New York's first Black Latina-owned movie theater is ready to grow, owner says
Stuart Cinema & Cafe, New York's first Black Latina-owned movie theater, reinvented itself through the pandemic in order to survive. Now, it's ready to expand.
Stuart Cinema & Cafe owner Emelyn Stuart is a solution-oriented person. If there's a problem, she says there has to be a way to fix it. That's what led her to start the first Black Latina-owned movie theater in New York – and why she's now preparing to build a multiplex in another location.
Having produced films for a decade, Stuart was frustrated with the obstacle of getting distribution. She said the higher-ups who would decide her projects had no audience, like when she met with a "gatekeeper" while trying to get her movie The Turnaround into theaters.
"I remember walking out of there and thinking, so that's it.
