New 60-seat movie theater is coming to downtown Durham

Cinephiles, art enthusiasts and everyone in between will have a new place to gather in downtown Durham next summer with the addition of a film venue.

Artists Alex Maness and Jim Haverkamp, the owners of nearby Shadowbox Studio on Dominion Street, plan to show independent films and host live events at Skin and Bones Theater at 118 W. Parrish St.

The location has the oldest building on the north side of the 100 block of Parrish Street, according to Open Durham. Built in the early 1900s, the three-story building is currently undergoing construction to prepare for the theater, which will seat about 60 people. The building is owned by the Eno Ventures real estate development group.

In an interview with The News & Observer, Maness and Haverkamp said they were “fortunate” to find a venue to show films and add to the diversity of the arts community in Durham, where over 340,000 people live. Outside of the Carolina Theatre and the AMC at The Streets of Southpoint, the city doesn’t have many venues left. The movie theater at Northgate Mall closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Manbites Dog Theater on Foster Street closed in 2018.

“We want to offer complementary programming because there’s plenty of room for us all,” Maness said. “We can all contribute to the culture and not be clashing. I think people are in Durham because they like the flavor of this town. A big part of the flavor of this town is that it’s an artsy, weird place to be. There’s interesting stuff to do and we want to contribute to the culture in that way.”

Skin and Bones Theater will sit between the M&F Bank, restaurant Neomonde Mediterranean Durham, and the Unscripted Hotel

A place to screen films

Maness and Haverkamp have lived in Durham for over 25 years and say they remember strolling around downtown and stumbling on artists performing in abandoned warehouses and storefronts. The goal for the movie theater is to “get back to some localism,” Haverkamp said.

“We remember when you could go out on third Friday and there’d just be people doing stuff. ... You couldn’t predict how that evening went,” he said. “I feel like we’re thinking more along those lines and just trying to give people something else to do.”

Unlike the AMC at the mall, Skin and Bones won’t be showing Marvel blockbusters. It will show independent films and, documentaries and be a place where local film makers and documentarians can show their work.

“We’re looking forward to dovetailing in with the local, very robust documentary filmmaking scene, which is here, and there’s a lot of great content that’s coming out. There’s a ton of awesome talent,” Maness said. “We want to be able to give our friends and colleagues in that scene a place to screen films.”

Downtown Durham’s arts and culture scene has become more robust over the past 20 years, but dozens of long-term businesses have been lost to the changes. Now, the area will undergo more changes with a new blueprint for 2035 outlined by Downtown Durham Inc.

In a presentation two weeks ago, the organization mapped out a plan to preserve downtown’s unique character while supporting development and growth. This includes the redesign of Parrish Street, which once thrived as a Black Wall Street, with opportunities for small business owners, events and a connection between the Black Wall Street Garden and CCB Plaza.

“Downtown Durham 2035 blueprint has seven goals and ranges from how we connect downtown Durham better to ensure people can move about downtown,” said Nicole Thompson, the CEO of the organization. “How do we create a destination that draws people in, and how do we support small businesses?”

To get ready for next summer’s opening, Maness said they will be holding a series of screenings at Shadowbox called Skin and Bones Presents, to “whet people’s appetite.”

“I know that there are people that are just thirsty for interesting stuff, other than going out to yet another restaurant or bar,” Maness said.

For updates about Skin and Bones Theater or Shadowbox Studio, follow the studio on Facebook, Instagram or visit shadowboxstudio.org.

Kristen Johnson

The News & Observer

919-829-4532

Kristen Johnson is a local government reporter covering Durham for The News & Observer. She previously covered Cary and western Wake County. Prior to coming home to the Triangle, she reported for The Fayetteville Observer and spent time covering politics and culture in Washington, D.C. She is an alumna of UNC at Charlotte and American University.