GO FORTH AND FILL THE LAND WITH CINEMAS
ISSUE 2
SEPTEMBER: UNOFFICIAL MONTH OF CINEMA
1-30 SEPTEMBER 2015
FREE
VOTE CINEMA In an age of instant gratification through Netflix, YouTube or Video on Demand services, the arguments for visiting a cinema could be seen as increasingly unconvincing, especially coming from a middle-aged person from Reading who doesn’t even live in the UK anymore. I’d be the first to admit I am miserably out of touch and my belief that talent, friendships and fresh perspectives arise from repertory cinemas could potentially reek of nostalgia.
The programming at the Scala was refreshingly anarchic and comprehensive. The double or triple-bills always drew up links between different directors that wouldn’t have been apparent to me as a teenager. All this was done without the kind of fuss or fanfare that labels someone a ‘curator’ for just picking a few films for an event or festival. The Scala had scant regard for critical hierarchy; supposed high or low art was honoured with the same canvas. Herschell Gordon Lewis was as valid as Andrei Tarkovsky. Admission was very affordable, even for early 1990s wages, and that usually included three films.
My epiphany was at the Scala Cinema exactly a quarter of a century ago. The film in question happened to be David Lynch’s Eraserhead, but that in itself was only one facet within the circumstances that ignited such an intense response. Age had a lot to do with it, but the environment in which the film was screened cannot be divorced from the experience, which makes me wonder if one can truly undergo an epiphany from watching a film on a tablet.
Times have changed, of course. Socially and culturally, London feels as if it’s eating its own tail, what with many people fleeing for cheaper rents in other towns or even countries. With that in mind, here’s a salute to the organisers of Scalarama who every year manage to bypass the pressures and distractions of modern life in the capital and beyond to not only show us what the Scala and repertory cinema in general was like, but also what it should continue to be like.
The Scala was voluptuously atmospheric as a cinema and the act of entering its dimension felt akin to an illicit, lowlife Alice in Wonderland, as if written by William Burroughs. I loved the dusty squalor of the auditorium along with other pungent aromas. It was the closest my generation got to the US grindhouse cinemas lovingly described by the likes of Michelle Clifford, Bill Landis and Jack Stevenson. The dim, red, amniotic glow of the cinema screen was a portal into another world. That anticipation and apprehension from seeing that red screen lying in wait for the next film, along with the Northern Line rumbling underneath, shaped the way I thought about the act of making and seeing films.
If you’re lucky enough to still live in London in this age of absurd living costs, or are located elsewhere in the UK where Scalarama is taking place, this season is a chance to collectively experience a wide range of seldom-seen films on the big screen and to find like-minded souls. In hindsight, the thrill of repertory cinema for me as a teenager was finding solace in the fact that there were other people who shared the same interests and that film could be social rather than merely a solitary experience.
HELP! I’M A CINEMA
JOHN WATERS AT BFI
BY PETER STRICKLAND
WHO ARE THE 51%? And why do they want films?
CELLULOID VS VHS Which will be the new vinyl?
Confessions of a pop-up
Peter Strickland: Writer/Director (The Duke of Burgundy, Berberian Sound Studio) born in Reading, 1973. Frequented the Scala from 1990-1993.
The Pope of Trash, respectable at last?
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1-30 September 2015
A CELEBRATION OF CINEMA Founded and produced by Cinema Nation CINEMA NATION CO-DIRECTORS Philip Foxwood (London), Michael Pierce (Liverpool) SCALARAMA PATRON Andrea Novarin SCALARAMA COORDINATORS Sophie Brown (Brighton), Maria Cabrera (London), Richard Davis (Northern Ireland), Cinema Diabolique (Nottingham), Morvern Cunningham (Scaledonia), Andy Howlett (Birmingham), Tara Judah (Bristol), Sheffield Independent Programmers, Greg Walker (Manchester), Michael Wood (Leeds) PRESS Elizabeth Benjamin, Together Films CONTACT The Ranch, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE hello@scalarama.com www.scalarama.com @Scalarama NEWSPAPER TEAM Philip Foxwood, Sinéad Nunes, Michael Pierce, Rachel Steele DESIGN Chris Jackson chris@csjackson.co.uk SCALARAMA LOGO DESIGN 2D Design CONTRIBUTORS Jim Alan, Corrina Antrobus, Kelly Bennaton, Beth Bird, Chris Boyd, Christopher Brown, Sophie Brown, Bryher, Maria Cabrera, Chloe Cheeseman, Jaq Chell, Phil Concannon, John Demmery Green, Anthony Donoghue, Rich Dundas, Ian Francis, Kirsty Fox, Jane Giles, David Greenall, Neil Hepburn, Dan Layton, Alexia Lazou, Lani Jo Leigh, Tara Judah, Jude, Ian Mantgani, Mike McConnell, Mehelli Modi, Sinéad Nunes, Michael Pierce, Linda Robinson, Huston Scala, Tim Smithies, Rachel Stokes, Peter Strickland, Tamara Van Strijthem, Jonathan Tinsley, Hayley Trowbridge, Paul Vickery, Greg Walker, John Waters, Rob Wilbraham, Michael Wood NEWSPAPER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Susan Allenback, Chris Barwick, Alison Bechdel, Duncan Carson, Sam Cuthbert, Justin Harries, Andy Kimpton-Nye, Mike Leedham, Patricia McGrath, Jo Mohammed, Barbara Ann O’Leary, Stanley Schtinter, Nick Walker, Sean Wild WEBSITE CREDITS Rob O’Rourke, Sam Meech Printed by Iliffe Print, Cambridge on recycled paper. © 2015 by Cinema Nation, the artists, authors and photographers. With the support of
SCALARAMA
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HAVE YOU VOTED YET? Knowing no borders and making friends with all who will come sit with it in the dark, Scalarama is back for its fifth year. Clear your diaries as Scalarama exhibitors across the land steer thousands of minds through time, space and celluloid on a cosmic quest to make September the unofficial month of cinema. Let this newspaper be your treasure map and start an adventure, discovering cinemas old and new, borrowed and blue, in fields, on boats and even in a zoo! But most importantly, don’t forget to VOTE CINEMA! Forget phone lines and ballot boxes, if you care about cinema survival, VOTE CINEMA by moving your bodies into the orbits of others, expand horizons together and make every September memorable. Someone proposed at a scratch’n’sniff screening of Polyester last year… how will you top that in 2015? Go start a revolution with PROJECT 51! Protect a projectionist with CELLULOID FOREVER! Be recruited into the black blocks of VHSTIVAL! Raise a glass for SECOND RUN DVD’s tenth birthday! And polish those turds as JOHN WATERS is coming! Scalarama has an open-source, freerange policy meaning anyone, anywhere, at any time can get involved and put on an event. So be a creep and follow us
@Scalarama, send bowel movements to hello@scalarama.com and go click yourself filthy at scalarama.com. It’s time to ignite your passion, fire up that projector and pass the flame of cinema on to the next generation! It’s what the Scala would have wanted... Huston
CONTENTS
FEATURES Project 51 Shirley Clarke Celluloid Forever VHSTIVAL Second Run Interview Rocky Horror 40th Birthday Cannon Films John Waters Roar / Dragon Inn
4 6 9 10 12 14 15 16 18
GET INVOLVED What Can We Do? I Want to be a Cinema Radical Film Network
19 20 22
LISTINGS Central East / Nottingham London North / Leeds, Sheffield NW Central / Manchester Liverpool N. Ireland Scotland South East / Brighton SW West Midlands / Bristol Birmingham Wales
23 24 26 26 27 28 28 28 29 30 30
The Scala - coming soon to a bookshelf near you! BY JANE GILES King’s Cross, June 4th 1993. The Scala was dead. Asked to write an obituary for Stefan Jaworzyn’s second Shock Xpress compendium, my article was full of grief and rage. I focused on the history of the Scala from 1981-93, when it was a palatial venue in a vice-ridden part of town and the destination of choice to see a wide range of films from the classics to the avant-garde, but particularly cult movies. The last days of the Scala had been grim. Despite support from some parts of the film industry for our petition to ‘Save the Scala’, the early 1990s had little appetite for the weird and the wonderful; cavernous, atmospheric rep cinemas were out of fashion and audiences dwindled painfully. Fast forward 14 years and I was again asked to write about the Scala, this time for Sight & Sound, a fond ten-page collective celebration of the lost art of the double bill. I was amazed to see a blown-up image of the Scala’s famous calendar programme on the front cover. In the same month, Total Film published a five-page article “remembering the UK’s first and only grindhouse”. Soon after, I was contacted by two separate graduates writing academic theses and Danny Leigh interviewed me on BBC Film
2011. Then came the Scala Forever team with their plans for a tribute season playing across many different London venues. Something was happening. What had been a personal memory – of the place I ‘ran away to’ as a small-town girl, where I expanded my film horizons, got a criminal record, met the man who would become my husband and the father of my children – was becoming public history. People were coming out with their own stories about the Scala and a lucid articulation of what it meant, 20 years later on. And now the history is no longer mere nostalgia, as the Scala ethos has been taken up and turned into something new by energetic, imaginative people too young to have ever been to the actual venue. Scala Forever became Scalarama; more than just a building, Scala is a shared sensibility and a movement sprawling across the whole country through every type of cinema, from pop-ups to picture palaces. It even includes Home Cinema Day. Having just finished a chapter on the Scala for Routledge’s History of British Cinema due for publication in 2016, it is time for me to pull all of this together in a definitive biography. From its deepest roots in a 1772 Fitzrovia theatre and the story of The Other Cinema 1969-78. From its first incarnation
in Tottenham Street through the Palace years, up to King’s Cross and its lasting legacy. It will be the story of a building (actually three buildings), but also a tale of the incredible people and films that were part of it during changing times. It will be vast, raucous, rude, eccentric. Tragic in parts, funny in others. Sometimes weird and always wonderful. If you would like to be part of the book – in a starring role, bit-part or crowd scene - and have photographs or stories about the Scala in either Tottenham Street or King’s Cross, please contact me via scala.stories@gmail.com
Jane Giles (right) is a writer, film programmer and distributor who has worked at the Scala, ICA, LFF, Channel 4, Tartan Films and is currently Head of Content at the BFI.
