In the darkness of the movie space, illuminated only by the flickering animation on screen, the line between friends and strangers blurred. Newcomers and regulars alike cheered their favorite characters, debated theories and jotted down notes to discuss as credits rolled. Dozens of attendees gathere d in the makeshift theater — tucked away inside Dry Clean Only, an event space in Denver’s Clayton neighborhood — and spread out across the room’s various tables and chairs, watching the movie projected onto a blank wall. A low murmur filled the room underneath the film’s audio as attendees whispered back and forth. The Denver-based movie group, Ramen Cup Cinema Club, is one of dozens of film-based social clubs popping up across the country as people search for connection in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s still this persisting isolation and loneliness that we’re seeing, and I think one way to combat that is to find like-minded people in your community and to do things in person with them,” University of Denver psychology professor Carrie Michele Landin said. “That’s the role a social club would fill.” Humans are social creatures who are “wired” to seek out connection and engage with each other, Landin said. Society didn’t know what was coming when the pandemic first hit, but the isolation of that era and its lasting impacts persist in people today, even unconsciously, she added. People who were in their teens and 20s when the pandemic even were even more affected by the isolation, which disrupted the essential developmental task of “being social and getting to know yourself in relation to other people,” DU psychology professor with the Institute for Relationship Science Galena Rhoades said. And, for many, movies are already an isolating hobby, Denver film enthusiast Grace Augustinis said. It can be hard to find others who share the same passion for the film industry or who are willing to venture out of their living rooms to create that connection, Augustinis said. Americans are increasingly more likely to watch movies from the comfort of their own homes instead of at a traditional theater, according to a September poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The shift from in-person theaters to streaming was only accelerated by the pandemic and its aftermath. Patrons watch ‘Life of Chuck’ during a meeting of Ramen Cup Cinema Club at Dry Clean Only in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post) Augustinis attended her first meeting with Ramen Cup Cinema Club last year, searching for a new group to connect with after her old movie club host moved out of Colorado. The 27-year-old woman, born and raised in Denver, said she’s been part of the city’s film community since high school. Augustinis said she was welcomed with open arms and immediately drawn into a conversation about that month’s movie: Studio Ghibli’s “Princess Mononoke.” An animation major brought up how one scene was animated differently, sparking debate over why that artistic choice was made and how it played into the film’s underlying themes. “It’s so much more than going to a movie,” Augustinis said. “Without that connection, without being there, I never would have gotten that perspective.” “It’s really amazing to not only just sit and experience a film, because you could go to any movie theater and do that, but to turn to the person next to you, to make that potential connection, to talk to them about their experience watching the film, to talk to them about the details they noticed that you didn’t,” Augustinis continued. “It honestly brings such a magic to it.” It felt like Denver’s film industry fractured in 2020, driven apart by people leaving the city and others wary of meeting in person, Augustinis said. The city was not only dealing with a loss of creators, but also a loss of volunteers and people who wanted to get involved, she said. Now, she said she’s starting to see people bounce back and encourage the sense of community Denver had before the pandemic. “People are starting to realize that, without that sense of community, it’s just isolation,” Augustinis said. “It’s not good for your mental health, it’s not good for the community around you.” While people tried to connect virtually during the forced isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t enough to combat the loneliness, Landin said. “We take in a lot of nonverbal information when we’re connecting with people, and just connecting in our world with other beings, whether it’s our dog or our best friends,” Landin said. “We are looking at the whole body and taking things in — what we’re hearing, what we’re seeing, what we’re feeling, what we’re smelling. That’s just part of having a full experience.” The digital sphere prevents people from engaging all of their senses, and thus sabotages the experience, Landin said. It’s more fulfilling to be in a room together, silently watching a movie, than to be part of a virtual meetup, she said. People are still trying to recover from COVID-19’s impact on society’s “feelings of connectedness,” but they’re also more eager to join clubs and seek out relationships, Landin said. The pandemic forced people to realize how important relationships were to form and maintain, she said. Founder Andy Kinomoto greets guests during a meeting of Ramen Cup Cinema Club at Dry Clean Only in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post) “Coming out of the pandemic, all of us knew that meeting people and socializing again was a hard thing to get reaccustomed to,” Ramen Cup Cinema Club founder Andy Kinomoto said. “Community was a really hard thing to find.” Kinomoto used to host movie-themed events with his friends, cramming people into his small living room with interactive games and themed snack trays. “It started just as a way to share my love for film with other people and really make it a social experience, rather than a passive experience,” Kinomoto said. “I came to a point where I was like, ‘I wonder if I can bring this sort of experience to the community and … bring the social aspect of movie-going back’.” Related Articles The best Denver art exhibits of 2025 (including four you can still see) Perry Bamonte, guitarist and keyboardist for The Cure, dies at 65 ‘Heated Rivalry’ series mixes hockey and queer romance and is scoring big audiences Denver artist celebrates the principles of Kwanzaa through his art Things to do around Denver: A jazzy Nutcracker, ‘Simpsons’ legend in Aspen and more The goal, Kinomoto said, is to help people engage with both the film and each other, to stick around after it ends instead of clicking off the television alone at home or dispersing without meeting fellow attendees in a commercial theater. Movie clubs give people a rare “third space” — somewhere that’s not home and not work that they can connect with others around things that interest them, Landin said. “People need a space where they can really put their focus on that activity with others; there’s a lot of benefit to that,” Landin said. “Not only does it help people kind of reenergize, because … the demands of work and home can be really draining, but anything you feel passionate about and pursue mitigates stress.” The pandemic, which spurred an increase in remote work and school, left people with fewer day-to-day social interactions across the board, Rhoades said. “There’s just fewer opportunities, unless they’re formal opportunities like a social club, for people to meet and get to know one another,” Rhoades said. “We are built as humans to connect with other people and to collaborate in our lives.” Annie Roney, the founder of IRL Movie Club, said the trend of people seeking out community and connection in an era dominated by streaming — and post-pandemic loneliness — persists across the country. IRL Movie Club is a national social group with the same goals as Ramen Cup Cinema Club. That is, organizers aim to foster post-film conversations and encourage attendees to spill out into the surrounding neighborhood for conversations over coffee and dinner after screenings. “I think people are hungry for events and gatherings, I think people are lonely, I think people feel disconnected,” Roney said. “…We stopped going out. Full stop. We just stopped going out.” The theater is a nostalgic space where people have experiences, where they feel safe, making the decision “an easy yes,” she said, adding that she just wants people to have the chance to come together in their own community for a shared experience that’s otherwise disappearing. “It is essential for a successful democracy that people have conversations,” Roney said. “The more we’ve become set in our silos — between COVID-19 and the advent of streamers — and we stopped going out to theaters, we’re losing those connections.” Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter. ...read more read less