Filmhuis Cavia is Amsterdam's smallest cinema,40 seats, located upstairs at Van Hallstraat 52 in the Westerpark/Staatsliedenbuurt neighbourhood. It was founded in 1983 out of the squatters' movement of the Staatsliedenbuurt and has been run entirely by volunteers since day one. It is, by most measures, the most independent cinema in the Netherlands: no commercial programming, no marketing budget, no paid staff, and a commitment to screening on 35mm and 16mm film wherever possible.
The programme is built around arthouse, experimental, documentary, and imported films, work chosen for reasons of curatorial conviction rather than box office calculation. Filmhuis Cavia screens films that don't get Dutch distribution, retrospectives of directors ignored by larger institutions, and programmes assembled around ideas rather than releases. The audience is small and reliable. Discussions after screenings happen because the audience wants them to, not because they're scheduled.
The building is genuinely DIY: volunteers maintain it, build the seating, and run the projection equipment. Filmhuis Cavia shares its political DNA with OCCII and OT301, the same Amsterdam underground that survived the 1980s squatter conflicts intact. Coming here feels different from going to a cinema in the usual sense. It's closer to being invited into something.
