>>> My name is Alan Nero.
I'm a Brooklyn college student in the TV, Radio,
and Emerging Medias department.
I am a screenwriter, director, and starting
to cut my teeth on being a cinematographer.
I was born and grew
up in a town called Winsted, Connecticut,
where I actually am right now, uh, because of the pandemic.
This is a tiny little mountain town in the Northwest
corner of Connecticut, with roughly about 7,000 people.
So, it's, it's pretty small.
Growing up here, everybody knew everybody, and you
really had to find a way to entertain yourself.
The Gilson was originally the Strand Theater, which
was an old Vaudevillion dramatic theater with a big
stage and rigging, everything.
My dad ended up convincing the bank to give him a loan back
in the 1980s, and with the help of family and friends,
he renovated the entire space.
So, he was able to turn it into a café and cinema.
You can have a full meal.
You have servers that will come and bring drinks.
And that could be anything from popcorn and candy
to a full dinner while you're watching a movie.
My dad's always been a hard worker.
He's run this place by himself for, like I
said, almost 40 years.
He'd be up at six in the morning, and he would work
straight through the day until about 10 o'clock at night.
When I was 11, and I first started working here,
it was when I really got to spend more time with him.
He showed me how to do everything in this place.
So that by the time I was 16 when he got actually
pretty ill for, he was in the hospital for almost a month,
I was able to run the place.
If anything, actually working here at a young age, I think,
strengthened our relationship.
>>> [Car radio] US coronavirus cases now top 17,000.
And there has been a greater than 25% spike in deaths.
>>> The latest short film that I've put out is called COVIDEO,
which was a bit tongue in cheek, but it's about actually
myself and my father trying to find a way to get you to laugh
and get people to smile in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
>>> [Recorded phone message] My wife and I are big fans
of the Gilson, and we're just talking about the theater.
We would hate to see it close or worse, fall into the
hands of somebody like Apple Cinema during hard times like
we're going through now, and we wanted to let you know
that we're supportive and --
>>> Want to use the marquee again?
>>> When the lockdown was first announced, this business
was forced to shut down, and as a theater, he actually
has an old marquee, so it's all-metal letters on racks with
a light behind it that you can put up whatever you want to.
So, we started to create a list of different movie titles
that could be, you know, making some kind of joke, whether
it's a satire and sarcasm tongue in cheek humor about new
developments in the pandemic and how it's being handled and
how people were responding to it just overall throughout
the country.
>>> "Clock Watchers?" >>> "Panic Room?"
>>> "Your Friends and Neighbors."
>>> "The Screw?"
>>> [Laughs] >>> That's pretty good.
>>> It actually ended up being pretty well received.
We started getting phone calls in from people that would be
walking by or driving by, just trying to tell us how much it
meant to them that they got a chance to smile and laugh in the
middle of what is probably the greatest tragedy I think that
we've seen in the last century.
>>> [Recorded phone message] I just wanted to give a call
and say how delightful it is to see the marquee change
each week.
>>> [Recorded phone message] I just want to thank
you for making us smile when you put those
movies up on the marquee.
Like "Home Alone" and "A series of Unfortunate Events."
>>> [Recorded phone message] Every week, I look forward
to seeing what the new marquee will say, and I get
a little bit of a smile.
>>> [Recorded phone message] In particular,
"The Mask" is making me laugh out loud.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's reached out to you.
I think it's wonderful to have this in our town.
>>> [Recorded phone message] I can't wait to see
what the next showing is. Take care.
It made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
>>> [Recorded phone message] All right.
Well, thank you so much. Have a good day.
>>> [Recorded phone message] We love it. Thank you so much.