My documentary, Out of Print, is turning 10 this year and is celebrating with a worldwide theatrical re-release – playing in the very kind of arthouse, independent cinemas it champions, and booked through my own grassroots efforts.
In 2012, while working at the New Beverly Cinema, a major studio sent a letter to the movie theater announcing they were going to, by and large, discontinue making and sending 35 mm prints, and that cinemas would now need to changeover to digital projectors. This made me so nervous, because the New Beverly only played 35 mm prints, so essentially there would be a cut-off date for viable movie print options, unless the studios made an effort to make film prints of a particular title.
Many independent cinemas are running on tight budgets, and don’t have the immediate capital needed to replace their projectors with expensive digital ones and pay for every new “upgrade.”
35 mm has been, for the most part, the way movies have been seen since the beginning of movies, because it is so sturdy. Prints lasted a long time because they needed to survive being shipped around from cinema to cinema. And, for me, there is something a bit romantic about a print that shows its use – every scratch on a frame, every bit of dust is proof of how many people have watched it, how many projectors it's been through – and now that print is changed in a way entirely unique to itself.
I started with a petition giving film fans a heads up that this digital changeover was happening – I think studios would have gladly just kept the whole thing quiet and hoped that no one would notice. That led to a successful crowdfunding campaign, and suddenly I was making a documentary – my first film!
I cannot tell you how incredibly grateful I am that so many incredible filmmakers and film lovers were willing to be interviewed for the film. Patton Oswalt, Kevin Smith, Lloyd Kaufman, Edgar Wright, John Landis, Joe Dante, Joe Carnahan, Mark Romanek, Richard Kelly, Stuart Gordon, Clu Gulager, Seth Green, Tom Holland, Rian Johnson, Fred Dekker and more!
A blessing of the film was having the opportunity to sit down with each one of these wonderful people for an hour and ask them about their memories of cinemas around them growing up. Their thoughts and feelings about cinema and the necessity of seeing films in a cinema, with an audience. I ended up with more than 50 hours of footage, clipped down to a neat 86 minutes.
I was also able to, thanks to Kodak and Panavision, shoot on both digital and 35 mm film, and have a split screen shot in the film where you can see the two formats side by side. I had one 35 mm print of the film made, which is now housed for eternity in the Academy Film Archives.
On its initial run, I toured with Out of Print to a slew of U.K. screenings, university screenings and more. The film played all around the world – even at the oldest movie theater in the U.S.A. (Historic Park Theatre, Colorado) and the oldest movie theater in the world (Korsor Biograf Theater, Denmark).
I loved getting to watch the film with different audiences to see how each one reacted. The biggest laugh in the movie usually came from a $2 bill joke, but in the U.K. there was silence – they didn’t know the rarity and strangeness of a $2 bill. I loved that.
At Wellesley, I got to take the girls up into the projector booth and show them the 35 mm projectors, and how the film threaded through the machines. One girl commented that she’d never thought about how movies were projected before – it kind of blew the students’ minds, which I loved.
This time, Out of Print is playing around the world again, with screenings in the U.K. and many here in the U.S.A. as well. I’m thrilled that several theaters have programmed the film the week of Art House Theater Day (July 30) – what a perfect way to celebrate!
What I am so thrilled about is how much audiences are embracing cinema again here in 2026 – when films are playing in 35 mm or 70 mm, people make an effort to see them in those formats because they know it will look and sound better. And while we look back with reverence and sorrow at the many independent cinemas that have closed in the past 10 years, we also cherish and celebrate the new ones that have opened in that time.
And how can you help? See films at independent cinemas, support them, shout them out on social media. Humans need communal connection, and cinemas provide that in such an incredible way. You have only to watch a film on your laptop, then see it again in a cinema with a packed, enthusiastic crowd and you’ll see that it is a completely different experience.
I’d love to make more films like Out of Print, because every single indie cinema has its own story – the history, the employees, the regulars, the unbelievable tales that are undoubtedly true. I long to explore each one, to delve into their projector booth and every nook and cranny in the place and film all of it!
Because movies are so special to me, I look at every cinema – no matter how rundown or shabby – as a place of worship. A place where anything is possible, and where life on the big screen takes over from real life for a little while.
Even if I am alone, I’m surrounded by others being taken on the same journey as I am. And that’s so beautiful.
If you’re able to see Out of Print at an upcoming screening, I’d love to hear your feedback. The film is also streaming online, with the DVD and CD soundtrack available from me.
