A short history of The Guild

The Guild opened on February 16, 1966, taking over the site of the Chinese Village restaurant at 3405 Central Avenue NE. Its debut feature was the Greek film The Red Lanterns. Within months, a tough arthouse market pushed the owners toward adult fare, and for five years the Guild was part of Central Avenue's pornographic-theater era.

In April 1971, Bert Manzari bought in and re-launched the cinema with a program of classics and revivals. An opening-week newspaper ad captured the pivot with this line: "Due to the lack of interest in today — Yesterday is being brought back!!" Through the 1970s the Guild built its reputation on cult revivals — King of Hearts, Harold and Maude, The Groove Tube — and grew into one of the first art-house cinemas in the American Southwest.

From 1975 to 1989, the Guild ran in tandem with a sister cinema, Don Pancho's, across from UNM. After Don Pancho's closed, Joe Esposito (1988–1998) and then Joe Alcorn and Sylvia Wittels (1998–2003) each took a turn stewarding the Guild's single-screen run. Current owner Keif Henley bought in in 2003 and has programmed it ever since — a mix of new arthouse releases, documentaries, repertory, midnight screenings, and community nights that won't find a home anywhere else in town.

The Guild's 1980s and 1990s had their share of big runs — The Gods Must Be Crazy, The Crying Game, Like Water for Chocolate, Babette's Feast, Hoop Dreams — and their share of threats, including a 2002–2004 standoff with the eight-screen Madstone chain that briefly tried to shut the Guild out of Albuquerque's independent distribution scene. Madstone folded first.

Lorena Turner, manager through the mid-'90s, described the Guild of that era as "part of the backdrop of our lives. It felt — not important, but significant. Pure." She's the one who, late in her tenure, hired the projectionist who would eventually take over the place.