For information about the U of O's Filmlandia event go here.
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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. If I was keeping score regarding how many movies, I've seen in the theaters this year versus how many of the top-rated shows on the various streaming services I've seen this year, the tally would be something like 100 to three in favor of Netflix and the like. And I know I'm not alone. We just aren't going to movies like we used to, and most experts believe that's going to continue to decline. Today, on the show, we talked to a U of O professor and cinema expert about why we aren't going to movies, what we're missing, and how a return to theaters could return our sense of community. Then we check in on the brutal cuts coming to Eugene schools. Peter Alilunas, an associate professor with of cinema studies at the University of Oregon. Peter, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming in.
PETER ALILUNAS: Great to be back. Thanks for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: We talked about great movies that The New York Times had, had identified a few months back, and now we're an Oscar season. But it's interesting because I've seen some numbers which seem to suggest that people aren't going to the movies. Aren't going to theaters, certainly not like they used to, and I wanted to talk to you about it. Why do you think it is?
PETER ALILUNAS: There's no question attendance at movie theaters is down and profoundly since covid. Yeah, it probably will never come back to pre-Covid levels. I think the industry has accepted that, but it has started to rebound. Why people aren't going to movies, though, is a bit bigger question. A lot of that has to do with the options we have now in our media landscape, there's so many more things we can do, particularly on our devices, and I think that that's just cut into the market.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, okay, I'm going to take myself as an example. And we were talking off mic, and, you know, the Oscar nominations came out, and as I understand it, there's some great movies out there, Like Sinners, and a lot of great pictures. I haven't seen any of them. And I realized, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I probably would have seen almost all of the Best Picture nominees and I know for myself, I do watch a lot of content, and I enjoy it, but I enjoy it from the comfort of my own home. Is part of the issue convenience and quality from TV streaming services have kind of, you know that Venn diagram?
PETER ALILUNAS: Well, first of all, Michael, I'm here partly today to convince you to start going to more movies. Okay, the movies this year are excellent. It is a tremendous year for the quality of movie making. The Best Picture nominees alone at the Oscars this year are terrific. So that's number one, yeah. Number two, Michael, you're not alone. A lot of people don't want to go to the theaters anymore, and I think I understand why. There are some reasons. Number one, they're expensive. Number two, it's not just the ticket cost. In some places, you also have to pay for parking. You might have to pay for someone to take care of your kids. You might have to, if you're choosing to eat at the theater, pay these exorbitant prices for concessions. It's an expensive night out. So that's number one. Number two, who doesn't like to stay home on their couch and be warm and cozy and have snacks and watch their big, beautiful TVs? So I get it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, but, but I would also, and now I'm gonna play devil's advocate to myself, because it's never been easier to purchase tickets. It's very convenient. Yes, it's expensive, but I would also say, for example, going to a sporting event live is probably four or five times as much as a movie. Even going out to eat at a nice restaurant is expensive. It seems like the movie industry is certainly and seats, by the way, and sound and picture quality have never been better, so they seem to be trying to make it, you know, a great experience. But you know, is it that we're just such a slave to convenience that we're not willing to give it a shot?
PETER ALILUNAS: Sometimes, I think that's true. And let's be clear, the movie studios, in many ways, did train us during Covid to wait and expect things on the streaming services, particularly a company like Pixar started to release their films, you know, for streaming that, and people just sort of expected that. But you made some great counter arguments. And. Let's focus on those, because it is really easy now to go to the movie theater, you can pre reserve your seats at most theaters. You don't even have to sit through all the all the commercials before the show. Your seat is reserved for you. But the most important thing, and one of the reasons I really am passionate about this subject, is watching movies with other people the community of cinema, seeing a theater the way it was intended, in a big room with lots of people in your community, that's really my number one reason to go to the theater.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, and it's funny, I this will be a bit of a tortured analogy, but sometimes I write columns for a newspaper, and I was talking about how sometimes negative experiences stay with you so much longer, and are so much more sort of imprinted on your mind than positive ones and I think that that that sense of community we all have remember going to the movie and sitting, you know, behind someone who is really loud, or something like that, and that's something we remember, but we don't remember that wow. You know everybody clapping at the end of a great movie, or everybody laughing in unison. It seems like maybe we've forgotten how important that sense of community is.
