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State Theater to become permanent home for TC Film Festival
posted by
marctee950
on
February 15, 2007 at 7:50 am
TRAVERSE CITY, MI — Recent news on the State Theater is the Board of Directors of the Traverse City Film Festival, Michael Moore, John Robert Williams, and Doug Statton are in meeting with the Traverse City Rotary Charities (who owns the State) about the possibility of the Historic State Theater becoming the permanent home of the TC Film Festival and reopening the long closed movie house on a year round basis.
This would be a huge event should it happen; a boost not only to Downtown Traverse City, but to movie lovers both far and wide. The word on the street is that Carmike Cinemas has a contract against showing first and second run movies there for 25 years from when it was sold back in the late eighties. We’ve got are fingers crossed here in Traverse City hoping and praying Carmike will do the right thing and void the contract.
marctee
(The Letter Guy)
Comments (3)
With all the bad news coming out on theaters these days — the DuPage in Lombard. Ill, the Boyd Movie Palace in Philadelphia, PA, etc., etc., etc. — we too often tend to overlook the good news. And this is fantastic news, and will become even greater news if Carmike voids the contract as you say! For what the heck kind of contract was that anyway?
In any event, with Michael Moore on board this could be a great basis for his next documentary, focusing much needed attention on the loss of classic public movie theaters everywhere. For America is clearly not a better country for that loss we’ve seen.
When FDR set out to lift America out from the Great Depression he made movie theaters a top priority. The mark of a great leader and visionary clearly. For in terms of bringing this country up to a higher level than it had ever been before, it worked. And Michigan’s seen an awful lot of hard times starting with when Michael Moore first raised our awareness of its struggles with ROGER & ME and so much that it’s suffered since. But great movies, shown in great movie theaters, have the power to make the case that good can triumph over evil. So kudos to Michael Moore, John Robert Williams and Doug Statton for this latest venture!
The contract came about so the theater wouldn’t be competing with the multiplexes that were put in the malls that Carmike owns in the area, and the sad part about this whole thing is most of the time we here in Traverse City have to wait sometimes up to a month after movies are released to even get showed, if at all, a good example of this was we were the first in the nation to get to see Borat during the Film Festival, and when it was released to the public they decided not to run it in Traverse City till the following week, when I contacted Carmike about this, they informed me it was Twentieth Century’s Foxes decision, so whos really in charge here Im asking
Interesting. While I think most people would be happiest just to see theaters run in accordance with how they perceive common sense. For how are they to make head or tails of how the relationship between Hollywood and the theaters has become so politicized these days? Maybe there’s some rational explanation for the way things are being run now, but. I think the public is entitled to something that makes perfect, down-to-earth sense when it comes to theaters, that is, if “we the people” still means anything at all.
Back when I was a kid, and long before the multiplexes, when movies were first released they’d get shown at the big city downtown movie palaces first. And later, of course, once they’d completed their run there, they’d come to the small neighborhood and the small town theaters. And it all fit the pattern of common sense beautifully. For at least on the moviegoers' side of things I don’t remember a single soul being unhappy with that arrangement.
Later, when the multiplexes first came into being, they were relegated to the same role as the small neighborhood and the small town theaters. But no one thought anything wrong of that either. For it continued to fit the pattern of common sense.
But then in the 1980s we see Carmike Cinemas introducing what they did. That is, something that might’ve made perfect sense from the cold and impersonal business side of things. Supply side economics I suppose. But for moviegoers? I think that killed off a great deal of the specialness that going to the movies once held.
Multiplexes by their very nature are divisive. Which might fall in place fine for second run movies. When it comes to things second hand, some people want for this while others want for that, and really, who cares when we’re talking second hand? But it just seems so totally weird to me to be seeing first run movies being shown at them. I feel cheated. And I think it’s more than my personally being conditioned to how things were run before.
For the first time I’m seeing a movie, and anyone else is, it should really be special, in a place that’s really special. The only movie being shown in that moment, and in that place. And that’s just how it was under the old arrangement. And it was perfect. But now it’s the single screen movie palaces that have to wait till the movies get done being shown elsewhere, in this case at the divisive multiplexes? For what buffoon can get excited about that? It’s demeaning. But from the purely money-making perspective it’s, “Who cares?” But of that latter perspective why should THAT matter most? Other than an iron fist, I see nothing that says that outlook should be the most dominant. That is, I’d like to see common sense once more. The other’s had its run far too long now.