David Lewis May 5, 2021Updated: May 9, 2021, 1:18 am
The Smith Rafael Film Center will be hosting this year’s in-person, indoors DocLands Documentary Film Festival. Photo: Smith Rafael Film Center
For 14 months, Bay Area film festivals have made do during the COVID-19 pandemic with streaming, drive-in showings and virtual Q&As with filmmakers and stars.
To be sure, outdoor screenings offer their own charms and festival streaming is here to stay. But some still clamor for the intimacy, community and power that only a theatrical festival experience can provide.
Well, the wait appears to be over. On Friday, May 7, the DocLands Documentary Film Festival in San Rafael is set to become the first Bay Area festival to take the leap, scheduling two-a-day indoor screenings until it wraps up May 16. DocLands will also feature a few in-person Q&As after select screenings.
Movie Theaters Don t Have to Disinfect Anymore. Many Are Still Doing It Anyway
Gene Maddaus, provided by
FacebookTwitterEmail
Since reopening at the end of 2020, movie theaters have been trying to keep patrons safe from COVID-19 by disinfecting after every screening. They bought up misters and foggers, along with untold volumes of cleaning chemicals, and carefully wiped down any surfaces where virus particles might collect.
But this aspect of theater hygiene has turned out to be little more than well hygiene theater. Experts have been saying since last year that the risk of surface transmission was tiny, and in April the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegged the risk at just 1 in 10,000.
day-and-date in theaters as well as on HBO Max for a limited streaming run. Now that we’re a few months into both of those developments, I wonder if the future is any clearer for you than it was a year ago when it comes to post-pandemic moviegoing?
Handren: It’s a great question, and I’m going to be guessing a little bit at the answer. There’s a lot of press that’s coming out right now from most of the studios that this day-and-date thing that Warner Bros. did was an attempt to find a way to create revenue for them without destroying theatrical. I speak pretty directly with some of the executives at Warner Bros., and.that is not going to be a viable long-term model for them. I think they know on a revenue basis that they do far better with their movies when they go to theatrical first, and then they go to some of the other mediums, whether that’s streaming on-demand or the other mediums.
As the region continues to reopen after the pandemic, a new events center aims to bring events like combat sports, weddings, receptions, plays, movie screenings, and more to Manassas.
The Salisbury Center will be an event center that specializes in live events serving refreshments and using video to enhance productions. There are three local partners behind the company.
The center will be located inside the old Manassas Theaters 4, at 8990 Mathis Avenue.
“Right now, we’re limited to 1/3 capacity,” which is around 270 people, said Miguel Pires, one of the Salisbury Center owners. “We saw it as a great opportunity to take advantage of an old space that’s been empty,” Pires said.