Last Updated: 5/10/25

ALL SECRET CINEMA PRESENTATIONS ARE SHOWN IN 16mm (or larger!) FILM ON A GIANT SCREEN (NOT VIDEO...NOT EVER!)

Since 1992, the Secret Cinema has been the Philadelphia area’s premiere floating repertory cinema series, bringing hundreds of unique programs to nightclubs, bars, coffee houses, museums, open fields, colleges, art galleries, bookstores, and sometimes even theaters and film festivals. Drawing on its own large private film archive (as well as other collections), the Secret Cinema attempts to explore the uncharted territory and the genres that fall between the cracks, with programs devoted to educational and industrial films, cult and exploitation features, cartoons, rare television, local history, home movies, erotic films, politically incorrect material, and the odd Hollywood classic. As long as it exists on real celluloid, that is—Secret Cinema screenings never use video/digital projection. While mainly based in Philadelphia, the Secret Cinema has also brought programming to other cities and countries.

Secret Cinema presents famous films (yet again!)

Wednesday, May 20, 2026
8:00 pm
Admission: FREE

The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia

The Secret Cinema is known for showing rarest-of-the-rare, otherwise impossible to see celluloid treasures. That changes on Wednesday, May 20, as we revive our Famous Films program concept, at University City's Rotunda.

Once again, we've scoured our archive shelves for the most famous short film titles we could find...and realized there was still more great, non-obscure viewing that we'd not shared before. The program will include important documentaries, notable silent films, quirky animation, and avant-garde experimentation. Some were landmark achievements for their unusual style, or other innovative techniques. Others endure simply as great entertainment.

Of course, "famous" is a relative term, and fame is a fleeting thing. One reason we wish to share these great works is the growing realization that even classic films are becoming hard to see in their original form (projected celluloid on a large screen). Not so long ago, all of these films would have been mandatory viewing (via 16mm or 35mm prints) in university courses and repertory cinemas, but that is sadly no longer true. Indeed, several of these reels will be unknown to today's casual viewer -- all the more reason to celebrate them again.

There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is free.

Just a few highlights of Famous Films 2026 include:

Listen to Britain (1942, Dir: Humphrey Jennings & Stewart McAllister) - During the Second World War, England's Ministry of Information produced many films designed to keep public spirits up. The best remembered of these were the work of Humphrey Jennings, who had worked as a literary critic, historian and painter before being recruited by the G.P.O. Film Unit. Lindsay Anderson called Jennings "the only real poet the British cinema has yet produced." Listen to Britain showed that life could, and must continue during the darkest days of the Blitz, deftly weaving a montage of scenes -- and sounds -- of factory work, school children, a classical music concert, traffic, and folk songs, quietly contrasted against necessary defense preparations. "Through the film's artistry and candor, we become familiar with the qualities of human endurance that would preserve England through the war." - Richard M. Barsam

Revenge of a Kinematograph Cameraman (1912, Dir: Ladislas Starewicz) - An early effort in stop-motion animation, depicting marital infidelity using carefully photographed, actual insect bodies to depict the story's characters! The husband of the tale is shocked to realize that his indiscretions have been photographed when he and his wife see them projected at the local cinema.

A Propos de Nice (1930, Dir: Jean Vigo) - Jean Vigo grew up a poor orphan after his anarchist father died under unexplained circumstances while under arrest; he then battled tuberculosis and died at 29 after making just a handful of films, but they are all considered classics. His illness had caused him to relocate to the French resort city of Nice, inspiring this "city symphony" film shot by the Soviet cinematographer Boris Kaufman. Assorted scenes were photographed covertly with Kaufman pushed in a wheelchair by Vigo, then edited with an emphasis on the biting social satire that would blossom further in Vigo's ferocious boarding school fantasy Zero for Conduct.

Land Without Bread (1933, Dir: Luis Buñuel) - In contrast to his wild, surrealist collaborations with Salvador Dalí (Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or), Buñuel's third major film appears to be a straight-forward, if rather dark documentary. Presented as an ethnographic study of Spain's impoverished, mountainous Las Hurdes region, it details an almost unimaginably ignorant and sickly population. Some have labeled the narration as "sardonic," and recent discussion has called the depiction of human misery as exaggerated, even calling the work a pseudo-documentary. Spanish censors banned the film for three years for "defamation of the good name of the Spanish people." A 2008 graphic novel was adapted into the animated feature Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, and offered a dramatization of Land Without Bread's production.

Plus more!

Secret Cinema history/trivia: Our first Famous Films program was presented in 2007. Additional volumes were screened in 2008, 2011 and 2017. No films from these earlier editions will be repeated in Famous Films 2026.

FUTURE SECRET CINEMA EVENTS (more info soon):