Sara Zia Ebrahimi, the founder and curator the of the Flickering Light Film series, announced that her project would have to end its season early due to a rent increase at its Sedgwick Theater home.

Flickering Light’s mission is to screen the unseen, from shorts — which rarely have a platform outside of film festival in the U.S. — to works by often neglected filmmaking communities — like women, LGBTQ-ers and people of color. But for Ebrahimi, Flickering Light also symbolizes a neighborhood unifier, a place where the people of Germantown, East and West Mt. Airy can gather and see films they can’t find anywhere else. “That’s where I live, own a house and that’s my community,” she says. “No matter what the screening series will continue, and it will continue in Northwest Philadelphia.”

As Ebrahimi points out, Flickering Light isn’t dead, simply taking another look at their format. The series, which began early this year as a monthly screening and to weekly events for the second season, drew 25-100 people. Looking to the future, Ebrahimi says she’s eyeing several possibilities, including renting a permanent storefront, joining with other business partners or even staying at the Sedgwick, depending on whether they come down on their rent increase. Flickering Light has two more programs on the docket — “Limits of Reason”: An International Collection of Short Films About Alternate Worlds and States of Mind on Saturday, November 14 and “I’m So Into You”: The Best of the Small Changes Screening Series on Saturday, November 21 — before closing up shop until next spring. As always, admission is $5.

Ebrahimi says she was thinking about the recent TLA closure and how it effects how we are able to see movies that don’t have blockbuster marquees, to say the least. “You can’t get them on DVD, you can’t watch them on the internet,” she says of the films Flickering Light shows. “There needs to be a place to screen this work.

Limits of Reason, Sat., Nov. 14, 7 p.m., $5, Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., flickeringfilms.com.

I’m So Into You, Sat., Nov. 21, 7 p.m., $5, Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., flickeringfilms.com.

Photo | Mark Stehle

If your weekend went from celebratory to bleak at the flick of a wrist and a missed pitch, things were worst elsewhere. Rumors ran rampant about a suicide attempt at The Fire (true, according to Fire boss Derek Dorsey who said “an individual who was not a regular patron at The Fire made a tragic attempt on his life near closing on Saturday night, he died later at the hospital”) without any further confirmation. There was an injury to a member of Black Landlord (true, but only bad enough to miss the AfroPunk fest). The least physically painful of the rumors was the one that found 941 Theater in Northern Liberties closed due to violations from an incident last week where the venue had allegedly served alcohol.

941’s Doug Sakmann, fresh from setting up a benefit the benefit for his theater/live venue — which will take place November 21 at the Starlight Ballroom (460 N. 9th St.,  215-769-1530) — told me there was beer served and L& I indeed did shut them down. Temporarily of course, unless they can’t raise enough money for the violated codes or catch up on the monies missed (not to mention operating expenses like rent or electric). Still, all of November’s shows as well as Halloween’s gig were canceled.

It’s been rumored that 941 had been in danger of closing for a little while due to the costs associated with keeping the facilities up to code and the licenses up to date. But things are tough all over.

”Not wanting to see this happen, before we got shut down we had recently come up with a better business plan and were working on ideas for a fundraiser,” says Sakmann who says that some of 941’s permits had expired and that they were in the process of renewal.

“The building is zoned for industrial use so we have to apply for a use permit for commercial zoning variance, which has to be approved by the Northern Liberties Neighborhood association. In order to regulate our operations and approve this, the NLNA sets forth a number of provisions and restrictions including a one year variance at a time that has to be renewed annually, and also regulations on our liquor policy. Not wanting to see another bar in Northern Liberties, the NLNA did not allow us to apply for a liquor license. But we agreed we could occasionally give out beer or liquor at 21+ events as long as we were not charging for the alcohol, similar to a First Friday type event,” says Sakmann. “We were unaware however that by charging a cover charge at the door, the Liquor Control Board construes that as technically charging for alcohol, even if it is being given out for free. Apparently in order for us to give out alcohol, the event would have to be totally free, which we did not know and obviously we can not afford to do. So the Liquor Control Board got wind of an event we were doing with free beer and sent in undercover cops. They shut us down due to the beer we were giving out and then saw that our permits were not up to date and slapped further violations on the premises, forcing us to close until our permits are processed again which is at the end of November.”

