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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/n...ctionists.html
Why New Yorkers Still ❤️ Film
Projectionists are busier than ever, as they serve a demand for obscure 35-millimeter titles, nostalgia and the quirks of analog.
By Ted Alcorn
Photographs and Video by Evelyn Freja
Sept. 23, 2022
A rare 35-millimeter print of the 1948 Japanese film “Yuwaku (Temptation)” had been shipped halfway around the world for a festival at the Museum of Modern Art. The screening was to begin in 22 minutes. And the equipment was acting up.
Whether the show would go on came down to Chris Jolly, the projectionist.
He had already threaded the first reel through one of the theater’s twin projectors but the second projector, meant to fire up the next reel in a seamless changeover, was on the fritz.
As audience members filled the auditorium below the booth, Mr. Jolly pried at the back of a machine with a screwdriver. The moment seemed to be captured in a cartoon of an addled projectionist pinned to the wall and captioned, “Countless hours of pure boredom. Then come moments of stark terror!”
Undaunted, Mr. Jolly set aside the tools and decided to make do with a single projector. He would allow each reel to finish, then rapidly thread the next through the one working machine, suspending the audience in a moment of darkness. Some regulars might have experienced this before, he reasoned. “We’re pros in here; they’re pros at watching movies.
A decade after digital cinema largely took over the multiplex, 35-millimeter film is thriving in New York City. A small group of museums, repertory movie houses, and newer niche theaters like Alamo Drafthouse, Nitehawk and Roxy Cinema are still using antiquated projectors to show older, sometimes obscure titles that are available only on film, and finding a ready audience.
Which means film projectionists are in demand. “New York is one of the best places to have this job,” said Matthew Reichard, the technical director at Metrograph, an art house on the Lower East Side. “It’s taken very seriously.”
No one knows for sure how many film projectionists there are in the city, but Michael Fewx, who represents cinema technicians in IATSE Local 306, a union that also includes Broadway ticket takers and ushers, estimates that around 50 members regularly work with 35 millimeter. “All projectionists need to primarily know digital at this point,” he said, but “film projection is a highlighted skill.” Those in the union can earn an hourly wage of $40 and more for overtime.
Mr. Jolly’s career, like that of many projectionists, was an outgrowth of a childhood love for cinema. But now his job gets in the way; it’s difficult to watch a movie while showing it. Mr. Jolly, who was for years the on-call projectionist for Martin Scorsese at his in-office screening room, compared it to being a car passenger versus the one behind the wheel. “Somebody is like, ‘Oh, look at this beautiful view that’s passing!’ And you’re like, ‘I can’t look at it — I have to drive.’”
Genevieve Havemeyer-King, who has a graduate degree in film preservation, works at Anthology Film Archives and the New York Public Library.
Mr. Wolfe, above, and his brother James were working as stagehands at Lincoln Center when they fell into projecting for its film society.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/n...ctionists.html for rest of large story.
Why New Yorkers Still ❤️ Film
Projectionists are busier than ever, as they serve a demand for obscure 35-millimeter titles, nostalgia and the quirks of analog.
By Ted Alcorn
Photographs and Video by Evelyn Freja
Sept. 23, 2022
A rare 35-millimeter print of the 1948 Japanese film “Yuwaku (Temptation)” had been shipped halfway around the world for a festival at the Museum of Modern Art. The screening was to begin in 22 minutes. And the equipment was acting up.
Whether the show would go on came down to Chris Jolly, the projectionist.
He had already threaded the first reel through one of the theater’s twin projectors but the second projector, meant to fire up the next reel in a seamless changeover, was on the fritz.
As audience members filled the auditorium below the booth, Mr. Jolly pried at the back of a machine with a screwdriver. The moment seemed to be captured in a cartoon of an addled projectionist pinned to the wall and captioned, “Countless hours of pure boredom. Then come moments of stark terror!”
Undaunted, Mr. Jolly set aside the tools and decided to make do with a single projector. He would allow each reel to finish, then rapidly thread the next through the one working machine, suspending the audience in a moment of darkness. Some regulars might have experienced this before, he reasoned. “We’re pros in here; they’re pros at watching movies.
A decade after digital cinema largely took over the multiplex, 35-millimeter film is thriving in New York City. A small group of museums, repertory movie houses, and newer niche theaters like Alamo Drafthouse, Nitehawk and Roxy Cinema are still using antiquated projectors to show older, sometimes obscure titles that are available only on film, and finding a ready audience.
Which means film projectionists are in demand. “New York is one of the best places to have this job,” said Matthew Reichard, the technical director at Metrograph, an art house on the Lower East Side. “It’s taken very seriously.”
No one knows for sure how many film projectionists there are in the city, but Michael Fewx, who represents cinema technicians in IATSE Local 306, a union that also includes Broadway ticket takers and ushers, estimates that around 50 members regularly work with 35 millimeter. “All projectionists need to primarily know digital at this point,” he said, but “film projection is a highlighted skill.” Those in the union can earn an hourly wage of $40 and more for overtime.
Mr. Jolly’s career, like that of many projectionists, was an outgrowth of a childhood love for cinema. But now his job gets in the way; it’s difficult to watch a movie while showing it. Mr. Jolly, who was for years the on-call projectionist for Martin Scorsese at his in-office screening room, compared it to being a car passenger versus the one behind the wheel. “Somebody is like, ‘Oh, look at this beautiful view that’s passing!’ And you’re like, ‘I can’t look at it — I have to drive.’”
Genevieve Havemeyer-King, who has a graduate degree in film preservation, works at Anthology Film Archives and the New York Public Library.
Mr. Wolfe, above, and his brother James were working as stagehands at Lincoln Center when they fell into projecting for its film society.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/n...ctionists.html for rest of large story.