Cinemapolis

Cinemapolis on East Green Street in Ithaca is the independent cinema that serves the kind of programming the commercial multiplex infrastructure in this region does not and will not show: international film, American independent work, documentaries with specialized audiences, retrospective programming, and the category of cinema that exists somewhere between theatrical and streaming distribution and needs a real venue to find its audience.

That programming role in a college city with a sophisticated film culture is important in a way that goes beyond what any specific film experience at the venue provides. Cinemapolis is the venue that makes Ithaca the kind of city where a film can have its regional premiere or its only local run, where a documentary about a subject with a global following but a small commercial footprint can find the audience that the subject has earned. The venue enables the cultural infrastructure that the rest of what Ithaca aspires to culturally depends on.

Four stars rather than five because the physical space has limitations that are real and that affect the experience in ways I can't not account for. The auditorium size means the experience is intimate, which is an asset for some programming and a limitation for others. The seating capacity is modest enough that popular screenings can be difficult to get into on short notice, and the scheduling and reservation system can be more complicated than it should be for a venue in a city with a significant student and faculty population that expects streamlined digital booking.

The sound system and projection quality are maintained at a standard appropriate to the programming, which is the critical infrastructure for a cinema presenting work that was made for theatrical exhibition. I've seen work at Cinemapolis that showed exactly what theatrical projection does for films that were composed and lit for large-scale exhibition, and I've seen work presented without the technical constraints that smaller venues sometimes impose. Cinemapolis provides the technical conditions for the work to be what it was intended to be.

The surrounding blocks of downtown Ithaca handle the pre- and post-film dining and drinking requirements comprehensively, which matters for the social architecture of a film venue. A cinema in a dead commercial context loses the secondary social value of going to the movies. Cinemapolis is in the active core of Ithaca's most functional commercial district, and that position makes it a destination rather than just a theater.

Coming on a Thursday or Sunday for the off-peak screenings. Worth the Ithaca trip on its own.