Once again, Arisia is actually showing real 35mm film in our film room, and we are probably the only convention left still doing this. With resolution about eight times greater than HDTV on a good day, we go out of our way to show material that you won't see anywhere else. It's true that the film room isn't the big convention draw that it was a couple decades ago, but we try to provide a unique experience that you won't see anywhere else.

Films we are looking at for the upcoming year include Kurt Siodmak's story The Tunnel, about the construction of a tunnel between London and New York. This 1936 film is has some beautiful photography and deserves more attention than it ever received. We're also running a silent film with live piano accompaniment from Martin Marks, probably Harold Lloyd's film Speedy, worth watching if only for the cameo appearance of Babe Ruth.

We'll also be running some older television programs on film. We hope to be getting an episode of Men Into Space, a prime-time series rushed into production for the 1959 season, as soon after Sputnik as CBS could manage it. The matte work by Chesley Bonestell seems almost like the star of the show, and it was produced with the assistance of the military space organizations that later became part of NASA. As a result the scientific accuracy is quite surprisingly good.

We're also hoping to have many other features, including some new ones that might not even be in theatres yet, as well as some old ones like The Andromeda Strain, other TV shows like Space Angel episodes, and a wide assortment of short subject films from independant filmmakers, NASA, and wherever we saw something that really caught our eye.

This information is very highly preliminary. But whatever we show, it won't be stuff you'll find on DVD at the local store.

You really must come to the Arisia film program.