PETER ALILUNAS: That's right. And let me, let me say a couple things there. I want to encourage everybody out there who's listening, put your phones away and don't talk during the movie. Let everybody enjoy the show. And then, number two, I want to say that the cinema gives us a chance to connect as a community, to feel like we're part of the place we live in. And then number three, the cinema gives us a chance to see the movies in this big, epic way. I'll give you one example. I saw avatar recently in theater, and there's no way, no matter how good your home setup is, there is no way you can recreate that experience at home. Go see it in the place where it was intended to be seen. Overwhelming picture size, overwhelming sound quality, the beautiful 3d renderings that were made. That's how you should see a film like that.
MICHAEL DUNNE: A movie like One Battle After Another. That's the Leo DiCaprio Oscar picture. And you know, it may not have Avatar like need for, you know, the big screen, because maybe it doesn't rely on visual and sound effects as much. But why should you go to see something, a movie like that, on a big theater versus waiting for it at home?
PETER ALILUNAS: A couple reasons that film in particular, I would encourage people to go to the theater. Number one, the director, Paul Thomas Anderson, used a very old camera technology called Vista vision, which is not widely used today at all, but he's brought it back for that film, so you're gonna see a beautiful, wide screen esthetic with that film that is so much grander on the biggest possible screen you can see. And number two, a director like Paul Thomas Anderson is sort of a legacy for us, a living legacy to this art form that's been around for over 100 years now. He's really one of the most talented and dedicated and passionate filmmakers working today. So, supporting a movie like that in the theater ensures we'll have more movies like that in the future.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You used an interesting word there- support. And I imagine a lot of people listening saying, okay, you know, if I go to, I mean, Michael B Jordan doesn't need another million dollars or Cinemark doesn't need my money. You know, they're a huge corporation, but, but talk about that idea of you're supporting local theater, or even if it's a big chain, you're still supporting local employees working there, right?
PETER ALILUNAS: You're absolutely right. And those folks who work in the industry don't necessarily need that money, but what we do need in a place like Eugene is those community spaces. A movie theater is part of our community fabric. And so, you know, if you don't want to give your money to Cinemark or Regal Cinemas, I understand. I respect that, but maybe you do want to give it to the art house or the metro, places that are woven into the fabric of our community. And you're right. You do support the workers who work there and the people that run those businesses, and you're supporting too, not just the financial aspect, you're supporting the artistic aspect. And movies are such a part of our culture like anything else, like books or music or art or dance. So, for that reason, we should keep those things going.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Pull that third a little bit more about especially those, those smaller theaters, those community theaters, I know, again, I'm the old crank here in the room, and I haven't done, I haven't viewed a lot of movies in that space. I guess I was trained on the mall cineplex, you know, universe growing up. Talk about that experience of the smaller theater, the in-town theater that we have here in Eugene and other places.
PETER ALILUNAS: Here in Eugene, we are so fortunate to have really such a beautiful legacy movie theater, the art house, which has now expanded to include a lot of musical events too. But this is a theater that has been around for decades and is a beautiful space. They have two auditoriums. Are both beautiful, both upgraded recently, really committed to cinema as an art form. And I just encourage everyone to go. And then also you have the Metro cinema, which is newer, has multiple screens. Some people who haven't been might be surprised, some of those screens are actually pretty big. Some are a little more intimate, and some are bigger, also so passionate and dedicated to cinema as an art form, and we're so again, we're so fortunate to have those here in our city, because many places’ theaters have shut and gone, particularly since Covid. So, it's important that we try to keep those places going here in town.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Before you came in, I was thinking about my movie going experience and how it's changed and one of the things that that I think lends well to your argument about, or not your argument, but your statement about community building, is, you know, when I used to go to the movies, it was great to watch, but it was really almost more fun, because after the movie, me and my friends or spouse or whatever, would talk about it. I don't think people do that anymore. I certainly don't now, when I watch something on Netflix, Talk about that sort of post movie community building too.
