I am so pleased and even downright amazed to see the Salt Lake Film Society today, especially as I remember that night my brother Paul came to me over 10 years ago and said, "We've got to save the Tower!" When we wrote those personal checks and got those loans, we did so with the hope that our community would believe in the importance of coming back to and supporting the Tower and art, independent and foreign film in Salt Lake.

Within a couple of years, we knew our community indeed felt it was important, and furthermore viewed our independence from Hollywood mainstream multiplexes and films as a valuable community asset. That is when we explored adding more screens and creating the SLFS with a core mission of building community engagement and general appreciation for film exhibition and creation.

Now, several years later, through a lot of hard work from our board and our staff, great leadership from our Executive Director Tori Baker, and fantastic support from our members and community at large, we continue to ensure that our community has access to diverse voices through films that might not otherwise make it to Salt Lake.

Film is such an important communication medium -- it captures our imaginations, provides inspiration, and informs us of important stories needing to be told. Finally, it records our cultures and our histories in intensely personal ways and brings them to life when projected on screen. When there are no longer living survivors of World War II or the holocaust, many individual stories will transcend time to be told again and again, in their own voices, because they are recorded on film.

At the Salt Lake Film Society, we are honored to be part of the foundational concept of freedom of speech that is so important to our democracy. Thank you for being a part of our story through your engagement, support and patronage.

Sincerely, Kris