Cinestudio
Cinestudio is an independent movie theater, founded by a group of Trinity students in 1970.
The theater, which is nestled in the heart of Trinity’s historic campus, is a recreation of a 1930s film house, complete with classic movie palace features like a gold screen-curtain and balcony. Cinephiles will find everything from blockbuster hits to foreign films and Trinity’s own student-filmmaker national film festival.
Explore Cinestudio in photos.
Cinestudio
Cinestudio
With its interiors awash in rich reds and golds, stepping into Cinestudio feels like stepping into a real 1930s movie palace. The theater is a single-screen venue with 485 seats and a classic balcony.
Equipped with the highest quality 4K Digital Cinema systems, Cinestudio has also retained its top-of-the-line 35mm and 70mm projectors for use in studio archive presentations.
Cinestudio runs as a cooperative, with a staff of approximately 50 student and community volunteers running showings seven days a week. The theater’s ticket booth was renamed the Fred Pfeil Memorial Ticket Booth in honor of late Trinity College professor and much loved long-time Cinestudio volunteer and board member, Fred Pfeil.
Cinestudio is located in the Clement Chemistry Building on Trinity's campus. It was founded by several film-obsessed students who took a little used lecture hall with troubled acoustics, and within two years they turned it into a beautiful recreation of a 1930s film house. The grand opening to the public was on February 16, 1970, showing a double feature of Alice’s Restaurant and The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
The spectacular gold Austrian screen curtain rises at every show.
Many Trinity alumni in the film and entertainment industries got their starts at Cinestudio. Film director Stephen Gyllenhaal ’72 credits Cinestudio with helping him discover his passion for film while he was a student. He is pictured here (left) when he stopped by Cinestudio for a pre-screening and Q&A for his 2012 film, Grassroots.
Decades of volunteers have left their mark on Cinestudio, and they ensure it remains a thriving part of the campus community and Hartford arts scene.
Cinestudio is home to the Trinity Film Festival, a national platform for undergraduate filmmakers. Since 2012, student filmmakers from across the country, and here on Trinity's campus, have premiered their work on the big screen.
Films on Cinestudio's big screen are shown the way they were meant to be watched. Film goers can find everything from classics in 70mm, the annual CT LGBT Film Festival, Oscar-nominated shorts, blockbuster films, National Theater Live broadcasts, independent films, and much more.
