design by Ryan Howell

Stay tuned for more information on this upcoming  BFA Thesis film. It was originally going to be done by December, to mark the end of the semester, but it will most likely be done in February. It will be screening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Ma in May.

Steve Thomas of Exeter’s independent and locally owned radio station WXEX 1540AM invited me ON AIR this morning to talk about IOKA. I am so thankful to him for letting me come on and talk about my film efforts. I was also given a tour of the old building right off of Portsmouth Ave where he broadcasts from, it had been a radio station a few times before, starting back in 1966 as WKXR. A place like this is what gives me the motivation to stand up for alternative or independent media outlets. I love what he is doing with WXEX and hope he continues with great success. Thanks again Steve.

Ryan Howell, a former projectionist at the Ioka Theater recently graduated from UNH with a BFA in photography. I asked him to become a part of our efforts  as it would make this film all the more significant. One of the reasons for wanting to create my thesis on this building is the fact that the building has not been clearly documented in the past. Howell often carried around his array of cameras while working at the theater, shooting when he felt compelled.

His photographs are on flickr but soon will be hosted on our server…

Howell has photographed the Ioka for over 6 years

Our production stills start here

An extraordinary individual who grew up in Exeter, NH. I had the pleasure of visiting Olive Tardiff over the weekend, for those who don’t know her, she is the author of

The Exeter-Squamscott
River of Many Uses

I used this book for research purposes on my last project,  a video portrait titled The Squamscott River.  She told many old stories about her time as a kid growing up in Exeter and going to the Ioka. These stories are what keep the Ioka alive.

Olive Tardiff on Ioka memories

Photographs by Christy Utter

Taken Fall of 2004

IOKA Interior Still Shots Courtesy of Christy Utter, Vintage Portraits, Exeter NH

http://www.vintageportraitart.com/

Kirk Membry of Moss Creek Media showed up early the night of December 23rd 2008 to capture Ioka’s beauty before it was too late. That night the Ioka was opened to the public for a free screening of Miracle on 34th Street…an event put together by Ryan Howell (an Ioka projectionist).

Ioka Panos

As this site continues to grow we hope to create a place where artists can exhibit their work around the idea of the Ioka Movie Theater. Emphasizing Ioka’s beauty and uniqueness is very important to our goal in keeping the place alive. As the Ioka has exhibited art for 93 years, we hope that with the help of this site we will be able to exhibit art to an online community to help us gain patronage back to this historic theater. This idea is about creating community around the theater via the internet. As soon as we get up the interactive/flickr/blog-like page, we hope to be able to feature local artists interpretations or variations on the theme of the IOKA. This could be anything from paintings to photographs, sculptures to architectural drawings. If you would like your work to be shown please feel free to email us at kyle@iokafilm.com

I hope that with our website and our BFA thesis film, others will share their feelings about this building in town through many other mediums of art. This will help create interest for future patrons and investors of The Ioka Theater in downtown Exeter, NH.

We’ve been featured in a few newspapers in the area read below for the articles!

• April 13th Seacoast Online
• April 14th Seacoast Online
• April 19th Seacoast Online
• April 24th  The Exonian (Philip Exeter Academy student Publication)
• April 29th  The Wire NH