Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre and co-director Dylan Skolnick released a joint statement on Friday confirming his comeback to the nonprofit theater, an event that followed his dismissal two months prior and caused significant outrage in the local arts community.
I’m very happy with this being resolved,
Skolnick told Newsday. We’re all going to work together to make the cinema even better moving forward.
The statement indicates that Skolnick will resume his role as director of the Cinema Arts Centre. It also outlines a realignment effort,
which will feature a new co-director to collaborate with Skolnick and the addition of new board members who have experience in the film industry. The cinema declined to comment on the future of the co-directors who replaced Skolnick — Michael Kornfeld and Kelsie Greene — but their names and titles have been removed from the cinema’s website.
Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre and former co-director Dylan Skolnick issued a joint statement announcing his return to the nonprofit theater two months after his firing sparked outrage among the local arts community. Skolnick’s return marks "a new chapter for one of Long… pic.twitter.com/yQveGkzXyy”
Mediation Leads to Agreement
Discussions between Skolnick and the board resulted from a collective of cinema members who were concerned about the theater’s financial stability. An online petition supporting mediation had attracted over 600 signatures since it was initiated in mid-October. A professional mediator was brought in to oversee the negotiations, as confirmed by Ellen Reynolds, a long-standing cinema member and Huntington resident who played a key role in facilitating the talks.
Skolnick mentioned that three days of discussions occurred at the cinema during the previous week. The agreement that was reached will permit Skolnick to keep working as a freelance film booker, and his estimated $75,000 salary will remain unchanged, he stated.
Cinema Members Protest Skolnick's Firing
Skolnick, whose parents established the cinema in 1973, had been managing the theater since 2010 but was terminated on Sept. 1 due to what the board labeled serious misconduct.
Skolnick explained that his dismissal was a result of his freelance work as a film booker for other theaters, but he insisted that he had secured permission to do so years prior and that his outside employment did not conflict with the cinema.
The termination prompted an immediate backlash from cinema members, who asked for refunds of their fees, urged a boycott, and staged a protest last month demanding Skolnick’s reinstatement. Guest lecturers and programmers refused to work at the venue, and prominent figures in the film industry, including directors Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders and actors Edie Falco and Isabella Rossellini, who resides in Bellport, publicly advocated for Skolnick’s return.
Path Forward for the Cinema
Skolnick characterized the cinema’s financial situation as challenging
due to the consequences of his firing. Now, he said, We’re strongly encouraging people to donate money to the cinema and attend movies.
The Cinema Arts Centre is 100% positioned to build back to where it was before this entire episode,
Reynolds said. Moving forward, our priority is to bring our community back together and put the cinema on stronger footing,
the statement said. The cinema needs the community to come back,
Reynolds said.
