For a Revered Art House Cinema, a Season of Off Screen Turmoil

“It just got ratcheted up to 11, and it should never have come to this,” said Ms. Maslin, who has been affiliated with the center since its early days. “I just wish this hadn’t turned into a war because I think it could have been settled more humanely.”

Ms. Maslin, who occasionally reviews books for The Times, said she was aware of complaints that Mr. Ackerman had become irritable. “He started acting out,” she said. “He was saying no to things. It was very hard to program anything.”

Still, she said it “really hurt” when, at a recent screening attended by Ethan Hawke, it dawned on her that Mr. Ackerman would never be at the theater alongside her again. “Without Brian, I don’t think this thing would have worked.”

The story of Jacob Burns Film Center begins in 1998 when Mr. Apkon, a Pleasantville resident, bought the Rome Theater, an old movie house driven out of business by nearby multiplexes. With help, he formed a nonprofit organization, bought the lot adjacent to the Rome and started a $5 million capital campaign to build a film center.

From the start, the effort drew big names. Glenn Close and Martin Scorsese helped lead the capital campaign. The center opened in 2001 and Mr. Ackerman, whose family owned a number of art house theaters in New York City and beyond, became its first and only programming director. (The center’s tax return for the year ending September 2021 listed his salary as $154,000.) A page on the center’s website listing “special guests” includes smiling photos of Ahmir “Thompson, known as Questlove; Bong Joon Ho; Meryl Streep; Michael Douglas; and George Clooney.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/arts/jacob-burns-film-center-westchester.html