Cape Cinema: A community treasure we cannot lose
I’ve been writing about and reporting on the arts on the Cape for over 20 years. First for the Cape Cod Times, and now on WOMR as one of the hosts of Arts Week. I’ve also been going to Cape Cinema for about 40 years. The Cinema was one of the things I missed most during the pandemic, it is precious to me.
You may be aware that the theater has been closed over the last several weeks due to financial concerns. This past Saturday I went to the standing-room-only community information event hoping to get questions answered, and perhaps speak to the board, but instead found one could write a question, on a pad, which may or may not be answered, and was met with a board that left me and many others less informed and more confused than when we walked in. And when the crowd began, without the aid of mics, to call out questions, which they clearly weren’t prepared to answer, the meeting was abruptly ended.
I have had the pleasure of interviewing the currently laid-off Executive Director, Josh Mason many, many times over the last few years, and what I saw in the board’s PowerPoint presentation was verbatim the goals, plans for events, community activities, events for kids, and fundraising proposals that he has discussed in detail on my radio show over the past two years. No attribution was given to him, no credit for shepherding the theater through Covid, for the incredible events he’s orchestrated…nothing. When asked why they had done no fundraising despite his repeated pleas, (as recently as March 29, 2024 when he sent the board a letter outlining just how dire the situation was) there was no real answer as to why nothing was done to raise money.
The theater has been on the path to revitalization since Covid. You can now get delicious snacks and a glass of wine while you take in a movie, and the theater’s relationship with Payomet has been revived, making fantastic music events a regular occurrence. In just a matter of weeks earlier this spring I went to a great movie, saw a fantastic musician, and heard an inspiring local doctor talk to a packed theater about his book about healthy living.
Yes, streaming has probably forever changed how we view movies, but people still want and need to gather together. But this isn’t the 1980s, in 2024 it takes thinking outside the box. They’re still screening the amazing independent and foreign films Cape Cinema is known for, but it’s also having things like “Throwback Thursdays” and “Splatterday” screenings of classic horror movies later at night which has brought in a whole new demographic.
Having served on various nonprofit boards, I know the relationship between boards and directors can be great and they can be tense. All too often the proverbial baby is thrown out with the bathwater and the director is axed, leaving a board that was already not working well in search of a new leader exhausting all their energies into that rather than forwarding the progress of the organization. As further evidence of a lack of confidence in the current situation, since executive director, Josh Mason, and general manager, John Crowley III were laid off, two board members have tendered their resignations.
Cape Cinema belongs to all of us. I’m grateful to the past director for all the years he ran the cinema. It’s a really tough job. But I believe it’s time to look forward, not back, and I for one want nothing more than to see the continued progress that was being made under executive director Mason, before he was laid off, and to see him and the general manager back at work, continuing to take Cape Cinema solidly forward. That, I believe, is the happy ending we all want and deserve.
Candace Hammond is a a journalist, radio show host, and novelist from Orleans.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Hammond: Rehiring staff at Cape Cinema a good first step
