CINEMANIA
Dir. Angela Christleib and Stephen Kijak, 2002
USA, 83 minutes
In English

MONDAY, JANUARY 23 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31 – 10 PM

“It’s better than sex. It’s better than love.” It’s cinema! Or CINEMANIA, to be exact. Stephen Kijak and Angela Christlieb’s documentary follows five film-obsessed New Yorkers in their daily trevails as they struggle to fit as many films as possible into a single day (3-6 is the average number). From spending their unemployment checks on movie tickets to surviving off meat-heavy, constipating diets (it reduces mid-screening bathroom visits), to hoarding stacks of old program notes, CINEMANIA is as vivid a portrait of what it means to be a film-lover as you can find on screen. As the film celebrates its 20th anniversary, we’re happy to host two of the film’s subjects on 10/23 to give their differing, and sometimes contentious, opinions on the film.

“I don’t go to weddings; I don’t go to funerals; I don’t visit people in the hospital if I have a screening to go to.”

“These are not crazy people. Maladjusted and obsessed, yes, but who’s to say what normal is? I think it makes more sense to see movies all day than to golf, play video games or gamble” – Roger Ebert