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PROJECT 51 Leaked Sony emails, whitewashed Oscars, Cannes’ heelgate: OK, film industry, we get it... Your condition is chronic and you need help. Come into the healing circle of Scalarama and together we can protect the past and project the future.
And more than gender: Scalarama 2014’s diversity of audiences was equal to the diversity of its programmers. So isn’t it time for well-intentioned but tokenistic programming to move aside, to make spaces for us to show our own stories?
2015 has seen headline after headline reacting to an ingrained problem with little hope of reform, so let us now focus on the solution. Whilst the % of female filmmakers is criminally low in the competitive ‘industry’, outside of it a new world of cinemamakers are thriving and supporting each other; Scalarama 2014 was comprised of an even split of female and male exhibitors. But with women in the most senior of the UK’s cultural film programming roles, isn’t it time to ask - what will it take for 51% of a cinema’s programme to reflect and respect 51% of our population?
The question must always be asked by the audience, and the answer is to provide tools. This is not a one-off theme. It is not a month long mini-season. It is a meeting place to gather. It is a banner to march under. It is a spray can and a packet of chalk. It is a seed grown in the fieldwork of a million cinemothers. Our Time is Now. We are global, and we are not a minority. Protect Everyone. Project 51. Coming this Autumn #thetimeisnow film season celebrating gender equality around the world and those that make it happen.
Why The Watermelon Woman is a total cinematic refreshment Reel Good Film Club and Bechdel Test Fest present Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (1996) The disproportionately low amount of women, people of colour and positive representations of gay people on screen may have you checking your calendar to check you’ve not been transported back in time. Improvements are emerging but it is still alarming to see how much work there is to be done with getting more of these stories told in cinema. Maria Cabrera, Grace Barber-Plentie and Lydia Heathcote founded Reel Good Film Club and have partnered with Corrina Antrobus - founder of the Bechdel Test Fest - to screen a film that perfectly reflects why they do what they do.
Bechdel Test Fest’s aims chime with this. The year-long film festival celebrates films that pass the ‘Bechdel Test’ as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. The test requires a film to have two named women who have a conversation with each other about something other than a man - a low bar that almost 50% of films struggle to pass. “There is a delusion that films with female leads aren’t profitable or that men won’t enjoy them,” says Corrina. “I aim to prove that wrong by highlighting brilliant films that pass the test with flying colours and present women as complex and dynamic - not just someone’s wife, mother or sex toy”. Cheryl is drawn to one particular ‘mammie’ whose brief but alluring appearance begs investigation. “Girlfriend’s got it goin’ on!” she exclaims, but when she discovers she is simply billed as ‘Watermelon Woman’, she takes it upon herself to tell this woman’s story.
Reel Good aim to create a non-alienating space where watching movies is removed from hierarchy. They find it strange that world cinema and films by people of colour are so inaccessible to young people with shallow pockets, and endeavour to put on free screenings allowing them “to open discussion outside the elitist cinema circle”. As film students (and aspiring filmmakers, Reel Good Film Club and Bechdel Test Fest have carefully selected The Watermelon Woman - the first feature film by Cheryl Dunye, an African-American lesbian. Its very existence is a landmark in cinema history due to its genuine portrayal of black gay lifestyle through the sincere lens of a black gay filmmaker.
writers and curators), they are frustrated by the “uncomfortable, isolated and racist way film is taught”. The aim is to allow a wider, more varied audience the chance to discover, support and discuss work created by, and about, people of colour and varying sexuality and gender; “We want to prove that variety of all kinds is what people want to see”.
Cheryl works in a video shop and shyly confesses to being a filmmaker in search of a project. She knows she wants to make a film about black women, casually lamenting: “because our stories never get told,” and during her pursuit for inspiration she finds herself more inspired by the quest itself. Miffed by the lack of black women in the films that surround her, she is baffled by how many black characters go uncredited. When watching Plantation Memories,
In tandem to finding ‘Watermelon Woman’, Cheryl explores herself and her sexuality, embarking on a relationship with a white woman, Diana (Guinevere Turner). The Watermelon Woman’s portrayal of an interracial lesbian relationship nuanced the representation of gay characters in cinema where, until the 1990s, there was little positive portrayal to be found. Cheryl gave black women a space to explore their on-screen representations both historically and in contemporary canons.
Follow @BechdelTestFest and @GotToBeReel on Twitter or find us on Facebook for our forthcoming events. Reel Good Film Club and The Bechdel Test Fest screen The Watermelon Woman at Deptford Cinema with post-screening panel discussion on 13th September at 3pm. Free entry. The Watermelon Woman also screens at the Liverpool Small Cinema on 2nd September; Leeds Queer Film Festival presents the film at Wharf Chambers on 9th September and Eyes Wide Open presents it at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Brighton on 26th September. If you want to organise a screening of the film, get in touch at hello@scalarama.com
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Reel Equality sci-fi drama Another Earth and smart teenage classic Clueless. The film club has seen huge and growing success, with our sell-out screenings filling bigger and bigger venues. Equation has welcomed audiences at local independent cinema venues (Broadway, Savoy, New Art Exchange), as well as the tiny Screen 22 and a community centre.
BY CHLOE CHEESEMAN It’s not a secret any more: the film industry grossly under-represents women by creating too many movies that focus on men and sideline women from the plot. When female characters are present, too often they are written as limiting, two-dimensional stereotypes.
Ultimately, through attracting a wide audience to our screenings, we are contributing to the evidence that there’s a big demand for films that show diverse, interesting representations of women, and encouraging better film making and programming.
Reel Equality is a Nottingham-based film club born to challenge the lack of women’s stories and sexist stereotypes of women in mainstream cinema and show that women-centred stories can make brilliant films. We aim to challenge the monotony of malelead narratives and clichéd representations of women that exist in Hollywood by showing films with developed and nuanced female characters. Run as a campaign project by local domestic violence prevention charity Equation (equation.org.uk/reelequality), Reel Equality exists to raise awareness of how the minimisation and objectification of women in film can have a real-world negative impact. Stifling women’s stories reinforces damaging beliefs about the lesser value of women.
As part of the Scalarama season of great movies, our screening on 2nd September is French drama Girlhood in collaboration with Sojourner Sisters, a local black women’s heritage group, at Nottingham’s New Art Exchange. Event details will be released at facebook.com/reelequalitynotts Constant gender stereotyping limits society’s opinions about what women’s ‘proper’ role should be, feeding discrimination and gender-based violence. We aim to raise awareness of this problem and provide a fun and positive alternative.
