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LIGHTBOX

FILM CENTER
Support Philadelphia's premier exhibitor of film and moving image art.
  • Murdering the Devil
    Murdering the Devil
    Wed, Dec 18
    Bok Auditorium
    Dec 18, 2024, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    Dec 18, 2024, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    New Restoration Dissatisfied with single life and eyeing marriage, an unnamed fortysomething bachelorette (Jirina Bohdalová) decides to rekindle a relationship with her old childhood friend...
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  • The Devil, Probably
    The Devil, Probably
    Wed, Jan 08
    Bok Auditorium
    Jan 08, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    Jan 08, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    New Restoration Famously declared “the most punk movie ever made” by Richard Hell, Robert Bresson’s The Devil, Probably is the director’s unsettling vision...
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  • Lancelot du Lac
    Lancelot du Lac
    Wed, Jan 15
    Bok Auditorium
    Jan 15, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    Jan 15, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    New Restoration The final days of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table are dissected in Robert Bresson’s austere yet bloody drama...
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  • Bona
    Bona
    Wed, Jan 22
    Bok Auditorium
    Jan 22, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium , 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    Jan 22, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
    Bok Auditorium , 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    New Restoration Middle class school girl Bona (Nora Aunor) skips class to hang around the sets of bit actor Gardo...
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  • Gwen and the Book of Sand
    Gwen and the Book of Sand
    Wed, Jan 29
    Bok Auditorium
    Jan 29, 2025, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
    Bok Auditorium , 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    Jan 29, 2025, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
    Bok Auditorium , 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    New Restoration "Why search the sand for answers? It has told us everything,” whispers Roseline (voiced by Michel Robin), the 173-year old desert nomad narrator of French director Jean-François Laguionie’s hauntingly poetic animated feature...
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  • Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
    Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
    Wed, Feb 05
    Bok Auditorium
    Feb 05, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:40 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    Feb 05, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:40 PM
    Bok Auditorium, 800 Mifflin St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, USA
    United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe...
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ABOUT

Lightbox Film Center is Philadelphia’s premier exhibitor of film and moving image art. Beyond the traditional movie theater experience, Lightbox presents an unparalleled slate of repertory, nonfiction, experimental and international cinema that would otherwise not be screened theatrically in Philadelphia. We are dedicated to preserving and exhibiting films that are historically relevant along with contemporary films that have yet to become widely available. Building a community around a shared reverence for cinema, Lightbox celebrates the projected image as a framework for diverse ideas and perspectives. Our programs inspire discourse, invite exploration and challenge the status quo.

HISTORY

Lightbox Film Center draws on a rich history as a regional resource for cinephiles for almost fifty years. Initially known as The Neighborhood Film/Video Project, the program was established by Linda Blackaby in the 1970s and was housed at International House of Philadelphia starting in 1979. As the city’s first cinema to focus exclusively on independent and international films, The Neighborhood Film/Video Project played an important role in advancing local access to emerging filmmakers and engaging audiences around social, cultural and political issues—defining aspects of the work it continues to do today.

 

In 1992, International House launched the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, the first major regional film event of its kind. In the late-’90s, the program underwent a period of transition and reemerged with a renewed focus on year-round film programming and an expanded scope of moving image presentation that included experimental film and video works, artist’s cinema, digital art and other emerging forms across an array of formats.

 

In 2017, the program was renamed Lightbox Film Center to create more visibility and better position itself for the next era of moving-image presentation. When International House announced the sale of its iconic building, Lightbox sought out a new institutional partner. The University of the Arts officially took on Lightbox in 2020 and helped the program expand into film restoration while continuing to be a major exhibitor of unique and innovative films. In 2024, following the demise of UArts, Lightbox became an independent non-profit organization in order to continue our mission of providing a cinema space for diverse, innovative, and sometimes overlooked films so that the public can engage with the broader context of moving image culture.

FILM RESTORATION

In 2020, Lightbox was presented with a major financial gift from Ronald and Suzanne Naples. In an effort to support the rescue and preservation of “lost” films, Lightbox initiated a series of film restorations that include;

Life is Cheap…but Toilet Paper is Expensive 

(Wayne Wang, USA/Hong Kong, 1989/2022)

 

Household Saints

(Nancy Savoca, USA, 1993)

 

Naked Acts

(Bridgett M. Davis, USA, 1996)

 

Time of the Heathen

(Peter Kass, USA, 1961)

 

Nightshift

(Robina Rose, UK, 1980)

 

The Innerview

(Richard Beymer, USA, 1973/2024)

Support Lightbox

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