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Film festival seeks to buy local theater
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
The board of the Provincetown International Film Festival is considering purchasing the movie theater inside of Whaler’s Wharf.
Film festival seeks to buy local theater
By Pru Sowers
BANNER STAFF
PROVINCETOWN — The Provincetown International Film Festival is in negotiations to purchase the movie theater inside of Whaler’s Wharf to turn the festival into a year-round operation.
The purchase and operation of the theater could also give the festival, which has faced funding problems in the past, access to new grants and donations that would strengthen the organization financially, according to Fred Magee, president of the festival board of directors.
“There are all types of institutions and giving sources that won’t look at transient events like a film festival but will look more favorably on capital projects,” Magee said.
The festival board is applying for a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant that it hopes will cover about half of the purchase price, said Gabby Hanna, the festival’s executive director. Then it would be up to the board to borrow and/or raise the other half, as well as pay for the year-round operations costs.
In addition to showing independent movies on a regular basis, the theater could offer mini-film festivals over a weekend and partner with other non-profit organizations on classes and seminars that would bring in audiences, Hanna said. The theater could also be rented out to other organizations, helping to raise money.
“In order for the film festival to survive, we need to make this step. It will be harder in this economy to excite people and raise money for a one-off event,” Hanna said, referring to the annual June festival.
Like most non-profit organizations, the film festival has faced rising costs over the past year. But it has also been hampered by an inability to increase the size of the event in order to attract more ticket-buying attendees. Because of Provincetown’s small size and the closing of Town Hall for renovation, which had been the premier venue for the festival, there are few places in town that can accommodate the audience size festival organizers want to attract. While the festival had a much smaller deficit than organizers expected last June — $10,000 as opposed to a feared $50,000 — it needs to find ways to boost revenue in order to remain viable.
“We’ve tried very hard to be part of the year-round economy of Provincetown but we don’t have a home,” Hanna said.
“You can’t tread water,” Magee said about the inability of the festival to grow. “You get to a certain point and ask, what are our options going forward? There is no end to the creative ways we could use a theater space if we had a theater to use.”
While the negotiations to purchase the theater are going on in earnest, Magee said the festival board still has to do its due diligence to see if the deal makes sense. Major factors in that equation will be the price of the theater and whether the board receives the state grant, he said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Dec 18th, 2008