Anthology Film Archives: East Village Independent Cinema $14

Anthology Film Archives does not open its box office until 30 minutes before the first screening of the day, so there is no point arriving early to browse. The independent cinema at 32 Second Avenue, on the corner of East 2nd Street in the East Village, charges $14 general admission and $10 for students, seniors and children 12 and under. Members pay $8, and the box office answers at (212) 505-5181, extension 15.

Anthology calls itself the first museum devoted to film as an art form. Its roots go back to the early 1960s, when Jonas Mekas, then running the Film-Makers' Cinematheque, wanted a permanent home for avant-garde work. In 1969 Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka and Stan Brakhage drew up the plans, and Anthology opened on November 30, 1970 inside Joseph Papp's Public Theater, with Hill as its sponsor.

After Hill died in 1973 the funding dried up and the archive moved to a loft on Wooster Street in SoHo in 1974. In 1979 it bought the old Second Avenue Courthouse, and architects Raimund Abraham and Kevin Bone converted it at a cost of $1,450,000 into two theaters, a reference library, a preservation department, offices and a gallery. The building opened to the public on October 12, 1988, and it is still the home you walk into today.

The heart of the program is the Essential Cinema Repertory, 110 programs and about 330 titles chosen between 1970 and 1975 by a committee of James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, P. Adams Sitney and Jonas Mekas. It was meant to define the art of cinema and was never finished, but it screens on a rotating cycle all year. Essential Cinema tickets are $10, and they are free for members, which is the single best reason to join.

Beyond the canon, Anthology runs more than 900 programs a year, preserves an average of 25 films annually and has saved about 900 works so far. Its library holds what it calls the world's largest collection of books, periodicals and stills on avant-garde cinema. Expect retrospectives of experimental filmmakers, rediscovered documentaries, new independent features and midnight-adjacent cult revivals, often on 16mm or 35mm rather than digital files.

The calendar swings widely from night to night. Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 and 2 screened on 35mm as an Essential Cinema program on October 21, in Russian with no subtitles and an English synopsis provided. On Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 pm, the 1975 documentary Rosalyn Drexler: Who Does She Think She Is? by Patricia Lewis Jaffe and Gaby Rodgers plays on 16mm, running 60 minutes.

The weekend turns to Troma. Lloyd Kaufman's The Toxic Avenger from 1984 screens Friday, October 23 at 7:30 pm, and his early comedy The Battle of Love's Return from 1971 follows on Saturday, October 24 at 4:45 pm, both as 35mm-to-DCP transfers. That range, from Soviet epics to New Jersey splatter in a single week, is exactly what the founders meant by watching cinema outside the commercial mainstream.

Do the math before you join. An individual membership costs $75 for a year and cuts each regular ticket from $14 to $8, so it pays for itself after about 13 regular screenings, sooner if you catch Essential Cinema programs for free. Students and seniors 65 and over pay $55 for the same benefits. Members also receive the printed calendar by mail, quarterly members-only screenings of rare films and 20% off Anthology books and merchandise.

The higher tiers are for true regulars. A $125 dual membership covers two people at one address, the $250 contributor level gets one person into every Anthology program free, and the $500 donor level adds a guest. At $1,000, preservation donors receive a 16mm Stan Brakhage print titled 4A, made specially for Anthology. For a casual visitor who comes a few times a year, though, the plain $14 ticket is the right call.

All ticket sales are final, with refunds only for a double charge, a system error or a cancelled event. Advance tickets are sold online, and members can reserve by email. The building has quirks worth knowing: the upstairs theater and lobby are reachable only by stairs, there is no designated wheelchair seating and no assistive listening equipment. A ramp can be set up at the entrance, and the box office asks you to call ahead.

Programs here often include filmmakers in person, and many experimental works are silent or nearly so, which makes every rustle audible. Unwrap snacks before the lights go down, and expect an audience that stays seated through end credits. If a show sells out, Metrograph on Ludlow Street and Film Forum on West Houston Street are each within a 20-minute walk, though their calendars lean toward narrative features.

Take the F train to Second Avenue and walk two blocks north to 2nd Street. From the 6 train, get off at Bleecker Street, walk one block north on Lafayette, then two blocks east along Bond Street, which becomes 2nd Street, until you reach Second Avenue. The M15 bus stops at 3rd Street. The courthouse's red brick facade and arched windows make the corner easy to spot from a block away.

Before an evening show, walk west along Bond Street to see its cast-iron and loft buildings, or head north on Second Avenue toward St. Mark's Place for a quick slice or dumplings. The Merchant's House Museum on East 4th Street, a preserved 1832 row house, is less than ten minutes away on foot if you arrive with time to spare. After a late film, Second Avenue's restaurants and bars make it easy to keep the conversation going.

Address: 32 Second Avenue at East 2nd Street, New York, NY 10003. Phone: (212) 505-5181, box office extension 15. Box office opens 30 minutes before the first screening of the day. Tickets: $14 general, $10 Essential Cinema, $10 students, seniors and children 12 and under, $8 members. Memberships: $75 individual, $55 student or senior, $125 dual. All sales are final.

Anthology's capital campaign is funding an elevator, renovated bathrooms, a new library, a cafe and new film vaults, so expect some changes inside over the coming seasons. Ask the Karpo APP which Anthology program fits your evening and where to eat on Second Avenue beforehand, and it will plan the night around the screening you choose.