Experience | Cinetopia & Cinema Detroit

Cinema Detroit is Detroit's ONLY independent movie theatre, and over the weekend they were participating in a film festival, Cinetopia. It is located on Cass Ave in the former Burton International School building. It looks like an abandoned building on the outside, but once you pull into the parking lot you will see a flashing sign that says "Theater."

You will follow the theater signs through a cement courtyard with hanging lights, and you will imagine how idyllic and peaceful that probably looks at night. Then you will turn another corner and find this Cinema Detroit sign awaiting you.

Cinema Detroit is open 7 days a week, with a schedule that varies depending on movie start times. There is a full service concession stand, with pop, popcorn and candy. Doors open 30 minutes before the scheduled start time, and there are 2 screens that show films. You can visit the website (posted below) or call 313.281.8301 for daily show times. I have only been in the downstairs theater room, and it does not have stadium seating. That is not a deal breaker for me, but if it is something that concerns you just make sure you get there with enough time to snag a front row seat. The seats do not go right up to the screen, they are back quite a bit which is great -- especially if you need one of those front row seats. There is nothing worse than having to look UP at the screen to watch the film.


Now the reason we were even at Cinema Detroit at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon is because of Cinetopia. Cinetopia is a film festival in southeastern Michigan that shows films that were selected because of the high acclaims made at more prestigious film festivals (sundance, SXSW, cannes, etc).  This year Cinetopia launched off with a fancy, invite only, party at DIA with Spike Lee. Films were showing in Detroit and Ann Arbor all weekend long -- 110 screenings, 50 films and at 10 different venues. If you want to learn more about Cinetopia you can visit the website (link below).

 At a lot of the screenings, the cast/crew were available for a q/a session and there were discussions to be had after the film. At our particular one, a professor of Social Work from the University of Michigan was present and led us in a talk that was interesting, to say the least.We were there to see the film Rich Hill, which I will write an entire different blog post about, including the talk after -- so be on the lookout for that.

I believe Clarence and I want to purchase weekend passes for next year, and we definitely plan on going to see more films at Cinema Detroit. It is awesome to see some of those stunning buildings downtown being put to good use!

Learn more about Cinema Detroit!

Learn more about Cinetopia!