Like foreign films? Then support them

It can be an exhausting pain to run an independent theater. Just ask Joe Davis at the Magic Lantern . Yet it’s possible to do. And if this story from the Boston Globe is any indicator, it’s possible to do it with a measure of success. The key: Show movies that do something more than thrill you with CGI.

The other key: having access to an audience that actually wants to see those movies. That, my 30-year Spokane moviegoing experience has told me, can be an insurmountable problem. A lot more people love to complain about the lack of quality movies in Spokane than actually seek them out when they play here.

I can’t begin to count the number of phone calls that I received when I was working at The Spokesman-Review from people who asked why this or that foreign/art/independent film wasn’t playing locally. I used to sigh audibly before telling them that the film had played for a week the previous month.

“But … but …,” the person would stammer, “how was I supposed to know?”

Well, when I worked at the SR, we did a pretty good job of getting the news out. I think the reporters and editors who work there now continue to do what they can. And there are other news sources, including the Pacific Northwest Inlander , as well as various Web sites.

Ultimately, though, the committed film fan will do his or her own research. Call AMC’s River Park Square Theatres . Call the Magic Lantern. (I won’t list the other chain and independent theaters because they seldom play anything other than mainstream fare.) Check the Internet . Go to the theaters and ask questions.

Yeah, it’s a pain that AMC usually plays its Select series often only a week at a time. But if you really want to see interesting cinema, you have to jump on it. Go during that first week. How else will film bookers ever come to believe that something other than “Avatar” or “Iron Man” will play to a Spokane audience?

Easy answer there. They won’t.