There are seven theatres showing 35mm screenings in Australia and Newcastle is one of them, according to Tower Cinemas projectionist Chris Carlson.
Carlson began his projectionist career at Tower Cinemas in the early 1990s as a budding young 20-something, inspired by his love of Super 8 growing up. In the '90s, one had to undergo 120 hours of supervised training to become a licensed projectionist.
"We'd be actively breaking up films, changing ads, trailers or shorts as they used to be called," he says.
"You were trained to run up to 10 screens at a time."
Thirty-five millimetre film typically comes in 2000-foot reels, with about five to six in a standard length movie - about two kilometres long. Longer films, like Heat (1995), can be up to 18,000-foot long, or five kilometres.
Every reel must be lined up correctly and cleanly to keep the picture flowing smoothly, travelling through the projector at about 27 metres per minute.
The Newcastle cinema uses two Italian-made Cinemeccanica Victoria 8 35/70mm projectors. Built in the 1970s, Tower originally bought them for about $25,000 a piece, which is about $197,000 in today's money.
"As long as you do oil changes, like a car, and a bit of maintenance here and there, they just keep running," Carlson says.
In the '90s, film projection was a viable full-time job, but as digital began to take over, the hours grew more scarce.
"A day now might only be for me to come in and put a film together, which takes about an hour or two," he says.
"I might then run a movie when no one's around to make sure that it goes through perfectly."
By 2012, film was almost entirely phased out, as filmmakers switched to digital cameras and 35mm celluloid production plummeted.
"The job ended and so did a lifestyle that I loved. It was stressful but at the end of the day you're entertaining," Carlson says.
"You're the showman and you want to make sure that it's perfect or as perfect as it can be in an analogue world."
He left Tower Cinemas in 2006, but he always remembered the spirit and community it hosted.
The Newcastle establishment was purchased in early 2024 by brothers and owners of Queensland company Five Star Cinemas, Peter and Stephen Sourris.
Hearing word of the purchase, Carlson sent in his resume after being out of the profession for about 16 years. Within a few weeks he was back in the projection box where his love of the job began decades prior.
Earlier this year, a truckload of 35mm films from Peter Sourris's personal collection was carefully shipped down from Brisbane. Sifting through the large number of reels was a time-consuming job, but Carlson stepped up to the plate gladly.
While most of the films were in pristine condition, some had missing reels or had faced damage over time.
"Some of the films get this horrible thing called vinegar syndrome, where they become unrunnable," Carlson says.
"The image is destroyed, the film has shrunk and the aroma is quite bad."
In May, Tower Cinemas launched its first 35mm screenings in nearly two decades, with some of the first being Natural Born Killers (1995), Pulp Fiction (1994) and The Crow (1994).
Operations coordinator Joshua Byrne says whether or not 35mm would be used was one of the most frequent questions asked in the lead up to the cinema's opening.
"A lot of people have been going to this place since they were little, so seeing the film come back is a full nostalgia hit, because they're seeing the movies they would've watched back in the day on the same format," he explains.
"Newcastle's a very nostalgic town, so it's very much a Novocastrian thing to want to experience that again."
After the 35mm screenings, audiences are given the chance to have a tour of the projection box.
"It's been great," Carlson says.
"Every tour is different because of the different questions I get. People seem to really love it."
Stacks of film canisters line the walls as the projector ticks through every frame, the smell of vinegar thick in the air.
It's unknown how many 35mm films are in the final collection, but local film lovers can rest assured there are plenty more films yet to be announced at Tower Cinemas - and your favourite could be among them.
