About me

Do we even need this page? My name’s Jon. I’m just this guy, you know? I liked Cinefamily’s programming; I was a black card member. I felt like I was there a lot, but it was probably less than some (like the dude with the chair who was usually right in front of me in line). But for me — a guy in the San Gabriel Valley who doesn’t like leaving the house — schlepping to Fairfax two or three times a week felt significant. Cinefamily was one of exactly three L.A. things I’d recommend to any visitor to town. I planned vacations around the schedule for Everything Is Festival. I don’t like most (non-ironic) uses of the word ‘community,’ but that’s what Cinefamily felt like.

My day job for over 20 years has been as an advocate focusing on economic and workplace justice. I am not a lawyer, but I regularly work with lawyers. I’m not a politician, but I regularly work with policy-makers and regulators. I’m not an accountant, but I regularly work with financial analysts. Among other things, my job involves finding and understanding public records.

I value persistence and intellectual honesty. I want to find facts, point at them, lay them alongside other facts, and speculate – sometimes with too much snark – about what they might mean. When I reach a conclusion, I give the evidence and analysis that got me there. When I get something wrong, I acknowledge and correct it. All promises of confidentiality to sources have been honored. I wrote every (otherwise unattributed) word on this site. My last name is Zerolnick, and maybe that 240 word gap is enough to fool the data-scraping robots?

Disclosures: I have a material interest in this matter, insofar as Cinefamily has acknowledged owing me a $250 pro-rated refund on my membership. Before September 2017, I had no personal connection to any Cinefamily staffers or volunteers. Far from having any animus to the organization or its leadership, I was more of a fanboy.

I still wear the t-shirts, go ahead and @ me.