And now, 941 is not able to do business for a month, in addition to mounting legal fees for processing and expediting the permits. “If we don’t pay the city’s expedite fees we wont be able to open until February, keeping the fire security and other aspects of the theater in good standing so we pass inspection when we do reopen along with all of our other weekly and monthly bills associated with running the theater,” says Sakmann. Either way, Sakmann adds, it all adds up to a lot of money — like $12,000 before the end of the month.

The aforementioned November 21 benefit takes place from noon to 6 p.m. at the Starlight Ballroom. It’s still in the planning stages but bands will definitely be on the bill. Previous to that Sakmann says: “Anyone who wants to lend a hand, donate money or has any ideas on how we can raise more money can contact us at booking@941theater.com.”

RELATED: 941 Theater in danger of closing

Photo | Mark Stehle

941 Theater’s Nick Esposito, Zafer UlkĂĽcĂĽ and Doug Sakmann.

Back in September, we featured the 941 Theater in our Choice Issue, highlighting their niche-filling ability to give local filmmakers a chance to screen their work:

There’s no agenda. In addition to having the cheapest rental rates in the city, 941’s setup is tantalizing: A night can start in the venue’s considerably roomy lobby and move to the 100-seat screening room, which can also be converted into a 200-capacity concert venue.

But, as reported by Philebrity, L&I is hating on 941 for their free-wheeling ways and have heavily fined the theater and shuttered it for the next month. The Philadelphia Friends of the Projected Arts, the theater’s non-profit umbrella company, have a letter up on their site describing the situation and announcing they will hold a fundraiser in order to keep the dream alive. If you are able to donate your time or services, hit them up at booking@941theater.com or you can simply donate your cash via PayPal. We’ll give you more info on the fundraiser when we hear about it.

It’s a real shame that this has happened. While places like the Ibrahim Theater at International House have done an excellent job with high-brow repertory programming, 941 hosted down, dirtier and frankly sillier fare, which is in no way a slight. In addition, the theater was the homebase for the always-fun Backseat Film Festival, which takes place in March, and served as host to smaller fests like the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.

But this is really a blow to the independent film community. There are not a lot of places in this city where cash-strapped filmmakers can show their work. As 941-er Nick Esposito pointed out in the Choice piece, giving filmmakers a place to show their work allows them to cover costs and start on their next project.

“Every project people do is theoretically better than the last one,” Esposito told me about the importance of the theater’s economic model to indie filmmakers. Hopefully, the closure (and eventual re-opening) will signal a fresh beginning for the 941 team and they can apply that sentiment to themselves.

Our boy Scott Yorko wrote a fab Agenda piece for tomorrow’s issue about the live Michael and Michael Have Issues show at the Troc, scheduled for tomorrow. But he just told us that it’s been postponed. Here are the new details straight from the Troc:

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 12
@ The Trocadero
An evening of comedy with
Michael and Michael Have Live Tour
Featuring
Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter
Tix: $24 / Drs: 7pm, Show: 8pm / All Ages
(This is the rescheduled date of the show on Thu. 10/29 that was postponed.
All tickets will be honored at the rescheduled show. Refunds are also
available at point of purchase)
http://www.michaelandmichaelhaveissues.com/

So when you read Scott’s piece tomorrow, cut it out and tuck in you 2010 calendar for the February 11 issue. Or in your gournal.

On Monday, Variety reported that the New York Times is  getting into the motion picture business. Not only do they have a deal with HBO to turn their Modern Love column into a series a la Sex and the City, but they’ve also struck up a first look deal with Columbia Pictures, which essentially means Columbia gets first dibs on all Modern Love-related projects. (Modern Love, for those who skip the Sunday Styles, is column about various love stories — both happy and sad — written by someone new each week.)

I missed that the NYTimes signed with agency ICM and have been licensing pieces left and right. From the Variety piece:

Among the recent NYT content deals was the recent story of immigrant students planning a prom, which Jenny Lumet is scripting for Miramax; an article about a 12-year-old wannabe food critic that Lorne Michaels is developing at Paramount; and one about a small college football team paid to be crushed by bigger schools, which Universal is developing with Jack Black. None of the development projects has yet turned into a movie.

Obviously specific newspaper pieces have been licensed for movies before. Former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden’s Killing Pablo 31-part series — about the takedown of drug lord Pablo Escobar — has been in development with the likes of Christian Bale and Chris Pine attached a various points (although, I’m sure it was the book that was licensed so the Inquirer most likely saw none of that scratch). Not to mention The Soloist, based on the book/columns of erstwhile Inky writer Steve Lopez. But I’ve never heard of a newspaper signing with an agency before, never mind singing a first look deal.

