Reflections from Projections

Snipped from my previous life as a projectionist:



I am the projectionist.
You may not know who I am.
My goal is to ensure that you do not know I exist.
Your voyage into the cinema is an illusion, broken only if I fail in my duties.

If I allow a scratch to dance down the center of the film frame, you will know me and curse me.
If the volume falls too low, or a frame line can be seen, you will know me and find me so that I might set it right.

I have sat in darkened rooms, guiding films with my aching hands as they wind through the projector, keeping the take-up reel silent and the images pristine.
I have unwound chaotic masses of curling film in silence while you regard your linear illusion in ignorance of its near-death experience.
I have detected the acrid vinegar scent of decaying acetate before the image has deteriorated- keeping beloved films from shifting red to the past and becoming forever lost.

Forgive me if, on occasion, I get lost in my own illusion and forget to initiate the changeover…