Buffalo Film History Series: Buffalo’s Vitascope Theatre + Edisonia Hall

Buffalo’s Vitascope Theatre + Edisonia Hall exhibition opens at the Downtown Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (on the 2nd floor adjacent to the Collections Gallery) on Thursday, September 3, 2026; runs through the festival, and is on view through Monday, January 4, 2027 (Open during The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (B&ECPL) Downtown Central Library's regular hours of operation).

Special opening reception and presentation with exhibition curators Anna Scime + Queline Meadows on Thursday, September 3 from 5:30-7PM!

For 130 years, the people of Buffalo have shared stories and dreamed aloud together in the cinema.

In the lower level of the Ellicott Square Building in downtown Buffalo, the first dedicated cinema was designed by brothers Mitchel and Moe Mark, and built from scratch solely to screen motion pictures. Buffalo's Vitascope Theatre and adjacent Edisonia Hall opened to the general public on October 19, 1896. Buffalo International Film Festival is founded on a celebration of this legacy, and each October over Indigenous Peoples Day holiday week/end, we try our best to honor it by illuminating screens across the city and presenting over 200 films from around the region and the world.

Earlier in 1896 Thomas Edison had demonstrated his latest invention – the Vitascope – at the Buffalo Public Library. The Vitascope was the first commercially-successful celluloid motion picture projector in the US. At the same time, Auguste and Louis Lumière were traveling across Europe with their Cinématographe, a combination camera and projector. This nascent technology, projecting motion pictures of everything from history-making events to scenes from everyday life, fascinated audiences and filled theaters. The films were very short, under a minute long.

The films looping on the monitor are curated from old newspaper articles and advertisements, and are the very same that the people of Buffalo enjoyed .4 miles to south and west of this library 130-years ago. A typical Vitascope program might include dances and boxing matches along with street scenes of Paris, Moscow, and Berlin. Local audiences also saw familiar sights when the Edison Manufacturing Company captured views of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. For roughly two years, films were screened daily at Buffalo's Vitascope Theatre from 10 AM to 11 PM in a continuous performance.

The curiosity cabinets in this exhibition focus on some of the pre-cinema technologies like magic lanterns and phonographs that one would encounter at a typical Edisonia Parlor.

The exhibition is presented alongside and in conversation with Christina Corfield's A Little History of Cinema Told in Small Objects, which explores pre-cinematic technologies as well.

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This exhibition is part of BIFF’s 20th anniversary programming and Buffalo Film History Series – celebrating 130 years of film production and cinematic exhibition in Buffalo, from the Vitascope to WNY’s current renaissance.

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Buffalo International Film Festival (est. 2006) is a nonprofit organization that champions regional, national, and international films that push the limits of independent cinema – presenting quality films from around the world to Western New York residents and visitors. BIFF is committed to amplifying diverse voices and exhibiting cutting-edge programming in narrative, nonfiction and experimental film during the festival each October, and throughout the year. A proud supporter of local filmmaking and the arts; BIFF also offers workshops, seminars, industry panel discussions, and professional development opportunities, as well as an Offscreen series of art, music and performance.

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Presented in partnership with The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (B&ECPL) Downtown Central Library.

Many thanks to Rare Book Curator Heather Gring, Community Engagement Manager Hannah Quaintance, and the library staff for the exhibition support.