Top 5+ Questions with Jenn Kidd, executive director of The Nightlight, Akron's arthouse theater

Jenn Kidd didn't anticipate becoming the executive director of The Nighlight, Akron's non-profit art house cinema located downtown at 30 N. High St., but she made the leap when the job opened up.

Previously, Kidd ran Musica, supplementing her income with freelance gigs — creative consulting, photography and wardrobe work. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself between jobs, and the Nightlight found itself wanting a new executive director. June 5 was her fifth anniversary with the theater, she said, but she's been patronizing the Nightlight since its 2014 opening.

Kidd said her background isn't in nonprofits. Rather, "it's in people and the arts," curating experiences for people at gathering places.

"When people ask what kind of movies we show, I describe it as, we show the movies at the Oscars that you're like, 'What is that movie?'" she said. "That's what we show before it's Oscar nominated."

While The Nightlight is a theater with a bar, Kidd explained it's more than that. It provides free community programming and educational outreach, she said.

The Nightlight will soon celebrate its 11th anniversary. For several months, it's been undergoing a major expansion that has more than doubled the theater's footprint to include a second screening room with 67 seats, four of which are wheelchair accessible, and a larger bar. The new space also includes a library with a projector for smaller events. The new space officially opened on June 13.

Kidd said she's a "big time" film enthusiast, a zeal cultivated from a young age.

"Watching 'Annie' on repeat when I was little," she said, "watching 'The Sound of Music' and 'The Wizard of Oz' with my grandmother, just realizing that there's these worlds you can escape to."

We asked Kidd five questions about cinema and The Nightlight. Here's what she had to say:

What is the importance and significance of cinema for you?

I think of cinema as an empathy tool. I think it's a way to experience and understand other cultures and other people's shared insight into other worlds. I think it's a way to see that there's a lot of division right now — and there always has been, truthfully, but especially right now — but I think it's a way to understand that maybe people in different parts of the world aren't that different and that there's a lot of commonalities.

I think it's a way to escape stress and real life for a few hours. It's a way to learn something, or just not think about your problems for a few hours. I think it's one of the most accessible art forms.

We show a lot of art house international documentaries, but I think there's really something to just laughing in a theater full of people together, and having that shared experience.

What's your best memory working at The Nightlight?

Jenn Kidd recently marked her fifth anniversary as executive director of The Nightlight in downtown Akron.

There have been a lot.

I think this is kind of a dream place because it started in the early 2000s with some University of Akron students who started a film festival, and this place was really scrappy and DIY and built as sort of this grassroots thing. Being able to build what we've just built but still kind of keep that feeling means a lot to me.

We do a lot of fun off-site events. We showed "The Shining" at Happy Days Lodge, and collected 450 pounds of food for the Akron food bank. There's just a ton of events we do on top of the regular movies. We showed Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" and it turned into a dance party.

I love when energy is contagious, and when you're in a room full of people who are just sharing an experience and you have that moment, it's my favorite thing. It happens all the time. There's so many times where I'm just watching a movie with people and just that feeling of being on the same wavelength, or experiencing something. I think it's just the coolest.

Do you have a favorite movie that you've screened at The Nightlight?

Yeah, we showed "Amadeus" last year for our 10th anniversary, the 10k restoration. We were, like, the second people to show it in the country. I got a copy of it, it's my favorite movie of all time, and we were able to screen that.

I curate the films along with Anthony (Crislip), our theater manager, and we're just very thoughtful and intentional about what we bring here.

Is there a 'white whale' film, something you'd like to screen but have been unable to?

Not yet. I have a list. The second screen is going to make a difference; we have a lot of limitations with one screen because of booking requirements. But the second screen, I have a wish list of movies that we're going to show.

There's a lot of themed weeks we're going to be doing, a lot of series, a lot of filmmaker retrospectives. There's a lot of stuff like that that we'll be able to do — bring in some of the bigger indies that we do, but be able to run something else on the other screen is a game changer for us.

Do you have a favorite director?

Jenn Kidd, executive director of the Nightlight, stands in the theater addition as construction continued May 29. The second screening room, which opened June 13, has 67 seats.

Not really. There's a lot that I like. Wong Kar-wai and Christopher Guest; I love Christopher Guest.

They're very different Wong Kar-wai has this sort of dreamy — a lot of his movies from the '90s are just this dreamy, hazy just romantic feeling about them. One of my favorite movies is "In the Mood for Love" that he did; we showed that last year.

Another one of my favorite directors is Jean-Luc Godard. He's French, from the '60s, like French New Wave cinema.

I still go to other theaters and watch big movies. I just like going to movies. I don't care if they're good or bad.

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at [email protected] or 330-541-9413.