How an Oscar-winning filmmaker helped a small-town art theater in Ohio land a big grant

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (AP) — When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, with a nod to its century-long history, the cozy Ohio arthouse theater had some talented help.

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Steve Bognar is a resident of Yellow Springs, the bohemian college town between Columbus and Cincinnati where the theater is a downtown fixture. Besides being one of Little Art’s biggest fans, Bognar is an advocate for small independent theaters everywhere as they struggle to survive in an industry now dominated by home streaming.

The eight-minute video Bognar directed and filmed for the theater’s grant application set out to illustrate just what its loss could mean to people, communities — even society as a whole.

“The fact that this movie theater is smack in the middle of town, it’s like the heart of our little town,” he said in a recent interview.

Bognar, who with the late Julia Reichert won an Oscar in 2020 for the feature documentary “American Factory,” began the video with some 100 different classic film titles flashing past on the Little Art Theatre's current marquee. He then folded in interviews with local residents, who reminisced about their favorite movies and moviegoing experiences.

It wasn’t lost on the documentarian that such communal experiences are becoming increasingly rare, as rising home and charter school enrollments fragment school populations, in-person church attendance falls and everything from shopping to dining to dating moves more and more online.

“If there was one overall theme that emerged, or a kind of guiding idea that emerged, it was that a cinema, a small-town movie theater, is like a community hub,” Bognar said. “It’s where we come together to experience collectively, like a work of art or a community event or a local filmmaker showing their work.”

Among other events Little Art has hosted over its 95-year history are the Dayton Jewish Film Festival, the 365 project for Juneteenth and a Q&A with survivors from Hiroshima.

Bognar's video did its job. Little Art won the grant, the first Theater of Dreams award from the streaming media company Plex. The company is using its grant program to celebrate other independent entertainment entities, as a poll it conducted last summer with OnePoll found two-thirds of respondents believed independent movie theater closures would be a huge loss to society.

“That collective experience of sitting in the dark and just kind of feeling, going through some story and feeling it together is beautiful," Bognar said. “We don’t do that enough now. We are so often isolated these days. We stare at our screens individually. We watch movies individually. It’s sad.”

He believes that people share energy when they're watching the same movie together, adding a sensory dimension to the experience.

“We feel more attuned because we’re surrounded by other human beings going through the same story,” he said. “And that’s what a theater can do.”

The theater plans to use the grant to replace Little Art's boxy modern marquee with the snappier art deco design that hung over its ticket booth in an earlier era. The theater opened in 1929.

“We found an old photo of our marquee from the 1940s, early ’50s, and that was when it all came together,” said Katherine Eckstrand, the theater's development and community impact director. "And we said, that’s it — it's the marquee. We want to go back to our past to bring us into our future. So that’s where it started.”

Bognar, 60, said it's the very theater where he was inspired as a youngster to become a filmmaker.

“Some of my deepest, fondest story experiences in my whole life have happened right here in this theater, where I’ve been swept away by a great work of cinema,” he said. “And that’s what I aspire to create for audiences, you know. It’s incredibly hard to do to get to that level, but I love swimming toward that shore.”

Moviegoers line up to purchase tickets for the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Moviegoers look to the screen during the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Wendy Clark, second from right, and her son Solomon Shemano, right, visit with Craig Mesure, left, as they leave the theatre after the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Steve Bognar, Oscar-winning documentarian, is photographed at the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on Monday, April 29, 2024. When the Little Art When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Popcorn pops for the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A ticket and change for the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona is handed out of the ticket booth at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Hot buttered popcorn is tasted before the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Littel Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, with a nod to its century-long history, the cozy Ohio arthouse theater had some talented help. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Steve Bognar is a resident of Yellow Springs,where the theater is a downtown fixture. Besides being one of Little Art’s biggest fans, Bognar is an advocate for small independent theaters everywhere, as they struggle to survive in an industry now dominated by home streaming. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Popcorn pops for the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Coming attractions are previewed before the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona at the Littel Art Theatre on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The Littel Art Theatre is seen after the 7 p.m. showing of Raising Arizona on Thursday, May 16, 2024, in Yellow Springs, Ohio. When the Little Art Theatre set out to land a $100,000 grant to fund a stylish new marquee, the cozy arthouse theater had some talented help. Oscar-winning documentarian Steve Bognar lives in Yellow Springs, the bohemian Ohio town where the theater's a downtown fixture. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

PARIS (AP) — For powerful men in France’s film industry, this was a week of reckoning. Gérard Depardieu — the country’s most famous male actor — was convicted of sexual assault. Two days later, the Cannes Film Festival barred another actor accused of rape from walking the red carpet.

Together, the decisions sent a message that France had long resisted: that artistic brilliance may no longer shield those who abuse their power.

