An El Pasoan’s Love Letter To The Movies On Movie Theater Day

There is no church, no therapy session, no yoga retreat that has healed me like a movie theater. The first time I walked into one, I felt it: the cool air, the faint scent of popcorn oil, the hush right before the trailers start. Pure magic. It wasn’t just a place to watch a movie. It was an escape hatch from reality. A spaceship, a time machine, a therapist’s couch, and sometimes, if you caught the right film, a best friend.

For a kid like me growing up with a patchy relationship with the world outside the screen, movies didn’t just entertain me. They saved me. They raised me. They taught me lessons I didn’t get from my father, gave me emotional fluency before I had a therapist, and let me connect with people when I didn’t know how to connect. So yes, Movie Theater Day is a holy day in my house.

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El Paso’s Film Scene is in Its Cinematic Renaissance

Turns out I’m not alone in my obsession. El Paso’s movie scene is having a main character moment. We’re not just the backdrop for some low-budget indie. No, no. Paul Thomas Anderson, the cinematic god who gave us There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights, chose EL PASO to film his latest masterpiece, One Battle After Another. The cast? Star-studded. The buzz? Deafening. The locations? Soaked in the golden light and gritty soul of our desert home.

El Paso isn’t just watching the movies. We’re making them. More and more productions are choosing us over Hollywood because we’ve got what they don’t. Authenticity. Culture. Dust that sparkles on camera. And food trucks that will ruin you for all other food trucks. On top of that, we have so many passionate, independent organizations making movie magic happen in the borderland every single day.

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The Plaza Classic Film Festival is a Big, Beautiful Love Letter

And let’s not forget the Plaza Classic Film Festival, where cinephiles gather in our historic Plaza Theatre to worship the greats, projected as they were meant to be. On the big screen with an audience who still gasps, still laughs, still applauds. It’s a community altar to everything I love about movies. If you’ve never been, please go. It’s like church, but with better snacks.

So, Here’s to the Movies: Our First Love

Movie theaters have held me when nothing else could. They've been a time capsule, a portal, and sometimes the only place I felt like myself. In that dark room, I was never alone. I was seen. And even now, when the world is loud and overwhelming and too much, I can walk into a theater, sit down, and let the light of a projector remind me what hope looks like.

So, to all my fellow film lovers in El Paso and beyond: happy Movie Theater Day. May your popcorn be fresh, your previews be long, and your soul always find something to hold onto in the flickering shadows.