By request, donation info at the end of this diary.
Muskegon's last independent theater, The Harbor, has been opened and closed and opened and closed multiple times over the decades. The latest owners are a young couple with a baby who opened it as a non-profit and play films other theaters won't run. Without the help of Michael Moore, it probably would have closed again this month.
I used to go to the Harbor as a child with my parents back when they played newly released blockbusters. I saw ET there. I remember the lights of the kiosk. And I remember the couple who owned it. They were always there. The tall, thin man, his black hair slicked back, and his curly haired wife. Always there, selling their own tickets, popping their own popcorn, brewing their own coffee. My parents always greeted them by name. The owners played block busters and recent releases. They played art house movies on Tuesdays...
Eventually, as seems to be happening all over the place, the large movie conglomerates expanded into gigantic multiplex theaters and created their own second run theaters. They could afford all the huge movies, play them simultaneously, and never played independent films.
Of course this was the death knell for the Harbor, and wiped foreign and independent film off the face of this small town, Muskegon, Michigan.
Opened. Closed. Open. Closed. A revolving door of peopled tried to get the theater to get back on its feet, but it never took. Especially with an increasingly cash strapped populace.
And finally, a couple years ago, a young couple purchased the theater.
They host local bands. They play independent films. They play locally made movies, like ZOMBIE ATROCITY: The Italian Zombie Movie --
I went to that last one last summer. It reminded me of decades before when I waited in line to see ET. The line stretched down the street. Nobody else would play this film. A film that featured many locals. People were greeting the owners by name. The husband and wife team took cash, bagged popcorn, and sold tickets with a baby, sleeping, strapped to the woman.
The movie and its release was a huge source of local pride. A local film. Local actors. Local writers. Playing in a local theater. An often silent street with closed businesses was suddenly bustling with people greeting one another, laughing, joking, meeting with friends, excited for the beginning of the film.
...I hadn't felt that sense of hopefulness and excitement and community for a long time as I ate popcorn and chatted with old friends in the lobby.
But the theater, once again, faced closure. Not enough people are going to see independent films. Larger theaters live on the visits of teens and young adults. The Harbor focuses on films for adult audiences...people with children and families and responsibilities...people who go to one or two movies a year. And worse...the local economy is flirting with Depression level unemployment. Latest nonfarm employment numbers have fallen to the lowest point for 11 years here...
...and another casualty of the high unemployment is this theater, this Harbor Theater, the theater that has given me, and probably many others, one of the greatest senses of community joy and optimism for a long time.
Today the Harbor held a fund raiser to stay open.
And Michael Moore in Torch Lake, Michigan, near Traverse City, came to the rescue. He matched every donation, dollar for dollar, to help that theater stay alive.
"I’ll do anything I can here to help," said Moore, an Oscar winner for the 2002 documentary "Bowling for Columbine." "The only option that’s not available is that this theater cannot close. That’s the bottom line. And it won’t close."
Yes. This theater cannot close. Not again. Not now.
Thank you Michael Moore. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't express to you how much this means to so many people here.
Today’s fundraiser was conceived and organized by cast and crew members of "The italian Zombie Movie," a so-called "no-budget" comedy/horror filmed made in West Michigan. The Harbor has supported the movie and its writer/director/producer Thomas Berdinski, with several screenings.
This afternoon, Berdinski stood on a curbside in front of the theater, dressed in a hairy costume and holding a sign that exorted passing motorists to attend the fundraiser.
Moore said he would match, dollar for dollar, proceeds from today’s fundraiser, up to the $4,500. He said his concern is not just for the Harbor, but for Muskegon’s struggling economy. He likened the latter to that of Flint, his hometown that suffered an economic collapse which Moore chronicled in his first hit film, "Roger & Me."
"To witness what I witnessed in Flint happening elsewhere is always difficult, because I believe that our state didn’t have to end up this way," Moore said.
He compared the Harbor to the State Theatre, a downtown Traverse City movie house he reopened a little more than two years ago.
By request, here's the link to the Harbor website if you're inclined to make a donation http://www.theharbortheater.com/ Thanks, guys. (I think the dollar matching offer probably ended Saturday, if I'm not mistaken, just so's you know)