The Surprisingly Thriving Art of Film Projection as Witnessed at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco

KQED Arts spoke with the projectionists of San Francisco’s famous Roxie Theater to learn more about their craft, what it means to them, how there will always be a need for this skill and the pride of a job well done.

The thing about this place. They still have projectionists to do video. In most theaters, hate to say it, but the popcorn person pushes that button. Or somebody downstairs. But here we’re still up here watching, because we still need people to light these projectors because we still want to run film. It feels like a performance. There is an audience; they don’t know that you’re there and they shouldn’t know that you’re there, so it feels like a secret performance.