The Northwest Film Forum sent out a plea today to supporters and friends, in hopes of raising $70,000 by August 15th. The text, in part:

I am writing to you to ask for your help. I am asking you for $10, the price of an average movie ticket. The Film Forum has had done many great things this year, but much like other organizations our income is off by 30%. And while we remain scrappy and imaginative in tough spots, this time is different.

We are looking at real changes at the Film Forum unless you say yes and support us. We need to reach a goal of $70,000 by August 15. Please walk it in, mail it in, or click here to make your donation.

Classes, filmmaker support, equipment rental, special screenings, and film series, many of these programs may be put on hold, shelved, or stopped altogether without your small gift. That means programs such as Soul Nite and ByDesign could go. It means fewer masterpieces such as "Silent Light" showing up on our screens. It means maybe no more camera rentals. Jobs and programs are on the line.

I am asking you urgently. If you have benefited from our equipment, from the images on our screens, from our classes, from our network of people, from our famously great parties, we are asking you to say yes, you believe, yes you can give $10. Yes.

For anyone in Seattle who loves film, Northwest Film Forum—with its smart, diverse, consistently excellent programming—is pretty goddamn important. This week they're screening Lake Tahoe (Paul Constant: "You can’t watch Lake Tahoe in a hurry. You’ve got to follow behind it patiently, but the rewards are many."); Herb and Dorothy (Jen Graves: "Art has never seemed so close, so familiar, so simple, and so pure"); On Her Majesty's Secret Service; Topaz; Dillinger is Dead, and more.

Go see something. Or, if you're so inclined, tell the New Economy to suck it and send along $10.