"Finding my community" by Kathy Bock

Some people have big, loving families. Some have church. Others have clubs and social groups. Me? I’ve always had Cinema Center. It’s the one place I go to feel connected. To be among like-minded individuals. To find a true sense of community. (Which, come to think of it, is kind of odd for a place where everyone sits alone in the dark.)

But Cinema Center is more than great movies. Shoot, if that’s all you want, you can just plant yourself on the couch and hit “Play.” And quite often I do, getting more than my money’s worth out of Netflix, DVDs and umpteen on-demand options. But comfy as my couch is, I always come back to Cinema Center.

Why? Maybe it’s because I like walking in the door and being handed a tub of popcorn by Caroline (who knows I’m a member and I take my popcorn plain).

Maybe it’s because Cinema Center is intimate, friendly and always costs less than the big theater chains. Actually, if you’re a member, it’s crazy cheap – just 5 bucks and the popcorn is free. And that’s not even counting the scads of free films Cinema Center shows as a public service to the community. What other theater does that?

Then there are the events. Nobody throws a party like Cinema Center. I’m thinking Good Burger Night, Artament, Braineaters’ Ball, the recent Hitchcock-themed Oscar Party, a poetry night for On the Road… Honestly, every time I check the website, there’s something quirky and fun coming up. Right now I’m over the moon about Cinema Center showing the original King Kong outdoors on the side of the Arts United building this summer. How cool will that be?

Of course, one of the main reasons I come to Cinema Center is because it’s home for me. This is where I belong. I first attended a Cinema Center movie back in 1979 when I was fresh out of college. I’d just moved to town and was looking for a place to go on a Saturday night so I wouldn’t feel so alone. I found it at Cinema Center.

In those days, the movies were shown at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House on a finicky projector that made a lot of racket and broke down with alarming regularity, but that didn’t deter me. I’d found my people – and my kind of movies: North by Northwest, 8 ½, Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Harold and Maude, A Place in the Sun, Throne of Blood, My Dinner with Andre, La Strada… Where else but Cinema Center was I going I see great films like these projected on a big screen? And where else could I go by myself and still be among friends?

Over the years, Cinema Center has grown and changed with the times, but it still shows the best movies in town and it’s still my favorite place to go on a Saturday night.

A few years back, I decided to throw myself a big 50^th  birthday bash. So naturally, I rented out Cinema Center  and invited 100 of my closest friends to see Moonstruck, my favorite film. It was as close as I’ve come to a full-circle moment, having so many friends and relatives in the place where my adult life really began – the place that’s always been like a second home to me. (I get a little verklempt just thinking about it.)

But now, I understand that Cinema Center is threatened. If we don’t go digital, we go dark. Simple as that. We must raise $50,000 to buy a digital projector or it’s lights out. The industry is forcing the change, but it’s the community that must come together to save Cinema Center. I’m confident we can.

Won’t you please give generously to Cinema Center’s Digital Projector Fund? Do it for the arts. Do it for Fort Wayne. Do it for movie lovers like you and me, so together, we’ll always have that home in the dark.

See you there some Saturday night, okay?

Kathy Bock is a freelance advertising copywriter and three-time Cinema Center board member. She wants readers to know that even though she favors Saturday night screenings, Cinema Center is open seven days a week and now offers discounted weekday matinees.