Zeitgeist Theatre + Lounge +
ST CLAUDE ARTS PARK
6619 - 6621 ST. Claude ave. arabi, la 70032
(504) 352-1150 rene@zeitgeistnola.org
"Something for and against everybody"
Zeitgeist Theatre Experiments inc is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization classified as a 509 (a) (2) public charity. We are an art house cinema and multi-disciplinary arts center that was founded in New Orleans, LA in November 1986.
We currently have 75 seats in our theatre and 50 seats in our lounge. Yes, we are available for private screenings and events.
We installed 3 UV air-scrubbers in our ventilation system for your safety. Check out our new Dolby sound system.
Our theatre is located just one block East of New Orleans past Jackson Barracks in Arabi, LA
(currently the 6th fastest growing neighborhood in America)
Memberships and donations may be made at the Zeitgeist Box Office, through the "Support Us" Page at the top of this website or through PayPal to rene@zeitgeistnola.org or Zelle to (504) 352-1150 or our venmo
Introducing the
ST Claude Arts Park
An initiative of the Meraux Foundation, the St. Claude Arts Park is its latest addition to St. Claude Arts, a campus for creativity, culture, and community teeming with artists, arthouse films, creative music, literary events, galleries, photographers, sculptors, and more — all just minutes from downtown New Orleans. The Meraux Foundation has generously tapped Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge to manage and curate the space.
For event rental, vendors, pop-ups or bookings please contact:
Rene Broussard, Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge
6621 St Claude Ave, Arabi, LA 70032 (504) 352-1150 rene@zeitgeistnola.org
Zeitgeist Theatre Experiments inc is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization classified as a 509 (a) (2) public charity. We are an art house cinema and multi-disciplinary arts center that was founded in New Orleans, LA in November 1986.
We currently have 75 seats in our theatre and 50 seats in our lounge. Yes, we are available for private screenings and events.
We installed 3 UV air-scrubbers in our ventilation system for your safety. Check out our new Dolby sound system.
Our theatre is located just one block East of New Orleans past Jackson Barracks in Arabi, LA
(currently the 6th fastest growing neighborhood in America)
Memberships and donations may be made at the Zeitgeist Box Office, through the "Support Us" Page at the top of this website or through PayPal to rene@zeitgeistnola.org or Zelle to (504) 352-1150 or our venmo
Introducing the
ST Claude Arts Park
An initiative of the Meraux Foundation, the St. Claude Arts Park is its latest addition to St. Claude Arts, a campus for creativity, culture, and community teeming with artists, arthouse films, creative music, literary events, galleries, photographers, sculptors, and more — all just minutes from downtown New Orleans. The Meraux Foundation has generously tapped Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge to manage and curate the space.
For event rental, vendors, pop-ups or bookings please contact:
Rene Broussard, Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge
6621 St Claude Ave, Arabi, LA 70032 (504) 352-1150 rene@zeitgeistnola.org
ZEITGEIST – NOUN, GERMAN. THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES; GENERAL TREND, MOOD OR FEELING CHARACTERISTIC OF A PARTICULAR PERIOD OF TIME, ESPECIALLY AS IT IS REFLECTED IN THE ARTS, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, ETC. \ˈtsīt-ˌgīst, ˈzīt-\
Thursday, February 2nd: In the Zeitgeist Theatre:
Held Over Mon thru Thurs, Jan 30 thru Feb 2 @ 7:00 pm HOLY SPIDER by Ali Abbasi A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners. Winner- Best Actors, Bar Amir-Ebrahimi - Cannes Film Festival; Best Director - Fantastic Fest; Official Academy Award Entry - Denmark. [TRAILER] In the
Zeitgeist Lounge: Friday, February 10 @ 8:00 pm
GOLD ROOM READING SERIES presented by the U.N.O. Creative Writing Workshop. Open Mic to follow. Free. Saturday, March 25 @ 7:30 pm
BIG COUCH improv presents TIME CAPSULE What if you could preserve a whole place in a time capsule and open it years later just as it was? This whole world would be full of people with extraordinary personalities inhabiting unique worlds and in their feels about what’s happening where they live. That’s what talented performers will explore in “Time Capsule” an improvised journey through time and space. As you watch, we'll be in the moment, co-creating a comedic play without knowing where any of it will take us. It might be whimsical, satirical, or absurd, but it will always be funny and entertaining. in the ST CLAUDE ARTS PARK next door @ 6619 St Claude Ave, Arabi, LA 70032 Zeitgeist is ALL- AGES & SMOKE-FREE
![]() Zeitgeist has received a "Performing Arts Exception" which means we can operate as an ALL-AGES venue and still serve alcohol. Children and minors may attend Zeitgeist films, concerts and events, but can not sit at or approach the bar. They may not also consume alcohol. To purchase and consume alcohol you must have a valid ID.
