The Role of Private Screenings & Film Collectors in Preserving Cinema

In a world where streaming platforms dictate what gets seen, and film festivals favor industry-backed selections, the survival of true cinematic art depends on something more fundamental: private screenings and film collectors.

Throughout history, great films have survived not because of the market, but because of individuals who recognized their value and preserved them.

How did private film culture shape cinema? And why does it remain essential today?

1. How Private Screenings Shaped Film History

Before cinema became an industry-driven machine, films often circulated in private, exclusive settings. Some of the most influential movements in film history owe their survival to small, intimate gatherings of cinephiles, artists, and thinkers.

• The Surrealists in Paris (1920s): Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, and their circle held private screenings of radical films, shaping the course of avant-garde cinema.
• Stan Brakhage & the American Underground (1960s): Brakhage’s experimental films were screened in artist lofts and private salons, as they were too unconventional for mainstream theaters.
• The Cinephile Circles of the 1950s & 60s: Before the rise of home video, cinephiles in Paris, Rome, and New York held private 16mm screenings of Eisenstein, Ozu, and Bresson, fostering serious film culture outside commercial spaces.

These gatherings were not about entertainment—they were about engagement. They allowed films to be studied, discussed, and understood as high art.

2. The Importance of Private Film Collectors

Many of the greatest films in history would not exist today without collectors.

Before digital preservation, films were physical objects—prints that could be lost, destroyed, or forgotten. Some of the most important cinematic discoveries were made not in archives, but in private collections.

• The Lost Films of Silent Cinema: Many early films, thought lost forever, were rediscovered in personal archives, attics, and estate sales.
• Orson Welles’ Too Much Johnson (1938): This previously unseen film was found in a private collection in Italy decades after Welles had abandoned it.
• Sergei Parajanov’s Unreleased Works: Many of Parajanov’s visionary films survived only because friends and collectors safeguarded reels from censorship and destruction.

In an era where corporations control film access, collectors remain a last line of defense against erasure.

3. Streaming Platforms Have Made Films More Inaccessible, Not Less

Many assume that we live in an era where all films are available at the click of a button. The truth is the opposite:

• Streaming services prioritize what is “popular,” not what is important.
• Licensing agreements mean films constantly disappear from platforms.
• Uncompromising, difficult films are buried in algorithms—or never added at all.

A film once released on DVD or VHS could be owned permanently. But now, a film that leaves a streaming service can vanish entirely, unless a collector has preserved it.

Private screenings ensure that films do not disappear simply because they lack commercial appeal.

4. Why The Cinema Sanctum Revives This Tradition

The Cinema Sanctum is not a streaming platform, a festival, or a film distributor. It exists to recreate the lost tradition of private, intellectual film culture.

Exclusive private screenings in carefully curated spaces.
A collector’s approach to cinema—films preserved and protected.
A return to film appreciation as an art, rather than passive entertainment.

We do not believe in mass-market accessibility—we believe in deep, meaningful engagement with cinema.

Conclusion: The Future of Film Lies in Private Hands

For cinema to survive as an art form, it must be protected by those who truly care. This is how film history has always worked—not through the market, but through private individuals, collectors, and those who understand what is at stake.

If you believe cinema deserves a sanctuary, we invite you to step inside.