PETER ALILUNAS: Oh, absolutely. And I mean, I personally, completely agree with you. And I mean, of course, I'm a film professor, so my life is talking about movies with my students and colleagues. But absolutely, the post-show discussion is one of the joys of movie going. And I encourage everybody out there to develop a community of folks you go to the cinema with and talk to afterward. Go get a go get a coffee or a drink afterward, and talk it through Absolutely.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You mentioned your students. I mean, so you're talking to younger people, mostly, you know, what are the conversations you have with them? Obviously, you're teaching them about cinema, but also just in terms of their experiences going to movies, do they push back and say, Now I'm going to watch it on Netflix or on my phone? Or are they starting to the 20 somethings, rediscovering going to the theater?
PETER ALILUNAS: There is definitely a rediscovery happening of live human events. I do think the younger generation is interested in offline connections, and movie theaters feel very real to them, because it's a place where you physically go to attend something. When I'm talking to my students, I absolutely encourage them to do this. And in my film history class, for example, we show movies every week, and we try to recreate the space of a movie theater in our classroom. And part of that is to show them the beauty of communal cinema watching.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You talked about the fact that going to the movies and the theater industry and the movie industry may never get back to what it once was. Is it scalable? Can they Is it the idea that maybe they're not going to release as many movies, so that scarcity might drive people what are some things that you think they could do to you know, permeate this reality.
PETER ALILUNAS: Well, the movie industry has been seeing declining attendance since 1946 so this isn't new. Okay, in 1946 it reached its peak with about 60% of the public would go to the movies once a week, which is an astonishing number, it really is, but that's just prior to television taking off. So, you know this, this has been happening for a long time, but there's a there's a lot of ideas percolating about turning theaters into event spaces or doing other things while you're there. They're always looking for that magic way to get you to go, and certainly part of that is to make films that feel like events, okay? And we're gonna see more of that. We're gonna see more films that are colossal budgets, and really want to take us on a ride. And sure, I'm all for that, sure, I'm also for very small movies that cost very little, and take us on a ride of like human joy and experiences.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, and talk about so you have an enterprise you're doing, or you have, you have a thing that you're championing, champion championing, called Filmlandia. Talk about that because I think it really bespeaks this idea of creating community right here in our little community.
PETER ALILUNAS: My colleague, Colin Williamson, another professor in cinema studies, and I this year, are running a screening series called Filmlandia at the University of Oregon, it's on Wednesday nights at six o'clock on campus, and it's a film series devoted to films made in and about Oregon. So, we have a total of 14 films playing over the course of this academic year, and each of those films we've curated based on its connection to Oregon as a space. Okay, in some cases that might be literal. It's filmed in Oregon. In other cases, it might be a filmmaker from Oregon, and in some cases, it might be related about to being about Oregon. But in any case, we developed this as a way to do what I'm talking about, to encourage community, to encourage people to watch. Films together, to talk about films, to come together in a space and experience that as a group that was really our goal.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, so, Peter, my last question for you is, what is your favorite film that has that Oregon connection?
PETER ALILUNAS: I'm really excited about all these films, but there's one in particular I want to draw people's attention to. We are going to do a very rare public screening of a film called property that was made in 1978 by penny Allen. It was shot in Portland, and it involved a story about the life she was actually living with her own neighborhood, and how they made this decision to try to buy up their properties communally. Okay, so this is a film that is very rare to see, and we are going to be showing that on March 4, at 6pm in Villard Hall, room 205, and the public is invited. Everybody. It's free and it's open to the public.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Awesome, awesome. Peter Alilunas, Associate Professor of cinema studies at the U of O, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much.
PETER ALILUNAS: Thank you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Now let's check in on the big cuts, including reducing teachers at Eugene's 4J, KLCC's Rebecca Hanson white, Rebecca, always great to see you and talk to you. Thanks so much for coming down and chatting.
