Cinema Detroit is a movie theater in Detroit, the only truly independent theater in the city. You’re be able to come to this conclusion by yourself, should you become aware of the theater’s presence during a drive past the empty lot or a short stroll near an open window on the street-side face of the building.  In a number of ways, the building is not very identifiable from even a passerby’s distance. Once you do venture inside, you’ll find candy is priced at standard vending machine rate, and the interior is eerily reminiscent of your old middle school back home. That’s probably because it used to be a middle school.

The main theater is an old auditorium that’s seen better days, but still has enough personality to remind a moviegoer that in an age of over-sized screens and seating arrangements, novelty can trump sheer sensory stimulation, and that an experience is shaped by the non-conventional, just as much as it is the conventional.

Cinema Detroit is to the local Mega-Movie Plex as Detroit is to the list of cities most often cited as U.S. travel destinations.

It’s a charming experience. In that ‘I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve’ sort of way.

And I’m almost certain that those who do decide to venture into Detroit for something longer than a weekend, will find themselves thinking about the city long after they’ve left. Why? This city’s still got a few tricks up its sleeve.