Extra nurturing

Doug Endicott, co-owner of Exhibitor Support Partnership, which books films for the Rialto and 500 screens around the country, remembers it well.

"Statistic are statistics," he said. "But these kinds of films always need extra nurturing and Ky always reached out to the specific community the film addressed. So if it was a foreign language film, it would be language departments at schools. Or if it's a gay and lesbian film or of Jewish interest or a dance movie, he made sure he got to that community. That's how he made it work."

Today, widely regarded as Sonoma County's biggest champion of independent films, Boyd is still trying to find the right balance of alternative and mainstream films at the new Rialto.

When the self-described "workaholic" isn't managing the movie business, Boyd and O'Rand meet friends for dinner at favorite spots like Hole in the Wall in Sebastopol, Rosso or Jack and Tony's in Santa Rosa and Willow Wood in Graton.

These days they split time between a house in Santa Rosa and a loft in Emeryville. But aside from his voracious appetite for talking movies and dissecting the movie business, what Boyd loves more than anything is the buzz in the lobby on a weekend night as fans trickle in at dusk.

"My favorite part of my job is to be in the theater on a Friday or Saturday night, helping sell tickets, helping make popcorn and make sodas," he says.

"And then sometimes just to hang out in the lobby and watch people connect and see who runs into who and who wasn't expecting to run into who. It's that whole sense of community. Because a movie theater really is a crossroads of the community."

Bay Area freelancer John Beck writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. You can reach him at 280-8014, john@sideshowvideo.com and follow on Twitter @becksay.