Last Updated: 4/8/25

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.

From Philadelphia with Love

at Bryn Mawr Film Institute (with new films!)

Thursday, April 9, 2026
7:30 pm
Admission: $14.50, $12.00 seniors/students, $9.00 BMFI members

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA
610-527-9898

On Thursday, April 9, the Secret Cinema will return to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute to present another unique program of short films, called From Philadelphia With Love: More Lost Local Films. While most area residents are familiar with Philadelphia films such as Rocky and Trading Places, there is a whole world of locally-made films that's been forgotten -- the ephemeral short films that were primarily made by small independent companies for the non-theatrical market. While most school districts, television stations and traveling salesmen have long ago discarded their 16mm film projectors, we at Secret Cinema have not (hardly!), and are proud to present another look at these celluloid time capsules that would otherwise not be seen again.

The Secret Cinema has been collecting, archiving and screening this fascinating area of local film history for over 25 years now. This edition of our Philly film program features some favorite short films that were never before used in our prior Bryn Mawr programs.

There will be one complete show at 7:30 pm. Admission is $14.50, $12.00 seniors/students, $9.00 BMFI members.

Just a few highlights of From Philadelphia with Love… will be:

Philadelphia Celebrates (1975) - This short film documents a giant outdoor fair called "Old City Sunday," complete with vendors, carnival rides, dance troupes, costumed colonial re-enactors, Frank Rizzo and an assortment of musical performers, ranging from Mummers and a modern funk band to a baroque classical ensemble. Both the event and film were produced by organizing committee "Philadelphia 76" as a sneak peek/trial run for the following year's bicentennial events. Narrated by E.G. Marshall.

They Do Come Back (1940, Dir: Edgar Ulmer) - Celebrated Hollywood auteur Ulmer (Detour, The Black Cat) directed this and several other sponsored short films for the National Tuberculosis Association, with the aim of educating the public about good hygiene practices. This one was shot around Philadelphia with the help of prolific local industrial film studio the DeFrenes Company. It dramatizes the tale of a young couple whose first kiss leads to the boy coughing up blood, but he soon learns how to treat his problem.

Modern Magazine Magic (1956) - This colorful promotional film looks at the many skilled workers who are needed to produce the magazines we read, from the paper plant to the writers, editors, photographers, layout designers, illustrators, cartoonists, advertising salesmen, pressmen, and even typists of Braille editions. Made in vivid Kodachrome, we also glimpse families reading at home and shopping for groceries, not to mention artist Norman Rockwell at work in his studio. The film was sponsored by and made in the facilities of Philadelphia's Curtis Publishing Company, perhaps the most important publisher of periodicals in the 20th century, with The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and Jack & Jill among their roster. The company's eventual collapse is legendary and the subject of multiple books, though founder Cyrus Curtis' legacy endures today through his former real estate: the company's mammoth Independence Square headquarters building, and Curtis Arboretum in Wyncote, once the site of his palatial estate. His daughter founded the Curtis Institute of music.

Harlem Renaissance: The Black Poets (1970) - An educational film with folk singing and the words of great black poets. But Harlem? Langston Hughes? What's that got to do with Philly? Look closely and you'll notice sets graffitied with the tags of actual North Philly street gangs (Camac & Diamond, Moroccos)...and a poem called, "On Lombard Street in Philadelphia." Harlem Renaissance... began life as an episode of a WCAU public affairs television program called Tell it Like it Was, starring singer/actress Dallie (aka Dallie Mohammed). Besides studio readings and songs, there are photos and footage of gritty urban settings (no, not that Gritty!). Produced in cooperation with the Free Library of Philadelphia.

20 to the 3rd Power (1967, Dir: Edward J. Bergman, Alan Soffin) - This somewhat experimental student work was produced by the Documentary Film Laboratory of Penn's Annenberg School, under the supervision of Sol Worth. Made mostly without dialogue, it depicts a fashionable, attractive group of young people (perhaps all age 20?) in cocktail parties, nightspots and office buildings -- assumedly adding up to a statement on the lives and lifestyles of modern, well-off undergrads. It's set in a lively Philadelphia of new architecture and expressways, though foreboding radio reports of the Vietnam War are never too far off.

