The Trylon Cinema

“It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.”
― Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange

“Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.”
― Pauline Kael,  New Yorker film critic

                                The Trylon Cinema - https://www.trylon.org

There used to be a thriving repertory film scene here in the Twin Cities. In the 1970s one could see any number of older films at the Uptown, the Campus, the Cedar, the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the U Film Society, etc. During the 1990s, there was only one real true revival house left in the Metro area, The Oak Street Cinema. Once that closed, volunteers and avid fans from the Oak Street banded together to continue on the tradition, setting up clandestine back alley screenings around the city. Finally, with enough money for a brick and mortar location, the Trylon was born.

“The Trylon is named after the movie theater on Queens Boulevard in New York City; that theater in turn was named after the centerpiece of the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens.” says Barry Kryshka, the executive director of the the Trylon Cinema in South Minneapolis.

This nod to the past is intentional as Barry explains, “I felt that having a connection to the 1939 landmark made sense for a theater that would be showing films from that era. 1939 was a pretty good year for film.”

“I think it’s a great way to stay in touch with our cultural past,” says Nikki Weispfenning the manager and projectionist for the Trylon. “There are certain films that every time I see them I get something different out of them…if you're seeing them at a certain time in your life or in the country's history you’re just like ‘wow this is incredible, I never got that before.’ And that's what we do here.”

The Trylon's programmer John Moret says, “People often say, ‘oh you guys show a lot of independent films, right?’ And I’m always like, ‘no, we show MGM movies, you know, we show Warner Brothers.' We are an independent space. Nobody can tell us what to do, it allows us the freedom to do all kinds of crazy stuff.”

The Trylon Cinema routinely projects movies from 125 years of cinema history, from hundreds of diverse countries, including an incredible array of genres. From the high art of Ingrid Bergman, Bela Tarr, and Andrei Tarkovsky to the lowest of exploitation nasties: Troma, Rudy Ray Moore, and Roger Corman.

Simply put – it’s a fun place to watch a movie, If you’ve ever seen a comedy with a full house of people laughing, or a horror movie with audience members on the edge of their seats shrieking out in terror, you soon realize that a movie can be a worthwhile communal experience. Before cable TV, home video and streaming services, people would go to art houses, revival houses, rep theaters, whatever you want to call them – to see a movie from the past.

The Trylon Cinema has just under 100 seats, a passion for cinema and a belief that a night out at the movies should be affordable to everyone. Most of the people that work there are volunteers.

“Our day to day operating budget is pretty much entirely covered by ticket sales, and we benefit immensely from our volunteers,” says Barry Kryshka. “For me, a big sign of our success is that we have a waiting list for volunteer positions, and we have volunteers that have years and years of time volunteering here.”

The Trylon is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates the Trylon Cinema and collaborates with independent theaters like the Heights and Riverview for screenings at those theaters.

Interested in more videos about Minnesota movies? Check out this short on the movie Fargo - *WARNING* SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE FARGO

Minnesota Music: Artaria String Quartet, Orkester Bez Ime, Charlie Parr
Production Team: Brennan Vance, Jack Davis, Joe Demko, Ezra Gold

This story is made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.