VENTURA : Art Films Return to Downtown Theater

A showing of the Finnish film “The Match Factory Girl,” set for Thursday at the Livery Building’s Plaza Players Theatre, will mark the return of foreign language and fine-art films to downtown Ventura.

Ventura has been without an art movie house since the Mayfair Theatre on Santa Clara Street shut down in May.

The movie will be presented by The New Vic Theatre group, run by Paul Argenbright and Andrea Woodward of Santa Barbara, who formerly operated the Victoria Street Theater there. They currently have showings at Santa Barbara’s Bluebird Cafe.

Members of the Ventura Arts Council said they were excited by the arrival of The New Vic Theatre.

“I think what they are doing is great,” said arts council treasurer Karine Beesley. “I think the Livery does have the potential to be a bohemian arts center.”

Despite the limited success of the Mayfair, Beesley said there is a local audience for non-mainstream movies.

“Every time I went to the Mayfair I wasn’t the only one in the audience,” she said. “There wasn’t a huge crowd, but there were 20 or 30. It will take some time for it to take hold, but I know there is a community here.”

Mary Embree, the council’s interim program manager, said there is “definitely a need for art films” in the county. “You don’t get that in theaters any more.”

The New Vic Theatre is scheduled to show two other films at the Livery later this month.