#DirectedbyWomen A Worldwide Film Viewing Party BY LINDA ROBINSON From 1st through 15th September 2015, there is a party going on and the world is invited! For 15 days, film lovers around the globe are invited to celebrate the work of female film directors by watching films, discussing directorship and adding to the dialogue about women’s roles in filmmaking, historically and today. Currently there are almost 7000 women directors listed on directedbywomen.com, and on the back of this global celebration the number is sure to increase. Directed by Women is delighted to team up with Scalarama 2015 in bringing expanded diversity through this year’s Project 51 theme. The goal is to achieve equality in film programming, not just in what is shown, but in who shows it. Passionate, free, impactful, wonderful and wondering attention will be focused on the creative outpouring of women directors through the decades, with the intent that the celebration will continue to engage viewers going forward. Taking part in this celebration can be as personal as watching a female-directed film
at home, or as public as hosting a viewing party with friends and sharing about it online; posting photos on Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook; tweeting the films you have watched or your movie wish lists; interviewing a female director for your blog. Coordinating community events with your local library, school, college, film groups or cinemas are excellent ways to contribute. Talk about films directed by women, do some internet research, check out books from the library and encourage group discussions about the wonderful discoveries you make. Worldwide, you can create your own international film-lovers’ festival - a Virtual Film Viewing Party - without leaving your house, by inviting viewers to simultaneously watch a female-directed film with movie lovers all over the world. Directed by Women, a Worldwide Film Viewing Party, is a magnificent chance to awaken the world to the voluminous contribution of women to film. Once our eyes are opened, we will no longer be asleep. Start the film love this summer and make sure that love never ends! Let’s get this party started! Linda Robinson is a writer/illustrator living in rural Michigan whose passions are film, celebrating women’s wisdom, nature, and coming down the mountain with grace. @ziggityboomer
Spanning all genres and open to all, the club promotes diversity and inclusion. We introduce our films with information about gender representation, and often have a speaker and discussion. Previous films have included Palestinian story Lemon Tree,
Chloe Cheeseman is Campaign and Marketing Coordinator at Equation and Kelly Bennaton volunteers at Reel Equality @equationorg
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SHE’S A REBEL:
ode to the underseen Shirley Clarke
BY SOPHIE BROWN Right now, I’m revolting against the conventions of movies. Who says a film has to cost a million dollars and be safe and innocuous enough to satisfy every 12-year-old in America?... We’re creating a movie equivalent of Off Broadway, fresh and experimental and personal. The lovely thing is that I’m alive at just the time when I can do this. — Shirley Clarke, 1962 I first came across Shirley Clarke in a screening at the Berlin Film Festival. It was a fairly quiet screening in one of the most beautiful auditoriums I have ever visited, the Delphi Filmpalast. I was there to watch the newly restored Portrait of Jason (1967). I didn’t know what to expect but I was struck by this intense documentary that had the relentless force of Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and pushed the boundaries of comfort, swinging between laughter and shock. I had never seen a film like it before, and wondered why I was approaching 30 and had never heard of it, let alone the director Shirley Clarke. I was not the only one - until Milestone Films acquired and restored her first feature The Connection (1961), it had been unseen in cinemas for over 30 years. Having won critical acclaim at Cannes, it was subsequently banned in the US for its inclusion of the word ‘shit’. When Clarke went ahead and opened it at the D.W. Griffith theatre in New York in 1962, authorities shut it down and arrested the projectionist.
I couldn’t find The Cool World (1963) anywhere other than an upload on YouTube. I waited until nightfall so I could recreate some sense of cinema. I was gripped by the non-fiction aesthetic and the cool Dizzy Gillespie soundtrack. I wanted to watch it with other people, with the volume set to loud. When I heard Ashley Clark was including Ornette Coleman: Made in America (1985) as part of his Afrofuturism season at the BFI, I was so excited. And it was as great as I’d hoped. A vibrant, pre-MTV music video style, with flashbacks and dream sequences edited to the non-linear rhythm of jazz, Clarke’s documentary is expressionistic, intuitive and a brilliant celebration of Coleman – way ahead of its time. Seeing this film in a cinema reinforced my determination to screen her films and share her story with others...
Clarke’s unique approach was to deconstruct the staged choreography in order to create a cinematic expression of its fluidity. She is said to have laughed a lot and loudly, and her apartment was the social hub for the artists and intellectuals of the New York scene. As a prominent member of the small independent filmmaking community in New York, she turned her attention to social issues in the late 1950s. She was the only woman to sign the New American Cinema manifesto in 1961 – which valued the importance of personal expression, rejected censorship, discarded the elitism of big budgets or film as financial vehicles, and proposed to rebuild the restrictive structures of distribution and exhibition.
Shirley Clarke went against the grain and fought hard to be where she was. She had to be tough to be taken seriously. Born into a comfortable family in New York, descendants of Polish-Jewish-Latvian immigrants who had made their wealth from inventions and entrepreneurship, she left her volatile home life as soon as she could. She threw herself into dance, staging her first choreography in 1942.
Although associated with the cinéma vérité set, Clarke challenged its ideology. She experimented with the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, her subjects’ awareness of the camera, her authoritative presence as a filmmaker and the nature of truth. She explored the performative catalyst of the filmmaker’s presence and how the dynamic between filmmaker and subject would influence the so-called objective observation.
A fascination with rhythm gave her the foundations on which to build her experimentation with the film form. She switched to filmmaking in the 1950s with a 16mm camera and the intention to transform the dance film genre. She was tired of its conventional restraints that didn’t do it experiential justice. The field lacked female directors – Maya Deren was one of the few – and
Clarke was an innovator and a rebel who challenged the way truth and experience were presented on film, but her significance and contribution to film history has been widely overlooked and hidden behind her male contemporaries. She has been patronised by male directors, oblivious of her achievements, and omitted from film collections that should have championed her
work. She was aware of how her gender had affected her career, sharing with colleague DeeDee Halleck: “There’s an intuitive part of me that knows that there is a serious problem: that my career has been limited because I am a woman. But I can never give a specific example. It’s just an overall ambience. It’s a tremor in the air. It’s electricity around. It’s the way people look at you. And it has an effect. It changes you. I am not the person I would have been, had I been a man, and not had to fight that double standard, I would be different.” She made films about outsiders and minorities because she identified as “an alienated woman who doesn’t feel part of the world and who wants in”. There are so many voices that need to be heard, visions that aren’t reaching our screens, and the restrictive structures of exhibition still need to be challenged. Shirley Clarke’s defiance against the norm, the accepted status quo, and her tenacious, imaginative approach, are qualities that should be seen, celebrated and encouraged. Sophie Brown is the Brighton Scalarama coordinator. She exhibits as Bijou Electric Empire Forever, views submissions for Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest and London Film Festival and writes about film. @sbrown400 Shirley Clarke’s films The Connection, The Cool World, Portrait of Jason and Ornette Coleman: Made in America screen across the UK this September in Brighton, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Nottingham. Check listings for details.
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What a farce; where’s the truth? Performed authenticity in the films of Shirley Clarke BY TARA JUDAH When Shirley Clarke points her camera at someone, she means to expose them, herself, cinema as an art and everything else we might like to think of as the truth. The Connection is a recreation of Jack Gelber’s stage play – a Brechtian-style performance piece thought, at the time, to be a gritty production of a documentarian filming real-life drug addicts on stage. Taking an already confusing premise, where performance and reality are blurred, Clarke transports the scene to a run-down apartment in NYC. She films a play of the play; the ‘junkies’ we see are constantly told by a ‘director’ that their performances aren’t natural enough; the narrative is constantly interrupted by diegetic jazz musicians; Clarke even puts up intertitles claiming the ‘footage’ (her film) is unedited material from a documentary on drug addiction. How very Cassavetes. Rebelling against the subtle subversions of Beat cinema, breaking every rule she can think of, visually and thematically, Clarke’s camera becomes the eye of a stormy new direction for underground film. While others search for authenticity through formal and causal modes, she remains defiant; she quite simply refuses to let anything ‘happen’ in her narrative outside of the process of its deconstruction. And the results are electric. Seven years later she perfected her already remarkable skill. In Portrait of Jason she puts her titular friend on trial. As her cross-examination moves seamlessly through curiosity and bold artistic endeavour all the way into the pits of cruelty, we see how truly affecting the refusal of limits can be. The story goes that they spent 12 hours in an apartment in New York together; Clarke turned her camera on and continued to change the reels. As Jason drinks, regales, stumbles, composes and continues to pretend to be whoever it is he thinks he is – or wants to pretend to be – Clarke tries to break through the performance of Jason and find out who is underneath. She doesn’t find anyone.
