WE’RE BACK FOR THE ANNUAL CATHODE FUNDRAGER!

NOT A PANIC BUTTON. JUST OUR YEARLY “PLEASE HELP US KEEP THIS SIGNAL ALIVE” BUDGET DRIVE.

At the end of last year, we had to run an emergency fundraiser because some very important hardware decided to die at the worst possible time. That helped us put out that fire, and we’re good on that front.

This one is separate.

This is about the annual budget that keeps Cathode functioning: the stream, the site, the systems behind it, the daily labor, the IRL screenings, the Halloween party, the boring bills, the surprise expenses and the stuff we quietly eat out of pocket so this thing can keep feeling easy and fun from the outside looking in.

Cathode Cinema is a curatorial screening collective that shows rare contemporary and archival films, experimental shorts, animation, lost media, public access oddities, strange television, cult debris and other things that probably should not make sense together but somehow do.

We started in 2017 as an IRL screening series at Coaxial Arts Foundation in Los Angeles. In 2020, we moved online out of necessity and accidentally built a strange little broadcast world with a live chat and a community that has honestly kept us going longer than we ever expected.

Now Cathode exists somewhere between a screening series, a late-night cable station, a chatroom, a film club and a very stubborn labor of love.

This year’s fundraiser has three main goals:

1. CLEANING UP THE MERCH MESS

This is the big one.

Our last merch run had fulfillment issues through the print service we used, and it created a way bigger mess than expected. Some people got the wrong sizes. Some people waited too long. Some people slipped through the cracks while we were trying to untangle everything manually.

That sucked, and we’re not going to pretend it didn’t.

Our first priority is making sure everyone is covered. If someone has been waiting, our goal is to eat the production and replacement costs ourselves where needed, and get them all out there before we relaunch our merch site.

We want to clean the slate properly before doing any more merch in the future.

2. THE HALLOWEEN PARTY

Our Halloween party has become one of the biggest Cathode IRL moments of the year, and we want to keep building it out without gambling the entire yearly budget every time we do it.

The party costs money before anyone walks through that door: venue costs, production, rentals, tech, design, performers, DJs, materials, and all the little things that pop up and start biting ankles.

Your support helps us cover the overhead and make it feel like Cathode instead of just “movies in a room.”

3. OPERATIONS AND CONTINGENCY

Cathode is still run by a very small crew with full-time jobs, limited bandwidth and no secret money vault under the broadcast room floor.

There are hosting costs, platform costs, tech fees, software, subscriptions, hardware upkeep, file storage, equipment fixes, design needs, screening prep, admin nonsense and all the other extremely unsexy stuff.

We also need a contingency cushion so every unexpected expense doesn’t need a 2nd fundraiser.

That’s really what this is. Not “please fund our Ted Turner yacht.”

Just keeping the machine alive, cleaning up what needs to be cleaned up and giving ourselves enough runway to keep making weird, thoughtful, funny, communal film experiences online and in person.

If Cathode has kept you company, introduced you to something strange, made your night better, made you cry laughing in the chat, got you out of the house, ruined your sleep schedule or convinced you to watch something you never would have clicked on alone, please consider throwing in a few dollars.

Anything helps.

If you can’t donate, sharing helps too.

A huge thank-you to everyone who watches, chats, lurks, donates, shows up, sends us weird stuff, makes Letterboxd lists, makes Spotify playlists, makes bumpers, keeps the lore alive and treats this thing like a real place.

You keep the signal alive.

PLEASE DONATE IF YOU CAN.

PLEASE SHARE IF YOU CAN’T.

FATHER GARY IS WATCHING.