Seena Schnall Levy, who with her husband, David Levy, operated the Key Theatre in Washington and built the Sunday Cinema Club into a multicity institution, died on Sept. 17. She was 85.
Seena Levy was an equal partner in the couple’s film ventures. At the Key Theatre on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, the two ran a popular art house known for loyal audiences and for booking independent and foreign films rarely shown in commercial theaters. Late-night staples included “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which ran in weekend midnight slots for years at the Key.
Together, they launched the Key Sunday Cinema Club, offering subscribers advance screenings followed by discussions with directors, writers and actors. At its height, the Levys coordinated guests and programs so audiences could hear directly from filmmakers after showings.
The couple traveled widely to international film festivals, including Cannes, where they scouted films and met filmmakers. It was part of a routine that mixed business and family.
“I don’t know if she was passionate about film before, but she was passionate about being with my father,” said Benjamin Levy. Their shared life revolved around film, travel and family. Many of the relationships they built through their work continued as they welcomed colleagues and friends into their home.
Seena Schnall grew up in Lawrence, Long Island, in a Jewish household where her family helped establish an Orthodox synagogue. Her sisters, Flora Schnall and Renee Dubrow, remembered her as popular and mischievous. “She was very bright, very adventurous and very charming,” Schnall said. Dubrow called her “very kind and generous.”
She attended boarding school before enrolling at Skidmore College, and later studied at American University in Washington, D.C. She gained early experience in government and politics through positions at the Library of Congress, in Nelson Rockefeller’s New York office and with U.S. Sen. Charles Percy. After marrying David Levy on Dec. 26, 1966, at the Plaza Hotel in New York, she shifted her focus to building a business in film with her husband. In that partnership, she handled the books, payroll and bills, while he booked films for the theater and the club.
Away from the film world, she kept family and hospitality at the center of her life. Katherine Kim said her mother-in-law became a model of generosity and hospitality. “She was the matriarch,” Kim said. “She opened her home, she shared with people and she made space for family. I learned from her that devotion to family is what lasts.”
She was known for hosting large Shabbat dinners and Passover Seders that drew family and friends from near and far. Benjamin Levy remembered that “Passover was her favorite — we’d have up to 30 people at the house, and she made the gefilte fish.”
Family remained central when her daughter, Karena, was born hard of hearing. Her mother was devoted to helping her learn to speak. The family also became involved with organizations supporting hearing-impaired children like the Alexander Graham Bell Association. Benjamin Levy said his sister’s hearing impairment was a defining challenge for his mother that shaped the family’s priorities and reinforced a sense of obligation and togetherness.
Those commitments endured into later years, even as her life changed with her husband’s death on Sept. 15, 2004. Levy traveled widely to stay active. She visited Africa, India, China and Portugal, among other places. Friends recalled that she did not lose her curiosity about the world and maintained a wide social circle in Washington, continuing to host and attend gatherings with longtime friends and acquaintances from the film community.
The Key Theatre, which the Levys operated for decades, eventually closed in 1997. For many years, it was considered one of Washington’s last independent theaters. The Key Sunday Cinema Club continued, bringing new films and filmmakers to audiences.
Outside the business, her priority was family. “Before I was married, she told me that raising me and my sister was her greatest achievement in life,” Benjamin Levy said. “She really instilled the importance of family.”
Late in life, she expressed fulfillment to her grandson, Eitan Kim Levy. “She told me,” he said, “‘I’ve had a tremendous life.’”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
