Most Wednesday nights, the 800-seat Gardena Cinema has only a handful of people sitting in front of its single screen.
But last week, hundreds of moviegoers almost filled the historic theater twice in one evening, for back-to-back shows as part of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. And that came days after another film organization hosted a special event, drawing about 500 guests to the cavernous space behind an unassuming front on Crenshaw Boulevard.
"I haven't seen that many people at the theater in probably a few decades," said Judy Kim, who runs the cinema, one of the last family-owned and operated single-screen theaters in Los Angeles. "I've been going nonstop with these special events."
