalia von Studnitz, two other Girl Scout Cadets, also made covers, but weren’t able to join their friends Thursday afternoon to stretch them over the theater seats.

Those who did were able to meet Reichert, who gave them a brief tour of the theater.

“This does not sit here empty, day after day,” he said. The theater may look quiet on the outside, but inside it’s a busy place.

It has comedy and film shows, Reichert said, as well as private events. It also is a setting for filming music videos and recordings.

Reichert said he decided to allow his theater to be used “because my heart goes to the Benicia Film Festival.”

Advance tickets to the festival are being sold online at beniciafilmfestival.com through Sept. 4.

Admission to the 6 p.m. Sept. 4 Friday Film Festival and Gala at Carter’s Biz Café in the Commanding Officers’ Quarters, 1 Commandant’s Lane, is $30 for a single ticket and $50 for a pair, and includes refreshments and a glass of wine per person as well as admission to see the films.

Admission to the Sept. 4 series of films that starts at 10 a.m. at Benicia High School’s Haley Horn Auditorium, 1101 Military West, is $25 for adults and $15 for students.

Admission to the final day of the festival, which starts at noon Sept. 6 at the Majestic Theatre, 710 First St., also is $25 for adults and $15 for students.

Weekend tickets for all three days also are available, at $65 for adults and $30 for students. In addition, there are Benicia Film Festival Packages at $95 each that cover a weekend pass for one person; one copy of the “Wind, Water Land” DVD of Benicia’s first public work of art that is on display at the Benicia Community Center, 370 East L St.; and one T-shirt, available in medium, large and extra large sizes.

Tax-deductible donations and sponsorships of the festival also are welcome, and those interested may contact Bowles at 707-746-4358 or may mail them to the city of Benicia, Benicia Public Library, 150 East L St., Benicia CA 94510.