35mm film is a dying art. An Ambler movie theater is keeping it alive
whyy.org
From April 12 to April 14, the theater is holding its annual 35mm Film Festival to showcase nine classic features such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Evil Dead II,” “Rififi” and “The Naked City.”

…In the upper bowels of the Ambler Theater, Jesse Crooks squats on the ground. Using a combination of muscle memory, meticulous attention to detail and on-the-fly dexterity, he carefully threads a strip of celluloid film through a projector.

“One of the most important things when you’re threading a projector is to make sure it does not touch the ground,” Crooks said.

For over a century, the formula for cinema magic remained the same: a trained projectionist, a 35-millimeter film reel and a projector. But now, thousands of feet of celluloid film strips have been replaced with an electronic file — nearly obliterating the role of a trained projectionist…

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