Come to the Golden Arm

One of Harvard’s best-kept secrets is its private, student-run movie theater, The Golden Arm. The Golden Arm presents Harvard students with the rare opportunity to enjoy an elevated theatre experience without leaving Harvard Square. Every Thursday night, students gather on the second floor of Fairfax for the week’s next showing—a new location since its founding in 2024.

Before the renovations at Eliot House that began this year, the Golden Arm operated out of its own room in the house’s basement. The team behind the theater is composed of Eliot House seniors Joey Bejjani ’26, Alexandre “Alex” Benoit ’26, Xander Patton ’26, and Renée Perpignan ’26. The Golden Arm became the passion project of Art, Film, and Visual Studies concentrators Patton and Benoit. Bejjani and Perpignan worked together to create the Golden Arm’s website, where guests can reserve seats, preview future shows, and purchase movie posters designed by Patton. Recent screenings have included “Good Will Hunting,” “Shiva Baby,” and “Lazzaro Felice.” 

According to Perpignan, the Golden Arm’s space in Eliot was originally used for “students to come freely and book the room.” “Tutors would also book it if they wanted to have screenings or events,” Perpignan told the Independent. However, the theater had become “defunct, starting with COVID,” Patton explained. “We even found old posters in the old space, and [Eliot] used to do house screenings maybe once a month.”

Although the origins of the theater’s inherited name are uncertain, Patton explained the meaning of the term “Golden Arm.” “It is a [type of] classic story meant to teach people how to tell stories. So it’s supposed to be a simple fairy tale that’s about storytelling. And that’s really what a lot of these movies are. It’s just storytelling, right?”

The Golden Arm immerses visitors with the stories it presents by providing a realistic and special movie-going experience. Since revitalizing the theater, the Golden Arm’s team has made detail-oriented improvements to enhance the experience. For example, the theater now uses real movie theater chairs, each carrying an image of Eliot’s shield. Patrons are immediately greeted with a concessions stand when they enter, where they are free to choose from popcorn, candy, and select mocktails or cocktails. 

Patton, who doubles as one of the theater’s mixologists, explained how signature drinks include a unique weekly themed option and “the Golden Arm,” a variation of “a tiki drink called the Chief Lapu Lapu that I’ve slightly modified and renamed.” Benoit then selects the theater’s menu and drink names after he and Patton develop the recipes during winter and summer breaks. For the Sept. 18 showing of Mickey 17, the Golden Arm team paid homage to director Bong Joon Ho’s Korean roots by introducing the soju-based cocktail, “Bong Hits for Mickey.”

Receiving your own custom name tag made by Perpignan and Golden Arm volunteer and Lowellian, SoEun “Sonya” Park ’26, is another special touch that comes with attending a show at the Golden Arm. On Sept. 11, when the Golden Arm presented Disney’s “Ratatouille,” guests received mouse traps decorated with their name and cute drawings of chef hats. That night, guests were treated to crispy potato wedges and fried, soy-glazed brussels sprouts crafted by Matthews Hall resident Alexander “Alex” Bejjani ’29 and Currier House resident Whitney Jameson ’26. 

Some shows at the Golden Arm also involve interactive elements. For example, at the first-ever showing at the Golden Arm, a Halloween screening of “IT,” guests received red balloons and pins to play the balloon game, where they could pop the balloon at any time during the film, sending other patrons into a panic.

As Perpignan noted, a night at the Golden Arm is not “just showing up and watching a movie, but you get your own custom name tag, you get popcorn, you get drinks. It’s a whole experience. And so that’s what I feel we have created over the past year.” 

The Golden Arm has become so well ingrained in Eliot House’s culture that, at the suggestion of the House’s recently appointed faculty deans, Benoit and Patton have earned themselves House Committee (HoCo) chair positions. According to Patton, as of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2024, the Golden Arm chairs have “collaborated with the House to figure out how to make [the Golden Arm] accessible and included in House programming.” The current Golden Arm team envisions that future Golden Arm chairs will use this position to continue to promote community building at Eliot and the Harvard community as a whole. Merchandise will also soon be offered to audience members.

For anyone who is considering whether to watch a show at the Golden Arm, including students who do not live in Eliot House, Patton says, “just come, just have a good time. It’s a great space, even if you can’t get a seat. We’ll throw you on the pool table in the back of the room.”

There’s truly no better place to spend your Thursday nights than at the Golden Arm.

Adedoyin Adebayo ’26 (aadebayo@college.harvard.edu) is buying a ticket to see The Parent Trap on Oct. 2.