Auditory habituation is the scientific term for when the brain filters out familiar and constant sounds. Like the hum of a refrigerator or the tick of a clock. For projectionists and film lovers in Southern California, that sound is the flickering and whirling mechanical heartbeat of a film projector.
“Hearing that hum [of the projector] that could be ASMR. It’s just a beautiful hum, and it’s special,” said Garin Sparks, projectionist and contributing author of “Warped and Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive.”
Just like the frames of film on the reel, film projection is a fading art. The era of having to “thread up” 16mm, 35mm, or 70mm has seen better days. There have been a few breakout films over the last few years, proving that audiences still have a love and passion for film, like “Oppenheimer” or the more recent Ryan Coogler film, “Sinners.” But for some theaters and movie enthusiasts, keeping this tradition alive serves more purpose than just showing films on celluloid.
It’s history and preservation – what was once the standard is now a spectacle.
“When I was a little kid, I just loved going up into the booth. It felt like another world,” Garin recalled. He described his first memories of spending time in a film’s projection booth.
“You’d run into the crabby projectionist who ended up turning out to be one of your very best friends,” Garin said.
The magic of the movies found its way to Logan Crow at a very early age. “I was already a huge film junkie, but the movie that shifted my brain a little bit was when I was nine, my parents took me to see “Blue Velvet.” They did not know what they were taking me to. And it just rocked my brain,” Logan recalled.
Logan had his first taste in film exhibition by presenting a 35mm screening of “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” at The Vista in Silverlake. Not only did his first screening sell out, but he was also able to get talent from the film to drive out to L.A. to take part in the evening.
“And it was that night where I was up there and thought, this is it. This is exactly what I want to do,” Logan said.
Logan is now the executive director of The Frida Cinema, a nonprofit theater in Santa Ana’s arts and culture district. It serves as a cultural hub for film and arts lovers of all ages.
Walking into the Frida, you’re greeted by a sprawling mural of cinema’s greatest characters – Luke Skywalker, David Bowie as the Goblin King, and, of course, Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in “Blue Velvet.”
“I want this to be an art gallery. Rotating art shows that are themed around film,” Logan said.
The Frida is one of the homes to a program, “See It On 16mm,” where occasionally they present a film marathon where the films are shown only on 16mm film. The twist? Nobody knows what titles are being shown until they unspool from the reel to the screen. Only the program’s Founder, Michael Aguirre, knows what’s coming.
Events like this have helped bring in audiences from not just the local neighborhoods, but traveling counties and sometimes even states away to attend their films.
That foot traffic has helped revitalize parts of Santa Ana that were once considered among the rougher areas of Orange County.
“When we opened, there were a lot of people who were scared to come into Santa Ana. It had been pigeonholed as the violent part of Orange County. So it was exciting to be part of a group of people doing different things,” Logan said.
Since opening in 2014, the Frida has become a staple in re-energizing Santa Ana’s arts district.
“We work with pretty much every school around us in some way. We want to give back to the community that lifts us up,” Logan said.
And the Frida isn’t the only theater in Southern California using film to educate and inspire the next generation. Just a short drive north in Eagle Rock, the Vidiots Foundation continues its mission of keeping physical media and movie-going alive.
“We had a couple of classes of sixth graders up in the booth, watching the film on the rewind table, seeing it get threaded. One kiddo asked, ‘How old do you have to be to be a projectionist? I think I want to do that when I get older,” said Maggie Mackay, the Executive Director and board member of the Vidiots foundation.
What started as an alternative video rental store in Santa Monica in 1985 has since changed into a non-profit theater and rental store in Eagle Rock. Reopening in what was once the Yosimite theater in 1929, then later changed to the Eagle Theatre in 1940, which went on to serve audiences for 70 years before going dark and transitioning to a church in the early 2000s.
“When we were looking at Eagle Rock, our founders said this neighborhood feels a lot like Santa Monica in the ‘80s,” Maggie said.
With Vidiots reopening in June of 2023 it not only kept its cult following alive, but it resurrected a piece of Hollywood history with it.
“We had two incredibly passionate fanbases – the Vidiots fanbase and the Eagle fanbase – and they came together in this really extraordinary way,” Maggie continued.
With their love of physical media, one would think that obtaining a 35mm projector in Los Angeles would be a breeze. As it turns out, finding all the right pieces to make this a reality can prove rather challenging. A similar challenge Logan and his team are facing down at the Frida.
“We’re a nonprofit, so we were really working on it – finding parts, putting them together, training our incredible booth team, and we’ve been projecting film ever since.”
At Vidiots, showing movies on 16mm and 35mm film is a plus – but it’s not the end goal.
“We’re not precious about format,” said Maggie. “For us, it’s about showing movies however we can. But yes, we absolutely love 35mm projection. People cheer when they hear it’s on film.”
In an era dominated by streaming, physical media is steadily declining. Sony recently announced it would end production of Blu-ray disc after 18 years.
But walk into Vidiots, and there’s a rhythm to the place. The smell of popcorn. The chatter of fans waiting for their favorite films. And just past the micro-cinema, a sea of DVDs and Blu-rays in the Vidiots rental store – a physical archive of titles, some that can’t be streamed or bought online.
“Physical media is not dead. I’ll emphatically say it’s alive and well,” Mackay said. “And when people say they want it, and someone says, ‘We’ll give it to you,’ that’s how you keep it alive for another generation.”
At Glendale Community College you can find that same love for film in the college’s film club that gathers bi-weekly on Tuesdays to discuss all aspects of filmmaking, screen classic movies and plan group outings to the Academy museum or local cinemas.
“Community film screening gives a chance for people with similar passions to meet and connect with each other, helping foster and grow a greater sense of community,” said Malena Wilson the President of Glendale Community College’s Film Club.
Just like a museum collects, preserves and exhibits objects of cultural, historical, or scientific importance, cinemas like the Frida and Vidiots preserve the human experience through the art of film. What was once a set, a moment, a breath – becomes light again, projected into the dark where it finds life once more.
“Do I think projection is a craft that says what we value about cinema and storytelling? Absolutely,” Garin Sparks said.
“Every one of those prints has a story – who did the print, what company made it, how many people have seen it,” Garin added.
In a rapidly-evolving Hollywood scene, where AI is now the center of the film conversation, the question remains how perfect will AI make our movies, and is it perfection we’ll even recognize if it leaves out the life and soul of humans?
Sparks agreed.
“Digital is flawless. But film? Film breathes.”
For more information on film screenings please visit the Frida and Vidiots.
Nicholas Rollins can be reached at [email protected].