Tree of Life awarded Kendall Messick a $5000 project grant in April of 2003 to support the completion of his film The Projectionist.

Completion date: June 15, 2004              www.theprojectionist.net

The “give back” requirement required by Tree of Life was completed in May 15, 2004. (details)

Artist: Kendall Messick
A native of Delaware, Kendall received a BA in History from Wake Forest University in 1987.  He went on to study photography at both the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography in New York City.

The Projectionist reflects one man's fascination with an era in American movie culture that is almost forgotten: the age of the grand movie palace. It is also the story of a man whose all-consuming passion led him to follow his dream in an unexpected and unconventional way.  It is about obsession and the nature of what it takes to be an artist.  And it is the story about a solitary individual more comfortable behind the window of the projection booth who created his own world where he could escape and come into his own.

Gordon Brinckle was born in Philadelphia in 1915 during this golden age of movie theatres. A sickly child that doctors predicted might not make it to adulthood, Brinckle became enamored with movie projectors and theatres as a boy.  He showed an aptitude for draftsmanship in vocational school in his teens and shortly thereafter became an apprentice to a theatre decorator at the age of nineteen. His growing passion for movie theatres soon led him to construct the Alvin CasinoTheatre in the basement of his parent's home in 1936.  His modest but amazingly intricate movie palace was created using his newly acquired skills as a decorator. From a projection booth complete with projector to a stage with working curtain and an art deco marquis and ticket office, the Alvin Casino was authentic to the last detail.
In 1960, the Alvin Shalimar was born.  The Shalimar is a larger, grander version of Brinckle's first theatre construction in Philadelphia.  With four working curtains opening to reveal an actual movie screen and an auditorium decorated in Brinckle's "semi-atmospheric" style, his theatre is truly original.  The auditorium contains nine actual movie seats bolted to the floor. There is a 1940s marquis and ticket office, projection booth with 16mm projectors and an organ alcove complete with working organ. The design and decoration has all been executed by Brinckle with a meticulous attention to detail that some might say borders on obsession. According to Brinckle, in the Alvin Shalimar he has tried to preserve the various elements and styles typically found in the movie palaces of the early twentieth century.