Black Bear Cinemas is going to have a new look. For the university students who attended free movie Wednesday this past week, you may have noticed the blue strip tape marking off the long hallway from concession to theatre. This tape, accompanied with soon-to-be-added posters, marks off distinct zones for movie-themed murals that will be painted any day.
With applications rolling since the cinema’s Instagram post on March 30 looking to artists to make their “Cinema Across the Decades” mural, Black Bear Cinema General Manager Nathan Paris explained to Maine Campus that they seek to choose nine to 18 artists. Each taped off section leading to the eight theatres inside will incorporate visuals from differing movie decades.
“We’re starting with the 1930s and working our way up to the 2010s. And what we’re planning on doing is trying to get an artist to cover each decade, and they will have both sides of the wall,” said Paris. The styles and images will be referenced to chosen movies from that time. Paris plans to have a poster that reflects the iconic decade in its respective section that the mural will then wrap around. For the entry of the hallway, there will be the Wizard of Oz poster with an accompanying mural. As management combs through the thousands of old movie posters in their collection, the rest of the hallway will take shape in the next few months.
With multiple applications already under review, there has been a diversity of interest from art students at the university to local teachers. “If there’s enough interest in artists, then we could give every single person their own unique block, so we could have two artists for the 1930s, two different for the 40s and so on,” said Paris.
Paris began working in 2021 when the theatre was still under previous management as Spotlight. He continued on when new owners Zach Hussey and Charles Moody began rebranding as Black Bear Cinemas in 2023. Aiming to become a local haven that university students have incorporated into their time at the University of Maine, the new management began sprucing the theatre to feel more inviting.
The individual theatres have been taking on their own themes in recent years, with Star Wars paint and decor in one, and an intricate Stephen King mural at the far end. Take a deeper look when meandering to your chosen free Wednesday film. You may end up in the comic book theatre, or duck into the entrance of the Lord of the Rings hall adorned with vines.
Paris expressed his own excitement with this project, as he has felt for a long time that the hallway could use some work. “This ramp right here is so boring, like, you come up to your movie and you’re just doing this long walk of shame essentially. Going to an exciting movie, but seeing nothing cool.”
The owners added lines of posters in this initial hallway, which many (including the writer here) have stopped to take pictures with. Management caught onto how the posters interacted with movie-goers and decided to take it a step further. “They’ll be admiring anywhere from nine to 18 different artists. The goal is, you know, we have our regulars here, but you don’t have time to inspect every single thing every time. So you know, if you come out every week, you can still probably find little details in each year over that.”
The artists are currently being chosen, with the winners to receive a special movie going package and the materials for their murals. With painting starting as soon as possible, Black Bear Cinemas will have a palpable transformation for returning university students to see and new freshmen to enjoy.
“Not only are you going to see the difference of the decades just by how movies change, where you’re going to see a difference in styles, but how artists change.”
