Big Things in Small Packages:
An Interview with Microcinema's Joel Bachar

By Mary Phillips-Sandy
----------
March 6, 2000 | Page 1, 2

As part of PopPulse's continuing look at the relationship between new media and more traditional creative arts, we're excited to bring you an interview with Joel Bachar, founder and president of Blackchair Productions and Microcinema Inc. Joel's a man of many talents, but these days he's focusing his attention on a new website, microcinema.com. What, pray tell, is a "microcinema" According to the Microcinema mission statement, it's a small, perhaps even portable, space in which to see movies of all kinds. Now Joel's turning to the Internet to spread the word, bring artists together, and promote the theory that bigger isn't necessarily better.

First of all, thanks for doing this interview. Why don't you start telling me a bit about what you do for Microcinema/Blackchair Productions.

I founded Blackchair Productions in 1992 when I thought I would become a film production company. Four years later, in 1996, I became a curator and promoter of Independent Exposure, my monthly microcinema screening program. In December of 1999, I formed a new company called Microcinema, Inc., of which I am the president. Our main effort will be the microcinema.com website.

Allow me to quote the Microcinema website: "The Personal Computer and the Internet are allowing individuals and organizations the very alternative and 'do-it-yourself' capabilities that the traditional offline venues have offered up until now. The marriage of these offline and online worlds through the microcinema.com website is where we envision a true revolution."
So it's safe to say you don't see the explosion of e-life as a threat to the creative process - you see it as a facilitator or catalyst?

The net and computers are just new technology and new tools. New technology and tools can have both positive and negative effects in our society. Did the typewriter threaten the creativity of the writer or poet? Did the electric guitar threaten the creativity of classic musicians?Like any tool, one must learn how to use it. I think the problem with our new techno-tools is that people rely on them too much and expect too much from them. I am not a purist. I am not married to film, video or digital. I AM married to the notion that one should choose the tool that best suits their goal.

Some traditionalists (like me) balk at the idea of watching a movie on a computer screen - we're the same people who won't read books online or get our art fix at a virtual museum. Will Microcinema try to change my mind? Will it succeed?

Microcinema is NOT about proving to the world that viewing films on the net is THE thing to do. It's much more than that. It is about educating and empowering an individual to create their own work, exhibit their own work and distribute their own work. It's about educating the general public about the alternative options that exist in our world. Microcinema's roots come from the offline, land based, brick and mortar alternative screening houses of the world: in cafes, clubs, churches, etc. Microcinema.com is simply using the tool of the computer and the Internet to add a new element to this developing movement.

Page 1, 2