Preteen Maggie Mackay discovered the little-known film Hope and Glory at her local New York City video store in the 1980s. The film, which follows a family living in suburban London during World War Two, might not have been the average tween\u2019s first choice, but thanks to the unbridled access the video store offered young Mackay, she fell in love with the art form of film.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not really a hospitable neighborhood that I grew up in, for kids,\u201d Mackay said. \u201cI always say suburban kids had bikes. I had the video store and my local movie theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s the Executive Director of Vidiots in Los Angeles, a 40-year-old women-led institution whose Movie Den program introduces young Angelenos to a wide variety of films, and to the community they can find at the cinema.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could be in those spaces with autonomy, with agency and by myself. That\u2019s a really big deal for tweens and teens,\u201d Mackay said. \u201cI\u2019ve always known that I am myself because I had those spaces when I was a teenager. We knew that Vidiots had been that space for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vidiots, the video store, movie theater and nonprofit organization, has a legacy in Los Angeles, both in its first iteration as a Santa Monica video store, and now with its expanded operations at Eagle Theatre. According to Mackay, it has served the same purpose for many teenage Angelenos as her beloved video store: a place of community gathering and cinematic education.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires last year, Mackay said she reflected on the great loss that the nearby Altadena community was experiencing, and decided to begin Movie Den<\/a>, a repertory matinee film screening series aimed at a tween and teen audience, to create a space where kids could get off of social media and come together.<\/p>\n After a successful first summer, Movie Den is back with screenings of coming-of-age films at Vidiots\u2019 MUBI Microcinema every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Movie Den will run June 15 through August 5, offering curated afternoon screenings including Sunset Boulevard, I Was Born, But\u2026, Rope and The Last Dragon.<\/p>\n Thanks to the program\u2019s sponsor, Golden Globe Foundation, tickets are only $2, giving patrons a classic moviegoing experience down to the affordable original pricing \u2014 with free popcorn.<\/p>\n Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done everything we can to remove the barriers, so that any kid could just walk in the door,\u201d Mackay said. \u201cWe kept it intentionally low lift for our team, but big impact for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Mackay said third spaces like Vidiots \u2014 video stores, record shops, comic book stores or libraries \u2014 can provide a community gathering space that is welcoming, affordable and equitably accessible for young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you build it, they will come,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n