Full-time nonprofit cinema Film Forum is still your go-to place for watching classic, avant-garde, independent, and foreign art films, not only because it features more of them, consistently, than just about anyplace else, but also because, like many of the movies it shows, it has its own rich history. It opened in its initial spot in 1970 as a screening space with 50 folding chairs and a projector; now it's a three-screen movie theater with 489 seats, many with donor-name plaques on the back. Along with carefully chosen selections and retrospectives, the theater will sometimes bring a screenwriter, actor, director, or other knowledgeable commenter to its screenings and hold Q&As after films play. The crowd is there to see movies, not to chitchat among themselves or talk back to the screen as the movie plays. Film Forum also does the unheard of—the double feature—and if you become a member, it's tax deductible, making you feel even better about yourself and your love of anti-commercial culture. Good popcorn and baked goods, too. 209 West Houston Street, 212-727-8112, filmforum.org (10014)