Cinema, Movies and Motion Pictures

I’ve been going to the Detroit Film Theatre since it first started, in 1974. I was in college then and well on my way to becoming a serious movie nut, perhaps even a true cineaste.

I loved the classic American films from the 1910’s to the 1970’s. As time went on I liked a lot of the new stuff too. I grew to love films from all around the world, especially those from France, Japan and pre-World War Two Germany. Subtitles don’t bother me. From the movies, I get a sense of other countries and of this country’s history. Great stuff from everywhere! I love animation, documentaries and experimental films as well.

The Detroit Film Theatre has been a real education. The silent movie shows were a blast whether accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra, Frank Pahl and band or by others. The Detroit Home Movie Festival was really amazing. I enjoyed the 3-D movies. The Silent Clowns festival had me laughing. They’d have guest speakers and special events.

They’d have sneak previews of movies not yet in theatres, most memorably Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

In the 1970’s and early 1980’s there was an amazing Afternoon Film Series. Topics included westerns, silent films, avant-garde films, film noir, animation and vintage international cinema.

I was at the showing of Luis Bunuel’s film The Milky Way when there was a loud crash and the screen went black. Someone had attacked the projectionist and tore the film off of the projector because he was upset by the movie and its content! Some of the audience fled. For those who stayed, they eventually finished screening the rest of the movie.

I saw the late Howard Armstrong do a live show there before they screened a film about him called Louie Bluie. I enjoyed hearing talks by filmmakers like Les Blank and Frederick Wiseman.

The Detroit Film Theatre started in January 1974.  This year marks their 50^th anniversary.  Going to a movie there is one of the great things to do in Detroit.  They have music as well, including live music accompanying a silent movie.  It’s a beautiful room and many of us have spent hundreds of hours there, in the dark, soaking in the cinema.

From

https://dia.org/events/detroit-film-theatre

https://dia.org/support/auxiliary-groups/friends-detroit-film-theatre

Thanks to Lawrence Baranski, Elliot Wilhelm, Matthew Breneau, Cate Lauerman, Ellen Kulie and to the other helpers and volunteers over the years.

Show runs from July 2024 to September 12, 2024

From 2016:

https://www.modeldmedia.com/features/detroit-film-culture-053116.aspx

My Summer 2024 exhibit Detroit and the Movies has a lot of material related to the Detroit Film Theatre.

https://sites.udmercy.edu/campusconnection/2024/08/28/50-years-of-the-detroit-film-theatre-on-exhibit-at-mcnichols-campus-library/

I’ve installed a Summer exhibition at my place of work, the McNichols campus library of the University of Detroit Mercy. In 2014, I started a Summer series exploring Detroit’s cultural history. Themes have included Detroit’s visual arts scene, poetry, street art and music. There was special attention paid to the Heidelberg Project, the Zeitgeist Gallery and Performance Venue and to my long-running monthly zine/handout the Poetic Express. From 2020 to 2022, we took a few years off for the pandemic, but returned last year, in 2023. with a show on Detroit Music.

This year, we look at Detroit and the movies, with a special focus on the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts. They’ve been open 50 years this year, since 1974. I’ve been going there since the beginning. Various aspects of Detroit and the Cinema are explored. There’s also a small section on Detroit Television.

Around the time that the Detroit Film Theatre started, there were also excellent film series going on at the Cass City Cinema in the Unitarian Church building at Cass and Forest. I loved to see films there and at Wayne State. There was also an very good film series at Detroit’s Main library. They presented double features with free refreshments during the break in between movies. Occasionally, they’d have celebrity guests like actresses Sylvia Sidney and Margaret Hamilton.

This library is open to the public from 1PM to 4PM from Monday to Friday. You need to check in at the front desk. If you know me personally, or if you work at the Detroit Film Theatre, the Redford Theatre, Cinema Detroit etc. just contact me and we can get you into see the show “by arrangement.” It opened on July 6th and will be up through August. It should still be up in early September. There’s a concurrent visual art exhibit here as well, including my work and other’s work (from my collection).

We miss our arthouse neighbors.  The Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak closed in 2021 and was demolished in 2022.  The Maple Theatre, in Birmingham, closed early in 2024. 

The wonderful Cinema Detroit lost its space in 2023 but has been sponsoring screenings at such venues as MOCAD and Planet Ant (in Hamtramck).

We do have two excellent movie venues. 

The Detroit Film Theatre has hosted a a mix of new films, revivals, foreign films and documentaries for 50 years.

The Redford Theatre first opened in 1928.  It’s one of the few classic-era movie palaces which is still operating.

It’s primarily a revival house, showing films from the past 110 years.

Both of these operate primarily on the weekends and show some of their screenings on actual film as well as through digital projection.

The Redford Theatre has a neighbor, the Motor City Cinema Society which screens films exclusively in the 16 mm format.  They’ve sponsored films in 35mm and 70mm at the Redford.

Another Detroit classic movie venue house is the Senate Theatre on Michigan.  They have a classic theatre organ and are affiliated with the Detroit Theatre Organ Society.  They show talkies aka sound films as well as the occasional silent film.

Detroit has only one mainstream movie theatre left, the Bel Air Luxury Cinema near 8 Mile between Mound and Hoover Roads.  In Dearborn, the Ford-Wyoming Drive-In Theatre also shows first run movies. It opened in 1950.

Motion pictures that filmed in Detroit (or partly in Detroit) include Scarecrow (1973), Detroit 9000 (1973), Blue Collar (1978), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), The Rosary Murders (1987), Presumed Innocent (1990), Hoffa (1992), True Romance (1993), Out of Sight (1998), 8 Mile (2002), The Island (2005), Transformers (2007), Gran Torino (2008), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), It Follows (2014) and Detroit (2017).

Films set in Detroit but filmed elsewhere include Robocop (1987), Detroit Rock City (1999) , Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), Four Brothers (2005), Dreamgirls (2006) and Don’t Breathe (2016) and No Sudden Move (2021).

Show runs from July 2024 to September 12, 2024

These photos should enlarge if you click on them and then hit the back button on the browser to return to the post.

In 1974, the same year that the Detroit Film Theatre started, I was putting together 16mm film programs for the Detroit Public Library. This is one of the flyers. I got to select the films and I learned how to project them. I was in college than and had been bitten by the film bug. Wow: Laurel and Hardy, Gene Deitch and Jules Feiffer, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin and other good choices.

Putting this exhibit together was an incentive for me to get back to writing about the movies again, after taking seven years off. Here goes!

More information:

https://dia.org/support/auxiliary-groups/friends-detroit-film-theatre

https://dia.org/events/detroit-film-theatre

‘https://redfordtheatre.com/

https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2024/01/18/detroits-only-cinema-new-location

Here’s information on the companion exhibit, a small art show:

A Summer Art Exhibit