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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 29, 2023

Contact: hello@arthouseconvergence.org

Phone: 708.655.5928

ART HOUSE CONVERGENCE ANNOUNCES AGILE TICKETING SOLUTIONS SPONSORSHIP

Chicago, Illinois – Art House Convergence (AHC) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a sponsorship agreement with Agile Ticketing Solutions (ATS) to support core AHC programming and membership functions. 

Under the agreement, Agile will underwrite a year of benefits for current and new AHC members and provide AHC with platforms for constituent management, event registrations, member services, and customer support at no cost to the organization.

“Agile has been a crucial supporter of AHC through all its iterations,” said Lela Meadow-Conner, President of the AHC Board of Directors. “Their generosity and commitment to the success of our organization has been instrumental, particularly during our transitional phase, and we are so grateful for their continued engagement.”

Richard Steward, Agile CEO, noted, “Agile Ticketing Solutions has been a long-time committed partner of AHC and its constituency for more than a decade and our commitment continues to deepen. We are truly excited to be a part of this new dynamic organization and help carry the mission and vision forward.”

In 2006, a group of fourteen independent cinemas were brought together by the Sundance Institute’s Art House Project to discuss independent film and independent film exhibition, opening dialogues and lines of communication between cinemas around the US. In 2008, this group formally cohered into the first iteration of Art House Convergence (AHC), an organization that grew into a year-round entity that hosted an annual conference, regional seminars, Art House Theater Day, the Visiting Members Program, and other key initiatives that connected the art house exhibition industry. 

Thanks to the support of Sundance Institute, as of 2023 the current iteration of AHC operates as a fully independent and incorporated organization with approximately 2,000 members across North America and Western Europe that serve 30 million patrons annually. AHC is managed by a member-elected Board of Directors.

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Art House Convergence (AHC) is a coalition of independent exhibitors that connects, amplifies, and advocates for its community. AHC  provides networking opportunities, resources, and best practices for the AHC membership while promoting inclusivity, sustainability, and equity within our industry.

ART HOUSE CONVERGENCE ANNOUNCES BOARD OFFICERS

Plans underway to relaunch annual conference in 2024 

Chicago, May 4, 2023 – Art House Convergence (AHC) announces the election of its inaugural officers of the newly formed Board of Directors. Steering the organization into its new iteration, alongside the rest of the board, is Lela Meadow-Conner, President (mamafilm), Alicia Kozma, Vice President (Indiana University Cinema), Ben Godar, Treasurer (Varsity Cinema) and Javier Chavez, Secretary (AFI Silver). 

“The AHC board is collectively committed to helping art house and community-based theaters thrive in an increasingly precarious exhibition landscape. Key to that commitment is AHC’s role in facilitating progressive industry development and sustainability while working in tandem with our sister organizations” said Meadow-Conner. “It’s paramount that we continue to keep art house and community-based cinemas at the forefront of the ever-evolving conversation about the future of cinema exhibition, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. These spaces play a crucial role in the ecosystem of both mainstream and independent film, film festivals, and community building. Sustaining art house cinemas is critical to the perpetuation of film culture and theatrical exhibition as an industry.”

The AHC board has been meeting since October of 2022, focusing on key initiatives to build organizational stability after 3 years of transitional status within the organization and the industry at large. The Board recently wrapped-up their first in-person retreat, kindly hosted by the AFI Silver Theatre, where they delved into AHC’s purpose and mission while planning for organizational sustainability and service to membership.

“Though we haven’t gathered in person for three years, our community remains vibrant, with an active listserv, an expansive membership, and a strong desire to collectively chart the course for independent exhibition in an industry that is vastly different than just a few short years ago,” said Kozma. “To that end the board is happy to announce that AHC will invite our community to come together once again in June 2024 for the AHC annual conference.” A location for the annual conference has not been announced; the Board is currently exploring location options that will best serve its membership and the overall art house community.

AHC was founded in 2006 as a project of the Michigan Theater Foundation in partnership with the Sundance Institute’s Art House Project. What began as an annual meeting of fourteen independent exhibitors transformed into a national organization with year round activities including Art House Theater Day, the Visiting Members Program, and regional conferences that attracted hundreds of attendees from theaters, film festivals, distributors, vendors, and allied organizations.

In 2020 AHC became a fiscally sponsored project of the Sundance Institute, and in 2022, AHC’s inaugural Board of Directors was elected. The group is tasked with transforming AHC, including unwinding AHC from its previous fiscal sponsorship, setting up the organization as an independent 501(c)(3), and determining the best form and function of membership, resources, and programming for the art house community.

