The city government of Rio de Janeiro created the Reviver Cinema project to reopen screening rooms on the city's streets. The initiative seeks to restore the cinematographic tradition of the state capital, which once had numerous neighborhood cinemas at different times.
The project is presented with a nostalgic tone, recalling the history of Cine Matilde, inaugurated on March 15, 1963, in the neighborhood of Bangu, in Rio's West Zone. The screening room was envisioned by merchant Antônio Gama da Silva, who named it after his wife.
Cine Matilde was located in the gallery of the same name, on Avenida Ministro Ary Franco, and featured 1,360 upholstered seats and an oval screen designed to ensure good visibility from any point in the audience. The space also had a powerful central air conditioning system.
However, the local electrical infrastructure was not prepared to support all the modern equipment of the cinema. Faced with the overload, those in charge had to improvise with fans and ventilation tubes filled with ice to cool the environment, until they were able to request an increase in the energy load.
