Burns to speak at fundraiser for cinema

Burns to speak at fundraiser for cinemas
by Nick Grabbe, Daily Hampshire Gazette
January 18, 2010

AMHERST - Filmmaker Ken Burns will speak at the annual fundraising event for the Amherst Cinema and Pleasant Street Theater March 13 at Hampshire College.

Burns, creator of the 11-part series "The Civil War" in 1990, produced "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" on PBS last year.

"The Tenth Inning," an update of Burns' 1994 "Baseball" series, is due to be shown on PBS this year, and a six-hour history of Prohibition is scheduled for broadcast in 2011. Burns is already working on future films on the Dust Bowl, the Roosevelts and the Vietnam War.

Burns graduated from Hampshire in 1975. College officials are preparing a short film on his work, to be shown as part of the March 13 event.

It will be at the Robert Crown Center starting at 6 p.m. There will be a reception, dinner and live auction, and tickets are $100, $150 and $250. The 1,200 theater members have first priority for tickets, which will be available to the public Feb. 2.

Last year's annual fundraiser, featuring actress Kathleen Turner, raised about $20,000 for the Amherst Cinema, a nonprofit movie house that opened in 2006. It took over operation of the Pleasant Street Theater in Northampton two years ago.

About half of all ticket revenue goes to the film distributors, and the organization must come up with $100,000 to $150,000 a year through memberships and fundraising to break even, said executive director Carol Johnson. Memberships bring in between $50,000 and $60,000 a year, she said.

Ticket revenue has been a little lower as of late because there have been no recent blockbusters, such as "The Queen," "Juno" and "Slumdog Millionaire" in past years, Johnson said. Meanwhile, costs have gone up.

"Overall, the theaters are healthy," she said. "I feel a great sense of support from the community that has allowed us to survive and thrive through the recession. But we can't rest. We can't be taken for granted. We have to ask for community support to continue."