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News of the death of Ted Pedas this week was one of those moments that threw me back to another era–one that doesn’t feel all that long ago, but in some ways feels like another universe. For those of you who don’t know of Ted, he was at one time the singular most important exhibitor in Washington DC. If you had an independent film and wanted to play in the classiest and best grossing theaters in DC, Ted’s theaters were where you wanted to be.

I first met Ted when I was working for Don Rugoff. I was just a lowly sales person right out of college, and Ted was on the Cinema 5 Board of Directors. Yet, Ted was always respectful, interested and open, to the point where I began to think of him as a friend.

In later years, my relationship with Ted became a cornerstone of my independent distribution career. Cinecom was a startup, but Ted treated us as if we had been in business for ages. If I needed a favor, Ted would always hear me out.

When I started making my film “Search for Mr. Rugoff,” Ted was one of the first people I interviewed, and I learned that just like me, Ted had considered Don to be a mentor. Ted’s involvement with Cinema 5 was complicated as was everything concerning Rugoff. But Ted was there for him at the end, and he choked up several times when talking about Rugoff’s last years in my interview.

In speaking with Tom Brueggemann the other day about Ted (his tribute here,) Tom mentioned his belief that Ted represented the end of an era. He was the last of the powerful regional exhibitors. The following outtake from my film makes that case. Ted talks about how he gobbled up various theaters until he “owned DC.” He also makes a point about how cooperative he and his competitors were at that time. He calls it “old school.” Indeed.

A few weeks ago, I was pleased to hear that Sarah Kernochan’s “All I Wanna Do” (as it is currently known in the U.S.) was going to be screened at New York’s Metrograph Theater. I reached out to them to let them know that I had a 35mm print they could use, and that I would see who might be available to introduce the film and do a Q&A. Sarah, my co-producer Peter Newman, and Tony Janelli, who was the DP, all agreed to come. It turned out that I couldn’t be there because I tested positive for Covid. But reports from the screening reinforced my contention that this film is a classic and deserves to be seen more widely.

“All I Wanna Do” is a movie that I’m incredibly proud of, for all the reasons that attracted me to the project to begin with. It was a very personal story, from an accomplished, Oscar-winning filmmaker, who had yet to be given the opportunity to direct a fiction feature. The script was funny and entertaining, geared toward an underserved audience (young women) and dealt with a moment in history (the birth of feminism) that would be enlightening to the target audience. Continue reading ““All I Wanna Do” – Time for a Re-Release?”