Press Contact: Monica Nolan
(415) 831-9480, rehireanita@yahoo.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 15, 2004
(SAN FRANCISCO) Castro Theatre audiences to protest firing of acclaimed film programmer

Award-winning filmmakers, critics and film lovers of all stripes will step out of their movie seats and into the streets on Saturday, December 18 from 3 to 5 pm to protest the recent firing of Castro Theatre programmer Anita Monga, an internationally renowned film programmer whose far-reaching influence and professional excellence made the Castro a world-class venue for alternative, foreign and classic cinema.

Sponsored by Audiences in Action, a group of passionate film-goers who want to preserve programming integrity at the Castro, the demonstration will take place outside the famed theater at 429 Castro Street between 17th & 18th Streets. The protest will feature street theater and the reading of messages of support by film luminaries from across the country.

Hundreds of people have responded to Monga’s dismissal by urging the theatre owners to fix this disastrous mistake. High-profile supporters include Academy Award-winning filmmakers Debra Chasnoff (“Deadly Deception”) and Irving Saraf and Allie Light (“In the Shadow of the Stars”), Oscar-nominated directors Sam Green (“The Weather Underground”) and Gail Dolgin (“Daughter from Danang”), filmmakers David Weissman (“The Cockettes”) and Craig Baldwin (“Sonic Outlaw”), film critic B. Ruby Rich, and local author Barry Gifford.

This groundswell of support continues to grow each day for Monga, who just received the 2004 SF Film Critics Circle Marlon Riggs Award for courage and innovation.

Audiences in Action calls all film lovers to come to the protest, sending a message that without a programmer of Monga’s caliber, the Castro is just a beautiful shell. Protestors have chosen December 18 to call attention to Monga’s absence — the first time in 16 years that the Castro’s new calendar will not be programmed by Monga, who is recognized for scheduling a wide variety of provocative and challenging films. This is a stark contrast to the new more “family friendly” programming that the owners are rumored to be planning. Saturday’s protest will call attention to the owner’s reported concern over gay content at the theatre — an alarming development given the theatre’s role as the very heart of a neighborhood that symbolizes gay pride for the whole country.

Over the past 28 years, the Castro Theatre has become a cultural icon unique in the country. The owner’s short-sighted “business” decision puts all that in danger. Not only is it bad for their business — several distributors and the Film Noir Festival have pulled out in protest — but it seriously compromises audience access to rare archival prints, re-released classics and cutting-edge documentaries, many made by local filmmakers.

Join Audiences in Action to spread the word! Rehire Anita Monga.

TV Reporters: Bring your Lights and Cameras. We’ll provide the Audience Action.

Audiences in Action is a group of film lovers organized to express their distress at the Castro’s new direction. The group has no connection with Anita Monga, except as admirers of her programming for the past sixteen years.