I Have a Location. Now, I Need You.
August 18, 2026
I hope everyone is enjoying the dog days of summer, and thank you to everyone who sent such warm wishes for my father’s recovery. It was fantastic to see him — I hadn’t in over a year. My decision to leave Los Angeles and my film career to move to Naples was never just about building Naples Cinematheque. It was about being closer to my parents as they get older.
If you noticed I canceled this summer’s screenings, that was intentional. I wanted the time with my folks.
But in the interim, I was asked to do something I couldn’t turn down. I’m one of fewer than 100 projectionists in the United States qualified to run a five-perf 70mm print of THE ODYSSEY. So for the past eight weeks, I’ve been in a projection booth 15 hours a day, seven days a week, running celluloid.
These opportunities don’t come around often. When the cinema gods call, I answer. That’s my purpose on this planet — and honestly, there’s nothing like watching a massive 70mm print come alive on screen.
THE RETURN OF CINEMA
It’s been amazing to watch what’s happened in movie theaters this summer. Audiences are coming back, driven in large part by Gen Z’s appetite for all things “old school.” I love them for it — especially since my daughter is one of them. There’s something encouraging about a younger generation rediscovering the theatrical experience, repertory cinema, physical film, and the communal act of sitting in a theater with an audience.
Which brings me back to Naples.
THE 2026–27 NAPLES CINEMATHEQUE SEASON
My return will usher in what I believe is our most ambitious season yet, including:
The tremendous honor of joining Artis-Naples’ Lifelong Learning Lecture Series:
Thursday, January 14, 2027 · 10:00 AM
Dancing Cheek to Cheek: The Films of Fred Astaire and Ginger RogersThursday, February 4, 2027 · 10:00 AM
GADG: The Films of Elia KazanThursday, March 11, 2027 · 10:00 AM
In Memoriam: Robert Duvall
A partnership with United Arts Collier and the Naples International Dance Festival, bringing dance-themed cinema into their programming
The return of Tony Mangione’s Italian Film Series
The 2nd Annual Naples Ukrainian Film Festival
The 2nd Annual Naples Polish Film Festival
Live broadcasts from the National Theatre, and for the first time, the Royal Ballet
¡Arte Viva! Film Festival (Spring 2027)
I couldn’t be more excited about these programs, or about collaborating with so many of Naples’ outstanding cultural institutions.
THE ONE BIG PROBLEM
We don’t have a permanent venue — yet.
Naples Cinematheque is no longer presenting at Paragon Theaters, and I want to say clearly: I’m deeply grateful for that partnership. Paragon gave us a screen when we needed one most, and more than that, they gave us a stage to prove this vision could work, and to put real programming in front of real audiences and watch this community respond. I’ll always be thankful for that. It taught me so much about what Naples wants from a cinema, and what a venue truly built for this community needs to be. It also confirmed something I already felt in my bones: the next step isn’t another borrowed screen. It’s building a home of our own.
I didn’t move to Naples simply to present movies. I moved here because Naples deserves its own repertory and arthouse cinema — a true community cinema. A place where people can gather around the films they demand, the cultures they want represented, the filmmakers they want to discover, and the classics that have shaped the cultural DNA of the human experience.
Until Naples has a dedicated venue for that, we’ll always be working on someone else’s schedule, in someone else’s space. I don’t want that for this city.
I have the location selected. I have the programming. I have the partnerships. I have the audience. I have thirty-plus years in the film business, and I know exactly what this theater needs to be.
Now we need the community.
Because the vision isn’t just to build another movie theater. It’s to build a cinema for Naples — a place that belongs to this community, that educates, entertains, inspires, preserves the art form, and becomes a permanent part of the cultural fabric of Naples.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
This is the moment I’m putting a stake in the ground and asking this community to help us get there. If you believe in what we’re building — a permanent home for repertory film, festivals, lectures, and everything else on this season’s calendar — you can become a Founding Member or make a donation of any size. Founding Members will always be the ones who said yes before there was a building.
Naples has never had a dedicated home for this kind of cinema. We have the chance to change that, but only with the community behind us.
The next chapter of Naples Cinematheque is going to be exciting. Stay tuned for more on our ongoing magical movie mystery tour.
— David
David Garonzik, CEO and Founder
Naples Cinematheque