The AHC Board of Directors is composed of 14 independent cinema professionals from across the country. In addition to the executive committee, the board of directors at large includes Matt Bolish (Film at Lincoln Center), Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer (Amherst Cinema), Ben Delgado (FilmScene), Deirdre Haj (Film Streams), Arin Liberman (Ragtag Film Society), Garineh Nazarian (Vanera Films), Asha Phelps (IFC Center), tt stern-enzi (Over-the-Rhine International Film Festival), Emelyn Stuart (Stuart Cinema), and Stephanye Watts (Be Reel Black Cinema Club).

Officer Bios:

Lela Meadow-Conner
Lela Meadow-Conner is a Creative Producer and Founder of mama.film – where storytellers, changemakers and nurturers come together to champion humanity through a maternal gaze. mama.film curates films that center women, identity and the human experience. In 2020, mama.film launched rePROFilm, a virtual monthly film series advocating for reproductive justice. In 2021 & 2022 mama.film served as a Satellite Screen for the Sundance Film Festival in Kansas and now operates as a nomadic cinema experience. Meadow-Conner has 20 years of experience in independent cinema exhibition, most recently serving as the Executive Director of Film Festival Alliance from 2017-2022. Her filmmaking credits include Chasing Chasing Amy (Tribeca, 2023) Run Amok (2024) and The Spice Poet, currently in development with Priyanka Chopra’s Purple Pebble Pictures. She also sits on the board of the Vidiots Foundation, soon to relaunch in the historic Eagle Theater in Eagle Rock, CA, and is a member of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Alicia Kozma
Alicia Kozma, PhD, is the Director of Indiana University Cinema, an art house cinema dedicated to using film and cinema studies for intellectual development and cultural enrichment. An educator, writer, and researcher, her work is focused on practical and interventional analyses around the labor of underrepresented populations in the entertainment industries with an emphasis on gendered labor in the neo-art house and below the line production work. She also works on evaluations of emerging media technologies on the business of theatrical distribution and exhibition particularly focused on the impacts to independent theaters.

Ben Godar
Ben Godar is the co-founder and executive director of Des Moines Film, as well as the programmer for Varsity Cinema. Before creating the nonprofit, Ben was a filmmaker, college instructor and journalist. He earned an MFA in Screenwriting from Chapman University.

Javier Chavez
Javier Chavez is Associate Film Programmer at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is part of a team that curates over 700 films annually at the theater, from first-run to repertory to several festivals, including the AFI Latin American Film Festival and AFI European Union Film Showcase. He has served as a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant Panelist for Media Arts and was formerly Associate Director of Coral Gables Art Cinema for six years. Outside the world of cinema, he is a self-taught computer programmer who hopes to automate his entire workday – a task not yet accomplished. Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, he holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Art House Convergence (AHC) is a coalition of independent exhibitors that connects, amplifies, and advocates for its community.

Hello Art House friends and colleagues,

I hope you are doing well and caring for yourselves through these difficult times.

I am writing this to let you all know that the time has come for me to move on from Art House Convergence and the Michigan Theater. My last day with both organizations will be Friday, October 29.

The absolute best part of this job over the years, what kept me going on tougher days, has been getting to know you all and your cinemas. I do not know what is next for me yet but I am certain that wherever I end up, one of your screens will be right down the road.

The torch of AHC will continue to be carried by the extraordinary Transitional Working Group, who have been shepherding this organization with care and intention over the past year. I am so excited for the new and brighter future they are building for our sector.

If you would like to keep in touch, please reach out to me at my personal email makenziepeecook(AT)gmail.com.

Thank you all — for everything.

With so much love,
Makenzie Peecook

A Message From the Transitional Working Group

Hello Art House Convergence community,

The Art House Convergence Transitional Working Group (AHC TWG) has been working over the past year and a half to transform the Art House Convergence, which has operated as a project of the Michigan Theater Foundation since its inception, into its own independent organization. Following a public process to nominate/self-nominate for service in the AHC TWG, a volunteer body — comprised of existing AHC members and new colleagues not previously affiliated with AHC, but active in the arthouse cinema sector and committed to reimagining AHC as a diverse and inclusive organization reflective of the community — has spent time working towards the goal of making the AHC a new organization that is distinct from the Michigan Theater Foundation.

