Meet Craig Hammill | Founder.Programmer Secret Movie Club

We had the good fortune of connecting with Craig Hammill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Craig, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
It’s funny. I heard Steven Spielberg once talk about “the quiet voice” which is different from “the loud voice” in your head. He said to listen to that quiet voice when it says things.

I didn’t know what he meant exactly at the time but did when I started Secret Movie Club. I’m a filmmaker and many of my friends who had made features advised me to learn exhibition, marketing, building an audience since that’s at least 51% of the game.

I heard a quiet voice tell me maybe I could start showing movies at great movie theaters in Los Angeles on 35mm film. This was something I did while attending USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. This was something I was passionate about and could feel good about. And at the same time I could learn about that side of the business.

I wavered on this idea for a good few months because I didn’t have a lot of money (I was living in a studio apartment and supporting myself by SAT/ACT tutoring) but the quiet voice kept coming back. Finally I decided I would feel worse if I DIDN’T try it versus trying it and failing. I think it’s always better to try and fail than to not try. So I showed my first movie (Spielberg’s RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK coincidentally) April 2016 at Los Angeles’s historic Vista Theater. And I’ve been doing this ever since.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Secret Movie Club works to build a community of movielovers and moviemakers. Especially in this tough phase of the Corona virus moving from pandemic to endemic as we all learn how to adapt, it’s important to keep our eyes on the prize-bringing cinema roaring back in 2022.

If Secret Movie Club can be part of the answer by showing great movies, encouraging creation through short film contests, growing the Los Angeles based film community, being lucky enough to have filmmakers agree to come talk to our audience, we feel lucky.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As a Los Angeles native myself, I just love when folks realize what a wonderful city Los Angeles is. And how much more varied it is from its representations in movies sometimes as just 2 miles in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood (that’s our fault!).

I’d probably take someone to El Tepeyac Cafe in Boyle Heights and let them taste the delights of the Hollenbeck burrito. Then maybe a hike in Temescal Canyon and wrap it up with an oceanside window view at Duke’s in Malibu for dinner and a really intense tropical drink.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Lance Alspaugh who runs the Vista Theater, the Los Feliz 3, and the Coronado in San Diego. Lance was the only one really willing to work with me on price to let me screen my movies. His one rule was that I show them at midnight. This seemed a fair trade off to get a workable rate at one of LA’s greatest movie theaters. Since that time, Lance has always been an ally with great advice and wisdom. Secret Movie Club owes Lance a great deal for his mentorship.

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