The 99-year-old Art Theater sits tucked between Neil and Randolph streets at 126 W. Church St. in downtown Champaign. The faded words “Art Theater” are printed in white paint along the side of the building. Round light bulbs dot the Art’s classic red-and-white marquee, with the bold type of the current film illuminated by the backlight.

Inside the Art Theater on a Thursday afternoon, Austin McCann, 27, sat at a table in the lobby. Typing feverishly on his Toshiba laptop, he wore tortoise shell glasses, a plaid shirt and cuffed jeans.

Surrounded by the historical photos of The Art Theater on the walls, McCann’s young, bearded face and vibrant personality seemed to contrast with the vintage movie house. He became the new general manager of the Art Theater on Sept. 7, the same day the Art officially turned into a co-op.

“Picking films is fun, but it’s kind of stressful too,” McCann said, describing his favorite aspect of working as a general manager.

“My goal here is … to figure out, how can something I think is really good and can contribute positively to this community — how can I get that to be financially successful?”

The Art became a co-op to survive a major, expensive equipment shift in the movie industry. By 2013, movie distributors nationwide will no longer release products on 35-millimeter film and will switch to a digital cinema format. This change saves money on the cost of film prints and shipping.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that it costs $1,500 to ship 35-millimeter prints in 80-pound film canisters, but it costs only $150 to ship digital cinema package hard drives.

Indiewire, an online resource for the independent film community, said nearly 20 percent of independent movie theaters in the U.S. will close because they cannot afford a new digital projector, which costs $80,000 for one screen.

In the Art Theater’s co-op model, people can pay $65 per share and buy up to nine shares to become part owners of the business. Each owner gets one vote for the board of directors. The owners raised $100,000 to make the co-op — and the new projector  — possible.

It’s McCann’s job to make sure the transition goes smoothly.

“I think he’s going to be very good there. He’s young, so he’s got that enthusiasm that he’s going to need for that job,” said Chuck Koplinski, film critic for the alternative weekly Illinois Times in Springfield and the News-Gazette in Champaign. Koplinski met McCann in early September, when he interviewed the new manager for a local cable access program called Reel Reviews.

Melissa Merli, arts reporter at the News-Gazette and member of the Art Theater Co-op, met McCann two years ago, when the Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center celebrated its 10-year anniversary.

“I think he can bring energy to the job and he is in touch with the younger generation,” Merli said.

McCann was born in Cleveland in 1985. When he was two, his family moved to Florida to be closer to his mother’s parents and flee Ohio’s cold weather.

He was involved in theater in middle school and studied film history in high school. He considered going to film school but changed his mind as he became more interested in studying social sciences.

McCann attended New College of Florida, a liberal arts school, and majored in anthropology and theater.

“Anthropology was the only field that didn’t affirm the logic of the current society,” McCann said. “Anthropology was the field that most appealed to my sense that things can be different.”

His film career began when McCann temporarily dropped out of college and joined a Glover, Vt.-based experimental theater company called the Bread and Puppet Theater. He toured in the fall of 2007 and worked with them in the winter of 2008 and 2009.

“Doing Bread and Puppet was the first time I was making art that I found to be socially significant,” McCann said

After working with the Bread and Puppet Theater, he returned to the New College to finish his degree. He graduated in 2009 and began searching for a job in the arts.

After being offered a job in Urbana, McCann, then 24, packed up his belongings and moved to start working at the Independent Media Center.

At the IMC, McCann was a full-time AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. He worked on grant proposals and established partnerships with institutions such as the University of Illinois, the city of Urbana and Champaign County.

Kristina Williams, administrative coordinator at Common Ground Food Co-op, met McCann when they were both AmeriCorps volunteers.

“He is one of the busiest people I know,” Williams said. “One of the totally great things about Austin is that he has his professional life, but he is equally invested at a personal level … in community-oriented projects.”

McCann worked for the School for Designing a Society at the IMC, a project that addresses the question, “What would I consider a desirable society?” He also worked with The Herbert Brün Society, a group interested in how artistic composition can be oriented toward social change.

McCann transferred and adapted the programming skills he learned at the IMC to the Art Theater.

“You program a concert, and 20 people come — that’s one thing. But to have your own theater, and program a festival — it’s a weeklong thing,” McCann said.

In this new era of The Art Theater, McCann wants to “get folks interested in films that are experimental in certain ways” and expand “what we consider to be mainstream.”

McCann said he wants to reshow silent movies and have musicians perform live in the theater to what’s happening on the film.

“I think he is definitely very interested in sort of changing the public’s perception of what it means to go see a movie in a public space,” Williams said.

McCann plans on getting a 35-millimeter print of the 1955 film “The Night of the Hunter,” which is his favorite movie. He wants to show the community a few more films on 35-millimeter film before they switch to digital, he said.

The theater is also planning a regular community-conversation series about the films they are showing and about films in general. They are planning it with University doctoral cinema studies students and undergraduate students. The series will begin by late November or early December.

McCann said he likes having the responsibility of managing Champaign’s historical Art Theater.

“Seeing people enjoy films feels like I’m doing something meaningful,” McCann said. “All I can do is try to ride the wave and do the best I can and see what happens.”

Alison can be reached at [email protected].