Photo courtesy of Oriental Theatre
Oriental Theatre
Big screens all across Wisconsin went dark in March when Gov. Tony Evers ordered “Safer at Home.” Although many businesses have begun to reopen, cinemas pose special challenges. Like houses of worship, movie houses bring congregations together and suspend the normal passage of time. Unless it’s a drive-through evangelical service or a drive-in movie, film screenings and liturgies will require special measures as concerns over COVID-19 continue.
And what about the fall film festival season? Several festivals events have already been cancelled. I asked Jonathan Jackson, CEO and Artistic Director of Milwaukee Film, the leaseholder of the historic Oriental Theatre and organizer of the annual Milwaukee Film Festival, for his thoughts.
I think everyone was caught by surprise by the extent of the problems caused by the pandemic. When did you realize that normal operations at the Oriental had to be suspended?
As early as late February, we started talking about the possibility of COVID-19 spreading to and through the United States. At that time, we reinforced and increased our sanitation practices at the Oriental Theatre. When on March 4, the new James Bond film No Time to Die was moved from an April 10 release to Nov. 25 of this year we know that this pandemic was a serious threat to cinema operation and was going to dramatically alter film exhibition in 2020.
After taking some early precautions the following week on limiting audience size and special events, on Friday, March 12 we decided to suspend all operations at close of business for the day. That was a very hard decision to make, cinemas do not shut down. The last time this occurred on a large scale was World War II. But once there was a single case identified in Milwaukee, and with reporting that stated we don’t know the depth of the spread yet that already exists, we decided to shut down early, before state or local ordinances told us to do so, out of protection for our team, audience and community.
Describe Sofa Cinema. What types of films are you making available for rental? What’s been the public’s response?
Sofa Cinema is a cinema, just virtual. It is like a cinema because it is curated. We show only handpicked movies on Sofa Cinema by programmers at Milwaukee Film and only offer a limited number of movies at any time. So, every Friday like a cinema does, we release a new film or two on our platform at mkefilm.org/sofacinema and typically remove some as well. People can rent the films through our website, importantly with half of the proceeds going to our organization, and then they can watch them online. The films are a truly wide variety, like what you would find showing at the Oriental Theatre if we were open or at the annual Milwaukee Film Festival.
In most cases, the films are not available on other streaming platforms. They range from films that films never screened in Milwaukee before, like the documentary Booksellers about rare book collectors and sellers in NYC, to films that screened at past Milwaukee Film Festivals, like the smart and heartfelt drama Driverways starring the late Brian Dennehy, to the independent documentary on the power of mushrooms Fantastic Fungi, which actually was a hit film for us at the Oriental Theatre before we shut down the cinema and has continued its successful run on our virtual platform. It is so popular in fact, we can’t remove it from our site! In terms of the public response, we have received great feedback for offering this cultural outlet for people.
The sales do not come close to mirroring the proceeds we received from the Oriental Theatre itself, but there is no precedent for this for us, and we are happy for the revenue we are receiving and the engagement opportunity it affords with the public, since we are shut down.
Do you entirely rule out a live festival of some sort this fall? Is it possible to safely mount scaled-down events with limited seating and other precautions?
We are still considering a live, in person film festival this fall. I do believe we can safely mount screenings and open the cinema this year, with limited seating and more safety precautions. Can we do special events in person? Can we do a film festival in person? Honestly, I am not sure. Events are driven by the event atmosphere, which in its nature is driven by a large congregation of people. We are closely following our peers around the country and world, in the film festival community and beyond, to see if anyone has figured out the right solution. Thankfully, we still have some time to answer this question.
What would a virtual Milwaukee Film Festival look like? Would you make use of the films that would have been screened available for streaming?
A virtual Milwaukee Film Festival would be a different platform than Sofa Cinema. It would feature unique content, not available anywhere else, on a private platform of our creation that would restrict viewing to only our region. They would be new films from directors world-wide, including Milwaukee. We are looking to develop interactive components and unique content options that would attempt to replicate the film festival experience online. There are actually some exciting tools now being developed in the exhibition and film festival space that I think might, hopefully, outlast the pandemic itself, and become permanent engagement tools in our industry.
Does cinema have a future if movie theaters go dark indefinitely?
Yes! If there is a society, there will be cinema and there will be movie theaters. Movie going has confronted this question many times in its more than 100-plus year history. For me, I believe we as humans must convene to survive. Art brings us together in unique ways. Cinema has long since proven its unique power to convene, and I know personally that artists, audiences and organizations like ours are committed to a robust and vibrant future for cinema and cinema going.
The Milwaukee Film Festival is scheduled for Oct. 15-29.