After accusing him of crocodile tears he turns on a dime, holds his head high and laughs. He is so convincing it is impossible for the viewer to answer any of the questions the film raises. For all the foggy reconstruction, blurred focus, fake settings and inauthentic sentiment her films construct, Clarke demonstrates the limitlessness of cinema with aplomb. They might be farcical but they’re also every bit as real as it gets. Tara Judah is co-director at Bristol’s friendly video shop, 20th Century Flicks, Events Co-ordinator at Curzon Cinema & Arts and a member of the film programming team at The Cube. @midnightmovies
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THE
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BRITISH FILM
THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF CLASSIC BRITISH CINEMA Available now from networkonair.com
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“You’re fighting a losing battle. 35mm is over, Digital is the future!” quality of the film image, but for the simple fact that you are paying for something that is alive. Every film print ages, every print has its own story and when you watch a film projected from a print you are in communion with all of the audience members around the world who have shared that experience with you. You are engaging directly with cinema history.
BY PAUL VICKERY The above statement is a hard one to argue against. Digital is not only the future; it’s also the present. But let’s put the present and the future aside for a moment and take a quick look at the past. Before you roll your eyes and think “Oh great, another pseudo-hipster nostalgia piece about why X is better/cooler than Y”, I promise you this is not the case. I’m not here to damn the digital movement either – far from it – I just wanted to take a moment to explain why 35mm as a theatrical presentation format MUST survive. And it’s a pretty simple, un-romantic, non-flicker-loving-projector-hum-adoring reason too; it’s all down to choice! I’m not talking about the choice between presenting a particular title from either 35mm or DCP, that’s a different argument for a different time; I’m talking about the choice to screen a particular film within a cinema. Yes, we are seeing many, many great DCPs being struck of restorations for titles such as 8½ , Touch of Evil and Lawrence of Arabia, but for every DCP that is struck there are thousands upon thousands of films that will not make that digital jump. And with every missed jump, a little bit of history gets left behind. If you remove the ability and diminish the importance of being able to present films from film, you lose the choice to actually screen certain films in cinemas. Wanna see Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick on the big screen? How about Robert Altman’s California Split? Or John Huston’s Key Largo? Valeska Grisebach’s Longing? Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire? Martin Scorsese’s After Hours? Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog? Harmony Korine’s Gummo? Well you can, but they HAVE to be 35mm presentations as DCPs are not currently available.
we’ll lose a piece of history. And without support for 35mm presentations, that piece of history will only get smaller and smaller as the years go by. Paul Vickery is Head Programmer at The Prince Charles Cinema, London and has always worked in film; from humble beginnings at Blockbuster Video to 2nd AD in Music Video & TV Commercials, from Cinema Usher to Film Programmer. Film has always been his professional life, thankfully it’s also his passion too. @TheFilthyTab
You Know When You’re Watching a Real Film
If you take away film as a theatrical medium, you take away a wealth of choice.
BY PHIL CONCANNON
And although you’re left with a heap of great digital titles to screen, what you’ve lost is a far greater number than those you’ve gained.
With the exception of a few Hollywood power players such as Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, your chances of seeing a new cinema release projected on film are almost non-existent these days. The battle for 35mm as a viable format in contemporary filmmaking is looking increasingly like a futile one, with cost-cutting and convenience ruling over
So, before you sneer at those of us fighting for 35mm’s survival, believing our battle to be drenched in nothing but nostalgia and romance, remember that without the choice
the aesthetic value of the experience. As most modern films are being shot and finished digitally, the difference is minor, but the pervasive influence of digital technology in repertory cinema is much more concerning. We at The Badlands Collective have only shown two films digitally. One was JeanLuc Godard’s Goodbye to Language – an experimental film pushing at the boundaries of this technology – and the other was the extended cut of Once Upon a Time in America, which simply does not exist in any other format. We feel that charging people for digital under any other circumstances would be short-changing them, and providing them with an experience that is not authentic. If a film was made to be presented on 35mm then that is how it should be seen, but too many cinemas today seem to feel that showing a DCP of the film is enough, despite the fact that the quality of digital projection simply does not match the range, depth and richness of a 35mm print. In recent years, retrospectives in London of Eric Rohmer, Jim Jarmusch and Jacques Tati among others have been almost entirely digital, which is an insult to those filmmakers. If the National Gallery filled their Turner or Rembrandt exhibitions with prints instead of the real paintings there would be widespread outrage and claims of philistinism, but such a practice is easily accepted in film exhibition, as we are fobbed off with meaningless phrases such as a ‘new digital print’. I know I’m not alone in being willing to pay for a 35mm screening even if I already own the movie on Blu-ray or DVD, not only for the
Finally, there’s the hint of magic that is present in every film projection; the fact that what you are seeing is nothing more than a series of still images through which the illusion of movement is being created. The imperceptible flicker present in the image has an almost hypnotic effect; it helps to draw the viewer into a dream state as they watch the film unfold. It may be nothing more than a simple trick of the light, but if you take that away then you take away something from the cinema experience that digital can never replicate. You are trading a living, breathing art form for a cold, dead technology. That is a trade-off we should never be willing to make. Phil Concannon is a programmer for The Badlands Collective and a celebrated film blogger who has written for such publications as Sight & Sound, Little White Lies and The Skinny. @phil_on_film
Is the film you are checking NITRATE?
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VHSTIVAL
Or… Forget Celluloid, VHS is the new Vinyl!
VHS saved me! BY DAVID GREENALL Growing up in a slowly dying northern mill town in the 1970s was for some a miserable reality. For me however, the glorious visions of a man flying, a shark devouring and monsters attacking dominated my childhood. My earliest memory of the cinema is my mother arguing with the box office at the Burnley Studio 1,2,3 because they wouldn’t let me in to see Blacula (I was six). I soon became obsessed with three letters, AA and X: the films I could not see. I would stand outside my local cinema just to view
At some point my dad started viewing films before me, but this was because a friend rented George & Mildred to watch with the whole family only to find someone had edited a clip in the middle showing a woman pulling a fish out of her vagina! But this parental monitoring was short-lived and soon the VCR was in my room almost all the time. During my teens I developed into a Goth, my make-up and fashion ideas inspired by things I had seen in ‘Video Nasties’. I also realised I was gay and saw other gay kids at school bullied horribly, but I escaped all this as the bullies were scared of me because of how I looked. I have VHS horror to thank for that!
1-30 September 2015
A celebration of all things video: the tapes, the artwork and of course the video store. It’s the VCR’s 40th birthday next year so let’s get the party started early and relive our memories of when films were chunky.
Where Your Nightmares End… BY ROB WILBRAHAM During my formative years, my introduction to cinema took place in the Scala Cinema. Not the legendary venue in the seedy landscape of King’s Cross, but the original location on Tottenham Street. And it wasn’t the programme of cult horror and underground films that I took in, but the early Saturday morning schedule of cartoons by Tex Avery and Merry Melodies. As I grew older and the Scala relocated, I began attending the more adult programming the Scala has since become famous for: Lenny Bruce concerts, John Waters films, B-movies and all-night splatter fests.
Thirty years later, it’s not just the film that has stuck with me but also the accompanying Palace Video ident, which was a feature of almost all the titles released throughout the label’s time. It featured a, quite frankly, terrifying neon castle on a hill, engulfed in a lightning storm and an accompanying synth soundtrack. It somehow managed to replicate the sense of danger and menace that many of the titles offered. Even the familiar copyright warning contained a sense of mischievous anticipation with its warnings and an ‘or else’ threat that never failed to raise a chuckle from the older audience members.