In recent days, we have learned that AHC Events and Operations Manager Makenzie Peecook will be stepping away from her role at the end of October. All of us at the AHC TWG want to thank Makenzie wholeheartedly for her wisdom and grace throughout this whole process, and the AHC community is forever indebted to her leadership during this difficult time. Makenzie has embodied everything that we hope that our future organization will stand for — transparency, empathy, collective leadership — and we’re excited to see what she does next to make the independent film industry a stronger, warmer, and more engaged community. We want to also acknowledge the AHC TWG members who have had to step away from this work in the past 18 months — Carolyn Chen, Beth Gilligan, Shakira Refos — and are ever grateful for the contributions they have made toward these efforts.

Though with Makenzie’s departure there are no longer any staff members directly managing AHC operations on an ongoing basis, the AHC TWG is committed to ensuring that basic services such as the community Google Group and other organizational assets remain whole as we work toward finalizing a new organizational structure and home.

We know that this announcement will leave you with a lot of questions. We may be able to answer some, but please know that at this time we are still working out details. We expect that by the end of the calendar year, we will make a fuller announcement about the transition of AHC into a separate entity, initially with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor until such time as we establish ourselves as our own independent 501(c)(3), and present our plan of action to create a new governing Board accountable to the AHC community. While we will not be producing an in-person event in Utah in January, we look forward to gathering with you sometime in 2022 at a relaunched and reimagined conference, after the new Board and independent organization are in place.

Sincerely signed,
Art House Convergence Transitional Working Group:
Camile Blake Fall
Brett Bossard
Chris Collier
Logan Crow
Gina Cuomo
Ira Deutchman
Rebecca Fons
Jessica Green
Eugene Hernandez
Dan Hudson
Jan Klingelhofer
Gary Meyer
Stephanie Silverman
Dylan Skolnick
Emily Long Vito
Kyle Westphal
Ronnie Ycong

On the eve of the world premiere of their new film The Infiltrators in the NEXT section at the Sundance Film Festival, filmmakers Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera attended the 2019 Art House Convergence annual conference for a conversation about cinema, the U.S./Mexico border, and Latino-identity.

The Infiltrators, a formally inventive hybridization of narrative and documentary that combines footage of the real-life Dreamers who go undercover in detention facilities with dramatic reenactments of their efforts, received the NEXT Audience Award and NEXT Innovator Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

This conversation took place in the final days of a prolonged partial-shutdown of the U.S. federal government (the longest in the country’s history) spurred by a political stalemate over the construction of a border wall.

Collectively, Ibarra and Rivera have been making films about the border and its cultural, economic, and technological reverberations for over twenty years. They were founding members of the artist-run Latino distribution collective SubCine, and have participated in community based cinema programming through the ITVS community cinema program and Science on Screen respectively.

Information about booking The Infiltrators is forthcoming. However, their earlier documentary and narrative films about the production of the border as a place and idea are currently available for booking.

Las Marthas (Cristina Ibarra, 2013, 69 min.) Book this film.

Unlike any other, the annual debutante ball in Laredo, Texas is part of a lucrative month-long festival honoring George Washington’s birthday. LAS MARTHAS follows two young women as they prepare for this elaborate rite of passage: Laurita, a 13th-generation debutante descended from Laredo’s original Spanish land grantees who questions debutante society’s class system geared toward girls like herself; and Rosario, a high-achieving, Mexican-raised and U.S.-schooled outsider struggling to understand the elite society’s unspoken rules.

Tracing the event’s origins back to 1898, the film works to unravel why a town like Laredo – with a population that is 98% Mexican – feels such affinity for America’s Founding Father. Despite history and all odds, the celebration perseveres and flourishes thanks to the Mexican American girls who wear this gilded tradition in the form of elaborate colonial gowns. LAS MARTHAS is a beautifully drawn and sometimes humorous, coming of age portrait of these two young women as they navigate this complex tradition in a time of economic uncertainty and political tension over immigration and border relations between the US and Mexico.

The Last Conquistador (Cristina Ibarra & John J. Valdez, 2008, 60 min.) Book this film.

Renowned sculptor John Houser has a dream: to build the world’s tallest bronze equestrian statue for the city of El Paso, Texas. He envisions a stunning monument to Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate that will honor the contributions Hispanic people made to building the American West. But as the project nears completion, troubles arise.

