“Small theaters have struggled to get content from the studios for years,” said Green. A shuttering of movie theaters has been blamed on a host of issues: shorter box office windows, streaming services offering more media, and the poor performances of any movie not centering on a superhero. His local options have been dwindling in recent years, but it’s a nationwide issue. “One of the reasons I moved here was that there were so many movie theaters, both independent and otherwise, within the immediate area,” he said. Still, McFarlane can’t hide his disappointment. Theater space can also be rented out to local and national promoters and local filmmakers. The latter now makes up a large part of the current programming. In 2019, the theater began hosting live theater and live music. The theater has two of its own film festivals – the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival and Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival – in addition to the weekend Certified Farmers’ Market program, which started in 2008. “We are fortunate because we began diversifying our offerings long before Covid,” Green explained. At the Cultural center, though, it helps keep the doors open for other offerings. Green said the result of similar decisions theater operators were forced to make during the pandemic is that many independent and foreign films likely won’t have any distribution in the Coachella Valley. With ticket sales falling roughly 70% since the pandemic began, the nonprofit’s board of directors made the difficult decision in November to stop running first run movies and close the facility during the day. Michael Green, executive director of the Cultural Center, said the decision did not come lightly.
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