The Belcourt, under construction in July 2016
This far into the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all gotten acclimated to watching movies at home. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have a state-of-the-art home theater system, or even a commercial popcorn machine, to make watching a film a bit more special. But, as Scene editor D. Patrick Rodgers pointed out in his recent review of Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, there’s no way to recreate the intangibles — the experience of entering a public space with dozens of others and being transported somewhere else by the magic happening on the screen.
It’ll come as no surprise that movie theaters of all sizes are in dire financial straits thanks to a pandemic whose spread can only be slowed by people staying apart. For a little more context, I’ll direct you to Marketplace host Kai Rysdaal’s April interview with the Belcourt’s executive director Stephanie Silverman. She highlights how there’s very little the theater can do to even plan for reopening until COVID-19 is under control, and few ways to bring in revenue beyond selling merch and virtual tickets for streaming events.
With this in mind, a trade group called the National Association of Theatre Owners, which represents art houses and megaplexes alike, has launched a campaign called #SaveYourCinema. It’s similar to the National Independent Venue Association’s #SaveOurStages campaign. NATO has set up a form at the website linked above that allows you to easily direct an email message to your representatives in Congress. There’s a letter already written, but you can add to it or write your own entirely.
The message is asking senators and representatives to vote for the RESTART Act, a Senate bill introduced in May. RESTART would extend and expand the Paycheck Protection Program of loans from the Small Business Administration, and it’s already received notable bipartisan support, including co-sponsorship from Tennessee senators Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn. Rep. Jim Cooper is among those who’ve co-sponsored a corresponding bill in the House.
It’s worth noting that, after three months of lobbying coupled with the support letter campaign, a venue-specific aid bill called the Save Our Stages Act was introduced in the Senate last week. There are many steps before the bill could become law, and letter-writing alone didn't get it this far. But grassroots support is a key component of getting efforts like this off the ground.
