Page 8 - BusinessWest March 17, 2025

“We’re fundamentally telling stories that are relevant and important
to the human experience, particularly at a time when we feel like many things are being lost, including from the pandemic and being afraid to come out, or getting out of the habit of coming out.”
the facility recently invested in its projector technology, sound, and screens, as well as replacing all its seats dur- ing the pandemic. “So when you’re here, you’ve got a really modern and fully immersive experience.”
But the top factor in bringing people in is simply curat- ing movies that people want to see and can’t get elsewhere, whether it’s first-run independent and arthouse films (for example, several of this year’s Oscar nominees, including all the nominated documentary, animated, and live-action shorts), the $5 family film program (E.T., The Lion King, and a Mary Poppins sing-along are all on the docket this spring) or Friday-night cult favorites (the next few selections are Conan the Barbarian, Sleepaway Camp, and The Doom Generation).
“Then we curate all these retrospectives and repertory cinema, and we eventize them,” Eisenhauer explained. After a screening, we might have the filmmaker on stage, or a faculty member from one of our institutions who has a deep expertise on a certain subject or topic of the film, and the discussions that happen in this room are incredible.
“Janet Planet was a big one because that was a local filmmaker, Annie Baker, and what was really fun about that was seeing Western Massachusetts on the screen. People would sit through all the credits because so many of the folks who participated in the making of that are from the local community.”
Another program that pairs a movie with a discussion
is called Science on Screen. Upcoming features include The Silence of the Lambs, which includes a lecture by Erik Charles, a UMass Amherst professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Don’t Look Up, with Ethan Zuckerman, a UMass Amherst professor of Public Policy, Information, and Communication; and The Pod Generation, with Carrie Baker, a Smith College professor of the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.
Hearts, Minds, and Economics
While advocating for Amherst Cinema as an important cultural institution, Eisenhauer was quick to note its place as an economic multiplier in the community.
“We employ locally; it’s a small team, but they’re all from here. We also prioritize local vendors, from our IT providers to our printers to many products here. We look for hyper- local vendors — Dean’s Beans is our coffee supplier. We do as much as we can locally.”
When people come to the movies from out of town, she added, they often dine in Amherst and even stay in hotels, if the movie outing is part of a broader vacation. “So when the cinema is up and running, it drives a lot of traffic to the town and really amplifies businesses.”
The local element is a critical one to many such arthous- es, she added. “We are not a corporate chain that is doing something from the middle of the country that gets spread all over. The labor is here, and that’s our priority.”
Thinking back to the early days of her leadership, with the pandemic in full swing, and how Amherst Cinema has recovered and continues to rebound, Eisenhauer noted her love of post-apocalyptic movies and books.
“Many of them are, of course, naturally very grim and frightening, but many of them are about discovering human- ity — what remains when everything is lost? And one of the things that I’ve noticed in post-apocalyptic films is that, at the end, what survives is art and the arts,” she said.
“I’ve always loved movies. We’re fundamentally telling stories that are relevant and important to the human experi- ence, particularly at a time when we feel like many things are being lost, including from the pandemic and being afraid to come out, or getting out of the habit of coming out,” she went on. “And then, when people return, they get this experience, and they’re moved. So when I think about why we’re here and what we do, it’s kind of changing hearts and minds, one film at a time.” BW
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8 MARCH 17, 2025 << FEATURE >> BusinessWest