Manny’s: SFC Live: The State of Bay Area Movie Theaters + ‘Ask Mick LaSalle’ LIVE

Great films deserve great theaters. But Bay Area indie cinemas have been facing a challenging era, from pandemic shutdowns and COVID restrictions to cautious audiences and Hollywood strikes.

How are local theater owners changing the movie-going experience to attract audiences back into auditoriums? Are they optimistic about the outlook for this year and beyond? And what will it take to ensure Bay Area movie houses thrive?

Join The Chronicle’s Datebook team for a discussion about local theaters and the movies at 6 p.m. Aug. 16, at Manny’s cafe in San Francisco. Chronicle movie writer G. Allen Johnson will sit down with Roxie Theater executive director Lex Sloan, CinemaSF co-owner Adam Bergeron and Grand Lake Theatre owner Allen Michaan for a conversation about the future of indie theaters in the Bay Area.

Plus, longtime Chronicle movie critic Mick LaSalle celebrates 20 years of answering readers’ burning movie questions with a live edition of his “Ask Mick LaSalle” column alongside Senior Arts and Entertainment Editor Mariecar Mendoza.

Get your tickets today!

If you have questions you’d like Mick to answer, send them in advance to mlasalle@sfchronicle.com with the subject line: “Manny’s live.”

Manny’s never turns away someone due to lack of funds. If you need a complimentary ticket, please email the title of the event and the word “grapefruit” to angelina@welcometomannys.com.

Want to support community members? By purchasing a “Pay It Forward” ticket you will allow us to provide free tickets to those who may not be able to afford entry otherwise and ensure we can create a diverse socio-economic audience that represents San Francisco.

You’ll hear from:

Lex Sloan: is the executive director at The Roxie Theater in San Francisco and one of the founding members of the Bay Area Media Maker Summit. Lex graduated with an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University and a BA in Social Change Media from Western Washington University. Sloan is a devoted member of the LGBTQ+ filmmaking community and is committed to ensuring that queer history is preserved and shared through the power of cinema.

Mick LaSalle: Mick LaSalle has been the film critic for The San Francisco Chronicle since 1987. Between 1994 and 1999, he was the on-air film critic for the ABC-TV affiliate in San Francisco, KGO. He is the author of Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood (2000), a history/critical study of the actresses who worked during the pre-censorship “pre-Code” era of 1929-1934. Liz Smith called it “a brilliant work” and film historian Scott Eyman called it “a breakthrough work of film scholarship.” That book was followed by Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man (2002); The Beauty of the Real: What Hollywood Can Learn from Contemporary French Actresses (2012); and Dream State: California in the Movies (2021). He wrote and co-produced the Complicated Women documentary for Turner Classic Movies, which was narrated by Jane Fonda. He has written introductions to several books, including The Enduring Star, Peter Cowie’s biography of Joan Crawford (Rizzoli, 2009). He was a panelist at the Berlin Film Film Festival in 2009 and has been a regular panelist at the Venice Film Festival since 2006.

Mariecar Mendoza: Mariecar Mendoza is the senior arts and entertainment editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, overseeing Datebook. Prior to The Chronicle, Mariecar worked at publications in Southern California, covering major pop culture moments in the region like Coachella and Comic-Con to the Emmys and Oscars. A Bay Area native, Mariecar is an active member of the Asian American Journalists Association and most recently served as the local chapter’s vice president.

G. Allen Johnson: G. Allen Johnson has written about film for the Hearst Corporation since 1996, first for the San Francisco Examiner (1996-2000), then The San Francisco Chronicle (2000-present). He previously worked for the Pasadena Star-News and the Indianapolis Star. He was selected as an SF Essential by the San Francisco Film Society in April 2023 for his longtime coverage of the Bay Area film scene.

Adam Bergeron is the co-owner, with wife Jamie Holker, of CinemaSF, which operates the Balboa, Vogue and 4-Star theaters in San Francisco and has acquired and is preparing to re-open the Park Theater in Lafayette. Bergeron and Holker also own and operate the Laundromat, a recently opened restaurant in the Richmond District.

Allen Michaan is the owner and operator of the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, a movie palace built in 1926. He has operated the theater since 1979 and purchased the property in 2018. Michaan has been involved with the cinema business since moving to Berkeley from the East Coast in 1970. Since that time he has operated some two dozen Bay Area theaters. Michaan also owns two other companies: The Alameda Point Antiques and Collectibles Faire, which produces a large outdoor antiques show each month on the old jet runways of Alameda Point; and Michaan’s Auctions, which holds monthly sales of art and antiques.

Chronicle Live at Manny’s is a monthly series of conversations featuring Chronicle journalists discussing the most pressing issues in the Bay Area and having a little fun along the way.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle