A new film spot has opened in Five Points, showing indie films and horror flicks and giving local filmmakers a place to showcase their work.

The Babylon Kino is a small space tucked away on the second floor of 631 Harden St. It’s different from other local theaters, as it only has a single room with a screen and projector. There is a concession space next to posters of recent small films made by local filmmakers behind the few rows of couches and folding chairs. 

The kino is a venture started by five creatives, including filmmaker David Axe. Axe said he wanted to place a theater in Columbia that showed underground movies.

“We call this a ‘kino,’ which is the German word for movie theater,” Axe said. “The implication with that word is small movie theater.”

The Babylon has been open for about three weeks and seats about 45 people. Most events are either free or cost $10.

“We’ve filled this space a couple times,” Axe said. If “we can get 200 ticket payers through the door a month, we’ll be golden. So our overhead is extremely low.”

The theater hosted a “Kino Happy Hour” Feb. 26 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Most of the attendees were returning guests, including Kat Price.

“I take myself to movies all the time,” Price said. “It’s like, one of my favorite things to do. But here, it just feels more intimate.”

The crowd voted on which genre of movie to watch during the event. Comedy and horror were the most requested, which prompted Axe to play the 2019 horror comedy “Villains.”

A place like The Babylon isn’t for showing the newest Hollywood blockbuster. Nick Clay, one of Axe’s business partners, intends to show movies and short films people may not find anywhere else.

“You don’t have to actually operate as a movie theater,” Clay said. “It’s more like a communal space, and so we wanted to bring that here to Columbia.”

Independent movie theaters can be found all over the globe and are common in larger cities. Many of those theaters can be more community based than those with a more traditional approach.

“There are more and more of them in the United States,” Axe said. “It’s just people finding weird spaces, like this, they can afford, slapping a projector on the ceiling, screen, on the wall, the speakers, and doing something to make movies available to people there.”

Babylon staff don’t consider time spent there as work, as they all have jobs outside of it. It’s a volunteer effort among film enthusiasts.

Kwasi Brown, a regular attendee, helps organize events for the venue.

“One of the partners that I work with on something else asked me could I do their Black History Month showing?” Brown said. “They just asked me to do it, And now we’re going to work on some more projects.”

Brown enjoys horror films and looks forward to hosting monthly horror-themed events.

“I want them to be fun, if that makes any sense,” Brown said. “Sometimes it might be something very cerebral, something like ‘Get Out,’ but then it might just be ‘Evil Dead’ with people getting their heads cut off.”

The only struggle for The Babylon in its first month of opening has been marketing and advertising.

“We’re still trying to find ways to build an audience around here and get the word out that we’re here, because we are kind of like, tucked away in Five Points,” Clay said. “With the way the social sphere is and navigating all that nowadays has just been a learning experience.”

Tickets and information about screenings can be found on social media as well as Babylon’s website.

The venue has several events planned on its calendar, including more happy hours every Wednesday.

Axe and Clay consider residents of the city of Columbia as their family.

“It doesn’t have to be the whole city, you know,” Axe said. “We’ll find our people. It only needs to be a few 100 people to keep this place going. They’re out there.”