From Phantom Menace to Paddington, Lindie and Sean have done it all – except own a cinema. That changed when they took over Brunswick’s Eveningstar, transforming the historic one-screen theater into a cozy hub for movie lovers. Their experience and diverse range of movies welcomes people from all walks of life to enjoy a movie and Maine-made treat at the Eveningstar!

Tell us a bit about yourselves.

We’re from the Midwest. We met in Michigan many, many years ago, and we moved out West. The last five years we were in Montreal, Quebec. Sean worked for the worldwide visual effects company called Framestore as a visual effects producer.

Sean: I worked on the Suicide Squad, Fantastic Beasts, Amazon projects, Netflix projects, Paddington Bear. I did some big Apple shows too like Foundation Season 2, and the HBO show His Dark Materials. I did about 88 projects there. My first visual effects job was at ILM. I worked on Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode 1, and that’s how I kind of got into visual effects. I also was a fellow at the American Film Institute (AFI) and went back to school for a master’s degree from there.

Lindie: I also did a lot of work at  AFI as their set nurse. Any movie needs a set nurse or doctor.

Sean: Lindie and I have produced and directed films together. I’ve directed a couple of films, feature films, and Indie films. We’ve done a little bit of everything from start to finish. Financing, writing scripts, production, postproduction, distribution, everything except for owning a cinema. This is about the one thing we hadn’t done in the business.

Why did the Eveningstar spark your interest?

For the last year in Montreal, I [Lindie] was struggling because of the language and the nursing. Both of our jobs are very, very high, stressful and very time-consuming. A year before here we were just like, let’s think of something else we would like to do together. We like working together, and so just for kicks and giggles, we started looking at small businesses. We saw this, and we were like, “Oh my gosh, this is perfect, a cinema.”

How has it been going? What challenges are coming up?

Sean: It was a lot because we didn’t understand the transfer of everything.  Even though it is stable and you have some built-in audience, which is great, you really have to start over. You’re making new relationships with all the studios to get movies. You’re transitioning everything you can think of – licenses, all of that stuff. And then we had to deal with all the inspections from Maine. We’re pretty much on the other side of it. We’ve found a rhythm. We’ve become much more visible in the past couple of months.

Lindie: feel like it takes a little while here for people to accept you and build trust, and I’m learning that’s just the East Coast way. I feel like just now I’m starting to know regulars’ names and they’re starting to trust me. We’re making this space more of a community space. I feel like we’re building relationships more now with the community. We’re pretty much here every day, and we really love it.

What types of movies are you showing?

The great thing about movies is they make movies for all kinds. It brings people together in many ways, either if it’s a laugh or cry, thrills, excitement, all that kind of escapism. We wanted to show a lot of variety. Of course, we show new movies, and specialty movies is what we kind of concentrate on. But for the summer, we’re going to be showing a lot of blockbusters like Life of Chuck, which is the new Stephen King movie. It’s like an It’s a Wonderful Life movie and isn’t horror at all. Mission Impossible looks fantastic, F1 we think is going to be amazing with Brad Pitt. And as well as like the continuing the specialty movies and showing more classic movies.

Sean: We did a bunch of documentaries on music, like Led Zeppelin and Scorsese’s Last Waltz. Now we’re seeing people come from all over for those movies because the music sounds so amazing here. The sound system is out of this world. We have an eclectic and diverse taste in movies and we’re trying to grow our audience with us. We’ve gotten people from all over the state already from like South of Portland to New Hampshire. It takes a while for the word to spread, but the word is spreading. I’ve also been creating some special events for some of the films I’ve worked on. We did a Q&A for Paddington and a Q&A for Phantom Menace on Star Wars Day. We want to do more community events like that.

How are you embracing the heritage of Maine and the Eveningstar?

We also have events for the 45th anniversary all summer long. We’re going to be showing Heaven Can Wait, which is the very first film ever shown here back in 1979. We’re embracing the history and the heritage of the place. We offer local Maine goods, such as Wilbur’s Chocolates and we also offer chocolate from a local chocolatier here in Bath. Our beer and wine as much as possible is all from Maine. We’re focusing on local products. It’s all part of what our loyal audience seems to want and what we want, and how we connect to the community.

How are you marketing the Eveningstar?

Lindie: I think we’ve really done a great job when I can be visible out front and doing the concessions. That way I can talk to people and make the best connections. We also have a big sign, and please go to our website and sign up for the newsletter. It will drop every week and doesn’t cost you anything. So, it’s those little things that matter too. We get a lot of last-minute walk-up audience members, which we always we have room for walk-ups. We’re also trying to build up our younger audience who buy tickets online, which of course they can do at our website anytime. We’re looking forward to summer. We’re trying to create a little more of a cinema cafe feeling when people come in, and more seating out front too. We’ve had a lot more people hang out either before or after movies just to talk and more seating would be helpful. Sean’s a film aficionada and then between my nursing and film, there’s a lot of for us to talk about and share with people.  

What advice do you have for others looking to break into the small business realm?

I would say be prepared for the first year to be difficult. You’re not going to be prepared for everything, and you just have to make it through the first year. Just know that it could go super wild.

What’s the first movie you showed?

It was Lee with Kate Winslet, a good movie and perfect for our audience.

How did you find CEI? When did we become a part of your journey?

I spotted CEI on the map and reached out on a phone call. We talked on the phone with Sarah [Guerette] and worked with her on the business plan and projections, and just trying to figure out if we could make all of this work. She [Sarah] really was the cornerstone. We had done a lot of business plans for movies, but this was a whole new language for us. And she helped us. She was not only super kind but really clear about the education process of what language we needed to use for the business. And Bethany [Richards] is amazing. Her teacher’s energy is just so comforting and supportive. And I know that both of them have helped us out of their realm of what they needed to help us with. They’re kind and supportive and encouraging people. They met every expectation and above. And there’s so many things throughout that are helpful. We feel really blessed that this was the organization that we found.