About the Club

        Since 1992, the Key Sunday Cinema Club has distinguished itself as the nation's premiere sneak-preview film society. KSCC previews and discusses the best independent and foreign films of the season. The movies -- kept secret until the day of the screening -- are shown before their local release, letting the audience view and respond to the film with true surprise and spontaneity.

        After each Sunday morning screening, our moderators lead a one-hour discussion with cinema club members. Several times a year, our moderators are joined in discussion by the director, actor, producer or writer whose work has just been screened, or by fellow film scholars and local or national film critics.

        The founders of the club, Seena and David Levy, operated specialty theaters in the Washington D.C. area for 30 years. In the fall of 1992, the Cinema Club opened at Washington's Key Theatre, and by its second series in the winter of 1993, the Club was sold out. The many pressures of operating an independent theatre caused the Levys to close the Key Theatre in December 1997, but ironically, the closing of the movie house led directly to the expansion of the Key Sunday Cinema Club.

The KSCC now operates in 8 cities nationwide:
Atlanta, GA - Boca Raton, FL - Boston, MA - Milwaukee, WI - New Haven, CT - San Francisco, CA - St. Louis, MO - Washington D.C.

        Currently, the Club is operated by Benjamin Levy, son of Seena and David Levy, and his wife, Katherine Kim. Peter Brunette is the club's artistic director, Andrew Mencher books films with the club, and Walt Irby manages the office and the website. The new KSCC office is located at the historic intersection of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, California.

Choose your Club city from the list on the left to join, renew or learn more!

In the Press

Attention all serious moviegoers able to enjoy angst or biting satire even at 10 or 10:30 on a weekend morning: You robust art-house enthusiasts will have an opportunity to stay ahead of the curve."
- Susan Green, The Burlington Free Press

The film ended, the lights came on and the audience filed out of the theatre. Then, after a few minutes, they headed right back in! It was time to discuss the film they had just seen."
- Paul Sterman, The Oakland Tribune

Many audiences gravitate toward movies with surprises. But what if the surprise is the identity of the movie itself? That's the twist of the Key Sunday Cinema Club, a successful moviegoing club."
- Curt Holman, Creative Loafing

One of the charms is that attendees never know what picture is playing until they arrive. It allows them to see the film fresh without the marketing bombardment that accompanies many movies."
- Michael Blowen, The Boston Globe

Members see these films before their friends -- or even most critics -- do, so there are no preconceptions about quality, just pure movie enjoyment! ...a welcome breath of fresh air."
- Niles Baranowski, The Riverfront Times

One of the best things to appear on the film-going scene... a terrific bargain!"
- Pat Dowell, NPR

Staff Bios

Benjamin Levy, Co-President
        Benjamin Levy graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a B.A. in political science and African American studies. He also received an A.O.S. degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. As a chef, Benjamin worked throughout the Bay Area at some of its finest restaurants, including Postrio, The Slanted Door and Yabbies Coastal Kitchen. From 1998-2003, Benjamin worked as the original manager of the San Francisco chapter of the Key Sunday Cinema Club and has been co-president since 2004. He is currently responsible for overseeing club operations and looks forward to expanding the club into additional venues throughout the country.

Katherine Yungmee Kim, Co-President
        Katherine Kim is a graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University. She worked as a journalist in Asia as the regional editor of The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh and as a reporter for Yonhap News Service and The Far Eastern Economic Review in Seoul, Korea. She was also a writer and editor at Pacific News Service in San Francisco, where her articles appeared in The Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday and The San Francisco Chronicle. From 2003-4, she was the senior writer for public relations at the University of Southern California. Since 2004, she has been the media representative for the Key Cinema Club and has helped oversee club operations.

Peter Brunette, Artistic Director
        Peter Brunette is currently Reynolds Professor of Film Studies at Wake Forest University, after teaching nearly three decades at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He has written or edited seven books on film, including Roberto Rossellini, the definitive study in English of this director's films (Oxford University Press, 1987; republished University of California Press, 1996); Screen/Play: Derrida and Film Theory (Princeton University Press, 1990; co-authored with David Wills); a co-edited book (with David Wills) on visual theory published by Cambridge University Press in 1994, entitled Deconstruction and the Visual Arts: Art, Media, Architecture; and a book on François Truffaut's film SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (Rutgers, 1993). In the fall of 1998, Cambridge University Press published his book The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni and, in January 1999, his edited book, Martin Scorsese: Interviews, was published by the University of Mississippi Press. His book on Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2005. He is also general editor of the Mississippi interview series; nearly 60 books have already been published in this series. After a decade as a film critic for Film.com, indieWIRE.com, and the trade paper Screen International, he now regularly reviews films for The Hollywood Reporter, in addition to being a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and several other newspapers. He is currently writing books on the Austrian director Michael Haneke and on the Italian master Luchino Visconti. He is also the Washington D.C. moderator for the club.

Andrew Mencher, Lead Film Programmer
        Andrew Mencher graduated from Skidmore College with his bachelor's degree in Anthropology in 1989 and received his M.A. in Film & Video from American University in 1993, where he produced and directed several award winning short films. He worked for Washington D.C.'s Key Theatre from 1991-97, and was integral in the formation and growth of the Key Sunday Cinema Club. He has served dozens of times as a stage 1 jury chair for the National Cine Awards, has appeared on Public Television (WNVC) as a film reviewer and is currently film programmer for Washington D.C.'s oldest film venue, the Avalon Theatre. In 2004, Andrew helped co-distribute two documentary features, the LOST BOYS OF SUDAN with Shadow Releasing and GO FURTHER! (Ron Mann) with Abramorama Entertainment.

Walt Irby, Director of Operations & Webmaster
        Originally from Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia, Walt Irby earned a Film and Television Degree from Boston University in 2007. He spent his final semester studying abroad and interning with Republic Films, a film production company in Sydney, Australia. He moved to Los Angeles in June 2007 with his wife, Gretchen, and began freelancing in the film production industry, taking on such "gigs" as operating teleprompters for industrial videos, as well as working as First Assistant Camera on two independent feature film shoots. He joined the KSCC team in January 2008 as Director of Operations, Webmaster and Graphic Designer. If you call or email, Walt will most likely be the one to respond.