Opinion - Whatcom View

POSTED: Saturday, Jul. 04, 2009

Pickford Film Center story enters uplifting final act

Most appropriately, the story of building the new Pickford Film Center closely resembles the three-act structure of a good film.

In the first act, our hero is introduced. The Pickford is, as Garrison Keillor recently put it, a "shining jewel of a bijoux theater where you can smell the popcorn pop, pop, popping!" It has an 11-year history of being self-supporting and bringing a diversity of quality film programming to the entire Whatcom County community. Our hero's mission is clear: Provide a world-class movie experience that strengthens the community through education, dialogue, and the celebration of film.

In the second act, our hero takes on new heights and challenges that culminate in facing one major obstacle that seems insurmountable. No problem. If raising $3 million for "arts and culture" isn't hard enough in good times, try doing it in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Throw in shifting building restrictions and donor fatigue and you've got a quality "hero up a tree situation."

In the final act, our hero earns some degree of good fortune with pluck and perseverance and manages to squeak down from the tree and achieve success. For the Pickford, we're thankful to say, the third act is nearly at hand.

Pickford Film Center has now raised 75 percent of its $3 million goal. Construction of the new two-theater venue is close to three-fifths complete. Although we are slightly behind schedule due to economic conditions, with the recent award of Rotary Club of Bellingham and M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust grants, and an outpouring of financial support from the community, we are actually accelerating in our fundraising successes, even in these dark times.

People contribute their time and money to the film center because they realize that the Pickford offers much more than just a place to see the latest art house or foreign release. While the Pickford does not serve the community with the urgency of other local charities, the need for high quality, low-cost cultural and artistic experiences that the new Pickford Film Center will bring to Bellingham has never been greater.

Film, and a place to appreciate it together with others, gives us all a chance to step out of our lives and our daily problems and gain a wider vantage point on the world around us. Whether it is a documentary about Rwanda, or a comedy about the ups and downs of parenting, when you walk out of a Pickford film, you have a fresh perspective and always take a few new ideas with you. These kinds of experiences help us all to look at the world with open eyes, solve problems in creative ways or just plain appreciate all that we have in our own lives.

The Pickford offers us this magical "experience" of cinema every time the lights go down. And the new Pickford Film Center will provide our community with an even more inclusive, comfortable and always affordable facility.

Not only will we offer a larger selection of handpicked films in two new theaters equipped with state-of-the-art projection and sound, the new theater will provide the community with a comfortable place to linger with friends and family as we ponder the remote regions of a quirky foreign film or documentary that we have just enjoyed.

With some major financial hurdles still to overcome, our hero has not yet come to the end of his journey.

Pickford Film Center has made huge strides in becoming a non-profit leader and raising a great deal of money. But some of it is in matching pledges that only additional cold hard cash will allow us to access. Your new or continued support will help get the doors of the film center opened soon. Help us write the triumphant concluding act of our hero's story, and together we will all enjoy the new film center built by and for the community for many years to come.

Kathleen Culver is board president of the Pickford Film Center. Max Kaiser is board member.