Light Industry is an American

microcinema A , mini cineplex (), or microcinema is a type of independent movie theater that is not under the direct influence of any major film companies. Mini theaters are characterized by their relatively smaller size and seating capacity compared to ...

founded by

Ed Halter Ed Halter is a film programmer, writer, and founder of Light Industry, a microcinema in Brooklyn, New York. He currently teaches at Bard College, where he is Critic in Residence. Criticism His writing has been featured in '' Artforum'', '' Th ...

and Thomas Beard. Since 2008 it has operated in several locations around

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. Its programming focuses on obscure and unusual works.

History

Halter and Beard met through the New York Underground Film Festival, which Halter ran. They started Light Industry in 2008, inspired by

Amos Vogel Amos Vogel ( Vogelbaum; April 18, 1921 – April 24, 2012) was a New York City cineaste and curator. Biography Vogel was born in Vienna, Austria. He fled Austria with his parents after the Nazi '' Anschluß'' in 1938 and at first studied animal h ...

who ran the Cinema 16 film society and co-founded the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

. After opening in Industry City, they moved to a storefront in

Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third-largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan, Midtown and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighb ...

and later offered itinerant programming at other venues such as

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

and

ISSUE Project Room ISSUE Project Room (often shortened to ISSUE) is a music venue in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2003 by Suzanne Fiol. ISSUE Project room owns a theatre in 110 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The venue supports a wide variety of contempo ...

. Light Industry found a new permanent location in Greenpoint in 2011. The space had a simple design, with folding chairs and a small projection screen. They eventually built a wooden projection booth named after director

Chantal Akerman Chantal Anne Akerman (; 6 June 19505 October 2015) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and film professor at the City College of New York. Akerman is best known for her films (1974), (1975), and '' News from Home'' (1976). The ...

, who had previously criticized the layout when presenting a film by

Michael Snow Michael James Aleck Snow (December 10, 1928 – January 5, 2023) was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Rég ...

. Halter and Beard co-curated film and video programs for the 2012

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

. In 2017 Light Industry partnered with

to republish

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American experimental filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage cr ...

's ''Metaphors on Vision'', with annotations by P. Adams Sitney. In 2020 they republished Michael Snow's 1975

artist's book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. Some are mass-produced with multiple editions, some are published in small editions, while others are produced as one-of-a-kind o ...

''Cover to Cover'' with Primary Information. Beard turned the back room into Monday Night Books, a pop-up store for secondhand books. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Light Industry established the Cinema Worker Solidarity Fund with Screen Slate to provide financial assistance for local theater workers. It had its final show at the Greenpoint location in April 2023, before reopening shortly after in

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

Programming

Light Industry generally holds one screening each week, specializing in obscure and unusual works. Its programming draws from many artistic scenes that may otherwise have distinct audiences, such as avant-garde film,

underground film An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. Notable examples include John Waters' ''Pink Flamingos'', David Lynch's ''Eraserhead'', Andy Warhol's ''Blue Movie'', Rosa von Praunheim's ''Tal ...

, international

art film An art film, arthouse film, or specialty film is an independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made prima ...

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

, and new media. Light Industry has often programmed works of queer cinema, which Halter described as understanding "the inestimable value of spaces that allow like-minded people to come together for a shared experience, a shared understanding."

References

External links

* {{Williamsburg, Brooklyn 2008 establishments in New York City Cinemas and movie theaters in New York City Arts organizations based in New York City