Again, without Manohla we would be reduced to screening three or four times a year, if at all. When Jonas Mekas was here a few months ago, I detailed our woes from audience size to issues about the press. The benefits are obvious. But keep in mind, cities like LA and Chicago, where I grew up, are different beasts from walking cities like New York, Paris and San Fransisco. Tom Palazzolo used to complain about Chicago being a completely masculine city with little room for art.
LA is like that, too.
Finding, notifying and hanging on to an audience is a completely different equation in LA and Chicago. But then, there's always something like Camille Cook's Magic Lantern Society, which inspired me at 15 . I can only hope Filmforum does the same for someone else.