The Buffalo Film Seminars are moving to Amherst. It's a reaction to Hollywood going to digital films and the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center sticking with film projectors.
For 14 years, UB Professors Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian have run spring and fall film series for academic credit, touring the history of movies.
This fall, they range from D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms" to Mike Nichols' "Charlie Wilson's War."
When the series resumes August 26, the films will be screened in the Amherst Theater. Jackson says the series had to be moved because of the projection issue.
"The thing (Market Arcade) really can't stay open very much longer unless it converts to digital. And, we have been trying to get the city to help us do that for years and have gotten just been stonewalled," Jackson said.
"The Common Council voted $200,000 to give us four new digital projectors and we could have stayed if we had that but the mayor's office blocked it."
The mayor's office had no comment.
Jackson says it's a real blow to Downtown and to the Market Arcade because the Tuesday night movies drew good crowds to the Theater District. The professor says he would move back to the Market Arcade if the projection issue were settled but right now the films will appear in a suburban plaza across from the South Campus and with parking right outside the door.
