Avalon Theatre’s May 5 gala celebrates history of film scores, and supports film education for DC schools

Avalon Theatre Director of Education Rebecca Dupas speaks during a Cinema Classroom presentation (photos courtesy of the Avalon)

The Avalon Theatre’s gala on Sunday, May 5th will celebrate 90 years of Oscar-winning film scores. The next day, the theater will screen a documentary for a special audience that’s another focus of the annual fundraising event.

Cinema Classroom at the Avalon began in 2013 and is a free program for DC students in 6th through 12th grades. The theater tells Forest Hills Connection:

“The program engages students in critical issues through screenings and expert-guided discussions. Carefully curated films that focus on pressing human rights and social justice issues are shown in the Avalon’s historic theater and are hosted by subject-matter experts who guide students through engaging post-film discussions. Introductions that promote visual literacy by highlighting various film techniques are provided before each of the films offered during the school year. Curriculum guides linked to DCPS standards are sent to teachers in advance of each screening. Since its beginning, public and private funding has allowed for bus transportation to be provided at no cost.”

The spring 2024 Cinema Classroom series included documentaries on the U.S. civil rights movement (Soundtrack for a Revolution) and historically Black colleges and universities (Tell Them We Are Rising). The final film, on May 6th, is There’s Something in The Water, on industry-caused ecological disasters in largely Black and Indigenous communities.

The headliner at the May 6th gala is film music expert and concert pianist Rachel Franklin, who will discuss and perform award-winning movie music dating back to the 1930s. You will find more information and ticket purchase information here.

The Avalon Theatre “almost never happened”

The Avalon’s history begins in the 1920s.

In 2023, the movie theater celebrated its first century, a period that included its transition to “talkies” in 1929, its owner’s bankruptcy and the theater’s closure in 2001, and its return in 2003. But eight decades before the Avalon community organized to save the theater, some neighbors organized to oppose it. Jerry Malitz wrote about both efforts in January’s edition of Chevy Chase News & Notes.