Screening Causes Controversy in Crawfordsville, IN

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Posted on June 14, 2005

by Tami Fairweather

The Vanity Theater in Crawfordsville, Indiana recently hosted a screening of the third and fourth annual Media that Matters Film Festivals on May 6th and 13th, 2005 respectively. And these events really got people talking.

Maintaining a small community theatre can be financially daunting. This particular theatre was struggling to survive on the revenue generated from 6 dramatical productions a season. They are barely managing to cover basic operational expenses, including electricity and telephone service.

That's when the Board of Directors began pursuing alternative revenue sources, film being one of them. Through small and generous grants from the Bank One Foundation, Crawfordsville Mainstreet Association and Wabash College, the theatre purchased a 9x12 foot screen, a digital projector, and a DVD player in order to begin a downtown movie night.

The May screenings of the third and fourth Media That Matters Film Festivals sparked community debate about local values.

Performance rights were obtained from various film distributors and screenings included a variety of old movies, contemporary films and art films. Board member Frank Cicela communicated that the intention was to "bring films to the community that wouldn't be seen in traditional commercial theaters."

This new venture brought Cicela to The Film Connection, an organization that makes DVDs available to groups for free rental for community screenings. Their online list of DVDs included the Media That Matters Film Festivals and their site indicated that the films could be used for screenings. When Cicela contacted MediaRights he learned that the films on the festival DVD are distributed under a Creative Commons non-commercial non-derivative license -- the festival can be screened publicly without paying a licensing fee to MediaRights as long as tickets to the event are free. Screening arrangements were made and press releases were sent out.

Prior to the first screening date, a long time community resident submitted an op-ed piece to the local paper opposing the Media that Matters Screening: "The listing of the 32 film shorts and a brief description of each shows an extremely politically correct, Third World bias. Deriding everything from President George W. Bush to the eating of meat, this presentation seems to fly in the face of Montgomery County values."

Follow-up editorial pieces from other community members included comments such as:

"The intent of the Sugar Creek Players has never been to offend anyone but rather to encourage discussion and dialogue by presenting diverse opinions. Its recent film festival was one such [event]."*

"I am impressed the Sugar Creek Players have brought an opportunity to stretch us beyond ourselves."**

"I have been a resident of this county for more than 15 years. I find that no one set of values can accurately define the culture and people of Montgomery County. The people of this county are actually a diverse lot. Those of conservative philosophy live along side those who are more liberal in thought. The mutual respect and civility among our citizens who have differing views is commendable."***

Cicela shared that Media that Matters was the first film festival that the theatre has offered the community since they began showing films. All told, 50+ patrons showed up for the screenings. Departing audience members were grateful and appreciated that the festival was brought to the community and hoped that other similar events could be hosted in the future. Cicela also shared that the theatre is looking for a film distributor with whom the theater can work with on an ongoing basis to help curate future film screenings.

Cicela added that in his opinion, "the arts should not only entertain but enlighten -- there is nothing wrong with shifting the perspective through which people perceive the world." Read the entire Op-Ed pieces:

*"Opposes 'The Media That Matters' event" **"Grateful film festival shown here"

***"Grateful for county's diversity, values"

Want to screen Media That Matters in your community? Contact Wendy Cohen.