By now, most of us have been cooped up at home for over a year. We have connected with family and friends and worked over Zoom. We have consumed most, if not all, of our entertainment over one of many streaming services. And we have learned how to cook again! Yet, on our Island, there has been one venue open almost the whole time, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. A mainstay for over a decade now in its state-of-the-art home in the Tisbury Marketplace, the center under the leadership of founder Richard Paradise has offered an excellent away-from-home film entertainment experience. Using strict cleaning protocols and high-filtration air circulators, Richard and his team have followed state guidelines since re-opening last July. T-shirts on seats enforce proper social distancing and a mask requirement and no concessions have kept us all safe. If you have been to the film center over the past year, you have been treated to all the Oscar-nominated best films as well as the shorts and most international films. For many months now and through most of the long winter, it has been our only in-person entertainment venue.

So while we are being asked to continue to be vigilant, there is one place where, if you are vaccinated or if you are practicing the required safety protocols, you can see a film on the big screen and just get out of the house.

We film buffs cannot wait to see you there.

Mike Bellissimo

West Tisbury

The writer is a board member for the film center.