Magic Hours

Handbook of Movie Theaters' History

Handbook of Movie Theaters' History is a documentary about the history, the development in the present days and the future of movie theaters in the city of Turin, Italy. It mixes the documentary language with comedy and fiction, and is enriched by interviews to some of the most important voices of Turin cinematography. The film follows the evolution of movie theaters by enlightening its main milestones: the pre-cinema experiences in the late 19th Century, the colossals and the movie cathedrals of the silent era, the arthouse theaters, the National Museum of Cinema, the Torino Film Festival, the movie theaters system today and the main hypothesis about its future. The mission of Handbook of Movie Theaters' History is to explore and give back to the audience a deep reflection about the identity and the value of movie theater, in its social and anthropological role and as a mass media, and to analyze the experience of the viewer.

La Caissière fait son cinéma

Paris, Latin Quarter. A small cinema that is both famous and marginal, Action Christine. The cashier has taken her camcorder and takes us to this public place, her workplace. Place of life, of passage, of meeting, a window open on the street, behind the hygienic phone, it is the daily life of the cashiers and the openers punctuated by the alternation of surging entrances and idle intersession.

Cinema in Kingston: From Muybridge to the Multiplex

An oral history exploring the development of film projection and cinema in Kingston-on-Thames - from resident innovator Eadweard Muybridge through the heyday, decline, and re-emergence of cinema. Features interviews with historians, projectionists and usherettes as well as cinema-goers with rare footage and images from Kingston’s cinemas.

Scala!!!

This feature-length big screen documentary tells the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll repertory cinema which inspired a generation during Britain's turbulent Thatcher years.

Memoirs of a Movie Palace: The Kings of Flatbush

When Brooklyn's Kings Theater -- one of five "Wonder Theaters" in the New York area -- closed its doors in 1977, the neighborhood mourned. In a series of interviews, local aficionados of the palace as well as its projectionist, its organist, and former employees, reminisce about the Kings and its charmed days gone by.

At the Drive-In

Unable to purchase a $50,000 digital projector, a group of film fanatics in rural Pennsylvania fight to keep a dying drive-in theater alive by screening only vintage 35mm film prints and working entirely for free.

Ghosts Behind the Screen

In the excitement of the roaring 20s, a new kind of movie palace was constructed by the Bay. More than 90 years later, Tampa Theatre has become known as one of the most haunted buildings in the city, This Documentary uncovers the rich history and explores the unexplained events with a Team of Historians, Ghost Hunters and Staff.

Anibal's Paradise

Aníbal Alencastro worked in different cinemas in Mato Grosso in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, he recalls stories related to the job of projectionist.

Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace

Celebrating the splendor and grandeur of the great cinemas of the United States, built when movies were the acme of entertainment and the stories were larger than life, as were the venues designed to show them. The film also tracks the eventual decline of the palaces, through to today’s current preservation efforts. A tribute to America’s great art form and the great monuments created for audiences to enjoy them in.

Temple of Film: 100 Years of the Egyptian Theatre

Guillermo del Toro, Rian Johnson and other film luminaries look back at LA's historic Egyptian Theatre as it returns to its former movie palace glory.

Cine Dunas

Jefftowne 2

Jeff Towne revisited four years after the release of the original film.

Essential Exhibition

An independent documentary about the unprecedented struggles of movie theaters and the film industry as a whole during the COVID-19 pandemic

Not Dead

In the land of axé music, old punks resist and live independently.

Marqueetown

Through booms and busts, Delft Theatres and its innovative gem The Nordic endured in Marquette, Michigan for almost 100 years. Bernie Rosendahl’s crusade to restore the historic arthouse to its former glory reveals a hidden cinema empire in the Upper Peninsula.

Un sale métier

Sur la route des Drive In

Cinema Perverso

Before there were home video formats and the internet, the “Bahnhofskinos” (“Train station cinemas”) in West Germany regularly showed trash and erotica movies. Various filmmakers and especially contemporary witnesses recount in the documentary “Cinema Perverso – the wonderful and broken world of Bahnhofskino” their experiences and impressions.

Drive-in Blues

Old-time theater owners reminisce about the heyday of the drive-in and confront the reality of a dying business. Laced with unusual archival trailers, the tone of the film swings between camp and nostalgia.

Artavazd Pelechian, le cinéaste est un cosmonaute