Native Americans are outraged — they remember Oñate as the man who brought genocide to their land and sold their children into slavery. As El Paso divides along lines of race and class in The Last Conquistador, the artist must face the moral implications of his work. A co-production of Independent Television Service (ITVS). A co-presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting, Native American Public Telecommunications and KERA Dallas/Fort Worth.

Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, 2008, 90 min.) Book this Film

Sleep Dealer is approved for Sloan Foundation-funded Science on Screen programs

Sleep Dealer is a Sundance award-winning sci-fi thriller packed with stunning visuals and strong social and political themes.

Memo Cruz (Luis Fernando Peña) is a young man in near-future Mexico. When his family is victim of a misguided drone attack he finds himself with no option but to head north, towards the U.S./Mexico border. But migrant workers cannot cross this new world border – it’s been sealed off. Instead, Memo ends up in a strange digital factory in Mexico where he connects his body to a robot in America.

Memo’s search for a better future leads him to love, loss, and a confrontation with a mysterious figure from his past.

The Los Angeles Times writes “Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, Sleep Dealer is a welcome surprise. It combines visually arresting science fiction done on a budget with a strong sense of social commentary in a way that few films attempt, let alone achieve.“

The Art House Convergence, a specialty cinema organization representing 600 theaters and allied cinema exhibition businesses, strongly opposes Screening Room, the start-up backed by Napster co-founder Sean Parker and Prem Akkaraju. The proposed model is incongruous with the movie exhibition sector by devaluing the in-theater experience and enabling increased piracy. Furthermore, we seriously question the economics of the proposed revenue-sharing model.

We are not debating the day-and-date aspect of this model, nor are we arguing for the decrease in home entertainment availability for customers – most independent theaters already play alongside VOD and Premium VOD, and as exhibitors, we are acutely aware of patrons who stay home to watch films instead of coming out to our theaters.

Rather, we are focused on the impact this particular model will have on the cinema market as a whole. We strongly believe if the studios, distributors, and major chains adopt this model, we will see a wildfire spread of pirated content, and consequently, a decline in overall film profitability through the cannibalization of theatrical revenue. The theatrical experience is unique and beneficial to maximizing profit for films. A theatrical release contributes to healthy ancillary revenue generation and thus cinema grosses must be protected from the potential erosion effect of piracy.

The exhibition community was required to subscribe to DCI-compliance in a very material way – either by financing through VPF integrators (and those contracts have not yet expired) or by turning to other models which necessitated substantial time and commitment. Those exhibitors who were unable to make the transition were punished by a loss of product. The digital conversion had a substantial cost per theater, upwards of $100,000 per screen, all in the name of piracy eradication and lowering print, storage and delivery costs to benefit the distributors. How will Screening Room prevent piracy? If studios are concerned enough with projectionists and patrons videotaping a film in theaters that they provide security with night-vision goggles for premieres and opening weekends, how do they reason that an at-home viewer won’t set up a $40 HD camera and capture a near-pristine version of the film for immediate upload to torrent sites?

This proposed model would negate DCI-compliance by making first-run titles available to anyone with the set-top device for an incredibly low fee – how will Screening Room prevent the sale of these devices to an apartment complex, a bar owner, or any other individual or company interested in creating their own pop-up exhibition space? We must consider how the existing structures for exhibition will be affected or enforced, including rights fees, VPFs and box office percentages.

A model like this will also have a local economic impact by encouraging traditional moviegoers to stay home, reducing in-theater revenue and making high-quality pirated content readily available. This loss of revenue through box office decline and piracy will result in a loss of jobs, both entry level and long-term, from part time concessions and ticket-takers to full time projectionists and programmers, and will negatively impact local establishments in the restaurant industry and other nearby businesses. How many of today’s filmmakers started their careers at their local moviehouse?

There are many unanswered questions as to how this business model will actually work. The proposed model, as we have read in countless articles, suggests exhibitors will receive $20 for each film purchased. At first glance, an exhibitor may think it represents a small, but potentially steady, additional revenue stream. But how will this actually be divided among the number of theaters playing the purchased title; will exhibitors who open the title receive more than an exhibitor who does not get the title until several weeks later (based on a distributor’s decision); who will audit the revenue to ensure exhibitors are being paid fairly; does this revenue come from Screening Room or from the distributor… these are just a few of the issues yet to be explained.

Similarly, Screening Room promises to give each subscriber two free cinema tickets with each film purchase. Yet to be disclosed is how an exhibitor will recoup the value of those tickets from Screening Room so they can then pay the percentage of box office revenue owed to the distributor of the film. Yet to be explained is who will manage the ticket program details such as location choice, method of purchase, and so on. Will all exhibitors be expected to honor Screening Room free tickets, or will some exhibitors receive preferential treatment over others?

