Shauna Curphey - Writing

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A Picture of Independence

Meridian, June 1, 2000

By Shauna Curphey

Built in the style of a late-19th-century Florida wood-frame home, complete with a gracious verandah shaded by 200-year-old oak trees, the Enzian Theater offers an elegant movie experience, a rare find since the advent of the cineplex. Wilted refuge-seekers escape the muggy night air and sink into overstuffed chairs in the Enzian’s cool darkness. Waiters take orders from a menu that boasts homemade pizza, duck chimichangas and, yes, popcorn. This is moviegoer nirvana.

The Enzian may lure patrons with ambiance, but visitors return for the films. As Central Florida’s only not-for-profit alternative cinema, the Enzian champions films as art. “We get people into this theater to see a film they might not otherwise see and find out they actually like it,” says Philip Tiedke, one of Enzian’s founders.

From June 9 through June 18, the theater hosts the Florida Film Festival, showcasing 138 independent and foreign films at venues around Central Florida. Last year’s event featured the East Coast premiere of the The Blair Witch Project.