CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/5/2019

'The Art of Film Projection' is both manifesto and how-to guide

Some day, analog film projection may be a thing of the past, a distant romantic memory akin to phone calls made via rotary phone or transport by way of horse drawn carriage. And yet, film projection is an art, a human intervention, inseparable from the creation of the medium itself, and so far, the results are superior to anything available in the digital sphere. The people at George Eastman Museum know this, and they've put together a book that is basically perfect, even as it cites its own willingness to morph over future iterations. A beautifully designed hardcover with classic stamping and ribbon, this supremely giftable "beginners guide" is at once manifesto, time-capsule of connoisseurship and how-to manual. "Cinema will always be an art form that exists in three dimensions," Tacita Dean and Christopher Nolan write, "it requires a projector and projectionist, as much as it needs the physical volume of the theatre and an audience to watch it. Knowledge of changeover cues, aspect ratios and loop sizes is not the arcane information of a lost era but the expertise necessary to project a film correctly today. To disrespect the role of the projectionist is to disrespect cinema itself."