Philipp Hartmann made a film, toured the German cinema scene with it and made that into a film too: an overview of an eclectic mix of cinemas all run by cinephiles. Shared love entails shared suffering: every Kino is under threat.

Can something be a hobby if it’s your job? Can something be work if you love it so much? These are the questions a cinema owner asks himself out loud in this documentary. In 66 Kinos, enthusiastic staff members at a range of cinemas answer these rhetorical questions affirmatively. We pass popcorn machines and projection rooms on our way to the screen.
There is a downside. Turnover from food and drinks is crucial for earnings. Should one switch from ‚real‘ 35mm to digital? Should some of the cinema’s halls be reserved for Hollywood blockbusters? And even then, this might not be enough. Will going to the cinema be the same in a decade’s time? Or does its structure need to be fundamentally redefined? It’s a conundrum, but the small entrepreneur’s hope prevails.