Safdie

“Uncut Gems” [Was] to Open Cinefamily / Fairfax on Christmas 2019 [Updated]

December 18, 2019 in original reporting, commentary

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fairfax Cinema—the rebranded Cinefamily entity—will open next week with a 35mm run of “Uncut Gems,” the new Safdie Brothers movie starring Adam Sandler. Yet inaccuracies in THR reporting left readers scratching their heads, and roiling anger over the Cinefamily scandal spilled into social media and may have caused the filmmakers to rethink their plans.

TL;DR

For the decade of Cinefamily’s existence, and for a certain sort of weirdo, the nonprofit single-screen cinematheque was the best thing about L.A.

In August 2017 we discovered Cinefamily was also a harmful place, especially for workers and for women. Reporting at the time focused on workplace sexual harassment, but when this website investigated we found a deeper rot. Former insiders told us of alleged assault, retaliation, wage theft, and embezzlement—as well as fraud against distributors, taxpayers, and regulators.

Cinefamily’s $2 million annual budget was subsidized by taxpayers and overseen by professionals. If the board of directors had done its job, damage may have been reduced, and Cinefamily might still exist. Instead, evidence indicates some directors were not only aware of problems, but were involved in covering them up.

This website provides original reporting as an ongoing call for institutional responsibility. We seek what the board promised: a credible and comprehensive accounting, victims heard and creditors paid, and a new approach to corporate governance and community accountability.

Please reach out with questions, complaints, tips.