WELCOME TO CINEMARTINEZ
This hobby web page is intended to share our home theater "Cinemartinez" with our friends and family. Early each week, I will post information about the features selected. All showings are free of charge on Fridays at 8:00 PM unless otherwise specified. Poolside screenings are Super 8 mm and 16mm film screenings.
Please click on the SHOWING NEXT link to view our selected feature film
Contact me via e-mail with any questions.
See you at the movies!
My Life and the Movies
I was born in Cuba in 1953. My father was a Pediatrician and my mother a school teacher. Dad gave me my first 8mm projector when I was 7 years old together with some Kodachrome home movies from the previous owner who was leaving the country to the U.S. like many of us would eventually do in search of freedom from the Cuban Communist tyranny. I couldn’t film anything there because there was no raw film stock to be found, and every time the projector lamp blew we had to find another second hand projector because there were no lamp replacements. Eventually, dad got me a Bell & Howell 16mm Specialist second hand projector just like the one used in The Fabelmans and I began to collect second hand cartoons and shorts from other collectors leaving the country as well.
I had to leave Cuba before I turned 15 otherwise I would be of military age and unable to leave the island until past age 45. So I left alone with a Spanish student visa in 1968 when I was 14 and lived in Madrid until I was able to get a U.S. resident status and came to live in Miami with some friends until my father, mother, younger brother and sister were permitted to leave 2 years later. Dad had to complete his penance for wanting to leave the country by working as a general doctor in a sugar mill, far away from his town so he could only come to see his family on weekends. The government had confiscated his office and both his cars after he presented a request to emigrate and join me abroad. In the meantime one of my father ‘s brothers had already arrived in Florida and I went to live with him in Sarasota. Knowing my love for moviemaking, my uncle bought me a second hand Bell& Howell Super8mm projector and camera and it was then I began filming my home movies. I also began experimenting with making short subjects with my high school friends and I as actors. These were silent films.
I finally reunited with my family in 1970 and I started working part time to help mom and dad who were working and studying to become re-certified in the US. My job was a part time projectionist at night showing feature movies in the major hotels in Miami Beach (Fountainbleau, Eden Roc, Diplomat, etc). I was paid $11 a night and had to use my own car, pay for gas, and maintain the assigned 16mm equipment which consisted of a Kalart Víctor 70 with its speaker and an 8 ft screen which I hauled with me on my 1963 Volkswagen Beetle all over Miami Beach.I proved to be the best projectionist in the outfit and I became the caretaker of the film library. I knew every splice, scratch, and sprocket repair in each of those prints. On weekends, since I had the prints with me overnight, I would share them at home for the family.
When I entered Medical School in 1976, I eventually had to give up my night job which I loved. I had by then met the love of my life and I married Consuelo in 1980. She was the first person to give me a full length feature of Bye Bye Birdie in 1976 when Columbia Pictures Home 8 mm division began to print them for collectors. I had by then bought a Eumig magnetic sound projector which I paid in installments .When I finished medical school in 1980, I decided to train as a Diagnostic Radiologist because I loved imaging and discussing the “films” with other colleagues. With a resident physician salary of $14,000 a year, I began to collect full length super 8 mm features. Eventually, one of my uncles gave me an EIKI 16mm projector which he had won in a card game and I subscribed to The Big Reel magazine and began to collect shorts and features which I showed in our apartment for family and friends. When we bought our first home in 1984, we built our first home theater in the one car garage and named it CineMartinez. Friday nights were our screening nights for neighbors, family, colleagues and friends.
We bought our second home in 1994 and rebuilt CineMartinez in the master bedroom upstairs and the tradition continued until present day. As film became scarce and expensive, in 1999 I bought my first DLP projector and began to buy DVD’s and eventually Blu-rays and now 4K discs. My wife and I are devoted fans of Turner Classic Movies since its inception in 1994 and became charter TCM Backlot Fan Club members in 2016. We have been going on their Cruises since 2015 and went to their Festival in Hollywood in 2018. I won a contest for film hosting and appeared as the inaugural TCM Backlot guest programmer in 2017 and cohosted a night of 3 movie musicals directed by George Sidney ( Pal Joey, Eddy Duchin Story, and Bye Bye Birdie) on the channel in May of 2017 with Ben Mankiewicz. I retired from Academic Practice after 36 years at the University of Miami in May of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. I love teaching so I was in charge of the medical students who in addition to Radiology also learned about classic movies on the side.
Here is a link to my hobby page which has YouTube links to my interview at TCM which I personally edited down to about 6 minutes.
www.cinemartinez.com