Exclusive: How Prairie Surf is using film to help save Oklahoma City's last Black cinema

Over chicken and dumplings and cornbread muffins at the famed Florence's Restaurant, Arthur Hurst and Vanessa Morrison are talking about the past, present and future of one of Oklahoma City's long-forgotten gems.

"As a kid, going to the movies was about the only thing I got to do down on Fourth Street — but that was great," Hurst recalls as camera operator Kevin Ford sits silently filming their conversation on a May afternoon. "It was always busy. ... They had all those businesses up and down Fourth Street, so there was always people on Fourth Street."

When he was growing up in Northeast Oklahoma City, Hurst says the YMCA on NE 4 stayed active all the time, and Washington Park was especially busy in the summer. But seeing movies at the Jewel Theatre, 904 NE 4, was one of his favorite things to do in the once-bustling Black neighborhood.

"It's one of the last standing Black cultural assets that we still have," Morrison says of the Jewel. "It's about to be 100 years old. It survived urban renewal and all the changes and shifts that happened in that community. It is critical that we save it — and we will."

"I hope so. It's been a long time, and I'm not getting no younger," replies Hurst, the Jewel Theatre's longtime owner.

Rather than shouting "cut," director Matt Payne steps up to the table and into the frame.

"All right, guys, we're good. Now, we want Kevin to get one little scene if you don't mind," Payne says, guiding Hurst outside Florence's so Ford can film the Jewel Theatre's proprietor walking in and embracing Morrison, one of the leaders in the effort to save the endangered OKC landmark.

"We're making a movie on a mission," Payne tells The Oklahoman as he watches the scene play out on the last day of filming on the upcoming documentary "The Jewel."

"It gives the people a chance to do the right thing — and that's a unique perspective, to create something that is an advocacy piece that connects with our past and our future."

How is the documentary 'The Jewel' intended to help save OKC's historic Jewel Theatre?

The Oklahoman is premiering exclusively the first trailer for "The Jewel," which is slated for 2024 release.

"'The Jewel' ... came about, because we had a conversation with (OKC Councilwoman) Nikki Nice about how this theater needed a fundraising video. We had never done anything like that, so we thought, 'Well, let's try it,'" said Payne, who is the co-founder and co-CEO with Rachel Cannon of Prairie Surf Media.

"What was intended to be a three- to five-minute video today has turned into a massive collaboration with a really clear goal that's very ambitious. So, we kept doing that, and now we're launching our creative division."

"The Jewel" is one of the first full-length productions from Prairie Surf Creative, the newly launched creative branch of Prairie Surf Media, which also operates downtown OKC's Prairie Surf Studios.

"Rachel and I come from the creative world. Having Prairie Surf Studios in the former Cox Convention Center has been an amazing opportunity to bring other creatives here. We always loved the idea that, by bringing in larger productions, we'd have greater economic impacts, which would then create more need for workforce, which would then create more opportunities for the schools to lean in to film programs. And, ultimately, the goal is to generate the next generation of storytellers," Payne said.

How is the new documentary prompting OKC's Prairie Surf Media to expand its business model?

Along with Hurst, Morrison and others working to revive the Jewel Theatre, Prairie Surf is partnering on the documentary with Black-owned OKC film company Notis Studios. Not only are Notis Studios co-owners Marcus Brown and Dekoven Riggins helping with post-production on the documentary, but they also appear in the film alongside their students at Douglass High School, where they teach film production.

"For them to be able to see the Jewel come back to life, and then possibly see something that they make at the Jewel, that's just connecting so many generations through film. And it's just special," Brown told The Oklahoman.

The goal of Prairie Surf Creative is to "amplify Oklahoma’s community voices and empower local storytelling through high-impact narratives, documentarian work and original content development." 

Before the Writer's Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes stopped production for the major film and television studios, Prairie Surf’s soundstage stayed busy hosting projects like Season 1 of the hit streaming series "Tulsa King" and the upcoming blockbuster movie "Twisters."

"The studio was always a first step towards making our own content and producing content for others," said Payne, who worked as a screenwriter in Los Angeles before moving back to his hometown of OKC in 2015.

"Particularly now in this downtime, we're busy as ever, producing all kinds of different projects. ... It's a way for us to generate more revenue streams and to use storytelling to do good things."

Along with "The Jewel" documentary, Prairie Surf Creative already has embarked on storytelling partnerships with the University of Oklahoma's Price College of Business, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Visit OKC, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Allied Arts and James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Black's Grey Sweater restaurant.

What is the significance of OKC's Jewel Theatre?

As the camera was rolling on "The Jewel" back in May at Florence's Restaurant, owner Florence Jones Kemp, Oklahoma's first James Beard Award winner, stopped by the table to chat with Morrison and Hurst about the Jewel Theatre's heyday. The restaurant's original location was across the street from the long-shuttered theater.

"It's basically one bad ice storm away from falling in. ... It feels like it should not only be here to preserve the past, but as a way to really propel us into the future," said Payne, adding he hopes to finish editing the documentary by mid-October so he can begin submitting it for film festivals.

"When you look at the way that communities have risen up around theaters, it's really inspiring. Think of 23rd Street before the Tower came back into play. Think about what Rodeo's done in the Stockyards and what the Yale is doing to 25th Street right now. Theaters are really the soul of neighborhoods in so many ways."

Built in 1931 by African American businessman Percy James, the Jewel Theatre was one of the top entertainment venues for OKC's Black community until it closed in the 1970s. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is the last surviving historic Black cinema in Oklahoma City, and possibly the entire state.

"When integration came in, people in the neighborhood started … going to the other theaters that they hadn't been able to go to in the past. That really had an impact on the theater," Hurst said. "When urban renewal came in, it kind of destroyed the business district all across the East Side."

What is being done to help the Jewel Theatre shine again?

Hurst, who has owned the Jewel Theatre since the 1980s, said he is hopeful that the documentary will help muster the support needed to make it shine again.

"There's always movies to be seen. I think there's always going to be people interested in going to them or seeing entertainment in the theater. ... There's still use for these old buildings," Hurst told The Oklahoman during a break in filming.

"People need to know the history of Fourth Street and the history of the East Side, how it was and what it's going to do now."

Morrison has been working to revive the Jewel Theatre in her role as assistant director of OU’s Institute for Quality Communities, part of the College of Architecture. During the 2023 spring semester, her environmental design students researched the history of the Jewel, created reuse design concepts for the building and presented them to the OU architecture faculty, OKC leaders and Hurst in May.

“Mr. Hurst hosted us for a tour, so that the students got to go inside the theater and really touch, see and feel it — and understand from a design perspective what could be implemented to reactivate the theater in the future,” she said.

Also co-founder and CEO of Open Design Collective, a nonprofit planning, architectural and design firm, Morrison was instrumental in securing a recent $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to make urgent repairs to the Jewel Theatre, including partial stabilization of the main structural elements like the roof and walls.

“I’m so excited and hopeful about the documentary, because I know it’s going to bring even more visibility to this critical story that is not only part of the Northeast OKC story but the Oklahoma City narrative and also our state’s history,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Prairie Surf Media launches new division with documentary 'The Jewel'