Watch Once Upon a Time in Quito (2025) Official Trailer

With the arrival of major international movie theater chains in the late 1990s, the era of the old-fashioned movie theaters in Quito came to an end. For more than 80 years, the city was dominated by iconic movie theaters that captivated audiences like no other. The Bolívar, Variedades, Atahualpa, Alhambra, Capitol, and Fénix theaters, among others, were the gods of cinema that, in their heyday, projected illusions, desires, and fantasies onto the big screen for viewers. This documentary is a journey through time, a reconstruction of that cinematic memory through testimonies, vestiges, and memories.