Fellow Lovers of Cinema,
First, our sincerest apologies to those who have been inconvenienced by our screening cancelations over the last two weeks. It’s certainly not the experience you’ve come to expect from us, and that we work hard to provide you.
Two weeks ago, our Sony SRXR515 projection system, which has served to present hundreds of wonderful films since we first opened our doors in 2014, projected its last film. Halfway through a screening of C’mon C’mon, the screen went yellow (ironic for a black-and-white film…), and as we would come to find out the next morning, a critical projector component had died out. Replacing this component would cost us just under the price of an entirely new system, so we’ve been advised to invest in a new projector.
Needless to say, a cinema without a projector is like a restaurant without a grill. An investment of this magnitude would normally call for a fundraiser campaign – particularly as we are still working to make up for the revenue we lost during our 2020-2021 closure – but in order to continue to serve as your community art house cinema, and to present you with the films we’d promised to close out your year with, we made the decision to apply a large amount of our resources to replacing our projector immediately. This led to a bit of a hunt, due to current industry-wide inventory issues caused by shipping delays, but thanks to the folks at Fountain Valley’s Moving Image Technologies, last Friday we welcomed a brand new 4K Barco system to our projection booth. Some last-minute installation issues caused us to have to cancel one more show yesterday, but as of today I am happy to report we are back and running in both auditoriums.
To complicate matters further — In anticipation of a busy year with further expanded programming, we had previously elected to invest in an off-site office where we can continue to develop our staff team and educational programming offerings. There is of course never a good time to be hit with the sudden and unexpected demand of a $65,000 technology investment, so as excited as we continue to be to move into our office space in January, and share news about our progress there, the loss our projector truly hit us at an inopportune time.
Please make a year-end contribution to The Frida Cinema. We truly need your help.
Contributions may be made by clicking the Donate icon below:
Or you can send a check by mail to:
The Frida Cinema
Attn: Charitable Contributions
305 E. 4th St. STE 100
Santa Ana, CA 92701
All donations are tax-deductible, and will allow us to restore and produce those projects whose budgets have otherwise been depleted by this unexpected development. Every dollar counts, and every dollar is needed. Please give what you can — we are committed to continue to do great things with your support.
Thank you so very much for your support. I wish you very Happy and Healthy Holidays, and all the best in 2022 and beyond!
Logan Crow
Executive Director, Founder
The Frida Cinema