Cinema has always had an audience. From its first appearances in cafes, tea houses, and variety shows to today’s fragmented, digital consumption, cinema continues to exist in relation to different ways of looking and experiencing. This course examines how films have been shown and how audiences have watched films in diverse historical and cultural contexts. We will explore how the ways in which film screenings were organized shape both the films being shown and audiences’ moviegoing experiences. Based on historical and site-specific investigations, we will also reflect on how our modes of engaging with cinema impact conceptions of what cinema is, what it will be, and what it can be. Unlike most film courses, this course does not focus on analyzing films, but look into the operations of cinema as an institution. There will be field trips to local movie theaters and a final collective project that asks students to curate a special film screening (in-person or online) using innovative formats.