We strongly urge the studios, filmmakers, and exhibitors to truly consider the impact this model could have on the exhibition industry. We as the Art House and independent community have serious concerns regarding the security of an at-home set-top box system as well as the transparency and effectiveness of the revenue-sharing model. Our exhibition sector has always welcomed innovation, disruption and forward-thinking ideas, most especially onscreen through independent film; however, we do not see Screening Room as innovative or forward-thinking in our favor, rather we see it as inviting piracy and significantly decreasing the overall profitability of film releases.

At this time and with the information available to us we strongly encourage all studios to deny all content to this service.

Network of leading independent cinemas support freedom of expression with request to screen controversial title

Art House Convergence, the national coalition of independent art house cinemas in America has set up a petition for independent exhibitors to pledge their support of Sony for a theatrical release of THE INTERVIEW.

“Your Art House motion picture colleagues wish to support you and your company,” said Russ Collins, Director of the Art House Convergence, in his open letter to Sony’s Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal. “Circumstance has propelled THE INTERVIEW into a spotlight on values, both societal and artistic, and in honor of our support, we want to offer our help in a way that honors our long tradition of defending creative expression.”

The petition, which can be found at http://www.change.org/p/sony-we-the-undersigned-support-sony reads as follows:

We, the independent art house community, specifically the theaters below, express our support for Sony Pictures and all of its employees worldwide in this difficult time. We want to share our encouragement and appreciation for Sony and the great contributions it has made to the film industry, especially to our sector of art houses and independent cinemas.

On December 16^th, the Terrorist Organization, “The Guardians of Peace,” escalated their threats by promising terrorist attacks against cinemas showing THE INTERVIEW.  “The world will be full of fear,” their message read, “Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.)”

With this threat, the issue became larger than any film, larger than Sony and larger than the entertainment industry: societal and artistic values are in peril. We are at an important crossroads with an opportunity to reaffirm clearly our dedication to the value of freedom and the absolute necessity to keep our film industry free of restriction, censorship and violent intimidation. We implore our fellow exhibitors and our nation of moviegoers to stand up in recognition that freedom of speech and artistic expression are vital not only to the entertainment industry but for all art and commerce worldwide.

We stand in solidarity with Sony and offer our support to them in defense of artistic integrity and personal freedoms; freedoms which represent our nation’s great ability to effect change and embrace diversity of opinion.

We understand there are risks involved in screening THE INTERVIEW.  We will communicate these risks as clearly as we can to our employees and customers and allow them to make their own decisions, as is the right of every American. Understanding those risks, the undersigned, independent cinema owners and operators of America under the banner of the Art House Convergence, do hereby agree to support Sony and to support theatrical engagements of THE INTERVIEW should Sony, at its sole discretion, decide to release it to theaters.

About the Art House Convergence:

In 2008, the first Art House Convergence, an industry educational program designed to empower and inform independent cinemas nationwide, was presented. It grew out of a collaboration with the Sundance Institute Art House Project in 2006. Now in its eighth year, the growth of the Art House Convergence and its development of research, surveys and year round communication among art house theaters affirm that the organization has evolved into a leading national resource for the support of independent exhibitors and the promotion of film culture in local communities.  For more information about Art House Convergence visit www.arthouseconvergence.org

Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO Sony Entertainment, Inc.
Amy Pascal, Co-Chair Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group

Dear Mr. Lynton and Ms. Pascal

Your Art House motion picture colleagues wish to support you and your company at this difficult time. We empathize with the ruthless attack your company suffered and we want to help in our small but powerful way.

The enormity of the attack your company has suffered and the difficulty of the decisions you have been forced to make in recent days are nearly unimaginable; similarly is the monumental nature of the business disruption your company has endured in recent weeks. Your life, and possibly your judgment, has been disrupted beyond comprehension. The financial bottom line impact will be, frankly, unfathomable for an independent Art House to comprehend. However, in life and art, values are the ultimate “bottom line” and striving for freedom and goodness are the sometimes conflicting, but paramount values of enlightened societies.

We understand that “The Interview” is on one level “just a movie,” meaning, in terms of human history, a probably facile entertainment and business investment. But circumstance has propelled this work into a nexus of values, both societal and artistic. It is also, as an artistic and national community, an opportunity to respond clearly to the behavior of an international bully opposed, by word and deed, to the value of freedom.