As my tastes expanded, I yearned for the ability to be able to watch these films as and when I wished. Up to this point the ability to watch these alternative films at home was a pretty impossible task. The closest you could get to watching a horror movie was via the late-night BBC offerings of old Hammer movies that never quite delivered the goods, or in later years the world of Moviedrome or Channel Four. So it was a landmark occasion the day my father brought home our very first VHS player and introduced the world of the Scala to our front room.
the posters. Obsessed and frustrated, I noted every title off limits to me, and then my dream came true. One weekend in 1980, my dad came home with a chunky Panasonic Video Home System (VHS) video cassette recorder (VCR). When we joined the video shop, the first tape we rented was Zombie Flesh Eaters (VIPCO X-rated version). My choice (I was 13). All the horror, weirdness, sex and violence I craved was now available to me. There were only three titles I was not allowed to rent, The Exorcist (Warner Home Video), I Spit On Your Grave (Alpha), and SS Experiment Camp (Go Video), so my dad bought them for me. Only my grandmother expressed concern over my viewing habits after being horrified at the erotically charged opening sequence to Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (Guild Home Video).
But the golden years of VHS were fleeting. Soon after the 1984 Video Recordings Act made all horror-film fans pariahs, a policewoman friend of the family took me to one side and told me all the terror I had been watching on tape would corrupt my mind and make me a ‘copycat killer’. She was serious! VHS didn’t ‘corrupt’ me, it saved me, and if I ever see the same policewoman again I would tell that to her straight. Well… not quite straight! David Greenall escaped from Burnley when the cinema closed (to study film in Derby) and now lives in Manchester. He is one half of Certificate X. @certificatex
Much of the blame of this new-found freedom must be laid at the feet of the Palace Video label, the VHS and Betamax arm of Palace Pictures. It was no coincidence that Palace Video offered the films I had fallen in love with. Founded in 1982 by Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell, Woolley also worked as the manager of the Scala, screening many of the films the video label would go on to release into the UK VHS market. The VHS cassette tape opened up a whole world of exciting and dangerous possibilities over the oncoming years, allowing me to watch as many films as I could handle. The *ahem* restriction of cinema certifications were somewhat lifted and you could start to build a collection of films to return to time and again. The very first VHS I recall watching was Palace Video’s release of David Lynch’s light-hearted portrait of parenthood, Eraserhead. Although originally made in 1977, it took until 1982 for it to find its way into UK homes.
Within its short lifespan, Palace Video lived up to this promise. The UK distribution of such original and exciting titles as Eraserhead, The Evil Dead (1 & 2), Pink Flamingos, Basket Case, Blood Simple, Mephisto, Hardware and Santa Sangre (showing as the closing film of Scalarama Brighton’s programme) ensured that a generation of young and curious audience members would never be the same again. Rob Wilbraham, previously a long term resident of South London, now lives and works in Brighton and spends as much time as possible sitting in dark rooms watching moving images. @bobbyonion
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VIDEO NASTY Anthropophagous: The Beast
BY CHRISTOPHER BROWN Thirty years ago this month the Video Recordings Act came into force, finally ending the reign of moral panic linked to the Video Nasties Scare. In total, 72 films were named as potentially obscene between 1983 and 1985. Modern audiences tend to dismiss a lot of the films that fell on the list as sub-par slashers and cheesy euro-cannibal or zombie films, but among movies like Zombie Creeping Flesh and Jess Franco’s The Devil Hunter, there are still a few that deliver some rather dubious delights. Banned in the UK since 1983, Anthropophagous: The Beast has only this year been given an 18 certificate. Despite starting out as a standard euro-slasher, the Italian B-movie escalates into a third act that features some ridiculous gut-munching violence. The story is of a group of American tourists who, while on holiday on a Mediterranean island, find themselves stalked by a crazed cannibal eager to feast on them, and even an unborn baby. Despite its reputation, the film, which has been confused with a snuff film in the past due to its extreme violence, was actually a stab at respectability from its director. Before this 1980 effort, Joe D’Amato was known for bizarre violent mixtures of sex and violence such as Emanuelle in America and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. Anthropophagous: The Beast set out to cash in on the booming craze for zombie films and the American surge in slasher movies. The result is a slow first 45 minutes – with the exception of a Jaws pastiche – followed by utterly over-the-top gore, which allows for plenty of pent-up release for the audience, who have been stuck on the island with the squabbling tourists. This slow-but-steady pace is to D’Amato’s credit. He shows an uncharacteristic amount of patience in his direction, which allows for a satisfying build up, even if it wasn’t the best paced film. The scene as the killer climbs up through a roof to finish off our heroine, along with a most-notable couple of shock deaths, mark this out as more than just a low-grade Italian gore-fest. Among the other things to look out for is the music. Fans of unusual soundtracks will also be able to marvel at Marcello Giombini’s synth score, which can hold up alongside some of the best Italian horror scores of the time. It mixes Greek themes, discordant rhythms and speedy synth matching the bizarre gore on the screen. The flesh-crazed monster is played by co-writer George Eastman, while video-nasty fans will spot Zombie Flesh Eaters star, Tisa Farrow. Tisa, Mia Farrow’s sister, decided to quit acting after the film to work as a nurse.
As well as thriving off its UK notoriety elsewhere in the world, the film spawned a pseudo-sequel, Absurd. This movie, heavily influenced by Halloween, again teamed up D’Amato with Eastman as a seemingly impossible-to-kill murderer, running around an American town, picking off whoever he can. Absurd also made it onto the Video Nasties list. Only in the days of European 1970s and 1980s exploitation would both films be considered sequels of each other. Absurd (also known as Anthropophagous 2) was retitled Zombie 6: Monster Hunter, while Anthropophagous was called Zombie 7: Grim Reaper. D’Amato returned to more familiar ground in 1981, taking the same plot as the original film. He then injected his usual amounts of sex and nudity to produce the far more sleazy Porno Holocaust. Anthropophagous: The Beast was released uncut by Video Film Promotions on VHS in February 1983 before falling foul of the Video Nasties scare and being banned and languishing on the list from November 1983. The film, with its salacious cover, violence and early 1980s slasher charm harks back to a very particular point in the history of the video cassette. This was a time of small, dingy video shops, of garage businesses grabbing whatever releases they could and audiences having the freedom to pick the films they wanted without censorship. This was a time of garish covers that promised delights that wouldn’t have been shown in cinemas. The subsequent furore led to heavier censorship in the UK, right through until 1999 but, at the time, these video nasties were like Pandora’s boxes begging to be opened. It was a point in time when film and VHS were genuinely seen as dangerous. By extension, Anthropophagous: The Beast is a mix of odd nostalgia, silly ideas and brutal pay-off. Like many of the films on the video nasties list, it is best enjoyed with an audience, a drink and a knowing wink towards its reputation to deprave and corrupt. A writer and journalist, Christopher Brown, has recently hosted Video Nasties Podcast and A History of Horror Podcast. He programmes the Cheap Thrills cult film event at Liverpool Small Cinema. @orange_monkey Anthropophagous: The Beast - Uncut and seen in UK Cinemas for the first time. Screenings: The Cube Cinema, Bristol on 16th September and Liverpool Small Cinema on 23rd September. Check listings for details.
