The Nickelodeon, known in Columbia for showing independent films, is launching a new series called OUT Here. Comparable to the Foreign Focus series in its structure and similar to Black Stories in its specificity, OUT Here will bring a spotlight to the the LGBTQ community’s experience in the South. The series aims to bring people together by facilitating healthy dialogue surrounding the LGBTQ community. Each month will feature one film that falls into this theme and will continue to run indefinitely. The project, which has been in the works for over a year, will come to fruition on Tuesday night.
Pauline Arroyo, marketing assistant at the Nickelodeon, explained how the series included an entire community of people even in its infancy.
“We actually kind of gathered a committee together: people from the community, people that were leaders and students ... we put them together to decide what they wanted the series to look like, top to bottom,” Arroyo said. The committee helps make film selections and decided what would be important moving forward.
Though OUT Here focuses on the experience of the LGBTQ community, it will feature a wide variety of genres and will attempt to draw everyone into the conversation, which is important, Arroyo said, in order for people to better understand each other. She added, “At the Nickelodeon we’re always trying to educate people and make everyone feel safe.”
While the Nick strives to educate the public with series such as this one, they also focus on listening to the people who consume their content and learning from their ideas as well — a give-and-take relationship between the theatre and its surrounding community. After the series gets off the ground, the Nick hopes to further encourage audience engagement. They would eventually like to bring in speakers or host events centered around the films and their themes.
The project also draws support from many sponsors around the state that will host different films throughout the course of the series. SC Equality PAC, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group in South Carolina, will introduce and host the first film, "Beautiful Thing." Arroyo described the kick-off movie of the OUT Here series as both serious and light and a relatable '90s cult classic that is “a good entry point into the series.” It is set to show on Tuesday, April 11, at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or at the box office 30 minutes before showtime.