The Wake

Issac Gale opened the doors to the Oak Street Cinema on Jan. 20, 2006. He also started making popcorn in the broken machine, sold tickets in the box office, and ran the movie projector. Gale was the only one working at the early show that night. Usually there are two or three volunteers helping him out. Some of the volunteers have been with the Oak Street since it opened, about ten years ago.

“Since I started here, I’ve had to deal with a situation where people constantly think you’re going under,” said Gale, who has worked at the Oak Street for almost a year. Although Gale serves as a projectionist, his responsibilities as a former MCAD film graduate include editing movie trailers for local film productions and work on a serial movie about the Oak Street Cinema. The organization has served Gale in more ways than the local blockbuster venue could. And while rumors of the repertory theater’s impending closure have been prevalent, this is the closest they’ve come to being true.

The previous week had been a difficult one for the Oak Street Cinema. The theater is governed by Minnesota Film Arts (MFA), a non-profit which also runs the Bell Auditorium. Out of frustration with MFA’s board of directors, the staff of the Oak Street called a “membership and community meeting” to ascertain details about the theater’s future. The meeting was fruitless, only serving to deepen the divide between the staff and the board. The board pointed to a former executive director named Jamie Hook who neglected to apply for an annual $50,000 grant, among other things. The staff and volunteers say there has been a significant lack of communication and leadership from the board.

But as the old theater adage says, the show must go on. And so, Isaac Gale continues to run the projection booth and volunteers continue to take tickets from patrons, but the Oak Street has another problem: dismal attendance.

Even the regulars, Gale says, who generally contribute to the sense of community have been notably absent in the last couple of months. The lack of movie-goers represents a nationwide trend in the age of DVD and home theater. Adam Sekuler, a staff member with MFA, noted Steven Soderbergh’s released his new film Bubble simultaneously in the theaters and on DVD. “Filmmakers want people to see their movies, not necessarily as a community,” Sekuler notes. He also says that if students and the community really want to see the Oak Street survive, they should show up for the movies.

Comments on the Save the Oak Street blog from various members of the community have noted that there are other problems at play with the non-profit’s financial troubles. Not only is there a lack of attendance from university students who live within walking distance of the theater, there is also a notable cram when it comes to parking in the area.

Gale notes that attendance since the community meeting has increased slightly. Shows had about 30 audience members, but the attendance rise falls far short from the 250 weekend movie-goers the board said the Oak Street needed to stay afloat. By the time we had finished talking to Gale ten minutes before the show, he only sold four tickets to Music From the Inside Out, a film that had been moved from the Bell Museum because it did well there.

Gale is in a precarious situation. Although he is used to hearing about the theater’s financial troubles he says, “If they’re going to close, then I need to start looking for another job.”