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: Always great to be here.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, you know you've been covering what's going on at 4j and there's some pretty drastic budget issues going on. So, let's just kind of level set and remind people sort of what's been happening. We have a new superintendent; we have a budget shortfall. Give us the 30,000-foot view as you've been covering this story.
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: Yeah, well, it's a tough time to be in education right now. Four Jay is having some pretty big financial challenges, but so with Springfield and a lot of the other districts, are at the point where low enrollment and some funding challenges means they're closing schools. So, in Eugene right now, where they're at is they're in the midst of cutting $30 million in terms of people, that is up to about 269 jobs, roughly, is how many people across school administration, across teachers and licensed staff, and across classified staff, which classified staff is your bus drivers, your education assistants, your custodial staff. So, all of those jobs are potentially at risk next school year, and then they're making a lot of other cuts that are also pretty tough to have it if you know what that is, that's college readiness. So high school kids will still have that, but middle schoolers won't have access next school year to a lot of that college prep summer school might look different. They're scaling back summer school options. We're not exactly sure what that will look like yet. Technology is getting some cuts contracts, so there is a wide range of budget cuts that are happening right now because of some of these forces at work that are really challenging our education system.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And remind folks you talked about low enrollment, that's been, I guess, a national issue. There's just not as many kids in this sort of, this sort of generation as previously, and that's kind of the basic math of it?
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: I think that next school year in Eugene, specifically, there's going to be about 380 fewer kids, is what they're projecting. And it's, it's less, you know, millennials like me not having kids. But there's also the housing component of it, of people maybe aren't starting families because they can't afford houses, or young families maybe can't afford to move into this district because housing prices are so high. So that's the enrollment. Part of it is there's literally fewer kids entering preschool and moving into our district. But there's also some, some cost challenges to where everything is getting more expensive, and our state, every local government, has to figure out how to cover their pension responsibilities, which, that's a whole other episode, and the Oregonian has some great reporting they do every year on the PERS system. So, there is a lot of challenges that are also escalating the costs despite that. You know, you would think that fewer kids mean, you know, less money we have to spend, but fewer kids also mean less money from the state of Oregon coming in.
MICHAEL DUNNE: One of the things I saw in your in your piece, was this idea of eliminating the footprint. Is that code for closing schools?
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: Yeah, so I did point blank ask a couple weeks ago, are you going to close any schools? And that is a no for now, but what they are going to do instead is. They're going to co-locate a school within another school. So right now, Family School has its own building. It's way out there, on the edge of Eugene, that school is going to move into camas Ridge Community School. So, Family School is an elementary alternative school, so kids who get placed there or chosen are often neuro-divergent, or maybe they had some disciplinary problems in their neighborhood school, and that's a very different approach to meeting those kid’s needs. So that's who's at Family School, and it's a very small program, like 110 kids, I think, and they're going to co-locate within Canvas Ridge Community School. So, it'll be two schools operating out of the same space, if they approve it next week.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I think I saw in your piece that middle school schedules will be affected. Talk about that.
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: Yeah, so 4j is planning to take all middle schools from seven periods to six periods, in hopes of saving some funds. And you know that there is some pushback on that, specifically from middle school teachers, sure, who are very concerned that kids who are very vulnerable, who have either disabilities or stuff going on at home or socio-economic challenges, that they're going to lose access to electives, to music, to art, and so there was some real push back to doing that, which it's still not been decided. We still have a week for them to make a decision that the kids that really need their parents can't take them to piano lessons. You know, they can't take them to art classes, that they're not going to be able to have the opportunity to be able to participate in art and music, and so that is a change that's still up for deliberation, changing middle school schedules, that it's a little controversial, and maybe needs some kinks worked out to figure out how to implement it so that everybody has opportunity and access to those things.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Got it. She's Rebecca Hansen-White, reporter here for us at KLCC. Rebecca, thanks so much. That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. An Amazon fulfillment center is proposed for Eugene and tomorrow on the show, you'll hear from two groups who are desperately trying to stop it from being built. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon On The Record, thanks for listening.
