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Another group of workers at a storied New York cinema is launching a unionization effort with the United Auto Workers.

Following the recent success of organizing drives at Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives and Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park, employees at Cinema Village in Greenwich Village petitioned on Friday for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. According to United Auto Workers Local 2179, which is backing the effort, nine out of the affected 10 full-time and part-time employees have signed union cards in support of joining the Local.

Constructed in 1963, the three-screen Cinema Village is billed as the oldest continuously operating movie theater in Greenwich Village and one of the oldest art theaters in the city. “Cinema Village is iconic and we care so much for its history,” employee Jack Peterson said in a statement. “It’s the employees that make that history continue. If you care about the...

For the first time in nearly a year, New York-based movie theater operator Nicolas Nicolaou can breathe a sigh of relief. That’s because Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that cinemas across the five boroughs could reopen starting next month, a potential reprieve for a sector of the entertainment industry that’s been walloped by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nicolaou owns three theaters in the city — Cinema Village in Manhattan, Alpine Theatre in Brooklyn and Cinemart Cinemas in Queens. Due to damage from frozen pipes, he doesn’t expect those venues to reopen until April 2. When he can reignite the marquee lights, his locations will be running at 25% capacity, or 50 people per auditorium — which means it will be nearly impossible to make money. Still, he says he’s grateful for the opportunity to welcome patrons after what he refers to as “the worst year of my life.”

“At 25% capacity, you can’t operate profitably,...

If anything, Abel Ferrara’s lovingly crafted personal documentary The Projectionist answers a question has plagued many a hardcore New York-based cinephile at one point or another: how the hell does the Cinema Village on 12th street stay open? While Ferrara doesn’t audit the finances of his subject–life-long movie exhibitor and real estate developer Nicolas Nicolaou–he never the less crafts a portrait of a man who has kept neighborhood theaters alive in the city, fighting it out with the big guns like Regal, AMC, and Landmark Theaters (the de facto new proprietor of neighboring Quad Cinema) for first run product. Premiering in Tribeca’s programming lineup This Used To Be New York, The Projectionist provides a personal history of running movie theaters through the changing landscape.

The film starts with a friendship between Nicolaou and Ferrara–always a lively presence in festival Q&As, occasionally taking on the persona of host,...