When Rene Brunet Jr. was a kid, his father owned the Imperial Theater, a single-screen movie house in Mid-City. At the time, movie theaters were neighborhood institutions and played to the vaudeville expectations of the audience. But from the time he was a child, Rene saw the film industry undergo one transformation after another, which put his family’s business under constant pressure to change or get out of the way.
Fortunately, Rene and his family were able to innovate and remain in the movie business; today, they operate the Prytania Theater. The Prytania is one of the major sites of this year’s New Orleans Film Festival, which begins on October 16.
This interview was conducted by Mark Cave for the Historic New Orleans Collection.