Siskel Film Center executive director Emily Long: ‘How do we overcome the convenience that exists on the couch?

CHICAGO — Halfway through coffee with Emily Long, the new executive director of the Gene Siskel Film Center, we had a little linguistic misunderstanding. She mentioned an upcoming September Film Center retrospective of banned films, curated by the center’s programming director Rebecca Fons; I heard the word “band,” not “banned,” which led to a minute or two of crossed wires and suspicions (mine) of a slight stroke (false alarm) before we sorted it out.

Raised mostly in the Chicago suburbs, Long succeeded longtime Film Center executive director Jean de St. Aubin in May. “I’ve always wanted to run a theater,” she told me.

The Film Center, working under the auspices of the School of the Art Institute, has long been part