Come Back Into the Dark
Silent Movie Theatre’s Cinefamily is a gym for the mind
In the day-to-day realities of programming — which include not just the selecting of films, but the time-consuming tracking down of prints (be they film or digital) and the arranging of exhibition terms — Belove will be assisted by former Cinefile employee Matt Cornell, erstwhile Cinemad magazine editor Mike Plante and video DJ/’70s cinema bootlegger Tom Fitzgerald (a specialist, Belove says, of “the deep, weird, great stuff”). As to the question of whether Cinefamily can find an audience at a moment when even mainstay revival venues like American Cinematheque have reported seeing attendance shrink rather than grow, Belove is optimistic that he can lure movie buffs away from their HDTVs and multiregion DVD players and back into the collective dark.
“Look, I opened Cinefile at a time when Blockbuster had destroyed the independent video store community,” he says, “but I believed that if what we were doing was different enough, we’d be successful, and we were. The fact that people aren’t going to revival theaters as much anymore is the very reason to do this. Movies should be seen for their own sake; they should be bigger than you are, capable of overwhelming you, and you need to seem them in a crowd with other people, like a church service, not a monastery. If it’s possible that even some of our ideas will work — and I know a lot of intelligent and hard-working movie lovers out there who are trying to crack this problem — then it’s our duty to at least try. It’s like a whole team of scientists trying to design the atom bomb — only one needs to succeed for all to benefit.”
Cinefamily @ The Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A. For more info, visit www.silentmovietheater.com.
Now Showing
Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.
Join My Voice Nation for free stuff, film info & more!
Now Trending
-
Voice Places
Find everything you're looking for in your city
-
Happy Hour App
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
-
Daily Deals
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
-
Best Of...
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
- Profile
- Newsletters
- Mobile
- Logout