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In the Zeitgeist Theatre
All films are in the Zeitgeist Theatre. Opening February 3:
7:00 pm nightly JAMES BALDWIN ABROAD: Istanbul - Paris - London A program of three newly-restored documentary shorts about the legendary author featuring: JAMES BALDWIN: FROM ANOTHER PLACE (Sedat Pakay, 1973, 12 min) Set in Istanbul, the film opens with a surprisingly candid scene of Baldwin leisurely awakening in his bedroom. Sedat Pakay, a Turkish filmmaker who studied with Walker Evans, is known for his photographic portraits of famous artists and writers, Baldwin among them. Here in Istanbul, Baldwin seems relatively relaxed, walking among crowds in a public park or on the city’s streets. The film offers us a self-reflective James Baldwin, one who fearlessly examines his most private thoughts and feelings. MEETING THE MAN: JAMES BALDWIN IN PARIS (Terence Dixon, 1971, 26 min) Shot in Paris, a city in which Baldwin lived for nine years after leaving New York — a decision he has described “as a matter of life and death.” The early sequences find Baldwin uncooperative, even hostile to the British director and cameraman, clearly resenting their controlling role. He brings them to the Bastille, whose significance he explains: “They tore down this prison… I am trying to tear a prison down too." BALDWIN'S N****R (Horace Ové, 1968, 46 min) Called “the Godfather of Black British filmmaking,” documentarian Horace Ové films Baldwin at the top of his game, in good spirits, joining his friend, comedian/activist Dick Gregory, at the West Indian Student Centre in London. Baldwin speaks movingly of the historical antecedents of his life and that of other Black Americans. Opening February 10:
7:00 pm nightly TO LESLIE by Michael Morris Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) is a troubled and manipulative alcoholic from West Texas who won $190,000 in a local lottery, only to squander the winnings on liquor and drugs. Six years later, Leslie is destitute, living a peripatetic life in motels and on the streets. After being kicked out of a residential motel, she reunites with her estranged twenty-year-old son, James, who allows her to live with him under the provision that she not drink. Leslie soon steals money from James's roommate, Darren, and James discovers liquor bottles under her bed, leading him to call his grandmother, Leslie's mother, Nancy (Allison Janney), for help. This star-studded indie, which never played in New Orleans, is getting some major awards-buzz (see below) and also features Marc Maron, Stephen Root, Matt Laurie, Owen Teague, James Landry Hebert, etc. [TRAILER] Winner - Best Actress (Andrea Riseborough) & Best Actor (Marc Maron) - Gijon Int. Film Festival; Top 10 Independent Filmd - National Board Of Review; Best Film - Raindance Film Festival. Cate Blanchett, a best actress frontrunner for Tár, used the opening minute of her Critics Choice award acceptance speech on Sunday to single out Andrea Riseborough as one of the most overlooked performances by “arbitrary” acting awards. Gwyneth Paltrow hosted a screening for the “masterpiece of a film” and said Riseborough deserves “to win every award there is and all the ones that haven’t been invented yet.” In a Q&A she moderated, Kate Winslet called Riseborough’s work “one of the greatest performances I have ever seen in my life”. In her own virtual Q&A hosted on Tuesday evening, Amy Adams praised Riseborough’s “remarkable” performance as a “soul transformation”. Jane Fonda (“brave and unsparing performance”, “go see it!”), Jennifer Aniston (“beautiful”), Edward Norton (“the most fully committed, emotionally deep, physically harrowing performance I’ve seen in a while. Just raw & utterly devoid of performative BS”), Helen Hunt (“If you’re out there voting for performances, don’t do it till you see Andrea Riseborough”), Melanie Lynskey (“even for her this is next level”). Numerous celebrities have suddenly and publicly sung Riseborough’s praises with suspiciously similar phrasing – in social media posts, Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, Dulé Hill and Meredith Vieira all called To Leslie “a small film with a giant heart” with Riseborough “giving the performance of the year”. - The Guardian Zeitgeist is proud to be one of only six theaters across the US, who booked the film prior to Andrea's surprise nomination... Saturday, February 25 @ 7:00 pm
