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JOIN OUR DIGITAL EVOLUTION
Back when I was interminably flunking out of graduate
school in New York City, I lived near both the Thalia and the
New Yorker movie houses. Both ran classic old films, but I
rarely went to see them. I couldn't make myself study enough,
but I wouldn't allow myself to go to the movies. I didn't really
understand what I was missing. I didn't know why those films
were classic; I thought they were just old, in black and white,
in foreign languages, curiosities but not compelling. What an
education flashed by me unseen in those two cinemas while I
remained in the dark!
Thanks to Cine, I get the chance every now and then to see
one of those classic films, but more importantly, I get to see
the new classics as they are being made, and I get to under
stand why they matter, what film can do to inform as well as
entertain.
I'm beginning to see that good film is like good literature
and good food: it takes more concentration and effort, but
the payoff is tremendous in sustenance. That's fine, you might
say, but if you want to watch a gloomy foreign film, why not
just watch it at home
on your own big screen?
Why does it take a
village?
That's a good gues-
tion. I guess the short
answer is that films are
made to be seen on a
large screen, larger than
anybody has at home
except the President. So,
it takes a theater, just
like live music needs some kind of music hall, and movies, like
music and religion, for that matter, are enhanced when experi
enced in the company of others.
Okay, you might retort. We've got over 40 big screens in
Athens where you can go see a movie, why do we need Cine,
too? I assume you're asking that question just for the sake of
argument. Most of the multiplex films are the formulaic, teen-
driven action plots that are about a comic book version of life.
Most of the Cine films, no matter how funny or how serious,
are about life as it is lived, life that we need help figuring
out in order to be really alive: a matter of life and death. In
addition, Cine is the site for any number of festivals showing
films???French, Jewish, local and others that we'd never see
anywhere else.
So, here's the pitch. Theaters like Cine have prided them
selves on their ability to show all these movies on 35-mil-
limeter film, with its capacity for rich colors along with its
snap, crackle and pop???like vinyl. Almost overnight, the movie
industry caught on that they could produce all their films digi
tally and save the tremendous cost of making, copying, ship
ping and storing celluloid. Consequently, all new films will be
digital only, and the old classics will be increasingly difficult
to obtain. Every movie house in the country has been faced
with the necessity of buying modern digital projection equip
ment. Cine, always in a financial tight spot, quickly must come
up with $160,000 to buy and install state-of-the-art digital
projection equipment.
Fortunately, last year Cine was reorganized as a nonprofit,
which gives us all the opportunity to help our own art house
cinema remain viable. Cine's board of directors has launched
a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign, "Join Our Digital
Evolution," to raise $60,000 toward the cost of the digi
tal equipment. You can go to that Kickstarter page to find
out more and to contribute: http://www.kickstarter.com/
projects/223189106/cine-join-our-digital-evolution. But hurry:
deadline is Aug. 18.
If Cine can't make this switch to digital projection, it can't
stay in business. If we lose Cine, we take a giant step back
from the cosmopolitan environment that makes Athens special
and attractive to people seeking a certain necessary level of
culture. If that's baloney to you, okay. But if you know what
I'm saying, you know the importance of going to Kickstarter,
where you can read more about all this and kick in to keep our
art house cinema an integral part of our community. If you let
Athens lose Cine, "...you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe
not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."
Pete McCommons editor@flagpole.com
EDITOR & PUBLISHER Pete McCommons
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VOLUME 27
ISSUE NUMBER 28
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CIRCULATION
Daniel R. Peiken,
dpeiken@hotmail.com
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