OPINION: Here’s why Milwaukee needs a new movie palace to replace the Oriental Theatre | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Dan Bomberg
December 7, 2022
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Milwaukeeans need a movie palace to view independent, arthouse, and avant-garde films in lovely environs. The Oriental Theatre, long considered one of the centers of Milwaukee film culture, does not fulfill this need.
Despite many Milwaukeeans cherishing the Oriental Theatre as a place to gather and experience quality cinema, the Oriental’s name and design perpetuate racist exoticism of Asian, Pacific Islander and Middle Eastern cultures.
Milwaukee’s cinephiles deserve better.
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I’m heartened Milwaukee Film has facilitated public discussion on the name and design of its theater. But at an event on Sept.11, it was hinted a “multi-year interrogation” on this topic is expected and would be a positive growing experience for Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Film’s artistic director stated we’re “at the beginning” of “a long conversation.”
But do the benefits of gradually interrogating Orientalism for the ignorant outweigh the benefits of closing a building that upholds colonial myth?
I don’t think so.
The “conversation” on the history and effect of the term “oriental” and Orientalist visual culture has been occurring for decades.
Do we really need a multi-year panoply of listening sessions, discussion circles and film events to boil down to the clear point: the term “oriental” is offensive, and manifestations of Orientalism should become relics.
I’m going to give Milwaukeeans the benefit of the doubt and say, overall, our community doesn’t need to be taken by the hand on this one.
The Oriental Theatre, in name and design, is a manifestation of living Orientalism. It is not a mere site to showcase historic architecture.
A major reason people attend screenings there is because of its grandeur, which to many (including, for a long time, this writer) is awe-inspiring.
But I echo Nancy Wang Yuen from the Milwaukee Film Sept. 11 talk: being awed by the Oriental is a major “uh-oh” moment.
Another speaker, Adam Carr, postulates one reason Milwaukeeans historically have enjoyed the Oriental is because its sweeping, ornate interiors are akin to Christian churches that many are familiar with and taken by.
I agree, but it also feeds a certain taste for the exotic many of us have been conditioned to have. It’s why Tiki bars remain popular. We’re more seeped in Orientalism and broader exoticized cultural reductionism than we’d care to think.
Manifestations of living Orientalism maintain stereotypes and fantasies that feed racism.
The Oriental Theatre remains a treasured site to so many because it evinces Orientalist fantasy. This should end.
I believe Orientalist material culture (buildings, books, ceramics, and so forth) should not be erased but rendered mere artifacts of a past era.
The Oriental Theatre should have that fate.
The City of Milwaukee should make it a historic landmark, the owners preserving a dormant space (a la Rome’s Colosseum), with limited opportunities for public access to ensure the building’s awe is put to rest.
Closing the Oriental Theatre will obviously leave a gaping hole for Milwaukee film screenings. That’s why the officialdom of Milwaukee’s film community and their wealthy patrons should build anew.
Having a beautiful, ornate theater to communally witness cinema is a community good. Constructing a new movie palace would be an opportunity to create another dynamic, inclusive space for Milwaukee.
I say build it away from the prosperous coast in a neighborhood off the hipster heatmap. Have stained glass by the likes of Kehinde Wiley (like “Go”in New York’s Moynihan Train Hall) and murals by Tia Richardson.
Maybe transfer over the Oriental’s old pipe organ as a nod to what was truly good. And provide concessions for a wider expanse of diets and tastes.
Visioning a new movie palace is a worthy subject for thorough community discussion and listening sessions – not interrogating an obviously problematic name and building.
Erecting a proper movie palace will cost a fortune. But if Milwaukee Film benefactor Chris Abele can buy a historic lakefront mansion only to tear down to build another, I’m sure he can write a hefty check in support of a more inclusive place.
And there are others like him.
I recognize all this will likely be a long way off, if it happens at all. But building a more inclusive center for viewing quality cinema is something Milwaukee really needs to do.
Dan Bomberg is a public servant in education who loves politics, parks, urban design, and ecstatic dance.