By Lisa Butterworth | Special to the Courier

They started popping up around the Village not long after the new year. The first one taped outside the former Press location, where Finney’s Crafthouse is under construction: a black-and-white flyer touting a Jacob Black look-alike contest to take place in February at a Laemmle Claremont 5 screening of the 2008 teen romance juggernaut “Twilight.”

I immediately snapped a picture and sent it to my friends: “Who’s in?”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. After several weeks of spying flyers in other conspicuous spots around town, I tried to buy tickets, but to no avail. A second show was added, but that quickly sold out too. The event was a bona fide success before it even happened.

For those familiar with the challenges our local movie theater has faced over the past few years — recovering from its pandemic closure, lackluster attendance, nearby mega-chain theater competition — this is an exciting development. And though I wasn’t in attendance (sob), Laemmle Claremont 5’s Assistant Manager Christian Valverde assured me the night was a hit. Even pouring rain didn’t deter the throngs of moviegoers who had been waiting years for another (or perhaps first) chance to see a sparkling Robert Pattinson and sullen Kristen Stewart fall in supernatural love on the big screen.

“The energy was really high,” Valverde said. “Our favorite part was people interacting with the movie. The scene where they do the hums, [the audience] all started singing in unison during the movie, which was incredible—the loud pops, the applause was really sweet.”

(L-R) Dillion Atkins and Laemmle Claremont 5 Assistant Manager Christian Valverde recently launched Rewind Cinema Club at the Village theater. Courier photo/Peter Weinberger

Attendees committed sartorially too. Some dressed as Jacob (the werewolf, for those unfamiliar), others channeled Bella Swan (the human in the angsty love triangle), and of course, there were some Edward Cullens (the vampire).

“It was hilarious. We had one guy who had the perfect hair, perfect costume, and then also covered himself in glitter,” Valverde said. “He was so good. He won the contest, of course.” The prize? Tickets for upcoming events and an unopened “Scene It: Twilight” movie trivia game Valverde found at a local Goodwill. “We couldn’t believe it was wrapped,” he said. “Who knows if the game works.” Playable or not, the nostalgia factor gets a 10/10.

Which is exactly what Valverde and his four friends who helped mastermind the event through Rewind Cinema Club, are going for. “Our whole mission statement is nostalgia,” he said, “but nostalgia from my age.” Valverde is 26. He’s been working part-time at the Laemmle for two years while attending Mt. SAC (a former film major, he recently switched his focus to education), so he’s intimately familiar with the theater’s struggles. The most recent hurdle was overcome in December, when the theater went up for auction and, lucky for us, didn’t reach its reserve price.

I shared with Valverde that I’d solicited my friends, to see if anyone had some spare millions that would allow us to save this Village gem. “We were the same way!” He said with a laugh. “The employees were like, should we buy it? We get paid not enough to do that. But honestly, even though that was a tough time for us, that’s kind of what inspired all this. We took that as a call to action. We’ve got to bring in a young audience, and that’s what we want to do with this.”

A lifelong movie lover, Valverde had been hoping to create some sort of programming since he started working for Laemmle. Finally, he got the green light. He and his closest friends — Josh Vazquez, Dillon Atkins, Nima Ghamari, and Mohammed Moussa — launched the Rewind Cinema Club, “where nostalgia meets the big screen.” “Twilight” was the club’s first endeavor, and it was, to use the parlance, a blockbuster debut.

Rewind Cinema Club plans to host monthly events. This month’s screening is the 2013 documentary “One Direction: This Is Us”; an especially poignant choice given that fans of the boy band are still grieving the October death of one of its members, Liam Payne. “Similar to ‘Twilight,’ I knew [the movie] just meant something to people my age,” Valverde said. “Especially girls my age. They’re still obsessed. So I thought, what’s something we can do to bring that energy back, that love for the band?”

The event sold out in less than 48 hours. At the time of this writing, seats are still available for the second 10 p.m. showing, but no promises can be made.

Bringing people to the theater is one of Rewind Cinema Club’s main goals. And so far, it’s working.

“Going to the movies is a habit that you have to pick back up,” Valverde said. “And I think younger people lost that during the pandemic. I think events like this will remind them, like, Oh, I want to watch that. I mean, we’ve been doing this for a hundred years — going to movies is awesome. If they just give it a chance, I think they’ll fall in love. Just like all the previous generations.”

Though Valverde is employed by Laemmle, Rewind Cinema Club is, at the moment, simply a labor of love. The crew hopes to increase the frequency of events — “La La Land” is on tap for early April — and though Valverde is rather secretive about future films, he did mention that 1997’s “Selena,” and 2005’s “Pride & Prejudice” are under consideration.

Today, all the Laemmle’s screenings are digital, but Valverde hopes to shake that up too. “My big dream right now is to get our film projection going,” he said. “I would love to do ‘Jaws’ on 35-millimeter.”

So far, feedback has been “all positive,” he said. And the collective enthusiasm is encouraging — the Laemmle lives to see another day! And many, many more, if Rewind Cinema Club has its way.

“You’ve got a cool theater right next to you,” Valverde said, when asked what kind of message he’d like to get out to our community. “Come in, bring your friends. Just go to the movies, man. Have fun.”