DOWN CLAIBORNE presented by visiting filmmaker MOIRA TIERNEY (Dublin, Ireland) and BIG CHIEF KEVIN GOODMAN (Flaming Arrows Tribe of the Mardi Gras Indians) One of the most striking aspects of New Orleans' topography is a highway that cuts right through the city, slicing through, among others, the historic 7th ward. Built in 1968, it dismantled one of the most active Black neighborhoods, which still operates under the shadows of the "freeway". The local community reclaims their neighborhood using a variety of tactics: mural painting, represented by the frescoes painted onto the concrete pillars supporting the highway overpass; collective masking traditions, as evidenced by the Mardi Gras Indians, in the neighborhoods surrounding the highway. These two elements of local culture share an insistence on the importance of history, highlighting its role in the perpetuation of the culture and in the ongoing resistance to its displacement. Their content often overlaps (the highway frescoes reference the Mardi Gras Indians as well as the Maroon tradition of runaway slaves and Native Americans forming independent communities) and both operate within the post-colonial "profession of hybridization", as defined by Haitian poet René Depestre. The film zooms in on the Mississippi and down into the Treme, slides under the highway overpass and moves down Claiborne Avenue from pillar to pillar, building to a celebratory and cathartic climax with the Comanche Hunter and Hard Head Hunter tribes of the Mardi Gras Indians meeting in ceremonial battle on Mardi Gras Day. Schedule is subject to change as films are held over – please check the website for updates nightly.
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V I S U A L A R T E X H I B I T I O N S
Lord of the Flies Thailand
by photographer Christopher Ryan
presented as part of PhotoNOLA 2022
November 30, 2022 – January 30, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, Dec 10, 6-9 PM
in the
Zeitgeist Theater and Lounge
Open one hour prior to film screenings, or by appointment
A fascinating look at classic themes such as loss of innocence, civilization vs savagery, and struggle to build civilizations. These themes are amplified in the overly polarized times we live in.
Solo exhibition by international conceptual photographer, Christopher Ryan.
The exhibition features movie poster prints from his own interpretation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies shot on Koh Si Chang, Thailand with an all Thai cast comprised of a local troop of The National Scout Organization of Thailand.
This is one of four exhibitions on the St. Claude Arts Campus held during PhotoNola.
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The opening reception on December 10, 2022 from 6 to 9 pm will be immediately followed by the PhotoNola Festival’s official closing party - hosted by Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge and the St Claude Arts Park from 9:00 pm until Midnight.
The closing week in January will be accompanied by an artist talk along with a 60 year anniversary screening of the original 1963 film by the late Great director Peter Brooks.
by photographer Christopher Ryan
presented as part of PhotoNOLA 2022
November 30, 2022 – January 30, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, Dec 10, 6-9 PM
in the
Zeitgeist Theater and Lounge
Open one hour prior to film screenings, or by appointment
A fascinating look at classic themes such as loss of innocence, civilization vs savagery, and struggle to build civilizations. These themes are amplified in the overly polarized times we live in.
Solo exhibition by international conceptual photographer, Christopher Ryan.
The exhibition features movie poster prints from his own interpretation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies shot on Koh Si Chang, Thailand with an all Thai cast comprised of a local troop of The National Scout Organization of Thailand.
