Eddie recovers from that dangling participle at the outset with some strongly worded self-praise that eventually gets down to the root of the issue with the proposed renovations to the Castro. He's certainly entitled to be proud of the ongoing achievement that came into play with Noir City; the tone of this statement, however, seems unnecessarily combative, signaling that he feels that the effort of writing these words is an exercise in futility. The potshot at the Nasser family in the closing remarks also suggests that Eddie is convinced that the forces at work with regard to the Castro's future are so fait accompli that he will never hold another festival there anyway, so why not call them out as lazy, money-grubbing philistines--a tactic that will only ensure that he'll no longer get a deal that will be so favorable to the FNF's coffers.

Late-breakin news: the hearings regarding the Castro's fate have evidently been postponed until December 8.

STATEMENT BY EDDIE MULLER REGARDING
PENDING RENOVATIONS TO THE CASTRO THEATRE

September 26, 2022

(This was submitted to SF city supervisors and members of the Planning Commission and Historic Preservation Committee, which meet this week to consider plans to drastically renovate the venue. I post it here publicly, in case it has been buried in those offices.)

As a native San Franciscan, the Castro Theatre has played an integral role in my life and career, leading to my today being one of the hosts of Turner Classic Movies, America’s preeminent purveyor of classic cinema. In 2003, at the invitation of the Castro Theatre’s then-programmer Anita Monga, I produced and hosted the first Noir City film festival. The tremendous public response and windfall profits inspired me to create a non-profit organization, the Film Noir Foundation, for the express purpose of using the festival’s net receipts to rescue and restore lost and forgotten films.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Noir City film festival has been the envy of film programmers worldwide, as for 18 years we were able to fill the 1400-seat auditorium on multiple nights, year after year, showing movies most of our patrons had never even heard of. On Friday and Saturday nights during the festival, the Castro had the highest single-screen attendance of any theatrical venue in San Francisco, perhaps the entire state of California. This success spurred the restoration and preservation of more than 30 films (so far) and earned me a regular gig as a host of Turner Classic Movies.

None of this would have been possible without three things: a formula for presenting low-cost-high return festivals; an avid, adventurous and enthusiastic audience (from my global travels presenting films, I can attest that San Franciscans and Parisians are the world’s most passionate cinema-goers), and of course--the perfect venue in which to immerse an audience in the movie-watching experience. Because the Castro’s auditorium has more than 1400 seats, I was able to keep ticket prices relatively low (never more than $12.50) and still earn enough during a 10-day festival to help fund many film restorations. This feat of movie business economics is virtually impossible anywhere else.

So it was with great chagrin that I learned the Nasser family, owners of the Castro Theatre, feel San Franciscans no longer sufficiently support cinema and that the venue should be renovated to primarily accommodate concerts. A surprising decision given that there are already many music venues in the city, but only one classic movie house capable of hosting world-class cinema events--as well as an array of performing artists, musicians, comedians, dancers. With this move, San Francisco immediately loses its long-cherished reputation as a cinema mecca. Some of the longest-running and most highly regarded film festivals in the world--the San Francisco International, Frameline, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Noir City--will be hard-pressed to maintain economic viability in the city that spawned them.

Here’s a fact—every presenter who has utilized the Castro Theatre during the past few decades knows such venues must adapt to being multi-use facilities. No one argues that. It is a trend I’ve seen all over the world. But it does NOT mean the auditorium needs to be altered to such a degree that film screenings become economically and logistically unviable. Changing the slope of the floor and replacing actual seats with portable chairs is tantamount to announcing that movies are no longer welcome. The argument that permanent seating needs to be removed to accommodate standing-room concerts is utterly disingenuous. The motivation for replacing the sloped floor and permanent seats with terraced “seating” is to cram in more people and install alcohol stations within the auditorium. Approval of this misguided plan is essentially prioritizing alcohol consumption over art.

In my travels as an ambassador for classic cinema, I can state without hyperbole that the Castro Theatre is known the world over as a temple for passionate moviegoers. It’s unfortunate that there are people who don’t care about that venerable status. Especially shameful is that those people own the venue.