For decades, Depardieu was revered as French cinema’s “sacred monster” — a towering talent whose gluttony, volatility and magnetism became part of his myth. With more than 250 films to his name, many believed he would remain untouchable even after more than 20 women accused him of sexual misconduct.

Now, that myth has cracked.

The verdict has revived a broader question France has ducked since the dawn of the #MeToo movement: Can a country that celebrates seduction and irreverence finally hold its male icons to account?

France has long lived its own #MeToo contradiction. That talent, charm, or intellect forgives misconduct. That the art excuses the artist. This is the land that gave the world Brigitte Bardot’s pout and Catherine Deneuve’s poise — and then watched both recoil when the movement came knocking. Deneuve has defended “the right" to seduce, while Bardot has dismissed feminism outright: “I like men.”

But the ground is shifting.

Depardieu was handed an 18-month suspended sentence on Tuesday for groping two women on a 2021 film set. He denies the charges and is appealing.

“It’s the end of impunity of artists with a capital A,” Carine Durrieu Diebolt, a lawyer for one of the two women who won their case against Depardieu, told The Associated Press. The verdict represented “a bookend for putting actors on a pedestal because they were talented,” she added.

Two days later, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival barred actor Théo Navarro-Mussy — accused of rape by three former partners — from attending the premiere of the movie “Case 137,” which he stars in, even though the file was dropped for lack of evidence. The women are launching a civil complaint.

Navarro-Mussy denies wrongdoing. His lawyer said that she’s unaware of any ongoing proceedings against him.

Dominik Moll, the movie's director, said he supported the move. "It was the proper decision," he told the AP. "Out of respect for the women, the plaintiffs.”

Yet what stunned wasn’t just the decision, but who made it. Cannes director Thierry Frémaux had long been seen as emblematic of the old guard. He defended Roman Polanski for years and continued to screen his films despite the director’s 1977 guilty plea in the U.S. for sex with a 13-year-old.

In 2018, when asked why Cannes still included Polanski, Frémaux said: “These are complicated matters.”

Frémaux opened 2023's festival with a film starring Johnny Depp, despite the actor’s highly public legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard over allegations of domestic abuse, in which he was never criminally charged. When asked about the backlash, Frémaux replied: “I only have one rule: it’s the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and acting within a legal framework.”

This week, the rules changed.

“The Cannes decision is of course linked to the Depardieu verdict,” said Céline Piques of Osez le féminisme (“Dare Feminism!”), a group that campaigns against sexual violence. “(They’ve) realized which way the wind is blowing. Frémaux is trying to right the wrongs.”

Not everyone welcomed the verdict — or what followed — as a cultural turning point.

Fanny Ardant, one of French cinema’s grandes dames and a longtime friend of Depardieu, sat on his side in court. She is now directing him in a film in Portugal, despite the conviction.

“Fanny Ardant? She completely missed the point,” said Piques. “She downplayed the violence, normalized it. That’s rape culture, plain and simple.”

Juliette Binoche, Cannes jury president and one of France’s most respected actors, struck a note of restraint: “He’s not a monster. He’s a man — one who has, apparently, been desacralized.”

In 2024, more than 22,000 rapes were reported in France. Fewer than 3% led to convictions. “The Depardieu verdict shows there’s progress,” said lawyer Anne-Sophie Laguens, who works with victims of sexual assault. “But for most women, the barriers to justice remain enormous.”

When Bertrand Cantat — front man of Noir Désir and once one of France’s bestselling rock singers — launched a 2018 comeback tour, he had served just four years in prison for killing his partner, actor Marie Trintignant, during a violent assault.

Despite public outrage, he returned to the stage and performed.

“That would be unthinkable today,” said Piques. “The public mood has changed. What we tolerate has changed.”

One breakthrough came not from a film set, but a courtroom in Avignon. The conviction of 51 men for drugging and raping Gisele Pelicot — who chose to waive her anonymity and insisted on a public trial, turning private horror into public reckoning — marked a turning point. For years, shame was hers. Now, it belongs to the perpetrators.

“It proved rapists aren’t just strangers in alleys,” said Piques. “They’re husbands. Colleagues. Respected men.”

That shift in shame is now rippling through the cultural world — once seen as a bastion of male privilege. Director Christophe Ruggia was recently convicted of abusing actor Adèle Haenel when she was a minor, though he is appealing; and actor-director Nicolas Bedos, was sentenced for sexual assault.

Slowly but surely, yes. The system that long protected men like Depardieu is not yet dismantled, but it is shifting.

As one of the actor’s accusers said through tears after the ruling: “I’m very, very much satisfied with the decision. That’s a victory for me, really. And a big progress, a step forward. I feel justice was made.”

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Associated Press journalist Louise Dixon in Cannes, France contributed to this report

FILE - French actor Gerard Depardieu, left, and Belgian actress Cecile de France pose during a photo call for the film "Quand J'etais Chanteur," at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)