The Cinemateca Portuguesa honors projectionists

Playing on the meaning of the Latin word ‘focus’ referring to ‘fire’, filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub used to say that when filming a scene, one should strive for incandescence, i.e. setting film on fire. Since focusing is as crucial for projection as for filming, Cinemateca Portuguesa’s January 2026 program could very well be the counterpart of this idea. Drawing on the flammable nature of motion picture film when it was made of celluloid, this cycle, entitled Uma Cinemateca em Chamas – Histórias de Projeção e Projecionistas (“A cinematheque on fire – histories of projection and projectionists”) will pay a fiery tribute to the materiality of film and the work of projectionists.

The selection of films will cover a wide range of genres and geographic origins, from the Lumière brothers’ experiments to contemporary works shot and shown on film. Works by Murnau and Mekas, Kieslowski and Kubelka, Wilder and Waters, Ray and Rey, and many others will be presented in bold double bills that showcase the materiality of the medium and films that stage cinemas, projectionists, and filmmakers.

An educational program for children and an exhibition of documents, iconography, and equipment will accompany the film cycle, with the objective of increasing awareness of the nature and specificity of film projection and the significance of its preservation in the digital era.

Pointing at the responsibility of cinematheques in working toward that goal, the program lines read: “The mission of a cinematheque is not only to preserve films, but also to preserve the way they were presented to the public. To do this, we must keep alive the techniques and technologies associated with cinema exhibition in their original formats, both from a material point of view (equipment, systems, formats, etc.) and from a human point of view (hence the importance of the projectionist as the guarantor of this historical continuity). It is therefore time to pay tribute to the work—the art!—of projectionists.“

Illustration : still from J. Carpenter’s Cigarette burns