The Cinema Ritual, reimagined.

I have been thinking about what we actually miss when we stop going to the cinema regularly.

It is not just the screen size. It is the ritual. Getting ready, showing up at a set time, sitting in the dark with other people who chose to be there, feeling someone laugh two rows back at the same moment you did. Streaming gave us convenience and took that away, and most of us accepted the trade without realising what we lost.

CONTRABAND is my attempt to bring that back, and to extend it to people who never had access to it in the first place.

If you and your best friend live in different cities, or your partner is travelling, or your sibling is on the other side of the world, CONTRABAND puts you in the same cinema together. Same film, same moment, same room. You can hear each other react in real time. That shared experience is the whole point.

The second thing CONTRABAND does is give independent and AI filmmakers somewhere real to take their work. Not a YouTube upload that disappears into the algorithm, but a scheduled screening on a proper screen, with a real audience who showed up on purpose and paid a ticket to be there.

We launched on Product Hunt today. CONTRABAND is a social cinema experiment for people who love the ritual but not the hassle.

If you love films and have a Quest headset, I would love to have you in the room: https://www.producthunt.com/products/contraband-vr-cinema