Last Updated: 8/25/26

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.

1921 silent rarity The Blasphemer, live music

at historic Glen Foerd mansion

Glen Foerd on the Delaware
Grant Avenue & Milnor Street, Philadelphia
215-632-5330

Friday, November 21, 2025
7:30 pm (doors open 7:00 pm)
Admission: $25, $20 students and seniors

On Thursday, September 10, The Secret Cinema return to historic Glen Foerd on the Delaware to present the very rare silent film The Blasphemer, an independent production made in 1921 by a religious organization. While presumably intended to deliver a lofty moral message, The Blasphemer is actually a sensational melodrama, complete with adultery, greedy tycoons, and white slavery. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Don Kinnier, on Glen Foerd's restored pipe organ.

The screening will also include unusual silent short subjects. There will be one complete show at 7:30 pm. Doors will open at 7:00 pm to allow touring of the mansion and grounds.

The film will be shown in the gilded-age mansion's beautiful second floor art gallery (stair access only).

Admission is $25, $20 students and seniors. Seating is limited.

Glen Foerd on the Delaware is a 5-minute walk from the Torresdale station of SEPTA's Trenton Regional Rail Line or the 19 & 84 bus routes. There is ample free parking within the estate.

The Blasphemer (1921 Dir: O.E. Goebel)
An obscure oddity from the midway point of the silent feature era, The Blasphemer was produced by the mysterious Religious Films Organization, and was clearly intended as propaganda promoting spiritual purity and regular church attendance. This message is vividly illustrated in the form of seamy melodrama, depicting the downfall of John Harden, a wealthy business magnate who leaves his loving family to pursue his mistress and his greed. Proclaiming at a dinner party that man answers to no one but himself, he goes so far as to challenge God to strike him dead in the middle of a thunderstorm. Instead, Harden is felled by more earthly forces -- and ultimately finds his salvation and righteousness after hitting rock-bottom as a homeless vagrant.

Modern audiences scared off at the prospects of seeing a "religious film" should find much to enjoy in The Blasphemer, both good and bad. For an early independent production, the film is technically quite competent, with some strong acting and photography. Historically, the whole film itself is a fascinating document, and provides some rare slices of life in its (money-saving) use of newsreel footage (and the gratuitously-inserted, story-stopping scenes of one religious society's parade are reminiscent of Ed Wood's memorably-incongruous insertion of A-bomb explosions in Bride Of The Monster to appease his anti-nuclear financial backer).

To drive home its basic message, The Blasphemer pulled no punches, logic be, uh, damned. As William K. Everson drolly noted, "Its climax packs in more unlikely coincidence than even Griffith would have tried to get away with. And while the church may have been concerned with redemption, it seems to have been remarkably intolerant of the heathen element equally in need of uplifting. A casual visit to a Chinese laundry in the last reel reveals it to be a nest of lecherous white slavers!"

About Glen Foerd on the Delaware: The Glen Foerd mansion was built in 1850 by businessman Charles Macalester, Jr. The estate was later purchased by leather manufacturer Robert Foerderer, who enlarged and added extensive enhancements to the property, including a formal dining room, an impressive art gallery, a pipe organ, parquet floors, a grand staircase and elaborate leaded glass skylights. The Foerderers' daughter Florence lived in the estate until her death in 1971. In 1985 the property was taken over by the Glen Foerd Conservation Corporation and the Fairmount Park Commission, and is today operated as a historic house museum and public park.

About Don Kinnier: The silent film era, from its tentative first steps to its final artistic masterpieces, lasted for about 35 years. Musician Don Kinnier has been accompanying silent film screenings for over 55 years! Pennsylvania's foremost exponent of this very specialized art form, he has studied the techniques and repertoires of the original theater musicians of the silent era. A Philadelphia native (now based in Lititz), Don has toured internationally, and has maintained a long and fruitful relationship with Longwood Gardens and their large Aeolian organ. He also plays at The Strand Capitol Performing Arts Center and the Allen Theatre, and has provided the soundtrack for many past Secret Cinema events.

D for Design: Form and Function

at Mid-Century at Rotunda

Wednesday, September 23, 2026
8:00 pm
Admission: FREE

The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia

On Wednesday, September 23 the Secret Cinema will return to the Rotunda in University City for a brand new program called D for Design: Form and Function at Mid-Century. It will include several short films exploring the role and methods of product designers, as well as the style revolution that occurred in the post-war years (in recent times celebrated as "Mid-Century Modern"). Most of the films will be making their Secret Cinema debut.

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

Just a few highlights of Famous Films 2026 include:

About Design (1975) - A philosophical treatment of the problem of design, produced by IBM. The film employs abstract photography and creative editing along with many views of Selectric type balls, 8" floppy disks, CRT screens and other now obsolete-yet-beautiful examples of technology (ironically, this is the newest film in the program).

D for Design (1956) - Produced by the Government Film Commission of Denmark, this colorful look at modern Danish furniture, fabrics, ceramics and silverware takes us inside factories to show the work of the artisans who design these bold looking products -- often basing them on patterns found in nature.

Industrial Design Progress Report 1960 (1959) - Eliot Noyes worked for IBM for 21 years, creating their first corporate-wide design program. In this rare film, made for in-house use, he discusses those design concerns from a technical standpoint, showing how they created a practical, unified look for their new computer consoles, paper tape readers and high speed printers. Noyes would soon design the IBM Selectric typewriter and the look of Mobil gas stations, and is considered one of the key industrial designers and architects of the 20th century. A feature-length documentary about his achievements, Modernism, Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Design Story, was released in 2023.

American Look (1958) - "Improved styling constantly adds to the ease and grace and gaiety of American living." Showcasing a veritable orgy of fifties Populuxe design in furniture, housewares, appliances and packaging, American Look professes that "the basic freedom of the American people…is the freedom of individual choice." Following this extensive tour of Mid-Century Modern consumerism, we get a peek inside Chevrolet's lavish design studios, where sketch artists, clay modelers and colorists are busy at work. This visually stunning time-capsule would not be the same in black-and-white -- fortunately for us, it was printed on non-fading Technicolor film stock. Produced by prolific industrial film studio Jam Handy (for their most frequent client, General Motors).

Plus more!

FUTURE SECRET CINEMA EVENTS (more info soon):