What are the goals of public programming from the perspective of a moving image archive?
What are the optimal conditions and venues for archival programming and how do they differ from commercial exhibition? “An interesting chapter outlines the ways theater infrastructure was designed to discreetly signify “art house.” A detailed plan for the conversion of Century Theatres’ New York movie house to an art house theater noted that the manager ‘will be a man of culture….he will wear slacks and sports jackets and will smoke a pipe’ (104). Smaller than mainstream cinemas (300-700 seats), art house cinemas offered intimate surroundings. Many were equipped with lounges, radio listening rooms, and well-stocked powder rooms. Some had art exhibits. They served coffee instead of popcorn. Pathe’s Paris theatre in New York boasted natural birch seats and, as noted in Variety, ‘exhibits of various Gallic products’ (112). And many art house cinemas had no-children policies, which both guaranteed a civilized atmosphere and averted problems with screening uncensored films. In order to dist
