PREVIEW: Picture Lock One Takes Film Screenings to the Hudson River for Summer-Fall Season
07/17-09/24 @ Multiple Locations Throughout Troy
Photo provided by organization
“By decentralizing their events to the riverfront, they aim to push the limits beyond traditional cinema, encouraging a more reactive and communal approach to film culture in the region.”
Picture Lock One, the city’s roving microcinema and its only movie theater, is stepping out of the subterranean vault of the former Union Bank and into the open air for its summer and fall 2026 season, titled “Along the Riverbank.” The new series aims to explore the Hudson River with a series of events that examine the cultural, ecological, and political dimensions of water.
The season starts at their 50 4th Street location in Troy on July 17 with “FROM ENTRE / WITH LOVE,” a showcase of documentary and experimental films from Texas’s ENTRE Film Center, with a conversation with co-founder C. Díaz.
The following morning, on July 18, Díaz will host “Cinema Is All Around Us,” a hands-on workshop focused on exploring filmmaking through close observation of their everyday surroundings, using their own perceptions and experiences as the basis, registration is required for this event.
Following these events, an outdoor screening of Benh Zeitlin’s acclaimed Beasts of the Southern Wild will be hosted at Riverfront Park, July 29.
On August 15, the program “Light Eaters” will explore intersections between digital and physical ecologies and the ways human relationships to the nonhuman world are connected through technology. This will take place through a collection of short films and a panel discussion at the Vicina building. It will be followed by a community-focused "bike-in" screening on August 18, featuring Pat O'Neill’s classic film Water and Power. Participants are encouraged to join the ride at 6:30 p.m., starting at Riverfront Park and exploring the bulk of South Troy’s riverfront, before the screening, but are also welcome to simply meet at the Collar Works' new headquarters at 8:00 p.m., which is currently under renovation at 206 1st St.
On September 5, the “Watermaxxing” video will debut during the Powers House Revel festival, offering a mix of post-apocalyptic cinematic tropes. The season concludes on September 24 with a screening of Pablo Alvarez-Mesa’s La Laguna del Soldado, an experimental documentary examining the intersections of memory, militarism, and Colombian history.
This season is a shift for the organizers of Picture Lock One, who have created a niche by treating film exhibition as a site-specific conversation. By decentralizing their events to the riverfront, they aim to push the limits beyond traditional cinema, encouraging a more reactive and communal approach to film culture in the region.
Full event details, registration information, and updates are available on the Picture Lock One Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/picturelockone/) and their Substack newsletter (https://picturelockone.substack.com/).
