Garden Gives Cinephiles a New Outlet : Film: Mission Hills entrepreneur shows obscure--but good--and classic films in outdoor cabaret setting.

SAN DIEGO —  As his vision for an outdoor cafe began to take shape, moving from a 6-year-old dream into reality, Doug Yeagley had to decide how he could give the space an artistic form.

“I didn’t want a musical, guitar-strumming coffee house scene,” Yeagley said.

Instead, Yeagley decided to turn the space behind Tops, his Mission Hills hair salon, into Garden Cinema, a cafe-style haven for film buffs. Each week, a different film will be featured in the outdoor setting, where as many as 200 customers will be able to sip cappuccino or nosh on some pastries from the nearby bistro while enjoying a film.

In a city that is only starting to cater to film fans who crave something more cinematically stimulating than “Star Trek XVII: Alzheimer’s Revenge,” Yeagley’s vision has to be met with applause.

Stale theater complexes with anywhere from six to 12 postage-stamp size screens and the ambience of an empty warehouse dot the landscape, but alternative movie houses are still rare. (Given the upscale demographics, it’s hard to believe that there isn’t a solid, first-run foreign film theater in North County.)

Samuel Goldwyn’s nine Landmark screens featuring first-run foreign and art films only scratch the surface of available product.

Yeagley’s contribution to the scene is small in scale, but it’s an effort to provide films that are “off the beaten path.” This week, on Thursday and Frifay night, the focus will be on “Surrealism in Cinema,” featuring “Un Chien Andalou,” the collaboration between Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel; “Meshes in the Afternoon,” a short by Maya Deren, and Bunuel’s “Simon of the Desert.”

The screenings at the Garden Cinema, 4040 Goldfinch Ave. in Mission Hills, start at 8:30 p.m.; admission is $5.

Not all the film selections will be so esoteric. The series started in July, and such modern cult classics as “Repo Man” and Carl Reiner’s “Where’s Poppa?” have been in the lineup. Future attractions include “Something Wild,” the romp starring Melanie Griffith and Ray Liotta, and Robert Altman’s little-seen 1972 film “Images.”

“Right now, our unstated policy is to read the fine line between commercial and obscure films,” said Ralph DeLauro, the film program director for the downtown branch of the San Diego Public Library, who is helping Yeagley program the series.

It took Yeagley six years to build the cafe and stage behind his hair salon, “haircut by haircut.” Although he initially wasn’t sure how he would use the space, the concept of an outdoor theater just seemed like a natural.

“This is my gift to myself,” Yeagley said.

He hopes that it will become popular not only for the movies, but also for the cabaret atmosphere. Word of mouth will be his most important advertising tool, he said.

So far, reaction has been encouraging. Crowds have ranged from 50 to 100 people per screening. By September, he hopes to expand the program.

“It’s like my own ‘Field of Dreams’ concept, build it and they will come,” Yeagley said.

The idea is not without precedent. In Europe, where cafes are a lifestyle, such venues are fairly common. Even in San Diego, there are attempts to integrate film with settings more casual than a big gray box.

Esperanto in Pacific Beach jazzes up its intimate setting by screening videos nightly, and Cinema Cafe, a new coffee house complete with screening room, recently opened downtown with dreams of becoming a cultural center for filmmakers and film buffs alike. Filmmakers Jude Eberhard and Isaac Artenstein want Cafe Cinema to be a place for independent filmmakers from around the world to screen their work, as well as providing a space for filmmakers to screen works in progress.

Cafe Cinema, on Front Street, is open, but they don’t plan to stage their official grand opening or begin regular screenings until mid-August.

Maybe it’s all a sign that the San Diego film scene is finally becoming more diverse than the sea of generic cinemas that dominate the landscape.

Reports that KNSD-TV (Channel 39) is attempting to woo Channel 10’s Marti Emerald were met with a terse “no comment” from Channel 39 management last week. According to the rumor mill, Channel 39 wants to hire Emerald and producer J.W. August to do their consumer advocate act, perhaps even using them to do a “Fight Back!” type of program. Emerald was equally vague in her response, saying only that she is very happy at Channel 10 and that “people discuss and talk in this business all the time.” Translation: Negotiations are still in progress. . . .

The KPBS-produced “1492 Revisited” will air nationally on PBS at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 12. . . . Mayor Mo Catches Prostitute Killer! Well, not really, but stories last week seemed to suggest as much, simply because a few weeks ago Mayor Maureen O’Connor, in one of her classic symbolic gestures, walked the streets distributing her business card to prostitutes. Originally, reports suggested that a prostitute who spotted an alleged killer had O’Connor’s card on her, somehow suggesting that O’Connor spurred her to call the police. Even though that tenuous connection proved false, adoring reporters still linked O’Connor to the story, and the normally shy mayor willingly sat for a Channel 10 interview to humbly detail her role in the apprehension of the alleged killer. . . .

The Olympics have provided Channel 39 with a promotional feast, but NBC’s scheduling has its affiliates grumbling. A quickie newscast in the middle of the nightly avalanche of events--usually timed before the climax of the 4000 meter team medley relay for swimmers with no hair, or some similar event--hardly makes up for the fact that Channel 39’s regular nightly news usually airs sometime around midnight. . . .

Operatic music provides a fittingly dramatic backdrop for Channel 39’s new commercials, which carry the weighty air of a production of “The Marriage of Figaro” sponsored by the National Enquirer. One commercial leaves the distinct impression that “FOOD STOPS CANCER!” Another casts Paul Bloom in the lead, showing him earnestly working with the police to make the community a better place for women and children. . . .

Sports fans willing to put up with hard-to-understand announcers might find the most timely and complete Olympic coverage on the Spanish-language XEWT-TV (Channel 12). . . .

North County radio musical chairs: David Berg, fired from KGMG-AM (1320), has landed at KSPA-AM (1450) as program director and morning personality. His replacement at KGMG is Rich Allen, most recently of KSPA. Don Anthony, the disc jockey to be named later, has also moved from KSPA to KGMG. . . .

Wednesday night’s 10 p.m. Channel 8 cable-only newscast provided one of those all-too-rare spontaneous moments that can make television news fun. At the end of the newscast, anchors Mitch Duncan and Andrea Naversen finished reading the news early, and were forced to kill a couple of minutes. Surprised by the moment, both anchors started laughing. After a few seconds, they turned to weather guy Larry Himmel, the happy-talk life preserver. “So, did you win at the races?” Duncan asked, still laughing. Himmel stared at him. “I like to see those hats,” said a stoic Naversen. Himmel, head on his hand, just stared straight ahead. “I have nothing to say,” he said.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

MAYORAL MUD WRESTLING

In the realm of political confrontations, the Susan Golding vs. Peter Navarro race for mayor is shaping up to be a first-class cat fight.

They often get into public arguments over who is ruder, going back and forth over who cuts off the other more often in mid-sentence. In one debate, Navarro and Golding got into discourse only slightly more scintillating than “Did too!” “Did not!” about Golding’s role in the economy. The day after Navarro’s primary victory, the pair’s appearance on KNSD-TV Channel 39’s late “Ross/Hedgecock Report” turned into a squabble over whether Navarro called a Golding aide a “pig.” He admitted he did, but said that she was rude and had it coming.

All in all, it makes for great political theater. The latest round will take place today during the KFMB-TV (Channel 8) 4:30 p.m. newscast.