Congratulations to a very special cinema in Frankfurt: The Pupille has turned 70 years old. On December 17, 1951, the first screening took place at Frankfurt's Goethe University. It was not only the birth of Frankfurt's university cinema, but also of Germany's first university cinema. In front of no less than 2000 students, a self-made semester show was shown, which documented a trip of the university to St. Goar. The occasion was the founding of the "Filmstudio", in which students initially showed semester shows of self-made 16mm films in front of an audience. These so-called pupils gave the later founded cinema its current name "Pupille - Kino an der Uni".
"In the early 1950s, the cinema at the university emerged in a mood of departure, which was shaped by the need to catch up culturally as well as the desire for connection to international cinematography and for cultural co-determination," explains culture and science department head Ina Hartwig and continues: "Today, the Pupille is an essential part of the cultural life of the university, but also of the city. In recent years, the program has repeatedly been awarded the Hessian Cinema Culture Prize and the Cinema Prize of the Kinematheksverbund. Twice a week, films that are as challenging as they are entertaining, historical as well as current, are shown for all film enthusiasts. I congratulate on the 70th anniversary since the first film screening and hope that future generations of cineastes will continue to run the cinema with the same success."
For the time being, practical and theoretical film work were the central concerns of the film studio. With the opening of the student house in 1953, the students got a permanent place for a university cinema. Film programming increasingly moved up the agenda and anticipated the practice of later municipal cinemas: the cinema showed thematic film series, work shows and became a space for film debates. The "Filmstudio" published a magazine of the same name, which in the 1950s became one of the most important sources for cineastes in the Federal Republic.
In 1973, the cinema resumed screenings under its current name, Pupille, and from then on focused on the screening of critical and political films. Ten years later, fire regulations put an end to screenings in the Festsaal in the Studierendenhaus. For a short time the Pupille, together with the association "Schöne Neue Welt", organised film shows in the former cinema "Camera" in Gräfstraße 79, which was owned by the university. Efforts to turn this cinema into a second municipal cinema failed, however, due to the financing of the project. In 1997, the Festsaal in the Studierendenhaus was reopened and the non-profit association Pupille was founded by the new generation of film-loving students with the aim of promoting film and cinema culture. The association resumed the cinema's operations at its original location and continues to this day, with a changing cast and several generations of current and former students.
In celebration of its 70th anniversary, the Pupille once again screened its first semester show, "Summerfest in St. Goar," 70 years to the day later on Friday, December 17, 2021, and also screened the classic film "Singin` in the rain" by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. A successful anniversary and a fitting start for the next 70 years! For the current full program of the Pupille, go to: https://www.pupille.org/
The cinema is wheelchair accessible.
