Meet the Maestro of Retro Films at Carolina Theatre

Follow Jim Carl’s cinematic journey at Durham’s historic theater

By George Spencer | Photo by John Michael Simpson

A “great showman.” That’s how Jim Carl, senior director of film programming at the Carolina Theatre, describes himself. This jovial impresario of all things cinematic has created more than a dozen annual film festivals and series over the past 26 years that put the historic theater on the national film landscape. In the process, Jim has become something of a cult icon to devoted fans who return time and time again.

He is best known for his long-running weekly Friday night double features of classic movies called Retro Films. (The theater has branded the name.) Retro, as fans call it, screens hits such as “E.T.,” “Die Hard,”“The Shining”and “It’s a Wonderful Life”mixed with cult favorites like “Harold and Maude” and “Galaxy Quest.” All films must be at least 20 years old.

Jim, the theater’s longest-serving staff member, adds a personal touch to Retro. He greets moviegoers in the lobby, where he invites them to enter a drawing for kitschy gifts. “Sign in for door prizes!” he hollers to people lined up for popcorn. (Think refrigerator magnets of Bette Davis or Cary Grant.) Before the first movie begins, he bounds onto the stage and shouts, “Hello, everybody!” After welcoming the audience, he teases coming attractions, pulls audience entries from a black plastic Halloween cauldron and – to much hooting and applause – invites winners to come down and claim their swag.

The lights lower, and smoke plumes shoot from fog machines at both sides of the proscenium arch. Colored stage lights flicker. One of his handcrafted trailers unspools a rapid-fire montage of classic movie bits. Next come film trailers that ran the week the classic movie premiered. Yet another trailer reveals trivia about the film. A final one says, “Spontaneous cheering and applause erupt!” And that is what happens.

“I enjoy being on stage with geysers and all the music swelling,” Jim says. “My philosophy has always been, ‘Interesting is good, but fun is better.’ My goal has always been to entertain, to make people happy.”

Jim initially faced a big decision – whether Retro Films would only show movies he liked. “Where I came down in my thinking was, I didn’t want this to be films I personally enjoy,” he recalls. (He has a fondness for 1970s and 1980s flicks.) “I wanted Retro to be something for everyone, for every part of the community, as much as possible.” A third of the films he screens come from each year’s 5,000 to 6,000 cauldron-collected audience suggestions.

Jim recently launched genre-specific cinema series that include Alfred Hitchcock; FantasticRealm; Retro Rocks!; Disney-Quest; Retro Epics; Kaiju-Quest (think giant Japanese monsters); Free Retro Family Days; and the Sensory-Friendly Film Series for those with autism and others needing sensory accommodations. Volunteer judges curate the Carolina’s two festivals – OutSouth (gay cinema) and Nevermore (indie horror).

Early on, Jim programmed only a few classic flicks annually to fill schedule gaps; this year, the theater will show about 230 repertory movies, not including first-run films. Annual attendance has more than tripled since 2015 from nearly 8,000 tickets sold to 25,000. The revenue growth? “Phenomenal,” Jim says.

“When it comes to repertory programming, what Jim has put together at the Carolina ranks with New York City, L.A. and other major market cinemas,” says Adam Birnbaum, director of film programming at Avon Theatre, a Stamford, Connecticut, historic film center.

Far from being a snooty cinéaste, Jim grew up watching drive-in movies. The first film he saw was “The Exorcist” at age 6. (His mother thought he was asleep in the back seat.) The lanky Sweetwater, Texas, native got his start in the industry in Manhattan as an assistant production auditor in 1990 during the first season of “Law and Order.” “I didn’t have the stamina for it,” he says. “It was very stressful.”

Fascinated by data, Jim came south planning to get his master’s in audience research and analysis at UNC-Chapel Hill but landed a job as a programming associate at the theater in 1995. He has kept attendance and revenue records on every Retro film since the first on November 13, 1998. “If you ask me about ‘Big Trouble in Little China,’ I can tell you whether it played at Retro, as a first-run or at a non-Retro series,” he says.

Newcomers to Durham often tell Jim they are astonished the Carolina offers so many film series and festivals. He has run Retro so long that, decades later, people have told him they had their first date at one of his movies and now their grown children attend, too.

“I am very grateful to the audience,” Jim says. “I truly am.”

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