Plus more!

The Secret Cinema visits Jersey City!

Nuggets: Celluloid Artyfacts of Sixties Rock

with special guest Lenny Kaye at WFMU's Monty Hall

Saturday, April 11, 2026
8:00 pm (doors open 7:30 pm)
Admission: $15.00

Monty Hall
43 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, NJ
(201) 521-1416

On Saturday, April 11, the Secret Cinema will bring it's 16mm film projectors for the first time to WFMU's Monty Hall. That's when we'll present Nuggets: Celluloid Artyfacts of Sixties Rock, a unique hodgepodge of ultra-rare reels consisting of various short films and television shows showcasing mod, garage and pop music from the mid-to-late 1960s.

We first screened this in our Philadelphia series in 2001, and when we named the program, it was in naked homage to the inestimably influential 1972 garage rock compilation album of the same name. We are thrilled to announce that in addition to rare films, we will have with us the creator of the original "Nuggets," Lenny Kaye, to discuss sixties rock and add his insightful commentary between reels.

There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $15.00.

Prior to his 55 years as Patti Smith's chief musical collaborator, Lenny Kaye was a prolific rock critic and historian. He contributed to leading periodicals, wrote legendary liner notes (even earning mention within a Steven King novel), and was one of a handful of critics at the time to take serious interest in the supposedly frivolous corners of rock history, from doo wop to the previously-unlabeled genre of garage rock. This work reached a pinnacle when he compiled for Elektra Records a double-LP of what were then considered regional obscurities and "one hit wonders" of mid-late sixties rock, titled Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968. The collection brought together great proto-punk singles by The Electric Prunes, The Standells and The Seeds, sides that had been recorded just a few years earlier but had already been forgotten in the wake of progressive rock and singer-songwriters.

Nuggets ensured that this music would never be forgotten again. It first spawned a host of similarly-named compilations of garage rock (Pebbles, Boulders, et al), and then Rhino Records turned the name Nuggets into something of a sixties reissue franchise, culminating in more deluxe box sets of psych/garage rarities than can be kept track of. Lenny Kaye, meanwhile, moved on, as leader of the Patti Smith Group, record producer, teacher of a university class in rock history, d.j. on Little Steven's "Underground Garage" Sirius XM channel, and author. His latest book is Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll.

A few highlights of Nuggets (the film screening) include:

Girls In Short Short Dresses (1966) - Paramount made this topical film in the final days of the theatrical short subject era, to capitalize on the worldwide interest in then very-Swinging London. It stars actual mod band The Thoughts, who are best known to collectors for their recording of Ray Davies' otherwise unreleased song "All Night Stand," on Shel Talmy's Planet Records label. In this largely unknown Technicolor film, they perform two songs in the famous Blaise's nightclub, and in a reverse on the usual rock band scenario, they chase girls around tube stations and Carnaby Street boutiques. The film also makes a visit to the studio of fashion designer Mary Quant, inventor of the mini-skirt.

The Ecstasy Is Sometimes Fantastic (1966) - Made by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, this is a rare cinema verite look at a working, not-quite-made-it rock group. Toronto garage band Jon and Lee and the Checkmates reveal all sides of their world, from belting out James Brown numbers in packed clubs, to band meetings to discuss itineraries and accounting, to the crucial business of getting the right haircut.

The Nazz: Open My Eyes (1968) - Rock videos weren't invented in the eighties; they've been around since sound film was perfected. In the sixties they were called "promo films," and this was one of the better ones. We'll show this film in homage to the late Stewkey Antoni, the lead singer and keyboardist of Philly's greatest mod band, who appeared at earlier Secret Cinema screenings of Nuggets (and provided his personal 16mm print).

Plus clips from feature films and television with music performed by The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband, The Seeds, The Birds (UK), The Marmalade, The Orphan Egg, The Zombies and more!

FUTURE SECRET CINEMA EVENTS (more info soon):