I'll give mohammad and his mountain a call

I have worked at three, count 'em, three movie theaters in my life: 1. Galaxy Cinema, Cary NC's premier and only art house and independently owned theater. 2. Jengo's Playhouse Microcinema and the heart of Jengo's playhouse. 3. the evil impersonal conglomerate known as Regal Mayfaire 16.

So it's not just my normal know-it-all personality speaking when I say when it comes to film exhibition, I know what I'm talking about. I'm very passionate but even more disheartened with the concept of bringing art and art film to the proverbial masses

Several points were brought up in the article "From Art House to Microcinema" that I found striking. . The first being the apparent need for an alternative to the alternative across the U.S. Jengo's Playhouse, I like to think, used to serve this purpose well. From stories dipped in sepia tone told around Cucalorus the weekly screenings at Jengos used to be packed with people. The only times I've ever seen it packed are for the festival and a few screenings and events across the years. Then weekly screenings at Jengo's were cancelled for this year. 2008 and 2007 were notable weekend nights because I would sit in the cantina at Jengos waiting for maybe 5 people to come see our weekly screening. 5 people was a big crowd. It was not uncommon to have no people. In spite of this obvious problem I still tried to fight for our weekly screenings. It didn't work out in my favor.

I was always believed that we were doing a valuable service to the community until I realized that the community didn't value the service. If they had, they would have showed up.

This was not my first encounter with the possibility of shutting down an operation.

Galaxy Cinema is a place that you do not notice unless you've been there before-a huge problem for the theater's marketing. I worked there for years and couldn't count the number of times a patron would say "I've lived here for years and had no idea you were here." Galaxy Cinema faced similar problems that Jengo's did- their screenings were sparsley attended. While the galaxy and Jengos are not quite established establishments, they were by no means new when I came onboard.

Galaxy usually features independent, foreign, and documentary films that the Carmike and Regal in town won’t screen. Great idea for a well-off community with too much spare time on its hands, right?
Maybe not so right.
Galaxy Cinema struggled, and as far as I’ve heard still struggles with attendance. So much so that they’ve recently shown blockbusters. I was shocked to read the weekly newsletter that said Galaxy was having a midnight screening of Harry Potter. And then soon after it was showing Star Trek. Both by no means independent or underscreened films. I guess Harry Potter could be a foreign film but it’s kind of a stretch.

The first thing that popped into my mind was “WHAT?” It was not the happily-caught-off-guard “what?” that normally accompanies my viewings of the latest episode of LOST but an angry “what?” that was similar to the reaction when I opened my first credit-card bill.

It was a “what?” that questioned the very integrity of Galaxy, of their mission and goal.

I’ve seen Mayfaire, on the other decrepit and sinister hand (sinister in the evil way, not the left handed way . . . well I guess it could be the left hand). Not so much struggle with staying open but with how much money they could wrangle from people. They raised ticket prices, cut down on staff privileges, and installed a 3-D theater to be able to charge more money for tickets.

It’s a stomach churning realization that comes. It’s a heart-breaking truth that arrives. It’s a terrible result of over-commercialization and impersonalization that all of these theaters’ bottom lines were financial survival.

The need isn’t in North Carolina, maybe, for a cutting edge cinema. The thirst for art is not as strong as in other cities across the states.

If you can’t bring the people to the art, how can you bring the art to the people?