Barrymore Film Center Open in Fort Lee

photos courtesy of Barrymore Film Center

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Fort Lee NJ, Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, opened October 21st after two years of COVID-related delays. The center is a museum , a 267-seat repertory film theater, and reception space but mostly it’s a tribute to Fort Lee’s role in the birthplace of the movie industry.

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The Barrymore Film Center (BFC), established by the Borough of Fort Lee, holds an archive dedicated to the borough’s significant history as the birthplace of American film.   Fort Lee is the first American film town where studios, including Universal (1912), FOX (1915), and Solax (1912) — the first studio built and operated by a woman, Alice Guy Blaché — were established.

Along with exhibitions on Fort Lee and world cinema history, programming at the BFC will include major film retrospectives, an annual silent film event, film festivals, foreign film screenings, and showcases for emerging filmmakers.

The BFC was built by the Borough of Fort Lee and will be operated by the Friends of Barrymore Film Center / Friends of Fort Lee Film (501-c3 nonprofit).

The Barrymore Film Center’s first floor museum gallery will host a series of innovative exhibits documenting the art and industry of movies in America–a story in which Fort Lee has played a significant role right from the beginning.

Logically enough, the opening show will focus on the Barrymores, America’s most prominent theatrical family.  Maurice Barrymore was the patriarch, a celebrated Victorian matinee idol and the great-grandfather of their current generation’s most celebrated star, Drew Barrymore.  Maurice lived in the Coytesville section for a time, and it was in Fort Lee that John Barrymore, the youngest of Maurice’s three children, first appeared on any public stage—at a fund-raiser for the local fire company.

Our exhibit focuses on these children, John, Ethel and Lionel, whose careers stretched from Broadway to Hollywood, and who shot many of their earliest films within walking distance of what today is the new Barrymore Film Center.  The story of their fabulous career is told through stills and posters, film clips, theatrical props, and rare original artworks.

The Barrymores: The Royal Family of Fort Lee was always designed to be the new facility’s inaugural exhibit, and has been developed by our museum curator, Dr. Richard Koszarski.  Images and artifacts have come from Fort Lee’s own historic collections, as well as the Museum of Modern Art, The Players, the Shubert Archives, the Museum of the City of New York, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a range of other public and private collections.  But turning this concept into a dynamic and innovative gallery exhibition has been the work of a talented design team whose members are well versed in both local history and the interpretation of moving image media.