willoneill wrote:
MichaelB wrote:
I wasn't aware of it until the last few weeks or so: it's not the sort of thing that would really cross my radar, not being based in the US.
Same here, in Canada. In fact, I would argue after the Wonder Woman female-only-screenings promotion, the impression of Alamo Drafthouse outside of the areas where they operate was as a more safe-space, female-friendly environment than most places within the cinema community. I fully supported the idea of the screenings, but even I found some of the Alamo execs' tweets and statements to have a bit of a holier-than-thou tone to them, which makes these revelations all the more enlightening.
I think the whole "take out your phone and you get thrown out" thing, which I agree with in principle totally, is ultimately indicative of a broader "we're telling you how to be comfortable" culture that's very not progressive and somewhat implicitly patriarchal/"mansplain"-y. I'm assuming this will blow over and the Leagues will resign or step to a lower position or something because they clearly did not bother to insulate themselves whatsoever from any of this. They're expanding hugely - I can't speak nationally but they're opening two locations in the DC metro area in the next 18 months (the only one in the area is an hour out of the city), and I was at least tentatively excited considering DC's got a relative lack of rep theaters as far as major markets go (it's still better than a lot of other places, obviously). But I have a really hard time imagining how anyone in good conscience can continue going to these theaters while this management is still in place.