Steve MacQueen watched last Friday's 7 p.m. screening of I'm Still Here from the projection booth in the Film House at Burlington's Main Street Landing. From up there, the executive director of the Vermont International Film Foundation had a clear view of 220 occupied seats. The Oscar-winnin g movie "sold out hard," as MacQueen put it. "It was as crowded as that room can be." The earlier show, at 4 p.m., did almost as well. VTIFF's MacQueen is overseeing the resurrection of in-person moviegoing in Burlington. Since Merrill's Roxy Cinemas closed downtown in November, he's been able to book an increasing number of newly released pictures alongside the offbeat, indie and foreign ones for which his nonprofit is known. (Film distributors favor first-run theaters. They are working with MacQueen in part because Burlington and South Burlington no longer have any.) The Film House is a great place to watch contemporary fare such as Queer, Anora and Oh, Canada, all of which have been shown there in the past few months to large, appreciative audiences. More eclectic films often end up downstairs, next to the VTIFF office. Presciently, in the year before the Roxy went dark, VTIFF moved to Main Street Landing, bought a $400 popcorn machine and built an adjacent Screening Room that accommodates 35. It hosts shows there almost every weekend. The result is a budding film complex on the Burlington waterfront, with movie action not just when VTIFF hosts festivals, in April and October, but all year round. "I think we're filling a gap. That's fair," MacQueen said, with characteristic modesty. "It's really great to be able to do the little room downstairs and the big room upstairs." His goal is to increase the number and range of movies on offer and also to show them "in a really beautiful, respectful way." What does that mean, exactly? On a Wednesday evening in mid-March, I went with a friend to see The Room Next Door, playing in the Film House. The tickets were a competitive $12 a pop; $6 for students. I recognized a lot of people socializing in the lobby outside the theater. The popcorn was flowing. We slipped past the chatting groups and found seats in the clean, comfortable hall. The lights stayed on until after MacQueen gave a brief and funny introduction to the movie, the latest from Pedro Almodóvar. Without giving anything away, he let… ...read more read less