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The Repertory NotebookClassic films explained, societies equipped, seasons thoughtfully programmed

Edition of September 15, 202629 entries and guides, 3 sections

Repertory and art house cinema in the United States

A notebook on revival cinema,
for the people who keep it on screen

A reference notebook on repertory cinema in the US, with lasting film entries and practical guides for volunteer societies, programmers and students.

Open the Society ToolkitBrowse the film entries

  • 29 entries and guides
  • 11 film entries at their original address
  • 3 sections
Small revival cinema seen from the back row, worn red seats, a blank white screen between dark curtains and a few people finding their places
A small revival house before a screening. The photographs on this site are illustrations produced for it.

01 to 03The three sections

Two kinds of entry on films, one set of working guides for the people who show them.

  1. Repertory Classics

    The films that keep getting booked, each one explained for the room that will watch it: structure, craft and what still lands.

    6 entries

  2. World Cinema Entries

    Films from other countries framed for American audiences, with the background that turns a distant title into a discussion.

    5 entries and a section guide

  3. Society Toolkit

    How a volunteer run society actually works: rights, prints and DCPs, a calm screening night in a modest hall.

    18 guides and a section guide

01Repertory Classics

6 entries kept at their original archive addresses.

Each entry keeps its original address in the archive and reads as a programming note: what the film is, why it holds up on a screen, and what to say before the lights go down.

  1. Repertory ClassicsFilm entry, original address

    The Rules of the Game Keeps Getting Booked

    Renoirs 1939 ensemble comedy of manners is unpacked for programmers, from its hunting party structure to why the film rewards projection and talkback.

  2. Repertory ClassicsFilm entry, original address

    M and the Sound of a City in Pursuit

    Lang's early sound manhunt is explained for revival audiences, from Dusseldorf panic to the trial scene, plus notes on sound, crowd psychology and care.

  3. Repertory ClassicsFilm entry, original address

    Double Indemnity Shapes American Noir

    Wilders 1944 insurance murder tale is broken down for noir nights, from voiceover trap to venetian blinds, and why the ending still chills rooms.

  4. Repertory ClassicsFilm entry, original address

    Film Noir and What Came After

    A short season guide to noir and its heirs, from hard boiled streets to neo noir, helping volunteers carefully pair titles, themes and speaker prompts.

  5. Repertory ClassicsFilm entry, original address

    The Battle of Algiers as Reconstruction

    Pontecorvo's Algiers reconstruction is clarified for study, from street tactics to interrogation scenes, and why it is argued over, not shown lightly.

  6. Repertory ClassicsFilm entry, original address

    Modern Times Between Silence and Sound

    Chaplin's tramp in the factory age is described for families and students, from feeding machines to roller skating, and the move toward spoken sound.

02World Cinema Entries

World Cinema Entries That Travel Well

Entries that travel well across borders, with the cultural and legal context a revival audience in the United States needs to argue about them afterwards.

  1. World Cinema EntriesFilm entry, original address

    Amarcord and Memory as Carnival

    Fellini's town carnival is outlined for societies, from episodic memory to parades and adolescence, with tips for framing nostalgia without cliche.

  2. World Cinema EntriesFilm entry, original address

    Persepolis as Animated Memoir

    Satrapi's animated memoir is set in context for US viewers, from Tehran childhood to exile in Europe, and how drawings carry history without lecture.

  3. World Cinema EntriesFilm entry, original address

    The Lives of Others and Surveillance

    Donnersmarcks Stasi drama is placed in history for groups, from file keeping to bugging craft, plus how the film shaped later debates on watching.

  4. World Cinema EntriesFilm entry, original address

    A Separation Inside Iranian Law

    Farhadis Tehran domestic drama is explained through law and custom, from separation petitions to oaths, and why every viewer sides differently.

  5. World Cinema EntriesFilm entry, original address

    Taste of Cherry and the Long Refusal

    Kiarostami's driving film is read patiently for discussion, from Tehran hills to the stranger who listens, and why the ending divides every room.

03Society Toolkit

Running a Volunteer Film Society

The working guides: how a society is run week to week, what public performance rights cover, and how a print or a DCP reaches a small hall.

  1. Society Toolkit

    How a Volunteer Film Society Works

    What keeps a volunteer cinema alive across a season, from mission and roles to money, outreach and partnerships that survive turnover and fatigue.

  2. Society Toolkit

    Public Performance Rights for Small Societies

    When a public performance license is needed in the US, what umbrellas cover, what they exclude, and how local small societies book titles correctly.

  3. Society Toolkit

    Finding Prints, DCPs and Running Screenings

    How programmers find 35mm prints and DCPs in the US, compare costs and lead times, shape a season arc and run a calm small hall screening night.

  4. Society Toolkit

    What a Town Event Calendar Teaches a Society

    How a small town keeps recurring traditions separate on a public calendar, and what a volunteer film society can borrow for its own season page.

  5. Society Toolkit

    The Committee Year of a Volunteer Film Society

    How the working year of a volunteer film society breaks down: affiliation, planning, the jobs a screening night needs and where sign up happens.

