Like many of us, I’ve been staying safe during the pandemic and not participating too much in social events. But I still stay in the loop with as many local organizations as I can. Many of us with a connection to the arts worry that public performance art — of which cinema is one — may be busted back to the stone age, to put it bluntly, by our inability to gather in groups and the lack of funding that results. The Latchis finds itself in this boat, and while they continue to show films under all the current rules for safe gathering in theatres, they have obviously taken a hit.
Lately, I’ve been enjoying their newsletters wherein Jon Potter, director of Latchis Arts, tells it like it is to his audience of people who like movies, music, and dance. His most recent letter, which came out January 14, notes that arts groups are starting to regroup as it were, as we all adjust to the new circumstances we find ourselves in. Adapt or die, is pretty much the story, and artists are trying to do that.