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1-30 September 2015
Second Run (First Ten) An interview with Mehelli Modi
This September, Second Run DVD have many reasons to celebrate. Not only will the month see their first step into theatrical distribution with Pedro Costa’s spellbinding Horse Money, which will fittingly be their 100th title, but it will also mark the award-winning company’s tenth anniversary. Second Run has embraced Scalarama by allowing their films to be screened across the country at a discounted price to exhibitors, meaning more people can see them as they were intended - as majestic pearls of pure emotion, beauty and vitality to be shared communally with friends, and with friends you have yet to meet. Michael Pierce spoke to Mehelli Modi, the founder of Second Run, to reflect on the last ten years and his quest to recover these lost treasures of cinema. MP: Let’s start with your earliest memories of cinema. MM: I was born into a filmmaking family in India. My father was a pioneering filmmaker and my mother was an actress, so film was around me all the time. What I remember distinctly was that when I was two or three, I would never eat my food unless my parents projected a film in front of me! So I remember the lovely sound and smell of the 16mm projector. MP: What was the cinema culture like where you grew up? MM: I grew up in Bombay and there were cinemas everywhere. At that time, India was non-aligned so we would not only get American and British films but also all the Eastern and Central European films. The Soviets would send them but no one would go see them... except me! That’s how I discovered Miklós Jancsó and the first Czech film I saw was Diamonds of the Night - I thought ‘My God, that is incredible’. MP: When did you move to the UK? MM: I came to London in the late 1960s at a very exciting time; it felt like the centre of the world. I came to do my chartered accountancy, which seems weird to say now! Then I had a long career in music, working for international labels and finally with more independent companies. But cinema was my first love, so when music became all about marketing, and artistic development got left behind, I lost interest, and so in the 2000s I started Second Run. MP: What was the initial trigger that made you start Second Run? MM: The thought was always there but when the internet allowed me to buy quality DVDs from across territories, I became a collector. Except the films I wanted to see
just weren’t available. So I had a list of 500 films and started tracking them down, not knowing if there would be any reaction. Our first release was in 2005, Nicolas Philibert’s In the Land of the Deaf. He was a special filmmaker to me as he never asked ‘what’s your business plan?’ but said ‘If you get it off the ground, you can have my film’. MP: How did you choose the name Second Run? MM: Firstly, I must say that I was really fortunate with the people who worked with me to make it a reality. Without Paula, Chris, Matt, Ian, Andy, Sonali, none of this would have happened as they helped to make me feel this was worthwhile. Matt came up with the name because it was about bringing things back and giving them a new life. It expressed the ethos of what we are trying to do. MP: What have been your highlights over the last ten years? MM: One has to be releasing Miklós Jancsó’s work and bringing him over to tour the UK. He was 85 and right in front of one’s eyes he became 65 again. He saw young people talk to him and say ‘we know where Sergio Leone gets his landscapes from’. So no question, it’s about meeting filmmakers, making them understand what you are trying to do and then having their friendship, like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who introduced me to Pedro Costa, and then seeing them develop. I remember we did a screening of Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong’s second film) and I was telling people ‘Please come in and come watch this’. We had probably no more than 20 people. Then to see him make Uncle Boonmee, it’s really wonderful. MP: So what is still on that list of 500? MM: There are the films of Alexei German. He made Hard to Be a God recently but he’s now dead and his son finished the film. He used to make one film every ten years. Because he was Soviet, he would make one, they would hate it and then ban him for ten years. His films are like nothing else. But I could never break through that Russian legal rights system. MP: How did you go about finding the rights to release these films? MM: There were many dead ends but luckily there were some films owned by families and with the Eastern European titles, because they were all state films, they were all sitting in one place. The BFI had the rights to Ron Peck’s Nighthawks. They’d never licensed to anyone before, but we went in with Ron and he told them ‘I want Mehelli
to do this’. That’s how we put together the first 20. Then people would suggest films, for instance Avenge but one of my two eyes was recommended by Philibert. We don’t release Hollywood studio films, so we are working outside that mainstream. MP: So why did you decide to move into theatrical? MM: We started with classic films and moved into contemporary because so many great filmmakers had no one to release them on DVD; now it’s the same situation in cinema. There are some wonderful films that never see the light of day but are made to be watched communally on the big screen. Pedro’s Horse Money was the ideal film as no one had picked it up and if the release gives us encouragement, there’s no question we will do more. MP: Second Run has always spotlighted key female filmmakers whose works have been overlooked (see opposite). Was that a conscious decision from the start? MM: For me it was not a gender-based decision initially, but now I can’t see how we could fulfil our remit without bringing attention to filmmakers who have been completely ignored by the canon. When we started, Shirley Clarke, Márta Mészáros and Kim Longinotto had never been released. In the first 100 films, our proportion of female filmmakers is higher than other catalogues but there is still so much to do. Barbara Loden’s Wanda is on my list since the beginning, and it got restored but I can’t find who has the rights. Agnieszka Holland, we’re going to try release her early Polish films which have never been seen. But the real missing person is Kira Muratova, originally from Ukraine - her body of early work is incredible. With her, we almost got to the contract stage and then the Russians walked into Ukraine and everything stopped. It is tough; Věra Chytilová’s films show you the strength of women filmmakers in overcoming the many obstacles in their way. For example, we released the beautiful first film by Anocha Suwichakornpong but it’s taken her four years to make a second. MP: You don’t want me to ask which is your favourite Second Run release… MM: Each and every one is a favourite or else we wouldn’t release it. If you asked me today, then tomorrow it will be a different one. It’s like when you asked me about watching 16mm, I saw an image of Laurel and Hardy right in front of my eyes, so if you asked me my favourite film now, I would say that one.
MP: What was your approach to establishing a distinctive design? MM: The intention was that because no one knows the film, you had to get people’s eyes on the object and present your ethos. The cover had to be only the title and the filmmaker; we didn’t want wreaths, and any information on the back had to be simple, clear and with no bullshit. This Is Real Art did the first 35 and Rob Riley has done everything since Celia. It’s essential they watch the film first, then come up with an idea. It probably comes from original vinyl artwork; it has to be fabulous and expressive. People might not own the films, but they remember the covers. MP: What has been the most satisfying response to a film? MM: Definitely Marketa Lazarová, which literally no one knew - a completely manic, three-hour, black and white, Cinemascope, experimental film which takes three viewings to understand the narrative. To have that accepted and continue to grow is amazing. Also Jancsó, where we really did bring back a filmmaker who was so important in the 1970s but had got lost. It takes time though. Last Scalarama, Daisies at Wilton’s was so full we needed extra chairs but when we showed it five years ago, there were just 12 people! Having a catalogue makes sense because then you are not just living off one thing, you are hoping that all of them over time will grow and become equal. MP: And what has been the best personal response you’ve received? MM: We have a very strong commitment to our audience because we have learnt from the people who write to us. Sometimes they say ‘I am so happy to have found you’ or simply ‘thank you’. That’s very humbling, because you can sometimes forget there are people who really care about us. If the filmmakers hadn’t made these films, I wouldn’t be here, and if the audience weren’t there, this wouldn’t mean anything. At the end of it all, for me - and I think Paula and Chris feel the same - we are the ones who are really lucky to be involved with these films. Horse Money will be in UK cinemas from 18th September. horsemoney.co.uk. A week-long celebration of Second Run DVD takes place at the ICA, London in September while films from their catalogue are screened across the UK. Please check the listings for more information.
1-30 September 2015
We asked friends of Second Run to select a favourite title from the catalogue: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Uncle Boonmee, Cemetery of Splendour) chooses MAN OF THE STORY by Adoor Gopalakrishnan Mark Cousins (The Story of Film) chooses BLISSFULLY YOURS by Apichatpong Weerasethakul Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light, Post Tenebras Lux) and Ron Peck (Nighthawks, Fighters) choose PALMS by Artur Aristakisyan Mania Akbari (One, Two, One, Life May Be) chooses CASA DE LAVA by Pedro Costa
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Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster) chooses THE RED AND THE WHITE by Miklós Jancsó
Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Rat Trap, Man of the Story) chooses RED PSALM by Miklós Jancsó
Jiří Menzel (Closely Observed Trains, Larks on a String) chooses INTIMATE LIGHTING by Ivan Passer
Marc Isaacs (Lift, All White in Barking, The Road) chooses DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT by Jan Němec
The Brothers Quay (Institute Benjamenta, Street of Crocodiles) choose THE WHITE DOVE by František Vláčil
Carol Morley (Dreams of a Life, The Falling) chooses GAEA GIRLS/SHINJUKU BOYS by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams
Ben Rivers (Two Years at Sea) chooses MARKETA LAZAROVÁ by František Vláčil
István Szabó (Mephisto, Confidence) chooses ILLUMINATION by Krzysztof Zanussi
Kim Newman (Author and Film Critic) chooses CELIA by Ann Turner
Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) chooses ONE, TWO, ONE by Mania Akbari
Avi Mograbi (Avenge but one of my two eyes, Z32) chooses TROPICAL MALADY by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Jonathan Rosenbaum (Author and Film Critic) chooses DAISIES by Věra Chytilová
Kim Longinotto (Dreamcatcher, Divorce Iranian Style, Gaea Girls) chooses A BLONDE IN LOVE by Miloš Forman
Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy) chooses THE CREMATOR by Juraj Herz
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1-30 September 2015
LIFE BEGINS AT ROCKY The Rocky Horror Picture Show has played every week somewhere in the world for the last 40 years, making it the only film in cinema history to achieve such a feat. Lani Jo Leigh explains the ongoing appeal, whilst if you’ve yet to experience the film in a cinema, here’s a props list for all you virgins out there!
