Joe Zina's closing scene

He leaves the Coolidge in January, but will be feted tomorrow night

Joe Zina helped bring about physical and organizational renovations at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. (DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF)

For Joe Zina, it all started at the Burr Theatre in Ludlow.

"I remember going there as a child every Saturday and Sunday for double features and having 25 cents to get in and 25 cents to spend on candy and popcorn and soda . . . and watching westerns and newsreels," Zina said recently. "It's hard to believe I'm that old, but the truth is, it was very exciting. And at the end of the afternoon we all marched out to John Philip Sousa music."

Now Zina is wrapping up a decade as executive director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation, after completing physical and organizational renovations that have put the nonprofit facility on solid footing for the future. He won't leave until the end of January, but his tenure will be celebrated tomorrow night at the theater with a members-only "Zinapalooza" that kicks off the Coolidge's 75th anniversary celebrations (details at www.coolidge.org/zina). Writer Susan Orlean, the Boston Conservatory Hoofers, and Fernanda Cajide and New England Tango Ensemble are on the bill along with community tributes and Zina's favorite film clips.

"I feel like I've accomplished a tremendous amount, and at 60 I feel like this is a great job for somebody in their mid-40s," Zina said. "I want to step aside and let an opportunity happen for somebody that has as much passion as I had, that wants to do something great for the community."

The Allston resident started at the Coolidge in 1997 as a volunteer board member and things "just sort of evolved" into the director's job. "I picked up a paintbrush and a scraper and painted the walls and scraped the gum off the bottom of the seats and floor and tried to make it a better place," he said. That eventually included retiring a six-figure debt and making $2.5 million in improvements to the Art Deco facility, including two digital screening rooms.

Also crucial, Zina said, was community outreach, broadening programming to include children, seniors, the handicapped, and just about any other group he could name.

His favorite memories, he said, include the Coolidge Award presentation to Meryl Streep, the children's variety shows, and the "Sound of Music" singalongs with hundreds of attendees in costume.

The struggles that the theater faced early in Zina's tenure have passed, and the Coolidge is on a good footing. "But, that said, we hope to bring in someone who has new ideas," said Malli Gero, chair of the foundation's board of directors.

The search committee will soon offer a few candidates to the board and staff to interview, and Gero said she expects to have a choice by the end of the year.

After helping his successor get settled, Zina plans to scratch "the itch to travel" as well as taking care of his 89-year-old mother. The former dancer and choreographer says he's also looking forward to helping theater and dance groups produce for the improved stage and lighting facilities he installed at the Coolidge.

Oh, and what happened to the Burr in Ludlow? "It's a lumberyard," Zina said. "The building is still there, but it's filled up with two-by-fours. It's really sad. I still have dreams of it."

"BROADWAY" VIA BOSTON: Joey McIntyre, Mike O'Malley, Eliza Dushku, Amy Poehler, and Will Arnett are the big names in Dave McLaughlin's indie comedy "On Broadway," about a guy who puts on a play in the back room of his local pub as a way of reconnecting with his father. The actors all have local roots, except for Arnett, who is Poehler's husband. Writer-director McLaughlin penned the script with memories of the days when he put on a play in the back of the Burren in Somerville. Now the Boston-shot indie, which debuted last year at the Boston Film Festival, is available via Amazon video on demand, at www.amazon.com/On-Broadway/dp/B001KWF80Y.

HONORING BOORMAN: The 10th anniversary Magners Boston Irish Film Festival continues this week with a focus on John Boorman. The director will receive the 2008 Excellence Award and conduct an audience Q&A after a screening of his "The General" at the Harvard Film Archive on Friday night. The BIFF will also screen Boorman's "Excalibur," "Point Blank," "Deliverance," and other films through next weekend. (www.irishfilmfestival.com).

THE SOUND OF "METROPOLIS": The offbeat Boston duo Enuma Elish is making its latest foray into film accompaniment by taking on Fritz Lang's recently restored "Metropolis," with performances Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Regent Theatre in Arlington (www.regenttheatre.com/events/metro08.htm) and Friday at midnight at the Coolidge Corner (no details yet).

WALTHAM TO VIENNA: The National Center for Jewish Film, at Brandeis University, is a major presence at this month's Vienna Jewish Film Festival (www.jfw.at). The event will feature a retrospective of nine Yiddish feature films and three shorts produced by pioneering filmmakers Sidney M. Goldin and Joseph Seiden. The center preserved and restored all 12 films, with new English subtitles or intertitles. Tonight Sharon Pucker Rivo, executive director of the Center, will give a multimedia presentation, "A Glimpse of Jewish Life," featuring samples from the center's collection.

SCREENINGS OF NOTE: The Boston premiere of Massachusetts filmmaker Raouf Zaki's "Santa Claus in Baghdad" is set for today at 5:30 at the Studio Cinema Belmont (www.studiocinema.com). The film was shot in Framingham in 2007 with an Arab-American cast. Zaki hopes it will increase understanding of Iraqi culture, as well as the hardships Iraqis have endured. Watch a trailer at www.santaclausinbaghdad.com.