New film series will bring 'Saturday morning cartoons' to the Richmond library, for adults

Charles Case began the film club Nowhere Cinema in April 2025, and has screened 24 films during that time.

“I really enjoyed building up a movie community,” Case said, noting that public movie screenings can serve as a "third space" for the community to gather.

Now, he's creating even more opportunities for connection, partnering with Richmond Public Library for a series called "Saturday Morning Cartoons Around the World.

Once a month, Nowhere Cinema will screen an international adult animated film, beginning this Saturday at the Main Library.

“As a kid, I loved getting up on Saturday and watching cartoons in front of the TV, Case said. “This series reimagines that experience, but with some truly beautiful and bizarre cartoons.” 

Michael McBean, Arts Associate at Richmond Public Library, is excited about the partnership as well. In addition to his library work, McBean facilitates Hard Light Cinema, which is run by eight cinephiles who screen independent and international films in various venues around Richmond, including RPL.

Since its founding last November, Hard Light has screened 35 films, focusing on bringing in non-mainstream films. One of these films screened at the library was the Jennifer Reeves film “The Time We Killed,” which examines a shut-in writer unable to leave her Brooklyn apartment on the brink of the US invasion of Iraq.

“That movie only screened a handful of times in New York and Paris,” McBean said. “We reached out to the director because we couldn’t get a copy, so she burned us a DVD and sent it down.”

With Saturday Morning Cartoons, the matinee times work well for discussion afterward, unlike more traditional evening screenings.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised how frequently people want to hang out and talk about the films,” McBean said of earlier showings.

For the inaugural film this Saturday, Case and the RPL will be screening “Son of the White Mare” (1981), one of the great psychedelic masterpieces of world animation and a film that offers an utterly unique viewing experience.

Other animated films that will screen on Saturday mornings over the spring and summer will include Boy & the World (2013) from Brazil on April 11, Alice (Czechoslovakia 1988) and The Pied Piper (Czechoslovakia 1986) on May 9, Junkhead (Japan 2017) on June 13, The Tale of the Fox (France 1937), My Life As a Zucchini (France 2016) on July 18, and Janos Vitez (Hungary 1973) on August 8.

“We want to be a hub in the creative community; we want to be a hub for Richmond,” McBean said.

Nowhere Cinema

Nowhere's name stems from Gregg Araki's 1997 film Nowhere.

“It's a bizarre and underappreciated classic of new queer cinema and really establishes the tone for what we're trying to screen," Case said. "I think the name is playful, too, since we're a pop-up theater with no permanent home.” 

For the most part, Nowhere’s screenings take place at Studio Two Three in Manchester, though Case said that “we’re guests in their event space.”  

The first year of Nowhere Cinema was heavily focused on films from the 1990s and 2000s. As Case said, “It's kind of a magical time in movie history. Home video was such a successful industry that studios were more willing to take chances on movies, knowing that they would likely make their money once the VHS or DVD came out.”

As Nowhere cinema has evolved, so has the choice of films. “Now we want to bring people together for a cool movie regardless of what year it was released,” he said.

Nowhere Cinema just screened its oldest film to date, Uptight from 1968, which concerns Black revolutionaries in Cleveland following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Another notable screening, on Valentines Day this year, was the John Waters cult film Polyester.

“A few years ago, I watched Polyester with friends on my birthday, and we shared an Odorama card," Case said. "Throughout the movie, there are 10 cues to scratch and sniff the card... and the smells range from roses to natural gas. It was a great shared experience, passing the Odorama card around, and I've wanted to do it on a large scale since. So we hosted it with Good For Her on Valentine's Day to a sold out audience, and it was a really fun night. I loved hearing the groans and laughter from people scratching and sniffing during the movie. That's really what Nowhere wants to create more of this year.”

This past Tuesday, Nowhere Cinema screened a Viewer's Choice event. When attendees arrived to Viewer's Choice Night at Studio Two Three, they scanned a QR code and did a ranked vote of  four films, selected by their synopsis and not knowing the names of the films. Viewers ultimately chose the 1993 film Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

"We've had a killer first year, and I want to build on that momentum," Case said. "We have a growing membership called Nowhere Society, and that's really opening doors for what's possible. Special events, more venues, different days... maybe our own film festival. My goal is for it to be undeniable that Nowhere Cinema needs its own theater, so 2026 is really working towards that future.”