BY LANI JO LEIGH
I’m the owner of the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, Oregon, which has the distinction of being the longest-running Rocky Horror Picture Show in the world. It’s been playing every Saturday night at midnight since April 1978, and our shadow cast, the Clinton Street Cabaret, also has the distinction of being the longest-performing cast in the world, having been part of the Saturday night magic for more than 28 years. When the theater came up for sale a little more than three years ago, I went to see Rocky Horror for the first time since it came out in 1975. To be honest, I didn’t get it. The whole production was loud and raucous and slightly disturbing. I didn’t get how anyone would want to come out and be a part of it week after week, month after month, year after year. I was also worried about my ability to keep up the tradition, as the work
involved would certainly take its toll on my 61-year-old body. I bought the theater anyway, and knew that my weekends would now live and breathe The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Well now, I guess you could say that I get it. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is more than a movie with crazy costumes and callbacks and sexual innuendo. It’s a safe, welcoming place to be whoever you truly are. When it comes to sexual identity, there’s no this or that, but sometimes both. Sometimes you don’t even know where you fit in, if at all. The world is not often a kind place for folks who are different. I’ve met kids who were depressed, suicidal, isolated, abandoned, homeless; and they come to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and find love, compassion, acceptance, understanding. It’s an ever-changing cast of characters – the participants come and go – but they always seem to leave better, stronger, more confident in themselves than when they arrive. So, as much as it is difficult to be the owner of a theater with a weekly screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, especially when there are mountains of rice to sweep up at 4am on a Sunday morning, I will continue to run and support it. Rocky Horror is transformative. I know I’m a better person for being part of it.
THE ROCKY HORROR PROP LIST RICE: At the beginning of the film it’s the wedding of Ralph Hapschatt and Betty Munroe. As the newlyweds exit the church, throw the rice along with the on-screen wedding guests. RING: When Brad asks Janet to marry him, you can do the same thing with your sweetie. NEWSPAPERS: When Brad and Janet are caught in the storm, Janet covers her head with a newspaper, the ‘Plain Dealer’. You don’t want to get wet, do you? WATER PISTOLS: These are used by members of the audience to simulate the rainstorm that Brad and Janet are caught in. (Now do you see why you should use the newspapers?) FLASHLIGHTS: During the “There’s a light” verse of “Over at the Frankenstein Place”, you can light up the theater with flashlights or your mobile phone and similar devices. Sorry, no open flames – remember you are wearing newspapers on your head! RUBBER GLOVES: During and after the creation speech, Frank snaps his rubber gloves three times. Later, Magenta pulls these gloves off his hands. If you snap your
gloves in sync each time, you’ll create a fantastic sound effect. NOISEMAKERS: At the end of the creation speech, the Transylvanians respond with applause and noisemakers. Hip, hip, hooray!!! CONFETTI: At the end of the “Charles Atlas Song” reprise, the Transylvanians throw confetti as Rocky and Frank head toward the bedroom. You should do the same. TOILET PAPER: When Dr Scott enters the lab, Brad cries out “Great Scott!” At this point, you can hurl rolls of toilet paper into the air. TOAST: When Frank proposes a toast at dinner, members of the audience throw toast into the air (dry, not buttered...otherwise things could get a bit sticky). PARTY HAT: At the dinner table, when Frank puts on a party hat, adorn your own head, and join the party. BELL: During the song “Planet Schmanet Janet”, ring the bell when Frank sings, “Did you hear a bell ring?” CARDS: During the song “I’m Going Home”, Frank sings, “Cards for sorrow, cards for pain.” At this point you can shower the theater with playing cards.
1-30 September 2015
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Why We Fight For CANNON, and How You Can Help doomed properties and not promoting its smaller films. Street Smart bombed at the box office despite excellent reviews, probably because it was not marketed or released properly, while Superman IV, in which the Man of Steel tries to save the world by ridding it of nuclear weapons, flopped because it was perceived as bloody ridiculous. It’s a strange change of fortune how now, in the early 21st Century, Hollywood’s major studios are betting on dependable box office from expensive franchises like Superman that ended up killing Cannon. We think it’s intriguing and refreshing to look back on a time when this major international company flew too close to the sun, and in the process took chances on talent, had an idiosyncratic voice and produced some exceptional, unique work. We’d also like to recall how huge Cannon was in the 1980s, so much so that in the UK they bought the ABC Cinemas chain and had hundreds of Cannon Cinemas venues across the country. And this is where you
BY IAN MANTGANI If you know the story of the Cannon Group, you know it’s a story of duality – from the low sleaze of Enter the Ninja to the serious artistry of John Cassavetes’ Love Streams. The 1980s heyday of Menahem Golan and Yoran Globus’ film production, distribution and exhibition empire was intent on domination of the top and bottom of the marketplace, which resulted in stabs in all directions, from endless Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris sequels to Godard’s King Lear and the fabulous oddities in between – which is kinda where we come in. We at The Badlands Collective are programming three London cinema double bills in tribute to the fascinating history of Cannon Films, all of which in some way tell the story of how Cannon clashed between art and exploitation, and how its ambition resulted in success and failure. Barfly and 52 Pick-Up (showing at Prince Charles Cinema, 14th September) were both partnerships with major hard-boiled fiction authors. In Barfly, Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway bring movie-star energy to an autobiographical Charles Bukowski tale of boozing and brawling in the gutter. 52 Pick-Up is a seedy potboiler thriller made gripping by the writing of Elmore Leonard, not to mention the direction of John Frank-
enheimer and performances of Roy Scheider and Ann-Margret. Runaway Train and Shy People (Regent St Cinema, 20th September) were both directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, a Russian émigré to America, who instinctively made poetic films that fell somewhere in between Cannon’s conflicting tendencies of making genre cash-ins and trying to attract respected talent. Runaway Train is a brilliant action film based on a script by Akira Kurosawa and featuring Oscar-nominated performances by Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. Shy People is a haunting culture-clash drama with a Tangerine Dream score and a Barbara Hershey performance that won Best Actress at Cannes in 1987. Both films are riveting journeys that go through and beyond melodrama to somewhere existential and primordial. Street Smart and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (Ritzy Cinema, 27th September) both star Christopher Reeve, and paired together tell the story of the Faustian pacts made by Hollywood players to make their dreams come true and of the over-extension that marked Cannon’s downfall. Street Smart is a gritty New York thriller also starring Morgan Freeman in a rare villainous role as a pimp, for which he got his first Oscar nomination. It was Reeve’s passion project, but to get to make it he had to sign up for Superman IV. By this time Cannon was putting too much money into expensive,
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can help. We’re putting on some great films and some fun films, and showing them all from genuine 35mm release prints, but we’re hoping to make these screenings not just a tribute to Cannon Films the studio, but to the Cannon Cinemas experience. We’re looking for 35mm trailers from the era and from the Cannon Cinemas chain of venues itself, as well as Cannon Cinemas marquee displays, posters, other memorabilia, and experiences from people who worked at Cannon Cinemas or remember visiting them. If you want to contribute, please do get in touch with us at info@badlands-collective.com. Let’s see what we can resurrect from what used to be a high street fixture and is now a distant but potent memory. We’ll see you at the shows! Ian Mantgani is a programmer for The Badlands Collective and an award-winning filmmaker. He has also written film criticism for such publications as Little White Lies, The Skinny and Bleeding Cool. @mant_a_tangi
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If there was one director whose work has been a mainstay of the Scala seasons, it would be John Waters. A firm favourite of the original Scala, the Pope of Trash has supported the subsequent seasons since the very beginning, culminating in fully backing the campaign to get Polyester back on the big screen and in Odorama! Now it’s time to say thank you – as the BFI present a full retrospective of his work in September, let’s go wild for Waters once more, making this land truly filthy and divine. Rachel Stokes pens her own personal love letter to Mr Waters...
