The Landis Cinema, Lafayette College’s 180-seat theater in Buck Hall, is expected to be up and running again next week after three months of collecting dust when its main projector suddenly stopped working.
Film and Media Studies professor Andrew Smith said he has been anticipating the venue fix.
“Cinema is a magnificent art form, and we’re pushing not just media literacy but visual literacy, which is why we wanted our students to have access to the best image and sound,” Smith said about the projector setup.
The theater is home to the Film and Media Studies department and hosts classes, public and private film screenings.
When the broadcasting technology in Landis Cinema shut down, Smith said the college’s IT services discovered the projector needed a replacement. After a supply chain issue caused a shipping delay, the new projector could not be installed over winter break.
A spokesperson from the college’s informational technology services division could not be immediately reached for comment.
“It took a longer time than expected to clear customs,” Smith explained.
As a temporary solution, Smith’s Introduction to Film and Media Studies class moved to the Limburg Theater in Farinon College Center this semester.
According to Smith, seniors scheduled to present their capstones in the fall of 2024 experienced significant hindrances to the quality of their presentations while waiting for a new projector.
Joshua Chait ‘25 was disappointed that he was forced to move the presentation to a black-box theater room across the street.
“It was a significantly less exciting space and much smaller screen, so the whole experience, both presenting and screening, was absolutely impacted,” Chait said.
Chait said that, despite getting the job done, the black box theater was less technologically impressive than the Landis Cinema.
“It was more of a classroom projector with a less powerful speaker system than in Landis,” Chait said.
Although Chait and other capstone seniors were not able to use the Landis Cinema for their film projects, students are anticipated to return to the theater early next week. According to Smith, the new projector is scheduled to arrive on Monday.
“They’ve got to program it and test it, but we should finally be operational next week and class will move back to the cinema as soon as it’s ready,” Smith said.