Common Ground: Stories from America's Vintage Movie Theaters

In 2016, I started driving two-lane roads through small towns all over the United States, looking for vintage movie theaters: movie theaters with just one or two screens, usually built somewhere between 1920 and 1960, and usually in dusty downtowns or rundown suburbs. Eight years later, I’ve documented over two hundred such movie theaters. Some thriving, some abandoned, most just hanging in there. I stop, I take a few pictures, and, if I’m lucky, I hear a story from someone about what that theater means to them, and what that theater means to their town. Join me as I visit eight vintage American movie theaters and share their stories—stories about everything from childhood matinees and bad dates, to cult movies and concession stands.