About
The Nightingale, Chicago's premier microcinema, is turning 10 YEARS OLD! You read that right: TEN YEARS of the Experimental, the Strange, the Underground, the New, the In-Progress, the Canonical, the Unknown, the Queer, the Provocative, the Crazy, and the Very Independent. For TEN YEARS, we’ve given this film/video work a perch in Chicago, and kept the space open for community events, too. We have hosted over 500 SCREENINGS, partnered with dozens of local organizations, and provided presentation opportunities to over 1,400 artists and thousands of patrons.
Viva us, right? And Viva YOU for supporting us! So to celebrate, and to keep the place running strong, we are holding a Kickstarter: 10 FOR NIGHTINGALE 10! Our goal: raise $10,000 for the Nightingale, one thousand dollars for each year we have been open.
Our audiovisual equipment is in fair to critical condition so we need your help. We ask for your donations—LARGE, small, or In BeTwEeN—so we can:
+ purchase a new digital projector that can process higher frame rates and a wider variety of finished file formats
+ repair our sound system for video and 16mm work (one channel is blown and a proper fix ain’t cheap)
+ buy a P. A. system for cinema performances
AS WELL AS
+ expand our programming budget and add even more screenings to our calendar + rent archival film prints and hire videos from international distributors + pay out-of-state artists to come to Chicago to present their work + stock up on toilet paper (we can never have enough toilet paper)
Now is a great time to invest in The Nightingale: we have just enlisted a veritable ARMY of new programmers to join the staff. Exciting times ahead! And stay tuned for our mini-festival of programs to ring in our first decade… there’s even a live telethon that will stream on Friday, April 6! Check our website for schedule and details.
The Nightingale is run by a volunteer team of working artists, curators, and teachers, and we pay most of our door proceeds back to exhibiting artists. We cannot do what we do without the support of community members like you. If the Nightingale and the works that we programmed these past 10 years have had an impact on you—if you are one of the thousands of people who've sat with us in the dark to fall under the collective spell of cinema—PLEASE make your donation today.
Ten years is a major milestone, but we're not done yet! Help us build on our experience and continue to screen important experimental and independent movies for the good great people of Chicago.
Love,
Christy, Emily and the rest of the Nightingale crew
P. S. Thanks Joan Jonas!
Risks and challenges
Through the last 10 years, the Nightingale has weathered many changes- flooding, equipment break-downs, shifts in organizational structure, etc. We are an imperfect, ever-iterating place that relies on its community to be relevant and productive. We are here hammering it out in the best we can until the rent rises beyond our reach or until technology advances so far that all the movies just play on the back of our eyelids.
The Nightingale exists thanks to our dedicated team of passionate volunteers. The roster has changed; several generations of artists and programmers have grown up along with us. We know we can continue to do what we do because of them.
ALSO: We learned the hard way from our last Kickstarter that rewards are sometimes hard to fulfill. Taking that into consideration, we have chosen rewards this time that are well within our ability to accomplish (and that require the least amount of shipping).
THANKS FOR SUPPORTING CHICAGO CINEMA.
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