We, the independent Art House community, will gladly exhibit “The Interview” as a special, one-day showing without pecuniary expectation, or as a regular part of our cinema programming. We do this to express the value and power of freedom and to support you, our artistic and business colleagues, during a time of great vexation.

Best wishes to you and all your Sony Entertainment colleagues as you endeavor to restore normalcy (if that is possible in show-business!) to your work-life and your business.

Most Sincerely — Russ Collins, Director, Art House Convergence

You have been my teachers; we have been each other’s teachers. I wanted to take this moment, the closing of another remarkable convergence, to name what I think makes us special and where we have room for growth. Because these are the things I learned from you….

1. Start at home.

Care most about programming for your community, and do it with exceptional creativity. We all love a tent pole, and there have been some magical ones over the last few years. Great filmmaking exists, and we are the lucky ones who get to share it with our audiences — but building a theatre that’s sustainable in years when the tent poles are pup tent size, rather than circus tent proportion — or when the big guy down the road decides he wants to be more “creative” — is not simple. You have to be able to survive, but that survival may just be where you find your programmatic voice — and is absolutely where you build audience trust, where you begin to teach your community to check in on you every week just to see what’s going on.

2. Teach your children well.

Film organizations like ours are in a remarkably unique position to engage young people creatively —because kids love movies. Take it from someone who came from the contemporary dance world. Kids do not love modern dance as much as they love movies. We are an art form that is both accessible and challenging — and one that can tell stories which hit close to home, or make connections across the globe. Yes, we need to raise young people to be the engaged film audiences of the future, but even bigger and more important, we need to raise young people whose eyes are wide open and whose world views are informed and broad — even if it’ll be years before they get to move far past their front porch in Nashville, Tennessee or Omaha, Nebraska or Anchorage, Alaska, all of which have great art house cinemas.

3. Run a damn good business.

Know how to make your year successful, and know that those transactional relationships whether via a ticket, a popcorn purchase, a membership purchase or a contribution — those are where the gold lies. In the world of the art house, those people are your tribe. They trust you to do right by them, and of course, it starts with the films — but it has to exist in every other detail in your institution. How we gracefully and warmly navigate each interaction is how trust is built…how recommendations are made…and why audiences are drawn back to us. Even if they’ve never heard of the film…

4. Work with amazing people.

I have never, in my professional life, been surrounded by better colleagues than I am every day at the Belcourt. They are exceptional. I feel the freedom to brag about this freely here because I know I’m not alone. I also know, though, that there’s a place for us in the national conversation about hourly wages.  Different communities have different stories — and, in our theatre, we certainly don’t have the ability to instantly address what I personally believe to be a substantive issue for our part time staff. But within the film exhibition world, we are the institutions who could start to improve pay for our hourly workforce. I don’t know about yours, but mine lowest paid employees are largely from the much-heralded creative class, most of whom have college degrees and know more about film that I ever will. The value of those people being on our front lines is extraordinary — and it is my goal, at least, to begin to pay them more what they are worth.

5. Fight for your place in your cultural community.

Evangelize your philanthropic community, your tourism board, your chamber of commerce. Know them, talk to them, and remind them endlessly that a great film house is as important on any community’s cultural map as a symphony hall or a museum. And in some communities where symphony halls and ballet companies are not possible, it’s the film house that can step up and bring great symphonic music and world-class ballet to those communities.

And here’s the point that is closest to my heart. It’s the one that frustrates me the most and galls me the most in terms of the national narrative about art houses.  It’s this:

6. Aggressively refute the myth of the dying art house.

The typical story I’ve been called on to address by the media (barring some of the smarter publications sitting in this rooms) is a straight up Goliath vs. David narrative. Only it seems like there’s a predisposed desire that Goliath wins. Seriously—I was interviewed for three or four articles in the height of the economic downturn. And when I’d mention that we were having amazing years……end of conversation.

We, as a community, have weathered some tremendous storms from shifting formats to digital conversion. And there are only more to come. It’s the nature of this business and the nature of life — but unless a bomb drops on the Zermatt in the next few minutes — fantastic film exhibition is not going anywhere, and in fact we are healthier and more vital than ever.

There could not be a better time to be in our world, either in the year round exhibition business or the festival business. I love being here now, and I love having all of you as my colleagues, mentors and friends. Cheers to all of us. We are doing something special in communities around this country and around the world. You all inspire me to keep being better and I thank you for that every single day.