We were lucky to catch up with Lawren Desai recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lawren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Opening a small business is always a risk, but it is such an important thing to do, for the community and for the local economy. I don’t think enough people realize how much a person puts of themselves into it and success (and by that I really just mean survival) is not guaranteed. And then risks are always taken after you open the doors with many of the decisions you make about how you spend revenue to earn more revenue having risk involved. Risks are a given and you have to just keep taking them. Opening a/perture in 2010 was a huge gamble as we were one of the early businesses in Downtown Winston-Salem, really believing in leading the urban revival that was occurring. And from then on, risks just become part of ongoing decision making and something I actually seek out – taking risks sometimes on films we program and really trying to make bold choices to foster a film culture in the Piedmont Triad. Another risk we took, was the decision to evolve from small business to a non-profit organization which meant giving up personal ownership and relying on community support to contribute to our sustainability. Another was the venture we made to expand from 2 screens to 4 screens and double our footprint. Risk is something that is always there and you can’t avoid it, you have to learn to appreciate and embrace it.
Lawren, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I grew up in Winston-Salem and after graduating high school said I would never live here again, but as is life, after a few years of living in big cities, I ate my words and returned home to pursue MBA studies at Wake Forest University. I came back at a time when there was this strong desire from the community to see our downtown return to life (similar to the urban renewal that was happening around the country.) My father is an architect and his passion for downtown Winston-Salem spilled over and became mine. Having the schooling background as well as a solid balance of business saavy and a touch of naiveté, I decided I wanted to create a business in the heart of downtown and to be a part of the revival. So I wrote a business plan for an independent movie theater, cinema being the other huge passion of mine. In the larger cities I had lived in, from Manhattan to Los Angeles to Madrid, I always had access to all kinds of cinema and I wanted that for Winston-Salem too. With everything I do at a/perture cinema, I have always tried to be a leader by example and to have that guide the choices that I make. I am so proud when others call me up and ask for advice on how to open up a cinema like a/perture in their community. It’s what I did when I was starting out and it’s a way to pay it forward and to grow the movie going experience all over the country (especially at a time when people have really comfy couches and large screen tvs.)
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I am so driven by my love of film and belief that it is the most significant art form of our modern time. I truly believe that the cinema can be a community builder and is quite possibly one of the most democratic and accessible spaces we still have left in society (church and nature being the other two). It fills me up so much to look out over a full theater at the diversity of faces and the knowledge that the audience is about to share something very special for the next 100+ minutes. I believe films can open up doors to new cultures, present new ways to view the world we live in and expose audiences to filmmakers who are rethinking and reshaping the art of the moving image.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The biggest pivot by far has been the COVID pandemic. The brick and mortar part of a/perture cinema was closed for 14 months, but I kept plugging away during that time to just make sure the community knew we were still active and that I was going to do whatever was needed to shepherd us through this difficult time. It felt like I was back in 2010 and continually rewriting our business plan month by month. We launched a virtual cinema and programmed films for our community to stream, we did a drive in screening in a downtown parking lot and several other outdoor film screenings, we had drive by concession sales to deplete our inventory, we created and sold t-shirts. And during all this time I was fundraising and applying for government funding, any opportunity that was presented, I took advantage of. I also used the time to really think about all the things I had learned over the past decade and how I might make improvements when we eventually reopened. It just felt like I was always hustling. Looking back on it now it’s all still a bit surreal.
Contact Info:
- Website: aperturecinema.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/aperturecinema
- Facebook: facebook.com/aperturecinema
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/a-perture-cinema/
- Youtube: @aperturecinema8751
Image Credits
Dylan Blackburn – a/perture photo Alison Shermeta – LD photo