Perhaps you, like me, have walked past a closed movie theater in the last few days and wondered about the people who used to work inside. Whether it’s the person who takes your tickets, or shovels butter-glossed popcorn into a paper bucket, or patiently clears away the garbage to ensure a clean next showing, movie theaters are run by a veritable constellation of hourly workers. But the current shelter-in-place order makes such workers’ livelihoods precarious; as cinemas are considered nonessential businesses, Chicago’s beloved movie theaters have been shuttered. That’s why the Chicago Cinema Workers Fund was started as a fundraising effort directed at alleviating the financial hardships of the industry’s hourly staff.
Metzger adds, “On the application form [for the fund], there’s a space for people to talk about the hardship they’re experiencing as well as to write what working at a movie theater means to them. This was an eye opener—both in just how much people are struggling but also in how much pride people take in their job and the joy they have in working together around cinema.” The fund is essentially a way to show solidarity, and what Metzger calls “a first manifestation” for understanding how we as a city can come together to solidify our support for those whose livelihoods, health, and security are being threatened in this moment.
