THIS TUESDAY!

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE RE: THE BIJOU ON THE BAY

Friends,

Since our projection booth meltdown at the Bijou cinema at the beginning of the summer, followed by being forced to close due to the summer-long construction of a new Grandview Parkway, plus the state of the movie business in general these days, operating our smaller theater, the Bijou, has become cost-prohibitive. Thus, in order to focus on our main mission — the 109-year-old Historic State Theatre and our now highly-successful year-round TCFF TUESDAYS — we are returning the Bijou building to the City.

We are sending the letter below to the TC City Commission (the owner of the Bijou), thanking them and giving them notice. We spent nearly one million dollars happily and proudly restoring this abandoned building of theirs — and we have what we think would be an excellent use for it that we are recommending to the City Commission.

We wanted you to hear about it first and hope that you like this new idea. It was a great 11+ years running the Bijou. The “Barbie” summer was the best!

“To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I lost interest anyways.” — Ken

—MM

TO: The Traverse City City Commission

FROM: The Traverse City Film Festival Board of Directors

RE: The Bijou by the Bay cinema in Traverse City’s Clinch Park

First of all, thank you for your overwhelming and continuing support of our theaters and the Film Festival over all of these 20 years. We look forward to keeping our contributions to Traverse City going for many years to come.

We have spent the past few months determining how to proceed with our 12th year of operating the Bijou by the Bay theater which we rebuilt and opened in 2013 in Clinch Park as a nonprofit arts project for the people of Traverse City and the surrounding area.

At the beginning of the summer, our projection booth had a digital meltdown. Our $100,000+ European projector needed to either be replaced or overhauled with hard-to-obtain German parts which were unavailable due to a worldwide supply chain snafu.

At the same time, as the only business for well over a mile on the entire north side of Grandview Parkway, we were faced with the massive disruption of the tearing up and rebuilding of the Parkway that not only was going to entirely cut off the Bijou from Downtown Traverse City, it was going to drastically reduce and nearly eliminate all attendance at the Bijou over the entire summer and fall.

These events converged with an even greater problem that we and every other movie theater in the country is currently facing: None of us have recovered to our pre-pandemic attendance and box office levels.

After a world-wide pandemic that closed theaters everywhere, plus two massive Hollywood strikes that resulted in a complete shutdown of production, the movie industry has not come back. More than half of the people I know in this business are out of work. In fact, tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs. Few new movies are being made. Hollywood seems to be in a death spiral. Last month, Paramount Pictures shut down a large piece of its operations, firing 2,000 people in just one day.

On top of all this, the movie-going habits of the public have radically changed. Thanks to people staying home to avoid the coronavirus, far more people now prefer — and enjoy watching — movies and series on the various streaming services at home. The typical movie theater experience, with its overpriced tickets, its $10 popcorn, the people sitting next to you talking on their cell phones, and, in Traverse City, having to pay for parking to see a movie downtown — people are just not going to the movies like they used to. It is a sad state of affairs.

The impact on us in TC has been significant. And it has become clear that while we can successfully run one great downtown movie palace — Traverse City‘s iconic landmark, the State Theatre — we cannot financially sustain two of them. Thus, we can no longer operate the Bijou as a movie theater. We are losing money each month as it sits empty. The money drain is significant. The Bijou must become something else that preserves and makes good use of the one million dollars we invested in the rebuilding and reimagining of this historic gift from President Roosevelt to Traverse City in 1937.

Back around Memorial Day, I spoke to the City Clerk’s office and told them of our situation. Everything I’ve just written above I relayed to City Hall over these past five months. We informed the City that, per our contract with them, we were declaring a force majeure as we were not able to operate due to forces beyond our control, especially with the City’s massive road construction making our theater inaccessible. Everyone agreed. Our contract is clear that if we were not able to operate due to an “act of God” or the actions of the city needing to shut down a highway for the summer, we were not expected to open our doors which were shut against our will. We also kept our members and donors apprised, we kept the State running every week and we hoped our predicament at the Bijou would be resolved soon after Labor Day.

That was not to be.

After much discussion amongst ourselves and our supporters in the community, we have come up with what we believe is not only a wonderful way to preserve and keep open this Clinch Park Historical Building that is now the Bijou, but also present an incredible opportunity for the City of Traverse City to not only do something to enhance one of our most beloved parks, but to do a profound and powerful act of goodness that will offer an amazing service to the people of TC. Our idea also will allow us, as Traverse City residents, now in the 21st century, to correct a past wrong as it relates to the Native Peoples of our area.

We would like to suggest to the City that the good stewardship we have provided for the Clinch Park building could be transferred to another well-established and beloved nonprofit who will not only expertly maintain our million-dollar gift to the City, but also significantly enhance the culture of our community.

We here at the Traverse City Film Festival would like to see our beloved local Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, with your approval, take over the stewardship of the Clinch Park building and provide a Native American cultural space to be used for the greater good of our entire community. Music, film, plays, gatherings, and uses by clubs and organizations in support of the Tribe’s values as it relates to our Earth, Democracy, the Arts and the preservation of our heritage and good will to all.

We have had a few preliminary discussions with The Tribe. I think they love this idea. I’m guessing they will be contacting you shortly. Of course you will have your own procedures for something like this. We care about what will happen because we put 11 years of our lives and a ton of money into this. The building should not remain vacant for long. We spent a lot of our funds fixing what happens when you have an abandoned building. We will be proud to see the work we’ve done soon being experienced by new audiences — and for everyone who drives down US-31, from Mackinaw City to the Indiana border, as they cross thru the center of Traverse City, they will pass by this historic gem that will be the new cultural signpost of the descendants of TC’s First Peoples.

Of course, the decision will be yours. The best news is that the cost of this idea to the taxpayers is ZERO. The results will be bountiful and life-affirming. Once again, we will have one more example of why we are all proud to live here.

Thank you, on behalf of the Traverse City Film Festival, on behalf of the nearly four million people who have attended our festival and its offshoots since 2005, for the two million people who have bought a ticket to the State and Bijou theaters over these years — and for the privilege you’ve given us to contribute something special to this area we love and hold dear. We look forward to doing even more of that in the years and decades to come. This City Commission and its amazing, dedicated staff have been profound partners in creating numerous endeavors to enhance the quality of life and contribute to the greater good of all who call Northern Michigan home.

Sincerely,
Michael Moore
President and Founder
Traverse City Film Festival