This article is part of a column called Philly Profiles, which features in-depth profiles of local moving-image artists and cultural workers, including their body of work, inspirations, and upcoming projects. The column is written by cinéSPEAK Philly Cultural Critics Fellows.
South Philadelphia suffered a big loss when the Riverview Plaza, the neighborhood’s only movie theater, closed its doors in 2020 after a 29-year run. Heralded as both “eclectic and accessible” and “run down and shitty,” the Riverview, for many in South Philly, was the perfect place to catch a movie without having to drive outside the area. While for most the theater closure ended with remembrances on Reddit or Instagram, for one group of friends, it was the beginning of something new: their own microcinema.
“After the Riverview Theater closed, there just wasn’t really anything in South Philly,” says Lily H-A, who along with William McKeithen, Julian Gerace, and others, runs South Philly Autonomous Cinema. “At first, we were kind of kicking around the idea to find a storefront and open a little movie theater, but in the meantime, as proof of concept, we started putting on movie screenings.”
Founded in 2023, South Philly Autonomous Cinema (SPAC) is a collectively run microcinema that hosts screenings in different locations throughout the neighborhood. With past screenings including classic films by Chantal Akerman, Eric Rohmer, and Cheryl Dunye, as well as modern documentaries such as Riotsville, U.S.A., How To Blow Up a Pipeline, and Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania, South Philly Autonomous Cinema screens “leftist, queer, and rare films.”
“We all kind of had a similar political background. I used to do Food Not Bombs, and a lot of folks in our group have a history of doing DIY community-type projects,” explains H-A. “So it was a very natural thing; just like you can put on a basement show, or do mutual aid, you can put on a screening.”
While their shared background in political and community organizing contributed to the project, South Philly Autonomous Cinema feels refreshingly casual and welcoming to all audiences. “I’m purely an enthusiast. In general, our group is not made up of people who have film backgrounds,” says H-A. “It is more of a communal amateur effort.”
With a relaxed screening schedule, SPAC aims to welcome people of all skills and backgrounds, building connections within the community. “Whatever you can bring to the group, you should contribute. It’s really nice that we have a mix of people with different skills,” says H-A.
Aside from being a great social outlet, creating and fostering accessible film culture is an important part of the group’s mission. “I feel like I joined the group partly to learn more. I would see a random movie by Pasolini, and I would think, ‘I know this is part of something called New Italian Cinema, but I don’t know what that is,’” says McKeithen. “So it all seemed like a way to facilitate learning more about the history of film, different genres, directors, and things like that.”
One aspect of their work to make film more accessible involves publishing Philm Club, a bi-monthly newsletter. Modeled after New York guides like Screen Slate, Philm Club lists all upcoming screenings happening in and around Philadelphia. “One of the things we always talked about was that the only way to find out where repertory screenings were was to go to a dozen different cinema websites every month and just check out what they were screening,” says H-A. “So we were always missing screenings. Because there’s no alt weeklies anymore, it was just a need.”
Compiling screenings from the Free Library of Philadelphia, PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia Film Society, and the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, among other venues, the newsletter helps fill that gap. Working mostly via Instagram and word of mouth, Philm Club now has, according to H-A and Gerace, “a couple thousand subscribers.” H-A says, “I always get a lot of positive feedback on it. At parties, I’ll meet someone and it’ll come up. They’ll ask, ‘Do you subscribe to Philm Club?’ and I’ll say, ‘I am Philm Club! I write it,” she laughs.
The group’s equitable, non-commercial approach is also reflected on their website. “The Philm Club website is as close to plain text as we could get. Both [that website and the SPAC main site] are built free and open source,” explains Gerace. “So there’s no ongoing cost, and it allows people who aren’t familiar with editing websites to come in and add their screening details–and it works.”
This inexpensive, community-minded work model ties back to their DIY ethos. “I think that’s been the general spirit of it. There’s nothing overly unique about it. It just requires people to care enough to want to do it,” says Gerace. “[We thought], ‘This is something cool that should exist,’ and we willed it into existence because no one else has yet.”
Reflecting on their political values and how those shape their vision, H-A says, “We have a left-wing political slant as well, so we thought, ‘Let’s do some political education. Let’s meet like-minded people. Let’s talk about what else we can do in our communities–not just be at home streaming on the couch.’”
This democratic style of film programming makes space for film as a medium for cultural appreciation. “I love all the different ways of someone communicating their perspective–a part of the world, history, or life–that I might not learn about or see otherwise,” reflects H-A. “A good portion of things that I know about the world and how the world works–and history and politics–comes from watching movies. You learn so much about the world, especially if you love world cinema.”
Expanding on how film can bring people together, Gerace says, “It’s like a universal translator. If you’re reading written words, it’s hard to get the same level of communication you can with film. People who otherwise might not have been able to connect, or share some sort of feeling or information, through the medium of film, have the opportunity to have that connection there.”
Far from being a standalone group in the local arts community, South Philly Autonomous Cinema sees itself as part of a broader cultural movement. “We’re part of an ecosystem that’s alive and growing in Philadelphia. We’re very psyched to be interacting with people doing similar cool stuff,” says H-A. Uninterested in gatekeeping, the group welcomes more people from the community to start projects like theirs. “I think the more the merrier,” H-A says. “I would love to see a thousand microcinemas bloom.”
To learn more and stay updated on upcoming events from South Philly Autonomous Cinema, follow them on Instagram @cinema_philly and visit their website at cinemaphilly.com. To subscribe to their bi-monthly newsletter, head to philmclub.com.
*Featured Image: Image of an outdoor screening. Courtesy of South Philly Autonomous Cinema.
Maria “Nenet” Barrios is an Argentine-born and Philadelphia-based writer and music journalist. Specializing in storytelling that spans decades of Latin music, her work has been featured in publications including The Washington Post, Bandcamp Daily, and Grammy.com. Nenet is a 2025 cinéSPEAK Philly Cultural Critics Fellow.
