Sophie Martin may have lost her job Monday.
Martin is the director of marketing and operations at Albuquerque's Madstone Theater. The national chain of indie movie-showing theaters announced Monday all nine theaters were closed, and work on the incomplete Baltimore theater would not be finished. Employees got word they had lost their jobs that same day. But Martin says that's standard business, and she was open with other Madstone employees about where she thought the company was heading.
"You don't hand over spreadsheets or anything, but I did talk to them about where the business was going and my concerns," she said.
When Martin first came to Albuquerque, she said she heard negative things about the city's cultural and intellectual life.
"It was discouraging," she said. "But working at Madstone, I learned that there's a huge cultural community here. It surprised our company."
The theater is not closing because Albuquerque couldn't sustain an independent cinema, she said.
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"It's because of bad decisions about where to put other theaters, but Albuquerque was a good decision," Martin said.
There is still a possibility for a buyer to take over the theater independently, she said. Madstone has donated all of its movie posters to UNM's Southwest Film Center. Martin said they've discussed selling them off in a fund-raiser for the SWFC.
Martin said she loved her job for its intellectual freedom and because she learned something from all the movies the theater showed. By trying to encourage discussion about film, she said there was a larger conversation about movies going on at Madstone. She added she will also miss talking to customers about films.
"When people came out of our movies and I had conversations with them, they were always kind of excited about what they'd seen," Martin said. "It might be rare for people to say 'I love my job' because they loved the product, but that was the best part."
