The first thing you notice about Sacramento’s leading cinephile is her ears. One is clipped at the top; both ears burst with fluff. 

Thelma is a tabby cat and the feline figurehead of Thelmarama, a local cinema club founded by Jordan T. Mata and Sarah Kamiya. Thelmarama started in Mata and Kamiya’s living room, where they would turn movie nights into a game of chance by having their cat randomly “pick” the film. This year, the amateur programmers moved Thelmarama out of the living room and into a residency at the Crocker Art Museum. 

Mata and Kamiya’s game-ified approach to programming is just one example of local exhibitors connecting with audiences by getting creative. From immersive premium tickets to meticulously programmed microcinemas to only-on-film repertory screenings, exhibitors large and small across the Sacramento area are finding ways to lure people off the couch and back into theaters.

Feline film buffs

“I think they just wanted something that was out of the ordinary for their film programs,” Kamiya says about partnering with Crocker. For every Thelmarama event, Mata and Kamiya choose three films bound by a theme inspired by artwork in the Crocker’s permanent collection. A cat treat is placed on all three titles, and whichever one Thelma goes to first is the one screened for the audience. “I like to tell people that she chooses the films, and she actually does have taste,” Kamiya says.

Mata and Kamiya find inspiration by walking through the Crocker’s galleries. “We’ll think about movies that are on our minds, and then a theme will arise,” Mata says. “We want a mix of stuff, but they all are connected by that same theme.” 

Having never programmed for a paying crowd before, Mata and Kamiya were initially nervous but trusted their tastes to guide them. “We definitely have moved away from doing whatever we want,” Mata says. “It has to connect with us in some way, but we see at the same time the greater value in programming for others.”

Eclectic selections

At the three-row Dreamland Cinema, owners and programmers Lauren Hess and Tish Sparks trusted their eclectic tastes from day one. “We want to play stuff that people want to see, but at the same time we’re pretty self-indulgent with the programming,” Sparks says. 

Operating since 2022 in the refurbished Midtown Sacramento Victorian that formerly housed Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre, Dreamland’s average calendar features monster movies and gonzo horror films cozying up with sci-fi blockbusters and foreign and arthouse fare. There’s even a smattering of under-the-radar new releases, such as the no-budget Canadian horror film “Dead Lover,” presented in scratch-and-sniff Stinkovision. “I’m curious how that’s gonna affect our concessions,” Hess says.

Despite the dizzying variety, the intimate theater’s 26 seats are rarely empty. “That’s the fun part,” Sparks says. “We get to dig around and find this weird stuff, and there’s an audience for it.”

Hess and Sparks also enforce a distraction-free environment. “I think that’s a big draw because people can check out of social media and their phones for a couple of hours and really focus,” Sparks says. 

The Dreamland screenings are largely promoted online, but Hess and Sparks also keep print alive with monthly calendars distributed to local businesses.

Dreamland has been so successful in its first four years of operation that Hess and Sparks are already scouting for a new location with more space. It will finally give them a chance to screen some personal favorites suited to bigger screens. “I’m a big fan of 2001, but it would feel kind of silly to play a movie of that scale here,” says Sparks. “We always consider how something might play in this small space, and if there’s an opportunity that it could be more event-ized, we want to save those things for when we have more space.”

Winding the reel back

If Dreamland sells intimacy and eclecticism, the multiplex sells spectacle and scope. Here, the titular character of “Michael” has enough space to moonwalk across the walls. In a ScreenX theater, the traditional screen extends into a 270-degree panorama, filling your field of vision.

The expanded ScreenX sections use additional footage captured during filming. “ScreenX works very closely with the studios and the filmmakers to create those extra scenes and make sure that it’s seamless,” Cinemark Public Relations Manager Julia McCartha says.

Cinemark’s Century Arden and the Regal Natomas Marketplace are the only two theaters in the Sacramento area with ScreenX auditoriums. The Regal Natomas theater also has one of the only area auditoriums dedicated to the ultra-immersive 4DX, which raises the stakes with moving chairs and in-theater effects like fog and water spray, all synchronized to the onscreen action.

Unfortunately, the 35mm print of “Full Metal Jacket” acquired for the Heeere’s Kubrick series was too damaged to screen, so a digital copy was shown in its place. “That’s the big challenge with 35mm is finding quality prints,” says Tower General Manager David Parker. “There’s very few people now that know how to run a film projector. If you do something wrong, you damage the print.”

But for Parker, the visual quality of 35mm and 70mm onscreen makes it worth the effort. “We’ve showed some films where we did the 70 mil print first, and then we did a digital after, and it’s a massive difference,” he says. “Digital oftentimes has that kind of sheen to it, and the colors are a little off, but 70 mil has a depth and clarity.”

Back at the Crocker, Thelma has made her pick. In a video shown before the film, Thelma approaches three bowls of tea, each representing one of tonight’s movie options. After a few moments of rising tension overlaid with cat purr sound effects, it’s revealed that Thelma has selected Bob Fosse’s 1979 feel-bad musical “All That Jazz.”

The tea was prepared by Taohua Tea, a Southside Park-based company that also performed a pre-screening tea ceremony to connect with tonight’s theme of Ritual and Repetition. “We’re trying to connect different worlds and different things,” Mata says. “Being able to show people great films and be a part of what the Crocker Museum is doing, it feels important.”

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