Coalition of leaders wants more info on Castro Theatre changes
A group describing themselves as "a coalition of community stakeholders concerned about the future of the Castro Theatre" have written Gregg Perloff, chief executive officer of Another Planet Entertainment, to express their concerns about the future of the theater.Another Planet is the Berkeley-based concert promotion company that assumed management of the fabled cinema earlier this year."We are very concerned that changes being made without the input of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District will result in the erasure or drastic reduction of queer culture in the Castro Theatre," the letter stated.
Dated April 12, the letter expresses concern about "the probable loss of regular film programming, sing-alongs, world-class film festivals, and low-cost rentals accessible to specialty producers like Mark Huestis and Peaches Christ beyond this calendar year." Furthermore, it details additional concerns about preservation of the historic theater along with its organ, the movie screen, "a century's worth of ephemera worthy of cataloging," and various other matters.In a news release to the Bay Area Reporter which accompanied the letter, cultural district manager Tina Valentin Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person, said that APE had refused to meet with them."It's been really disappointing to experience Another Planet Entertainment's erasure of film and queer culture in the Castro Theatre while refusing to meet with us or respond with substantive answers to detailed concerns that we have presented to them privately and now publicly," Aguirre stated. "I was cautiously optimistic in early February.