  6. Society Toolkit

    Using a Film Still to Publicize a Screening

    Where publicity images come from for a repertory screening, what editorial use allows, and what changes when a still moves to a poster or merchandise.

  7. Society Toolkit

    Programming Classic Japanese Animation

    How a volunteer society builds a strand of classic Japanese animation, from Ghibli to Akira, and what a program note should hand the audience.

  8. Society Toolkit

    Where Independent Film Actually Screens

    Independent describes money before style. How a small venue or film society builds a program outside the usual circuit, and where repertory titles go.

  9. Society Toolkit

    The Music Around the Film in the Repertory Years

    The records that framed 1940s and 1950s pictures belong in an era program too: where to find the songs, the pressings and the theater documents.

  10. Society Toolkit

    When a Suspicious Email Reaches a Society

    A volunteer treasurer or booking contact will eventually click a bad link. The first moves that limit the damage, drawn from plain security guidance.

  11. Society Toolkit

    Hosting a Local Short Before the Feature

    When a local filmmaker offers a short to open an evening: what a society should know about how small shoots are planned, lit and delivered.

  12. Society Toolkit

    Booking Small Hotels for a Society Trip

    When a society organizes a trip to a festival or archive, small family hotels are booked directly. Deposits, breakfast scores and cancellation windows.

  13. Society Toolkit

    Photographing the Hall for the Record

    A society that documents its hall leaves a record for funders, landlords and the next committee. How a building shoot is briefed, listed and lit.

  14. Society Toolkit

    What a Fan Gathering Teaches About a Screening

    Fan run gatherings face the same room hire, license and access questions a film society meets. Their checklists translate directly to a screening night.

  15. Society Toolkit

    Reading a Bead Spec Sheet Before Ordering

    How to read stated dimensions, hole size, finish, batch variation, quantities and manufacturer certificates on a bead specification sheet before ordering.

  16. Society Toolkit

    Reading Local Traces Before a Screening Night

    A programmer's method for reading studio portraits, letters, anonymous group photographs, place names, inns and ledgers before a local history screening night.

  17. Society Toolkit

    Reading an Exhibition the Way a Season Is Read

    A programmer's method for reading group shows, sound installations and public sculpture: room rhythm, dialogue between works, and honest observation.

  18. Society Toolkit

    Writing From Primary Records Without Inventing

    How a volunteer turns deck logs, muster rolls, photographs and oral accounts into verifiable history, and what a preserved archive actually needs.

Kept within reach

Kept in the projection booth

Five pages that answer the questions a volunteer asks most often. They are reread and corrected as public documents change, so they stay usable long after the entries around them.

The about page says how the entries are written, corrections and public sources go to the contact page, and the legal notice states what the site collects, which is nothing.

A 35mm film reel and a metal canister with a blank label on a wooden table in a projection booth, soft window light
Rows of empty folding chairs facing a dark curtain on a small hall stage, one floor lamp lit at dusk

  1. Public Performance Rights for Small Societies

    The guide volunteers open first, because a title cannot be announced before its rights are cleared.

  2. Finding Prints, DCPs and Running Screenings

    Where a print or a DCP comes from, what a booking asks of a small hall, and how the evening is run.

  3. How a Volunteer Film Society Works

    The plain account of how a volunteer society divides its work, from the first meeting to the last chair stacked.

  4. Film Noir and What Came After

    The one entry that reads as a whole programme: noir, its heirs and the pairings that hold a run together.

  5. World Cinema Entries That Travel Well

    The method behind every world cinema entry: arrival story, craft detail, one voice from the film culture itself.

On the desk

Notebooks kept on the desk

Eight publications that each document one practical subject: the printed press, school clubs, broadcast radio, a mountain town, the family home, and volunteer life on islands. The notebook keeps them open for the same reason it keeps its toolkit, because a screening evening runs on more than the film.

  1. specialist press history

    Aika is an independent Finnish publication on media culture, tracing how newspapers, specialist magazines and printed matter built a national reading culture.

  2. reward based dog training

    Leash and Living Room explains reward based home training for dogs in the United States, from puppy routines and loose leash walks to calm greetings indoors.

  3. cultural life in Teresopolis

    GuiaTere follows the cultural and mountain life of Teresopolis in the Serra dos Orgaos, from small theaters and Sunday cinema to the trails toward the Dedo de Deus.

  4. house upkeep notes

    Malandracia keeps plain notes on house upkeep in the United States, from roof replacement cycles and buried drains to paving, home office floors and repair order.

  5. how broadcast radio works

    The Mast Log explains the technical and regulatory workings of broadcast radio and recorded sound, from microphone distance to the clock of the broadcast hour.

  6. club meetings and fundraising

    Anyone who has volunteered to run a film society will recognize the rhythms in this guide to school club meetings, officer roles and fundraising.

  7. keeping a family home

    Kept is a practical notebook on running a family home day to day, from seasonal checks and filters to storage, papers and a standing evening routine.

  8. island volunteering guide

    Volunteer run groups keep other small communities going too: Salish Sea Civic Notes describes how island volunteers staff food banks, beach cleanups and benefit breakfasts across the San Juans.