Mark Dworkin: Part-time projectionist, full-time filmmaker

You may not realize it, but everyone who works at The Clyde—staff or volunteer–has a whole other life during the daytime. Take Mark Dworkin. Although he’s run our projectors for one or more nights a week for 40 years, during the daylight hours he’s also been a social worker, doctoral student, community organizer, professor, owner/builder, carpenter, and currently an award-winning independent documentary film producer. But the work he’s proudest of? Raising his daughter Natasha (our web designer).

Mark came to work at The Clyde as a leap of faith by Blake. “We hardly knew each other,” Mark says, “but we’d crossed paths at community events and at the Soup Coop. He approached me about a year after I moved here and asked if I would run the theater for him for a few months while he took a vacation. I love film, and I had started a couple of film clubs in college, so I was interested. And something I still think is wonderful is that Blake trusted me to really be in charge while he was gone – picking the movies, running the projectors, paying the bills, etc. etc. and keeping all the profits that the theater made during that time. He taught me how to run the equipment, how to maintain it, and told me what movies he would choose to show if it were up to him, but it would be up to me while he was gone. It was great fun, and I was sorry to give it up once Blake returned, but he soon realized that with my help The Clyde could be open more nights of the week. I’ve been a regular projectionist ever since.”

In fact, Mark remains our go-to guy when we go out of town even today. Over the years, he’s been as careful and resourceful with the equipment as Blake, though a lot less willing to sweep up. We watch him a little more closely around booking, though, ever since the time he decided it would be a good idea to show the soft-porn classic Emmanuelle during County Fair weekend.

Mark and Melissa Young are life and work partners, specializing in documentaries on issues of environmental sustainability and social justice that have played around the world. They’ve won dozens of awards, including three CINE Golden Eagles. Five of their films have played nationally on PBS – In the Midst of Winter, Retooling America, How Can I Keep On Singing, Net Loss, and Good Food—as well as at The Clyde. Their most recent release, Shift Change, was filmed in worker cooperatives all over the US and at the remarkable Mondragon Cooperatives in the Basque region of northern Spain.

Mark contributes to his own community too, as time and travel schedule allow, from working at the Soup Coop back in the day to strapping on his tool belt for Hearts & Hammers every year. In addition, he’s filmed many local events since he first got a camera in 1977, so he’s sort of a local historian as well. That was his compilation of the greatest moments from FOOLS shows that we played last year.

Asked what he likes most about working at The Clyde, Mark replies, “The Clyde is a remarkable example of a triple-bottom-line business – it isn’t just about making as much money as possible for the owners but about serving employees and the community extremely well. You see that in the choice of movies, in the respect we who work at the Clyde receive as employees, and in how ticket prices and snack bar prices are much more affordable than at typical movie theaters.” To learn more about Mark and Melissa’s documentary work, go to www.movingimages.org.