Photo: A DJ provides tunes for the opening night of Akron Film+Pixel at Nightlight Cinema. Photos by Rob Vaughn. For years, Akron Film+Pixel showed cutting-edge films in pop-up events around the city – 20 a year on average - filling a void in the one of the largest communities in the country without an indie cinema. The group built a following, and now has its own space to house them: a new 50-seat theater called the Nightlight Cinema, showing two films nightly to often sold out crowds since opening in Downtown on July 1. Helping to bring the early crowds was an opening night with a nod to one of the city’s own, a screening of award-winning filmmaker and Akron-native Jim Jarmusch’s’s vampire romance “Only Lovers Left Alive.” The Nightlight space is a draw too. In building the cinema, with support from Knight, Executive Director Steve Felix aimed to create a place that not just holds an audience but builds a community. The theater offers both stadium and café-style seating, snacks and a bar. Felix pipes in music between shows, to encourage people to come early and stay awhile after to discuss the screening. With a few weeks under the theater’s belt, it seemed time to sit down with Felix, 32, and talk about the new enterprise’s history, goals and his hopes for film in Akron.