My real question is, especially with Modern Love, who is getting the pay day here? Is it the writer? The subject? Or the paper? The subject obviously will get some cash because most based-on-truth biopics need to buy life rights in order to go into production. And it’s the writer who came up with the story. But where does the Times come in? Are they doing it for the publicity? Are they taking credit because they were the platform for publication? Or is it just a cash grab in light of newsroom cuts that will let 100 reporters go?

It also got me thinking about other news-related movies. I’m sure Isaiah Thompson could develop an entire epic about his adventures with Daily News columnist Christine “Chupacabra” Flowers. Maybe we could start licensing Bell Curve or something and I could finally gold plate my office like I’ve always wanted.

TLA Video AT 517 South 4th Street, a mecca of indie, arthouse and queer movies since it opened in 1985, closed it’s doors yesterday. It’s ironic that I found out when a co-worker sent me the link to a friend’s Twitter account, with its 140-character eulogy; it’s the evolution of the Internet that led to the location’s downfall.

“They would have directors sections — Robert Altman, Martin Scoresese, Antonioni. It was like an education where you would learn about genres or directors. They had this crazy cult section with movies from guys like Roger Corman,” says Margit Detweiler, former City Paper managing editor who often wrote about pop culture in Philadelphia during her decade-long tenure at the paper. “It was really a film education there and a cultural hub.”

TLA head honchos Ray Murray, Claire Brown Kohler and Eric Moore began TLA Video as a companion to their South Street rep house. “We showed old movies on a big screen and it was a business we were proud of. We saw early on that the writing was on the wall, with the advent of VHS that wasn’t a viable business model anymore,” says Moore, whose group sold the venue so it could become it’s current incarnation of a concert venue. “Video stores had a good run for a quarter century now but the technology is the new writing on the wall. We either have to adapt to and change with the technology or go into a different business.”

The store closure not only signals a change for TLA but for South Street as a whole. This marks the first time TLA has no had a presence on South Street since 1981. Moore chalks it up to evolution of both South Street itself and the movie-watching climate, but adds with a note of melancholy, “As I said to a friend yesterday, ‘Capitalism is brutal.’”

TLA still operates video stores in Center City, Bryn Mawr and Chestnut Hill. The South Street store itself will reopen on Friday, October 23 and sell off its remaining inventory through Thanksgiving.

Looking ahead, Moore hopes that the TLA will remain an arthouse authority in the form of an online distribution company that will either stream content on their servers or point movie lovers in the direction of another site that can. Moore, who holds the position of chief technology officer, understands that his job is more integral to the company than ever. “This is all riding on my shoulders now. Help!” he says, laughing.

But the closing of TLA Video isn’t simply a capitalistic casualty. Like the legions of other video stores that have shuttered their doors, from mom and pop to Blockbuster, it’s the loss of a communal space where people with one thing in common — their loves of movies — can converse with each other. “That’s to me, the single biggest lost as a society — this place to go where we can talk about movies. I watched the Phillies game last night sitting on my sofa rather than with friends. The way I get my social community while watching the game is posting on Facebook. Does that help or hurt the local bar around the corner?” says Moore. “I wish I was Malcolm Gladwell who could give you something pithy about what’s next in our society but I think we just don’t know. The human urge to be social will ultimately win out, but we’re in a period of transition.

RELATED: Nobody’s Perfect: Ray Murray on 15 years of gay film festing

Employment Spectator

You remember that proposed 6 to 8 percent state arts tax — the one that seemed not as bad it could have been, compared to the Doomsday scenarios floating around earlier this year, but still pretty unfair, given that big-guy sports and movies weren’t being taxed — we told you about last month? Well, the art fags have spoken, and the state actually listened (!). Last Friday, the state House removed mention of it from the budget. Then, yesterday, the Senate passed a amended tax code bill that did not include any tax on arts or cultural tickets. An added bonus: SB 1085 will provide $11 million in arts grants (via the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts) and $1.7 million for museum grants (via the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission).

Of course, the budget isn’t finalized yet, but this is pretty good news, no?

Related: Arts tax rally this Friday at noon outside of Gov. Ed Rendell’s Philly office
Related: New budget proposal places sales tax on nonprofit arts orgs, but not sports or movies