Hopeful Wishes for 2020

Board President, Derek Devine

As I reflect on life in Fort Wayne in 2019, I think of the many things I'm grateful for. Certainly, Cinema Center is way up on the list, and in fact, I'll be sending my favorite nonprofit a generous year-end donation as soon as I finish this letter. But first, I want to tell you a story.

I moved to Fort Wayne 25 years ago with my wife Anne, when she won an audition with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. The city has changed so much since then, and we're seeing amazing things come to fruition that have been in the planning stages for years.

When you move to a new community, you check certain boxes. One of those boxes for us was the independent arthouse movie theater. I fell into art film in college on my daily walks past the Little Theater in Rochester, NY. In Cincinnati, where Anne and I dated and got married, it was the Esquire. Small, independent theaters like these were my journey into the unexpected. Film as an art form carries a different meaning for me than film as entertainment, and I'm so grateful that Fort Wayne has supported Cinema Center for over 40 years.

Fast forward to the future, and I am now president of Cinema Center's awesome board of directors. This group loves film and loves Cinema Center. It's a good thing because Cinema Center has been struggling for its life over the past few years. We've been challenged by the rapid growth of streaming services and the mainstreaming of films that were once shown only at theaters such as Cinema Center.

We've also been challenged by the convenience of social media and the expectation that if something is worth attending, it'll be blasted all over the internet, and we'll automatically "hear about it." (Heck, I used to park my car and walk up to the theater window to read a newspaper clipping scotch-taped to the window of the Esquire to find out what was showing. Oh boy, those were the days!) Shouldn't we still make an effort to seek out great art? (FYI, you can always see what's playing at cinemacenter.org.)

And to be honest, we've lost our way at times, as anyone would. It's difficult to think aspirationally when you've got bills to pay, and Cinema Center has always been a little overly fair in its pricing in my opinion, so we've never accumulated big financial reserves for prolonged downtimes.

We had a moment this summer. We actually floated the idea of closing the doors for good. Ticket sales for 2018/2019 were abysmal. Really bad. We enlisted the help of some very smart people in an external think tank who assured us that these challenges were prevalent across the country. We were not alone, and theaters like my beloved Little Theater in Rochester had been busy rethinking their business plans.

As I stated in an earlier member email, I spent time at the Telluride Film festival this summer where I stood in line for hours to see films. Where I was turned away from sold-out shows and where I ran to try to catch shows that I really wanted to see. (You can see many of these films at Cinema Center, by the way. You just buy your ticket and walk in. Super easy. Seats are more comfortable, too.) And, Netflix and Amazon and others were there sponsoring theaters and shows and handing out free candy. They weren't competing with theaters, they were sponsoring them. And speaking of free candy, Ken Burns was walking around my 3-hour-wait-sold-out-theater sharing his bag of Twizzlers with movie fans.

That's what film is. It's people. It's sitting in a full theater. It's sharing Twizzlers and saying hello to strangers and famous people. It's meeting filmmakers, weird horror film fans, beekeepers, educators, college kids. It's talking and being heard. It's getting your eyes opened to new ideas and places. It's walking out of the theater and gushing about a film to your wife and having her say, "Yeah I dunno, it was weird, and boys are gross" (The Lighthouse – I know you liked the film, Anne, I know you did).

Fort Wayne deserves this.

The Cinema Center staff, board, members and volunteers are the absolute best. And, we're making our comeback. A small group of volunteers woke up the Hobnobben Film Festival this fall and brought us our most successful and profitable festival to date. They're already planning for next year. We're paying down our debt (slower than I'd like, but we're doing it) and projecting stability in the months to come. We're building partnerships, attracting larger audiences, meeting new sponsors, and programming the unexpected. We're talking and we're listening, and many people seem to be revisiting the notion of sitting upright in a chair in a theater to watch a film vs. laying down half-asleep on the couch. Cinema Center is not out of the fire, but we're heading to safety.

Your help really helps. Cinema Center is a not-for-profit. Nobody owns Cinema Center. It's a community asset governed by a volunteer board of directors, a paid staff and an executive director charged with overseeing its mission and survival. We deeply care about growing this Fort Wayne jewel alongside the many outstanding cultural jewels in Fort Wayne's crown.

Please consider making a year-end, tax-deductible DONATION to Cinema Center to help speed our recovery along. Or, you can send a check to Cinema Center, 437 E. Berry St., Fort Wayne, IN 46802. Every gift helps! And please, keep coming to our films and continuing to share this valuable community resource with your friends and family.

I for one am checking this box. Fort Wayne has a Cinema Center.

Happy holidays,

Derek

Cinema Center Board President