Balcony Seats: Watching Movies From Apartment Buildings

Alan Taylor
April 27, 2020
20 Photos
In Focus

Measures taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus have closed most movie theaters and restricted people to their homes. While drive-in theaters are enjoying a moment, some groups, companies, and movie fans are also working to present films to their neighbors stuck in apartment buildings, projecting images on the walls of nearby buildings. One group in Berlin, Window Flicks, even coordinated with a popcorn seller to hand out movie snacks to viewers in their apartments. Collected here, images of these movies shown in cities in Germany, Colombia, Brazil, and France in recent days.

Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

The Zeibig family watches the movie Loving Vincent, projected on the wall of a neighboring building, from their balcony in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020, during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The German capital is one of the world's most diverse cinema cities, but with movie theaters closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the cultural project Window Flicks is bringing film evenings to residents stuck at home by projecting movies on urban canvases and knocking on doors offering popcorn. #

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty

Read more
Olaf Karkhoff from Window Flicks gets ready to project the movie Loving Vincent on the wall of a building in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020. #

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty

Read more
Staff members from Knalle Popcorn prepare to hand out treats to residents watching the movie Loving Vincent, projected on the wall of a building, in Berlin on April 23, 2020. #

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty

Read more
Tek Chung (left) and Nikos Perimenis from Window Flicks set up audio and video equipment to project the movie Loving Vincent in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020. #

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty

Read more
A staff member from Knalle Popcorn hands out treats to residents watching Loving Vincent in Berlin on April 23, 2020. #

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty

Read more
Kreuzberg-district residents watch the movie from their front garden on April 23, 2020. #

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty

Read more
In Bogotá, Colombia, the company Cine Colombia projects a film on a giant screen in a park so that people quarantined in their apartments can watch a movie from home amid the pandemic on April 23, 2020. #

Raul Arboleda / AFP / Getty

Read more
Quarantined people watch a film from their apartment balconies in Bogotá on April 23, 2020. #

Raul Arboleda / AFP / Getty

Read more
A woman holds her pet as residents watch a movie from their apartments during a lockdown in Bogotá on April 22, 2020. #

Fernando Vergara / AP

Read more
People watch a movie being shown on the street from the balcony of their apartment in Bogotá on April 22, 2020. #

Luisa Gonzalez / Reuters

Read more
Residents light their cellphones before watching a movie from their balconies during the lockdown in Bogotá. #

Fernando Vergara / AP

Read more
People watch the 1955 film Man Without a Star as it is projected on the wall of an apartment building by members of the Association Home Cinema, which supports La Clef historic cinema, as the lockdown continues in Paris, France, on April 24, 2020. #

Stephane Cardinale / Corbis via Getty

Read more
Christine Davenier watches Man Without a Star, projected on the wall of a nearby apartment building, in Paris on April 24, 2020. #

Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters

Read more
People stand in the street to watch the showing of Man Without a Star in Paris on April 24, 2020. #

Stephane Cardinale / Corbis via Getty

Read more
People watch the film shown by the Association Home Cinema from the street in Paris on April 24, 2020. #

Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters

Read more
People in quarantine watch a movie on a giant screen from their windows, part of the project Cinema in the Windows, organized by the Rio de Janeiro municipality, during the coronavirus outbreak in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 17, 2020. #

Pilar Olivares / Reuters

Read more
People watch from their windows as a movie is projected on a giant screen below in Rio de Janeiro on April 17, 2020. #

Pilar Olivares / Reuters

Read more
People in quarantine watch a movie from their windows in Rio de Janeiro on April 17, 2020. #

Pilar Olivares / Reuters

Read more
A person and their pet watch the movie in Rio de Janeiro on April 17, 2020. #

Pilar Olivares / Reuters

Read more
People watch the movie from a closer vantage point during quarantine in Rio de Janeiro on April 17, 2020. #

Pilar Olivares / Reuters

Read more