The Austin Cinematheque, the community's only free repertory film series, was established at the University of Texas during the fall of 2005. At this time, the Varsity Theater had been vacant for 15 years, the Dobie Theater was shifting it's focus to more commercial works, and the only on-campus 35mm projector sat gathering dust between screenings of second-run blockbusters. Drawing inspiration fr
om repertory programs all over the world, as well as former local programs like CinemaTexas, the Austin Cinematheque provided a self-funded screening of François Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS in the Texas Union Theater and effectively kicked off what has become one of the most eclectic and publicly accessible repertory series in Austin.