This is one of four exhibitions on the St. Claude Arts Campus held during PhotoNola.
–
The opening reception on December 10, 2022 from 6 to 9 pm will be immediately followed by the PhotoNola Festival’s official closing party - hosted by Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge and the St Claude Arts Park from 9:00 pm until Midnight.
The closing week in January will be accompanied by an artist talk along with a 60 year anniversary screening of the original 1963 film by the late Great director Peter Brooks.
JOSEPH BEUYS: POSTERS AND PRINTS
on permanent loan and exhibition in the
BEUYS + BEYOND Gallery
(which connects Zeitgeist Theatre and the Lounge)
Joseph Beuys (12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German Fluxus, happening and performance artist as well as a painter, sculptor, medallist, installation artist, graphic artist,art theorist and pedagogue. His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, anthroposophy and the “zeitgeist”. It culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, for which he claimed a creative, participatory role in shaping society and politics. His career was characterized by open public debates on a very wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social and long term cultural trends. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.
on permanent loan and exhibition in the
BEUYS + BEYOND Gallery
(which connects Zeitgeist Theatre and the Lounge)
Joseph Beuys (12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German Fluxus, happening and performance artist as well as a painter, sculptor, medallist, installation artist, graphic artist,art theorist and pedagogue. His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, anthroposophy and the “zeitgeist”. It culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, for which he claimed a creative, participatory role in shaping society and politics. His career was characterized by open public debates on a very wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social and long term cultural trends. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.
Z E I T G E I S T ' S O N G O I N G F I L M S E R I E S :

BEUYS AND BEYOND
Contemporary Artists On Film
In 1989, Zeitgeist curated a city-wide film series BEUYS AND BEYOND: CONTEMPORARY GERMAN ARTISTS ON FILM which also featured artist talks and performances by area artists.
For the premiere of Zeitgeist's great new Theatre & Lounge, we have decided to resurrect the series monthly, but this time expand it to include artists beyond just Germany...
Contemporary Artists On Film
In 1989, Zeitgeist curated a city-wide film series BEUYS AND BEYOND: CONTEMPORARY GERMAN ARTISTS ON FILM which also featured artist talks and performances by area artists.
For the premiere of Zeitgeist's great new Theatre & Lounge, we have decided to resurrect the series monthly, but this time expand it to include artists beyond just Germany...
CANADA IS BIGGER THAN THE U.S. Since 1993, Zeitgeist's ongoing SERIES OF FILMS, MUSIC, PERFORMANCES AND VISUAL ART celebrating the innovative, utterly bizarre and extremely vast body of work from our neighbors to the north. Their films may be smaller, but at least their country is bigger! Size does matter. |
Memberships and donations may be made at the Zeitgeist Box Office, through the "Support Us" Page at the top of our website; through PayPal to rene@zeitgeistnola.org; Zelle to (504) 352-1150 or our new venmo @zeitgeistnola

Special thanks to the Meraux Foundation, The Old Arabi Neighborhood Association, Councilman Gillis McCloskey, The St. Bernard Chamber Of Commerce, Shotgun Cinema, Ellis Fortinberry & Chalmette Movies, the people of St. Bernard Parish and those who have followed us from New Orleans for all of their support. We couldn't have dreamed of a better venue or neighbors.
Zeitgeist would also like to acknowledge the indigenous history of New Orleans, and more broadly, Louisiana, and recognize the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe of Louisiana. We would also like to acknowledge the state-recognized tribes of Louisiana, which include the Addai Caddo Tribe, the Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogee, Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb, Clifton Choctaw, Four Winds Tribe Louisiana Cherokee Confederacy, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band, Isle de Jean Charles Band, Louisiana Choctaw Tribe, Pointe-Au-Chien Indian Tribe, and the United Houma Nation.
Zeitgeist celebrated it's 36th Anniversary in November!
We want to thank all of the artists, volunteers, organizations, members, donors and patrons who have kept us going.
We've come a long way. Let's keep it going!
We've come a long way. Let's keep it going!