I just signed the petition to keep 35mm film prints alive. Though I know it may seem a small thing in light of other stuff going on in this country, I feel like this is an issue of significant cultural importance.

If you don’t know what’s going on, here’s a short synopsis: every major film company has decided to stop producing film prints entirely, and they’ve also started destroying their existing libraries of film prints. All major theater companies have switched over to digital formats; virtually no existing multiplexes show films now. The only real holdouts now are small independent theaters, like the one I work in, which persist in showing 35mm prints whenever possible…it’s okay for now, but within a year the availability of new prints will be dramatically decreased as production ceases (and film companies increasingly make it harder to even show older prints that are still in existence). Large theater companies can afford to make the transition to digital, but small cinemas find themselves looking at a $50,000 price tag per screen, an amount of money they just do not have. Atlanta’s oldest running movie theater, the Plaza, recently put out a press release saying they would have to close down unless someone was willing to come along and donate a huge load of cash to help them make the digital transition.

And it’s not just a one-time expense to switch over: unlike analog film technology, digital technology grows and becomes obsolete at an extremely fast rate, so theaters will find themselves every few years having to scramble for more money to keep up with the latest generation of projection equipment (and to maintain compliance with copyright protections the film companies have to put on the digital files). My theater is currently using 35mm projectors that were built in the 1950s, because the technology is basically the same, it always works, and if something breaks you can see what it is and fix it relatively easily. This is not how digital projectors work.

Part of this issue that’s close to my heart is that projectionists are getting kicked out of jobs. The Beechwood Cinema in Athens had two projectionists who had spent their entire lives working with film, but who suddenly found themselves out of jobs when the Georgia Theater Company made the digital transition. Digital projectors only need someone to load hard drives into the servers and set up the film schedule on a computer at the beginning of the week; a manager could easily do this. There is precious little need for expert and caring projectionists in this environment, because theaters can’t afford to pay them if they don’t have to. At many digital theaters I’ve gone to, I’ve noticed that the film presentation was terrible because there weren’t projectionists around to ensure that the film was being thrown correctly on the screen, or that the sound was right. There’s no one left whose job it is to care about how the movie that customers paid for actually looks up on the screen.

The main reason this is all happening is simply because film companies find it cheaper to send a hard drive or digital download to theaters than to strike film prints and ship them around. In reality, they are just externalizing the costs by forcing your local film house to spend huge amounts of money just to stay open, and all in order to show a lower quality digital film presentation. They’re squeezing the life out of movie theaters. The result, I think, is that no theaters except for huge multiplexes will be able to remain open, and the movie companies will have complete, dictatorial control over what movies they show.  (…Not to mention complete control over what and how many commercials show before the movie.)

This marks the furthering of a trend in the film industry (which should no longer be called the “film” industry) towards profit over quality. They increasingly will only bankroll focus-group-tested movies that they know they can make tons of quick money off of in the first weekend; they will only want to make super hero movie remakes and Twilight movies; all movies they make will be purely for profit; artistic merit, which has been sorely embattled in this industry for years, will cease to exist.  What you’re seeing is the hollowing out of the film industry.

It used to be that film companies took chances on making films and working with creative directors because they were run by film-makers and/or film-lovers who understood that making a film was making art. The fact that they are sacrificing the medium of film for something that puts more money in their coffers while devaluing the integrity of film-making itself exposes that movie companies are no longer run by people who care any bit whatsoever about the great and rich art form that is called “Film.” Their CEOs are interchangeable with CEOs from any other major corporation: they care about nothing except how to make more money in the next quarter.

If you care about film at all, please take a moment to let these CEOs know that film without film is NOT film.

(It will ask for your address: if you’re uncomfortable giving out your home address, give the address of your local theater.)

Here is the statement I added to my signature:

“As a film projectionist I’ve had the opportunity to view the same film side-by-side in 35mm and digital. I was startled by the difference. The 35mm film was so much more vibrant! The image had depth and life and color, while the digital looked muted, flat, and lifeless in comparison. There’s no contest, really—film just looks better, even with some scratches on it. Film got a bad rap because movie theaters started letting their popcorn boys run the films so that they could cut corners, but that doesn’t mean film is bad. Actual good projectionists now find their skills and integrity devalued, and their jobs in danger (at best).

“Though I know it may be futile, I urge the major movie companies to please please PLEASE not let your short-sighted profit motive destroy what’s truly great about movies. You’re just killing yourselves. If people want to see a digital film, they can just get it on their big flat-screen TV for next to nothing. You need to preserve the special experience of going to the movies or you will become irrelevant outside of bank-rolling special effects extravaganzas. You’re shooting yourselves in the foot and you don’t even know it.”