Frank Lee has spent practically his whole life working film theaters. At 70, after an extended profession as an impartial theater operator in San Francisco, he and his spouse and co-owner, Lida, wish to promote the Marina and Presidio theaters which they’ve overseen for the reason that early 2000s. However he says the filmgoing expertise shouldn’t finish.
Lee desires to “see these two theaters proceed as film theaters.”
He says he can be unhappy about stepping away from the theaters, that are each on Chestnut Road within the Marina District and a part of the Lee Neighborhood Theatres enterprise, however that it’s the best second for a brand new proprietor.
“I believe it’s about time. After 60 years within the enterprise, it is perhaps a superb alternative proper now. And issues are trying up,” Lee advised Selection. “I believe the discharge schedule this yr may very well be hopefully again to regular from pre-COVID.”
The foyer of the Marina theater in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Frank Lee
The Lees have operated the four-screen Presidio since 2004 and two-screen Marina since 2008.
“The neighborhood wants these two theaters, clearly,” Lee stated.
Their first profitable theater was the two-screen 4 Star Theatre within the Richmond District, which they ran from 1992 till they offered it in 2021.
The Lees would depart behind a wealth of group historical past on the theaters. They’ve already been a part of curating movie tradition in San Francisco, notably within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, once they programmed Asian cinema. They even held a devoted Asian Movie Pageant on the 4 Star.
The competition would present movies like Ang Lee’s “The Wedding ceremony Banquet,” Zhang Yimou’s “Elevate the Crimson Lantern,” Park Chan-wook’s “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” Bong Joon Ho’s “Barking Canine By no means Chunk” and numerous works by filmmakers from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and China. Takashi Miike attended the competition when it confirmed his movie, “Lifeless or Alive.”
“We have been exhibiting some superb product out of all these Asian nations,” Lee stated.
At the moment, Lee was persevering with on a follow he’d shared together with his father, who labored to each distribute and display Asian movies from round 1964-1987. “I just about helped him, hand in hand, grew up with the enterprise,” Lee stated.
His father, Frank Lee Sr., had theaters throughout the U.S. and one in Toronto, largely serving the native Chinatown neighborhoods of their respective cities — “Wherever there was a Chinatown, he had a theater,” Lee stated. His theaters included the Bella Union Theater in San Francisco; Cinema East and Europa (earlier than it was the New Beverly) in Los Angeles; fifty fifth St, Playhouse and Canal Cinema in New York and the School Theater in Toronto.
Frank Lee Sr. was working these venues throughout a interval when Chinese language-language theaters have been well-liked cultural hubs for Chinese language immigrant communities. He was additionally a part of the rationale some Asian movies even reached the U.S.
Lee, born and raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown, recollects attending the San Francisco Worldwide Movie Pageant as a 9-year-old, accompanying his father, Frank Lee Sr. They noticed a movie from Hong Kong studio Shaw Brothers. Frank Lee Sr., a civil engineer and radio producer, then acquired a three-year take care of the Shaw Brothers to distribute their movies within the U.S.
Lee says that his father thought, “’How come no one [is] exhibiting it?’ They have been simply exhibiting the outdated Hong Kong black-and-white movies these days. The Shaw Brothers movies have been just about Hollywood, widescreen, coloration, very nice productions and all the things else.”
The movies have been additionally an unconventional alternative as a result of they have been in Mandarin, when Cantonese was extra generally spoken within the U.S. then, in accordance with Lee. “He had numerous assist from New York media, San Francisco media and L.A. media, particularly newspapers of these days. They actually supported the movies, and so they reviewed each movie that he exhibited, that he introduced over from Hong Kong,” Lee stated.
Frank Lee Sr. began off with exhibiting Hong Kong movies then moved onto Taiwanese films, earlier than looping again to Hong Kong cinema. “There have been about 5 or 6 distributors on this nation that have been combating for the flicks out of Hong Kong and Taiwan for 20 years. So my dad was one of many main ones,” Lee stated.
“We [would] purchase the rights to the movies in Taiwan these days and distributed to as many as 50 screens again within the day, ’70s and early ’80s,” Lee added.
Courtesy of Frank Lee
Lee says his father closed his movie enterprise by the late ’80s, as house video grew to become extra widespread. Throughout the pandemic, Lee despatched movie prints from his father’s operations again to movie archives in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Lee’s personal deal with programming Asian movies ended after the 2000s as competitors inside that area of interest grew. However he’s happy with what he, and his father, achieved: “I’d say he’s a pioneer bringing in Asian movies and introduce it to non-Asian audiences within the ’60s. Then I continued it within the early ’90s.”
As of late, he and his spouse present an array of movies. Comedies and feminine audience-oriented movies do notably effectively, however the theaters additionally present a mixture of industrial, Oscar-nominated and artwork movies. The Lees hire the auditoriums out for personal occasions like birthday events, company occasions and Display screen Actors Guild screenings. Native faculties use the theater areas for fundraising screenings. The San Francisco Worldwide Movie Pageant used each theaters this previous April.
The outside of the Marina theater in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Frank Lee
Lee says there isn’t a lot competitors with different theaters. “On the west facet, the place we’re, we’re just about the one one, the one six-plex that exists proper now,” he stated. “We are able to just about guide something we like on the theaters being the one theaters in that space.”
He envisions that the Marina and Presidio can evolve to serve the town’s culinary tastes together with the theater expertise. “We see a possibility right here the place some operator may need to are available and do dine-in,” he stated.
The Marina has been permit-approved by the town to put in a meals kitchen. Whereas there isn’t any utility within the works for the same allow on the Presidio, Lee stated there’s a normal blueprint for including dine-in components to each theaters if a brand new proprietor desires to pursue that possibility, and even working a ghost kitchen at one of many theaters to serve meals to the opposite. Lee describes the Chestnut Road space as a “foodie space”: “Any new restaurant open, it’s phenomenal, it’s an occasion.”
The couple, who’ve two sons working as medical doctors, are aiming to retire this yr and seeking to speak to potential consumers.
As he and his spouse put together to let go of the Marina and Presidio, Lee foresees that their legacy as San Francisco theater operators will likely be about their contributions to the native movie scene.
Their time within the theater enterprise has included hurdles just like the pandemic, in addition to a authorized combat within the 2000s to carry onto the 4 Star whereas dealing with eviction from the house owners of the property. The Lees acquired group assist, with hundreds of individuals signing a petition to save lots of the theater.
“Lots of people bear in mind us that means — impartial, hands-on, take numerous possibilities on the fourth hour, just about present issues that folks don’t present,” he added.