The Nitrate Mezzanine

The cold open

At 1:45 AM, the private screening room of the Orpheum Film Society went dark save for the cold beam of a carbon-arc projector. In the velvet shadow of the VIP mezzanine booth, Lucian Brand sat rigid against burgundy leather, his crystal glass overturned on the armrest and bitter almond fumes rising from his blue-tinted lips. The city rain rattled the steel louvers high above the archive vault, where forty years of celluloid secrets were locked away for the night.

The victim

Lucian Brand, 54, cinema archivist and repertory film society director

The lineup

• Eldon Creed
• Rowena Park
• Callum Hayes
• Zadie Ellison