Go Digital or Go Dark

The New York Times has an article today about the efforts of independently owned theaters in the Adirondacks to respond to the mandated switch to digital technology: "Small Theaters in Adirondacks Face Choice in Switch to Digital: Pay or Perish."

Meanwhile, Hudson's only locally owned independent theater (just across the border in Greenport) faces the same "pay or perish" dilemma. Last August, theater owner Bruce Mitchinson invested $80,000 to equip one of the three theaters at Fairview Cinema 3 with a digital projector and sound system, with the capacity for 3D, but in order to be profitable, the other two theaters need digital equipment as well, which Mitchinson has estimated will cost another $100,000--more than he can afford.

Fundraising efforts by Friends of Fairview Cinema 3--the premiere of Fighting for Freedom, the Dinner and a Movie screening of Odds Against Tomorrow at Basilica Hudson, and most recently the two Breakfast and a Movie screenings of It's a Wonderful Life--have brought in about $12,000 for the projector fund, and a gofundme campaign launched by Kristen Decker, whose grandmother worked as the cashier at Fairview Cinema 3 for many years, has so far raised another $535. There's still a long way to go. Without the umbrella of a not-for-profit, Fairview Cinema 3 is not eligible for the state grants that have bailed out many of the movie theaters in the Adirondacks, but Mitchinson and the Friends of Fairview Cinema 3 are determined to see it through.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK