Victory for at least one of the city's neighborhood movie houses today, as the Outer Richmond's very own Balboa Theatre announces they've been spared from a future of empty seats and dim projectors (or worse, becoming a gym) by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation. As RichmondSF reports, thanks to the SFNTF, the humble theater now has a 13 year lease on their space at Balboa Street and 38th Avenue.

As Balboa Director Gary Meyer, who has been running the theater since 2001 but has taken on more responsibility as co-director of the Telluride Film Festival, wrote in an email newsletter:

The Theater Foundation plans to initiate a fundraising campaign immediately to cover the costs of necessary repairs and improvements to the Balboa Theatre. I will continue to operate the theater under the guidance of our General Manager Roger Paul and his terrific staff for the time being but together we will look for someone who can put their full energy into making the Balboa an even better place to enjoy the movies.

Those improvements include raising some $200,000 to convert the theater to digital projection equipment as film prints wind their way towards obsolescence. To help them ride out the next wave of film technology, why not check out this new documentary on the Sutro Baths that opens next week? That seems appropriate.

[RichmondSF]
[Chron]