This week’s Spotlight AHC takes a look at the Indiana University Cinema, located (you guessed it) on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. On the eve of the cinema’s first anniversary, director Jon Vickers answers our questions below.

Please give us a brief history of your organization and the types of films you show.

The IU Cinema opened its doors on January 13, 2011.  When we meet at the AHC, we will have just celebrated our first year anniversary.  In our first year, we issued nearly 50,000 tickets.

Our program is a mix of arthouse and university cinematheque programming – first run international, American independent, and documentary film, a heavy repertory program, director retrospectives, visiting filmmakers, international films for kids, silent film with piano, organ and orchestral accompaniment, academically sponsored series, midnight and grindhouse series, and visiting filmmaker and scholar lectures.

What have been your most popular movies this year?

Our most popular films this year have been:

REPERTORY
Lawrence of Arabia – sell-out run
  Metropolis w/orchestra – sell-out two nights
John Ford Series – The Westerns
Hitchcock and Herrmann

NEW ARTHOUSE
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Melancholia
The Illusionist
Biutiful
Oscar Nominated Shorts

Do you offer any special events or programs? 

Silent film with orchestra – tying in with the Jacobs School of Music
Live podcast public interviews with filmmakers on our stage (afternoon before their screenings)
Sneak Previews
Student filmmaker/composer collaborations presented with live orchestra
Visiting filmmakers – many

Are you running 35mm, digital projection or both?

16mm and 35mm reel-to-reel
2k Barco with Dolby 3D, and 4K Sony for HD Cam, HD Cam SR, DigiBeta, D5, etc.
THX Certified
…our President and the Trustees were very generous when opening the Cinema

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing independent cinemas right now?

Continuing to keep and build audiences for the public presentation of film as content delivery to all of us is ever changing. Also, access to content.  Even though we are set with both, I fear that DCP’s may be created without enough care, as a quick way to satisfy programmers.  On some films it may work well, but on others, it will not be representative of a film screening unless there is care put into a digital intermediate stage.  Yes the content will be stable, but it will not look like a good print.  I think that we (AHC) need to be the watchdogs.