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COVID-Relief Funds Help TC Film Festival and Downtown Theaters Reopen

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COVID-relief funding from the federal government is a lifeline for the Traverse City film festival and its two movie theaters.

The Film Festival is receiving almost a million dollars of federal COVID relief – part of a bill passed by Congress which includes help targeted for movie theatres and other arts venues. It will mean the return of the festival and the reopening of two downtown movie theatres.

Film Festival founder Michael Moore says a $933,000 federal grant is the best news he’s had since the start of the pandemic. “It isn’t every day the federal government calls you and says ‘we have a million dollars and we’d like to contribute it to the town you live in and the work that you’re doing.’ And we were just overjoyed.”

During the pandemic, both the State Theatre and the Bijou by the Bay have been shuttered, and curtain stayed closed on the film festival two years in a row. “It’s been like a year and a half for all of us, of not very good news. For some, worse news.”

“We’ve been shut down for a year and a half. We have to gear back up.”

Moore the funds should be available almost immediately. “We’ve been told, first of all, that the money will be in the Film Festival’s bank account, possibly by tomorrow.” But he says there are limits on what the grant money can be used for. “Like any government thing there are these twists and turns and things, for example with the basement, we can use the money for repairs, but we cannot use it for capital improvements.

“But look, I’m not going to complain about some rules, because the end result is – and the basement is a good example. We can do the cheap fix for the basement and it’ll be good for another 5-10 years. But that’s what everybody else did before. Because every 20 years the Great Lakes rise. The Boardman rises…. the State Theater is 105 years old this Sunday. The original foundation and the original walls are still there. You can see the water marks of every 20 years when the lakes rise. And the place has flooded many times. We’re going to do a fix that thinks about the generation after us and maybe the generation after them.”

Moore says the grant can also help them get completely out of debt. “This gift, this grant from the government, makes us debt-free. We are immediately — when we reopen we get to start with a clean slate. In the black.”

And Moore says it should put financial woes in the rear-view mirror. “Believe you me, myself and the other board members have become very conservative people. (laughs) We don’t believe in debt and we will not operate in debt and this now helps us to be able to do that.”

Reporter Bill Froehlich, interviewing Moore, said in the interview, “I never thought I’d hear Michael Moore say ‘I’ve become a very conservative person.’” Moore laughed, then responded, “My grandfather was a local Republican leader in Davison, near Flint. And he, I remember him saying, defining ‘conservative’: he said it means that we conserve our money. We don’t spend money we don’t have. We conserve the earth that God gave us. And conservative values like, ‘hey how about we all eat at the dinner table at the same time?’ These values are actually good values, good American values.

“I will speak to my conservative ancestors and say we’ll make sure the money is well taken care of and well-spent,” Moore says. “The grant money, with the restrictions that they allow for, with the debts we have. We will be debt-free in about a week.”

“I think it’s important that all of us, regardless of what our political persuasions are, that we treat this grant that’s from our government with respect, and due diligence. And that we move forward with the same great Film Festival, the same great theatres, the same great movies. But with caution. The other caution is, we don’t know this Coronavirus. We’ve never had this particular virus, we don’t know how long the vaccines will last, we don’t know a lot of it. We have to be careful, all of us,” Moore says. “We’re also very wary of the fact that we’re not through the woods yet. These variants are out there. We want to encourage everybody to get vaccinated.”

Moore says they’ll be COVID-proofing the theaters with a new HVAC system. “We are going to start moving on the basement, and the COVID-proofing. We need to get all the right permits.” He adds, “Improvements to the HVAC system so the air doesn’t just recirculate for an hour or two or three, but it’s fresh air constantly coming in.”

And he says COVID will change the way they do business, at least in the short-term. “We’re going to do a whole bunch of other protocols in terms of cleaning to make this absolutely safe. And we’re also going to, just like our colleges have done this, the Madison Square Garden opened this week, first concert, Bruce Springsteen on Broadway this week. Everybody requires that you have to be vaccinated in order to come into a crowded place. Theaters have no windows. This is a crowded space that’s completely encased. You cannot be around, at least for now until we are more sure of this virus – so we will require that people have to show their vaccination card.

“Just as kids have to get their shots when they are toddlers, babies, in order to go to our public schools. We have to insist that people get their shots in order to come into a building with a lot of other people. So get your shots. Don’t miss out on anything. You know it’s safe now,” Moore adds.

“If you’re not getting your shot because you want to make a political statement, make your political statement another way. Make sure that all the candidates I support are not elected next year. There’s your political statement (laughs). Don’t make it by putting others at risk or yourself. I may disagree with you politically, I want you to live though. I don’t want you to get sick.”

The Traverse City DDA is hoping the State Theatre can re-open by mid-August. With all the work that remains to be done inside it is unclear exactly when tickets will go on sale. Moore says, “It’s hard to say a date right now, and after the 4th I can come back and tell you what I think our actual calendar plan is. We might be able to, the Bijou first in early to mid-August. And the State Theatre, fingers crossed I would love to see it open by Labor Day. Or have a big opening bash on Labor Day weekend.”

As for the film festival? Look for a return to normal in 2022. “The festival will be back next summer. But we’re also thinking that if everything is moving right, maybe we’ll have a mini-fest in the winter, a long weekend,” Moore says.

Some downtown business neighbors – like Amy Reynolds with Horizon Books, are excited to hear the news. “We certainly missed them during COVID. We are thrilled and ecstatic to think they’ll be reopening soon.” She adds, “Having the theater open made a big difference in our sales at that time. And I think that whole restaurant/bookstore/movie theater has just brought a vitality to downtown.”

Other business owners we spoke with declined to go on camera but told us they felt the theaters should be open already. Theaters, like some other businesses, have gone through a series of restrictions on capacity (and for theaters, restrictions even concessions) since they were allowed to reopen in September 2020.  In a letter to supporters back in winter, Moore said the theatres would stay closed until they were out of debt.

“I’m grateful we have a government that cares about the arts, that cares about small towns like Traverse City. I know a lot of people have feelings and whatever. But the government is us, it’s always been us. It’s of, by, and for the people. We are the people. And the people have had a wonderful gift and victory this week in Traverse City. With now both the festival and our theatres literally being saved,” Moore says.

“All of this is geared towards not just the survival of our theaters and the festival, but coming back strong and being the anchor of downtown that we’ve been. And having people visit us. The festival and the theaters contribute over $21 (M) million dollars a year to the local economy. This is very important, it’s a very important day, not just for us but for Traverse City. We’re so grateful to the hundreds of people during the pandemic, supporters of the festival, who have helped us just pay the basic bills that you have even if you’re shut down. Insurance, utilities, storage, everything. I’ve been very moved by the whole thing and very happy to see our tax dollars returned to us,” Moore says.

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