Capri Theatre to Screen Hype Williams Cult Classic Belly in Montgomery

The Capri Theatre brought one of hip-hop cinema's most visually audacious films to its Cloverdale screen on March 19, when the Montgomery Film Festival and Village Green Records presented Hype Williams' cult classic Belly as part of their Music Video Cinema Series. The 7 p.m. screening drew on a film whose reputation has only deepened in the nearly three decades since its release.

Belly is a 1998 American crime drama written and directed by music video director Hype Williams, in his feature film directing debut. The film received generally negative reviews from critics at the time, who criticized the plot while praising the cinematography, but it has since gained a cult following, namely for its visual presentation, cast, and representation of hip-hop culture in the 1990s. It remains the only film Williams ever directed.

The Montgomery Film Festival framed the screening under its Music Video Cinema banner, described in event materials as "a curated exhibition series devoted to music-driven film and media, highlighting works across features, music videos, concert films, documentaries, and live score presentations." The choice of Belly is a precise fit for that mandate. After Belly, Williams went on to direct music videos for the likes of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Coldplay, and Megan Thee Stallion, cementing his identity as one of the defining visual architects of the music video era, even without ever returning to feature filmmaking.

Partnering with the Montgomery Film Festival on the series is Village Green Records, a record store born in Muncie, Indiana but continuing in Montgomery, Alabama. For over 16 years the store has been driven by the ideal to educate, challenge, and inspire with music and records. The pairing makes curatorial sense: a record shop with deep roots in music culture co-presenting a film whose DNA is inseparable from hip-hop.

The venue itself carries its own weight in Alabama film history. Located at 1045 E Fairview Ave in the heart of the Cloverdale neighborhood, the Capri Theatre opened in July of 1941 as the Clover Theatre, was remodeled into the Capri in December of 1962, and is now the longest continually operating movie theatre in Alabama. It is owned and operated by the Capri Community Film Society, Inc., a nonprofit whose mission is "to preserve the Capri Theatre for the use of film, arts, culture, education and entertainment." When the national conversion to digital cinema threatened to shutter smaller venues, the Capri mounted what was then the biggest Kickstarter campaign in Montgomery. The "DCI or DIE" campaign raised the money necessary to purchase and install a digital projector and supporting system, keeping the house alive.

Among the people connected to the theatre is Josh Carples, a musician, actor, filmmaker, and photographer who founded Terrible Master Films and directed a short documentary about the venue itself titled "Clover/Capri." Chris Echols, Director of Event Technology at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center in Montgomery, serves as Production Manager at the theatre and lives in the adjacent Cloverdale-Idlewild neighborhood.

The Montgomery Film Festival is scheduled to return to the Capri Theatre August 7 through 9, 2026, with a lineup the festival describes as featuring high-profile features, global shorts, local films, retrospective screenings, and cult classics. Filmmakers can submit work via FilmFreeway. The Belly screening placed that larger programming mission in full view: a decades-old film, finally at home on a screen worthy of Williams' fever-dream visuals, in a theatre that has refused to close since 1941.