Cinema Detroit continuing with James Baldwin doc, 'Anatomy of a Fall' screenings

When Midtown's Cinema Detroit closed its doors in June 2023, it was not the end of the road for the theater. It was the beginning of its next phase.

Operator Paula Guthat has continued to bring indie cinema to the community through pop-up screenings at various venues around Metro Detroit. There are currently three screenings on the Cinema Detroit docket: a restoration of 1982's James Baldwin documentary "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," part of the 100th anniversary celebration of Baldwin's birth year, plays Thursday at MOCAD (and repeats Feb. 29); the current Best Picture nominee "Anatomy of a Fall" plays Sunday at Planet Ant; and "The Draughtsman's Contract," the 1982 movie which was cited by "Saltburn" director Emerald Fennell as an influence on her 2023 shocker, plays March 10 at Planet Ant.

"We've never stopped booking movies," says Guthat who, along with her husband Tim, ran Cinema Detroit for 10 years, eight at its Midtown location.

Moving out of the space was extremely difficult, she says — she compares it to a death in the family — but she says the theater's current arrangement allows her more freedom in programming.

"My own curation is able to come forward a little more," she says, "The Draughtsman's Contract" being one example. "I get to screen things that are relevant, but are not necessarily current."

Along with the closing of Royal Oak's Main Art Theatre in 2021, it has been a harsh couple of years for arthouse and independent movie screens in Metro Detroit, and the recent news of the closing of the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Township brought Guthat back to where she was with her own theater last summer, she says.

The streaming model has significantly altered indie film distribution, and the pandemic tightened theatrical release windows on titles small and large. Even a decade ago, a film like "Anatomy of a Fall" would have lived in small theaters for months; now, it was quickly shuffled out of theaters and made available for home viewing.

The Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts is still thriving, but otherwise access to independent cinema inside the city is limited, and that's what Guthat — who continues to search for a permanent home for Cinema Detroit — is looking to change.

"Cinema Detroit's mission is to offer access to commercial and mainstream film, and to offer community-based events around film in the city," Guthat says.

And that's still the case, even if the delivery method has changed.

agraham@detroitnews.com

Cinema Detroit presents 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine'

6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Thursday

MOCAD, 4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit

Tickets $12

Cinemadetroit.org