By Amy Abdelsayed for The Rebel Yell

Monday nights just got awesome.

Cinemondays is a free movie night open to the public and it’s right by UNLV. The movie screenings occur every week at 8 p.m. at the Sci-Fi Center in Commercial Center Plaza.

But the films they show are not your typical blockbusters. Don’t expect to see Titanic 3D on the marquee anytime soon. Instead, you’ll find films that are harder to get access to that have historical or artistic merit in the film world.

“There’s that famous saying that there’s no culture in Las Vegas which isn’t necessarily true,” said Kris Krainock, film enthusiast. He works side by side with his friend Vivian Martin to organize Cinemondays every week.

“I mean, I think it’s just harder to seek out and is not quite as nourished, but it’s there,” he said.

Krainock and Martin don’t want Cinemondays to be an elitist, segregated event and they say that their door is wide open to all types of people.

“We want cinephiles to come. We want students. We want the average Joe Schmo,” said Martin.

Although many of the films they choose to screen are pretty unheard of by mainstream culture, they do try to show some recognized classics every now and then to draw a crowd. Earlier in the month they screenedWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, for example.

This week they experimented with presenting a short-film double-feature. The night started with Luis Buñuel’s first controversial silent, surrealist short Un Chien Andalou (1929) and ended with Federico Fellini’s Toby Dammit (1968), a cinematic masterpiece inspired by the work of Edgar Allen Poe.

The content of the night was more than satisfying and the environment of the screenings enhanced the experience as a whole.

William Powell owns the Sci-Fi Center and he has completely reconstructed his back room into an elaborate screening room equipped with stadium seating and a projector.

“I don’t call it a movie theater. I call it a screening room because basically it’s a room with a screen and some seats we built,” said Powell. “Movie theater brings up expectations of an actual theater.”

Powell says that the word “theater” is actually banned there.

But although it may not be Brenden Theatre at the Palms, it is definitely the perfect environment for Cinemondays.

“It has a whole tone, a whole feel to it,” said Krainock. “When this first began, it was started by someone else and they showed the film at a bar. It was horrible. No one was listening and the sound was terrible. Now we have the perfect place.”

After the showings are over, Martin and Krainock say that people tend to like to hang out and talk. They say there is a social aspect to Cinemondays as well.

“It’s fun just to watch a film that you enjoy not at your house. You’re out at a neat place,” said Martin. “It’s always an adventure coming here, you never know who you’re going to encounter. It’s fun to see who shows up. Even if it’s just Kris and I and a few of our friends, we always have a good time.”

If you would like more information about Cinemondays you can follow them on their Facebook page facebook.com/Cinemondays.