WRITTEN BY MERRITT MECHAM
When Professor Kevin Hanson was first teaching at the University of Utah, the available screening facilities were a small room with a 16mm film projector and a home entertainment quality video projector. “I thought that would be pretty much it for the duration,” he recalls.
At that time, the film program was a small division of the Department of Theatre. Today, it’s a thriving department with over 600 students — though it’s taken a while for facilities to catch up. While the department has other state-of-the-art facilities for making films (such as a film studio, sound booth, and editing bays), for a long time, there hasn’t been a great place for students to watch films.
But soon, a project will come to completion, thanks to a generous donation from Kent and Martha DiFiore: the creation of a cinema for the Department of Film & Media Arts, using the pre-existing FMAB Auditorium as its foundation. This endeavor has spanned three separate department chair administrations and has been subject to cancelled plans, unavoidable delays, economic changes, and more. Despite these challenges, the vision for a film theater has remained — and perhaps even grown stronger. “Past and present chairs have been able to maintain a shared vision and communicate with each other effectively,” said Hanson, who served as Department Chair for many years. “It’s not been a bad thing at all to have new thoughts all along the process to guide us to the present, a great example of shared governance succeeding.”
At long last, the Kent & Martha DiFiore Film & Media Arts Cinema will soon officially open. Of course, its technical specs are a point of pride. Along with a new screen, the cinema houses four projectors: a 16mm film projector, two 35mm film projectors, and a professional theatrical grade digital projector (what you would find in most commercial movie theaters). “The sound is the thing that impresses me most,” says Hanson. “Not just the sound system which is first rate, but the overall improvement in acoustics.” More comfortable seating and cosmetic upgrades enhance the experience as well.
Professor Chris Lippard describes the space as “much more like a commercial theatre than a classroom,” and Hanson emphasizes the professional level of the space. “This is the kind of cinema you would find at the headquarters of the director’s guild and similar institutions in Hollywood,” he said. “It will be a great asset for instruction, for recruiting, and for just enjoying film.”
This new space is of immense benefit to students. The two film projectors allow students to see their film work projected in its original form, and the system lets students do proper screenings of their work, where they can evaluate how it would look and sound in a film festival or other professional setting — essentially, how their films would play in the places where decisions are made. The higher-quality projection and sound make it easier for students to see and hear any issues in their filmmaking and fine-tune their editing, sound mixing, color-grading, and more.
The improved viewing experience also affects how students understand film. “Film scholars often complain about how films which cost huge amounts to produce are being watched by people on tiny screens which they carry around in their pockets,” says Lippard, who teaches film history. “Being able to show films that both look and sound good is crucial for students to be able to understand how they work and why they succeed – or fail.”
But it’s not just students who will benefit from the cinema. “The cinema's main contribution is that it will build community,” said Professor Tim Palmer, Chair of the Department of Film & Media Arts. “Our students and our world need this urgently. We come together around screenings… The latest scientific research confirms that mutual in-person film screenings give tangible medical, social, mental and physical health benefits. Cinema, and this cinema, brings us closer together.”
So, what does this mean for programming? First, the new space means that the department can exhibit their “extensive library of unique film titles on 16mm,” said Hanson. This is especially important as, Palmer explained, “The department is becoming a field-leader in celluloid teaching.”
Second, the cinema presents opportunities for faculty and students not only to present their own work, but curate media. “We already have one [student] organization planning to re-create the classic French format of a ciné-club,” Palmer shared. “Our wonderful MFA graduate cohort have plans for a modern Cinematheque screening series in which they program events and revivals, exploring their repertoire as curators.”
And that’s just the beginning. Palmer says he envisions events with the wider campus community like “Arts & Health film initiatives, environmental media work, events of all kinds linked to our sister CFA units, Dance, Theatre, Music, Art & Art History, and so on,” he said. He also sees the benefit for the regional community as well, including “panel events for productions coming from the creative work of nearby makers, grassroots industries in town, cooperative productions and culture that we can offer a home to.” Lastly, the cinema will serve as a space for the department to host national and international experts, putting the department in its rightful place as a prestigious film institution. “We bring in international makers, historians and scholars, archivists, publishers, film professionals of all kinds, hosting them on site and showcasing their work to anyone here who's curious and interested,” Palmer said.
In the end, the cinema will hopefully become a space that embodies the College of Fine Arts’ strategic plan — one where new knowledge is developed, student success is promoted, and community is created. “What's most fun is that we'll all of us discover communally what we want the cinema to become,” Palmer said, “how inclusive a cultural space we can all of us make together.”
