As film fans in Central Florida know, Enzian is a single screen movie theater. This presents problems in scheduling. If a movie is unexpectedly popular and gets held over, it's not uncommon that other films get pushed back or even bumped from the schedule. It happens to big films and it happens to small films. It's not something we like, but it's a fact of life. The other fact of life is that every time it happens, somebody feels cheated and personally insulted. In this case, it's Doug Wolens, a long-time friend of Enzian.

Let me say at the outset that we feel badly about what happened. If we had a magic wand or a second screen, we'd be happy to run Doug's film Weed in the dinner and date slot he believes it deserves. But we don't have a second screen. Meanwhile, The Apostle is attracting an incredibly diverse cross-section of Orlando -- people who've never set foot in our theater are coming to see this film. That's important because we believe it's part of Enzian's mission to serve as many different segments of our community as possible.

When we saw the popularity of The Apostle, it was apparent we'd have to make a tough decision about Weed. We could have bumped Weed all together (as many people suggested), limited the run to a few midnight showings or delayed it. The thought of totally splitting the screen between The Apostle and Weed wasn't an option, just as it wouldn't have been an option if a much larger film had been in Weed's place.

Instead, Enzian's staff tried to honor commitments to Doug, who was doing a great job self-promoting his film. We fought for a middle ground between commerce and idealism -- midnight showings on Friday and Saturday and 10pm showings Sunday through Thursday (meaning we had to push around five showings of The Apostle). Since Orlando is a late-night town on the weekends, we thought this schedule would work. Plus, The Slant is throwing a party for Weed at 9PM on Friday at Will's Pub. That seemed like a perfect lead-in for a midnight screening.

But as you've read, Doug isn't happy. He'd like to portray this scheduling decision as the work of evil corporate henchmen. It just ain't so. Evil corporate henchmen would've never booked Weed in the first place. Evil corporate henchmen would never pushed around five showings of an academy-award nominated film to make room for Weed. Enzian did and we stand by that decision as the best compromise we could make in difficult circumstances.

The saddest part of all this is the possible negative impact from Doug's insistance on climbing an electronic soapbox and shrieking that he's been screwed. As other Central Florida theaters observe the Enzian's success with booking art house films, they consider expanding their bookings. That could mean more high-quality films for area audiences. But after reading Doug's public diatribe, they might ask, "Is it worth our energy to deal with self- distributors and book these little indie films?" The end result might well be a far slower growth for independent films in O-Town, with Enzian remaining the only full-time theater in town willing to expend the time and energy to book truly independent films.

Despite factual errors, we don't see the point of a tit for tat debate over the rest of Doug's letter. Yesterday, Doug was a strong supporter of Enzian and its "unabashed and highly publicized support of independent film." After we moved two screenings of his film from 10pm to midnight, all bets are off and Doug's branding us as unfriendly to the arts. We don't buy it. We hope that after being pissed off for a while, Doug accepts why we made the decision. It was a tough call, but such decisions are what allows Enzian to exist and bring in films like Weed or host events like RESFEST, BROUHAHA, the South Asian Film Festival, the Charlie Chaplin Collection and many others.

Despite this episode, we still wish Doug the best of luck with Weed and hope that audiences check out the film (and if you're coming out on Friday, catch The Slant party at Will's Pub first!).

One personal point... Doug's letter reminds me that the community (both the national filmmaker community and the local community of film fans) feels a sense of co-ownership of Enzian. I think that's great. The staff at Enzian works here because we feel we're doing something that matters. We want YOU to feel like it matters too. We book films like The Apostle, Ponette and Weed because we're convinced there's a Central Florida audience who wants a choice beyond the multiplex (a fifteen screen house is great until you realize it's 15 screens of fodder). As Enzian's new director of media and marketing, I'd like to know what you think about Enzian and the films we show. Feel free to e-mail me @ the address below regarding any issues. I'll try to respond to everything. And if there are any noticeable trends in the comments, I'll be sure to post them here for further discussion.

Rich Grula
Director of Media & Marketing
Enzian Theater
filmfest@gate.net

P.S. - Thanks to the fine folks at The Slant for allowing me to post this in tandem with Doug's letter.

Brian Clark I've worked as a professional musician, a pizza deliverer, a graphic designer, a record promoter, a database programmer, a youth empowerment coordinator and a recording engineer (not necessarily in that order.) Other Articles I've Written