The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced its inaugural film programming, set to begin with the museum’s opening on September 22. The museum will feature continuous film screenings in two adjacent theaters, each seating 299, located on the ground floor near the north lobby. Access to the theaters will be included with general admission, allowing visitors to enter and exit freely throughout museum hours.
One theater, named after documentary pioneer Robert J. Flaherty, will primarily showcase documentaries, including works related to the artistic processes of figures featured in the museum’s opening exhibitions such as Norman Rockwell, Jim Lee, Charles M. Schulz, Maurice Sendak, Diego Rivera, J.C. Leyendecker, and Weegee. The programming will also include the museum-commissioned documentary series "Seeing Is Believing: The Story of Narrative Art," alongside screenings of the 2024 television series "The Power of Film," directed by Laura Gabbert, and Ron Mann’s 1988 documentary "Comic Book Confidential."
The second theater, named for early Hollywood montagist and experimental filmmaker Slavko Vorkapich—who chaired the USC film department nearly a decade before George Lucas enrolled there—will focus on avant-garde and experimental cinema. Programming here will highlight the inventive potential of film through short films and sequences demonstrating the medium’s visual and imaginative capabilities. Offerings will include Lucas’ own student films from 1965 to 1969, montage sequences by Vorkapich for movies such as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” silent films by Georges Méliès and Émile Cohl, early animations by Winsor McCay, and experimental works by artists like Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Norman McLaren, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger. The theater will also feature historically significant animated shorts from Walt Disney and Fleischer Studios, as well as abstract visual music pieces by Mary Ellen Bute and Oskar Fischinger, plus excerpts from Busby Berkeley musicals, Looney Tunes cartoons, and contemporary selections such as "Cowboy Bebop" and an episode of “Star Wars: Visions.”
The film program is structured to offer a continuous, open-door experience, allowing visitors to explore and engage with the material at their own pace, aligning with the museum’s broader mission to explore storytelling in its myriad forms. A schedule of screenings will be provided to facilitate planning, and programming will be updated periodically throughout the year. The theaters will also serve as venues for special events.
Tickets for the Lucas Museum, established with a construction cost of approximately $1 billion, went on sale Tuesday and reportedly experienced significant demand, with digital wait times extending beyond four hours and queues numbering up to 13,000 guests. Museum representatives did not disclose exact sales figures but expressed appreciation for early interest from founding members and initial visitors ahead of the September opening. The film programming was first unveiled at the Hall H panel during San Diego Comic-Con.