The Last Picture Shows (2026)
- Sat, Sep 19
- Sun, Sep 20
- Wed, Sep 23
Director: Rustin Thompson Run Time: 78 min. Release Year: 2026
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
Ten states. 10,825 miles. 123 theaters. Filmmaker Rustin Thompson journeys into the American West on a search for traces of what was once a center of small-town life: the movie theater. On the trip, he finds long abandoned and forgotten cinemas; movie houses that have fallen into disrepair; theaters recently closed, theaters struggling to hold on, and theaters that—thanks to their thoughtful caretakers—are not only surviving but thriving.
Between the stops along the way, Rustin poetically intersperses excerpts from Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 classic film The Last Picture Show, as well as reflections on past and present hardships facing the film exhibition industry. The Last Picture Shows reminds viewers that even in vast cinema deserts, there are oases of community and gathering that remain, where the movie house continues to be a place of wonder, contemplation, and connection.
About the filmmaker:
Rustin Thompson is a writer, filmmaker, and DJ based in Seattle. His recent films include The Last Picture Shows (2026) and Died Without Issue (2025). His hybrid essay film, Slow Revolution (2023), played in several international film festivals, and his film My Mother Was Here (2018) won Best Documentary at the Tacoma Film Festival. His very first documentary, made in 2000, was 30 Frames A Second, which won several Best Documentary awards, was named one of the Top Ten films of the year by the American Library Association, and one of the Best Undistributed Films of 2001 by The Village Voice.
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