Longtime Cinema Center Executive Director Catherine Lee has resigned, effective the end of June, citing a desire to spend more time with family and friends. Lee has been executive director since April 1993, a tenure of 19 years.
Lee announced her departure in an email sent this week to members and patrons.
Founded in 1976, Cinema Center attempts to offer independent, foreign, documentary, classic and specialty films that may not otherwise be shown in northeast Indiana, it says on the nonprofit organization's website, http://cinemacenter.org.
Cinema Center shows films at its main location at 437 E. Berry St. in the Hall Community Arts Center.
Since 2004, it also had shown films at Cinema Center Tech in Andorfer Commons at Indiana Institute of Technology, 1600 E. Washington Blvd. That agreement just ended; Indiana Tech will use the space for other purposes.
In recent years, Cinema Center has faced increasing competition from local multiplex movie theaters, which now more frequently show independent films and documentaries.
