“There’s a certain crackle in the air, a certain desire that we all have to go out and find people like us and experience things with them… but somehow, at some point, going to a movie didn’t seem like a social experience,” says executive director of the nonprofit theater Cinefamily over on Fairfax, Hadrian Belove. And with one sentence, what separates Cinefamily from the onslaught of faceless cinemas is summed up. With a mission statement of revitalizing the film-going experience through community and discovery, Cinefamily has earned itself a substantial following of like-minded movie-goers.

We headed over to Fairfax to link up with the man behind the silver screen and learn more about the wonderfully inclusive events they throw with the likes of Seth Rogen and Doug Benson, their selection of films, future plans for Cinefamily, and most importantly, to see what a business ran on nothing but perpetual excitement really looks like.

“I want to have a theater where people say, ‘I feel like doing something, what’s playing at Cinefamily?’ As opposed to, ‘Oh, I want to see Interstellar, where’s it playing?”

Words by Todd Knaak