Popular San Diego 'Cinema Society' Expands to Traverse City

Andy Friedenberg always wanted to find his way back to Michigan. Now, thanks to a new partnership with the City Opera House, he’s getting his wish – and bringing his renowned film club with him.

Friedenberg is a veteran of the motion picture industry, an author, a film festival organizer, and a lifelong cinephile. He’s also the founder of the Cinema Society, a cultural arts organization launched 43 years ago in San Diego.

Essentially a membership-oriented film series, the Cinema Society spotlights a curated selection of film screenings each year, including films “offered by the top major and independent studios before they are released to the public.” Most screenings feature guest appearances from filmmakers, producers, actors, critics, or other film industry professionals. Members also get access to receptions and gatherings before and after screenings, as well as opportunities to join in “curated excursions to major film festivals.”

According to Friedenberg, the San Diego Cinema Society is “up to 850 members” with its current season. Three satellite chapters in Arizona combine for another 500 members.

One of those Arizona members is Tom Menzel, a name that will be familiar to many Traverse Citians. Nowadays, Menzel runs a fruit farm on Old Mission Peninsula. Previously, though, he held not one but three of the biggest jobs in northern Michigan: Grand Traverse County Administrator, from 2015 to 2017; executive director of BATA, from 2009 to 2015; and executive director of the National Cherry Festival, from 2006 to 2008.

Now, Menzel has a new feather in his cap: bringing the Cinema Society to Traverse City.

“One day, after an event, Tom came up to me and said, ‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’” Friedenberg recalls. “He pulled out a business card with a cherry on it. I asked him if he was involved with cherries, and he told me he owned cherry orchards in Traverse City, Michigan and asked if I knew of Traverse City. And I do know Traverse, because I'm from Detroit, I went to summer camp for years in Charlevoix, and when I wanted to ask my wife to marry me, we went to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.”

That shared common ground set the table for a fruitful conversation, where Menzel pitched Friedenberg on bringing the Cinema Society to northern Michigan, to fill some of the void left by the Traverse City Film Festival.

“I thought it would be a great business model,” Menzel says of porting the Cinema Society concept over to Traverse City. “I loved the film festival, but this doesn’t come with the same challenges. It requires no volunteers at all; it’s simply putting on a few screenings per year, and Andy has done that so well for so long. I thought it would do really well here.”

Friedenberg loved the idea, in large part because it presented an opportunity to reconnect with his roots.

“I’m a Michigander,” he tells The Ticker, reminiscing about fond memories attending the Detroit Country Day School and striking up a friendship with its most famous alumnus – one Robin Williams.

“When my parents decided to leave Michigan, it saddened me to no end,” he says.

Friedenberg finished high school in South Florida, after which his path took him just about everywhere but back to Michigan.

“I ended up in the motion picture industry as a regional marketing director for film studios, including United Artists, MGM, and Columbia Pictures,” he says. “I was based in Denver for the Rocky Mountain region, then got promoted to Dallas for the Southwest region, and got promoted again to Chicago for the Midwest region. And then I moved to San Diego and launched the Cinema Society.”

While Friedenberg won’t be moving back to Michigan, he will be programming the TC Cinema Society’s four annual film screenings and making the trek to northern Michigan to host each event. The first one, which he calls a “sampler,” is scheduled for 2pm on Sunday, September 27 at the City Opera House, which has come aboard as the venue partner.

“I picked a film from one of my favorite filmmakers on the planet,” Friedenberg says of the sampler screening. “His name is Klaus Härö. It’s his first film, called Elina, and it’s the story of a little girl who locks horns with her teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. Klaus can’t come in person because he’s working on a new film in Helsinki, but he's taped introduction and post-script videos for us, which we’ll show before and after the film.”

Tickets for the sampler are $30 each. In addition to the film screening, the program will give locals “the opportunity to meet and mingle with Friedenberg, and learn more about the Cinema Society of Traverse City, and the perks of membership.” An annual membership is $500 and includes entry into all Cinema Society events for two people, as well as a bronze membership to the City Opera House.

Opera House Executive Director Chad Lindsey calls the Cinema Society “exactly the kind of experience the City Opera House was meant to foster.”

“The idea of creating a curated cinephiles club, where remarkable foreign, art-house, and niche films could be discovered, celebrated, and explored, seemed simply too good to pass up,” Lindsey says. “Working closely with Andy and Tom, we’ve shaped the concept into something that feels distinctly of, by, and for Traverse City: an experience designed especially for our shoulder seasons and winter, when there is such an appetite for meaningful cultural experiences and connection.”