BY RACHEL STOKES Baltimore has a tradition of great eccentrics and John Waters’ gruesome mental fantasies and gleefully presented, perverted depictions of Baltimore life have entertained me since I first saw Hairspray (1988). The Duke of Puke has been making punk movies since before punk even existed, in a battle against the hippie culture he found didn’t quite quench his thirst for the sleazier side of life. As the rest of my generation babbled about peace and love, I stood back, puzzled, and fantasised about the beginning of the ‘hate generation’. Violence was this generation’s sacrilege, so I wanted to make a film that would glorify carnage and mayhem for laughs. - Shock Value After gathering together a bizarre troupe of actors including Divine, Mink Stole and Edith Massey among others, John formed the company the Dreamlanders. Starting out with short films bearing titles such as Hag in a Black Leather Jacket and Eat Your Makeup, they then moved onto the first feature films, Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs. The movies that came next, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living all pushed the boundaries of censorship and artistically delivered human indecency at its lowest depths, playing with the motif and ‘so bad it’s good’ beauty of bad taste.
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As time progressed, since 1981 movie Polyester starring former teen idol Tab Hunter, John Waters’ films became slightly more mainstream, although Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker and Cecil B. Demented still retain his trademark avant-garde perspective. Over the years, John has also written a number of books including Crackpot - The Obsessions of John Waters and Role Models. Also, due to his extensive obsession with music, he has released two compilation albums - A Date With John Waters and A John Waters Christmas. I have always appreciated John’s humour when it comes to shining a light on the mundane, while at the same time magnifying the idiosyncrasies of people who would otherwise consider themselves to be quite normal. He and Divine’s influence have inspired generations, most recently the reignited Club Kids movement and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Get on the fashion nerves of your peers, not your parents - that is the key to fashion leadership. Role Models Since the early 1990s, his photo-based artwork and installations – which still manifest his acerbic wit and sense of mischief, although with a more contemplative outlook – have been exhibited internationally. I would recommend John Waters’ aesthetics to anyone who likes their cocktails to be gaudy, seedy and trashy, with a dash of erudite intelligence. Rachel Stokes currently volunteers with Queerchester Films North West queerchesterfilms. wix.com/qcfnw and is a freelance Graphic Designer. ---------It Isn’t Very Pretty... The Complete Films of John Waters (Every Goddam One of Them...) celebrating 50 years of filth, is at BFI Southbank from 1 September - 6 October, with live appearances from the man himself from 18 - 20 September. See listings for John Waters tribute events in Manchester and Liverpool.
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As John returns to the UK once more, Huston recalls purring down the phone to the Duke of Puke back in 2011, asking him about his Scala memories and the current state of repertory cinema.
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Huston: What were your memories of the Scala? John Waters: To this day, whenever I’m in London, people say “Oh my god, I saw all your films at the Scala”. I only went there once but I remember the audience was even more berserk than any midnight show I had ever seen in America. It was like the Cockettes who had the most insane midnight show ever because every person in the audience was on LSD. But at the Scala, maybe they were on ecstasy, I don’t know, but it was really raucous. It was so good, it was almost scary. That was the only time I was physically there, but I knew that all my films played there and it was really how they became successful in the UK. H: Do you miss the cinema culture of double-bills and all-nighters? JW: I’ve organised some for a speaking tour of Australia. At the Sydney Opera House I’m showing `Double Features from Hell’, like Antichrist and Irreversible together. There are still a few rep houses but video killed them, because now you can have your own little Scala cinema right in your friends’ house without ever worrying about getting arrested. The problem with calendar houses and doublebills today is that you can’t get prints - that’s one of the major concerns. If you are lucky and the distributor thinks you are an important enough director to keep one - then they are very picky about who they rent it to. Even Avatar, when that was over, they burnt all the prints because it costs so much to store them. H: And what about midnight movies? You made your name through late night screenings of your first features. JW: With Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, it took weeks and months to catch on. They opened in America over a period of two years which would never happen now. If Pink Flamingos came out now, it’d play at midnight at the Landmark Theatre chain in 20 cinemas and if it didn’t work that first weekend it’d be over. When Pink Flamingos came out, we’d go to one town and then make it work there and then move onto the next one and word of mouth was the main thing. That wouldn’t happen now. With Twitter, word of mouth is over in one second. When the first screening happens, when the credits are over, the word is out. Everything is so fast now,
I don’t know if it’d work even if you did have it. I go to the movies but I am an old person. Everyone I see at the movies is over 40-years-old. H: So what was it about cinemas like the Scala that people still talk about them? JW: Scala had magic. Scala was like joining a club. A very secret club, like a biker gang or something. If you went there, it was like what the Rocky Horror Picture Show did. People came every week because it was important and it was a community. But today, I don’t know if any film can make its reputation as a midnight movie in a theater it makes its reputation on YouTube, and goes viral, and then you don’t get a job to be a director, you get hired by an advertising agency. It’s a different thing, it’s much quicker and it’s probably more successful. But it’s hard to think of a film today that made its career as a midnight movie, even the first Human Centipede didn’t make that much money. H: And the second Human Centipede was banned. JW: Well, the UK love to do that. That whole Video Nasty thing. And Pink Flamingos is still technically banned... did the Scala show that uncut? H: They were a members’ club so they could get round that... JW: Well, that’s insane. They were a country club for criminals and lunatics and people that were high, which is a good way to see movies. H: Did you have a favourite repertory cinema? Do you think the rep scene can ever come back? JW: I remember the Times Theater in San Francisco. It was a dollar and it changed every day and sometimes they had three movies. There are still some calendar houses, like the Brattle Theatre, Boston, but that’s one a week, not one a day. My friend Peaches Christ had an incredibly successful thing called Midnight Mass in San Francisco at the Bridge Theatre. It was the closest thing I ever saw to the Scala. It was packed every weekend because he developed that audience but it also had a stage show with it, every week, drag queens, whatever the film was. If it was Showgirls or Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Tura Santana was there with people dressed in the costumes. That could happen again but it’s
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rare. Now it needs to be promoted and treated specially but in the old days, you just opened something at midnight at the right theater and because it was in that theater, the audience intrinsically knew that was the one they wanted to see and it could play for years. Nothing plays for years now. When I was young the art cinemas would say ‘23rd week’. Now if you play three weeks you are doing great. H: What would you programme if you were running your own midnight series? JW: Well, what Peaches Christ told me which was really smart was that they’d done all the films that I would think of: Showgirls, Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, but they did the best rep with things the kids thirty years younger than me wanted to watch, the 1980s movies that I had never heard of. They came dressed as Molly Ringwald. They’d seen my favourite film The Bad Seed, but it wasn’t of their generation. So the thing to respect now is that younger people have their own version of what they want to see, which can sometimes be very surprising to the older midnight movie generation. ---------As part of the BFI Southbank season, John has selected some of his favourite British films, including Derek Jarman’s Blue, Trog, Boom and The Mother under the title: TEABAGGIN’ IN THE KITCHEN SINK.
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Core Titles
ROAR BY NEIL HEPBURN ‘No animals were harmed in the making of this film. 70 cast and crew members were.’ The tagline to Roar - a deeply weird $17 million-dollar flop – is irresistible. Watching this cult curio, it is hard to believe director, star and lion-whisperer Noel Marshall was anything other than completely insane when he subjected his own family (not to mention an entire film crew) to a production that became renowned for its catalogue of horrendous wild animal attacks. Starring his then-wife Tippi Hedren and their kids (including a young Melanie Griffith), the story takes place at Marshall’s African homestead, as his family come out to visit. Apparently having learned absolutely nothing from The Birds, Tippi Hedren finds herself floored by elephants, mauled by lions and in bed with multiple tigers. Yes, literally IN BED with TIGERS. Marshall himself is like a prototype Steve Irwin, blood-soaked from real injuries while spouting eco-psychobabble in the midst of almost-constant feline assaults. Having lurked in obscurity since commercial failure on its 1981 release, Drafthouse Films decided it was high time for re-evaluation, so they’ve helped Roar back out of the cage. Be warned: it bites. Neil Hepburn is a writer and indie filmmaker who works at Edinburgh’s Cameo Cinema. He loves movies featuring dangerous animals where it’s clearly apparent that people’s lives are at stake. @NeilHepburn1 ROAR will be screened on 10th September at the Prince Charles Cinema, London, at the Bristol Bad Film Club at Windmill Hill City Farm and at the Cambridge Film Festival (date tbc).
ON KING HU & DRAGON INN BY JIM ALAN There’s a famous cinematic urban legend that reads; “Those who pan and scan an Orson Welles, John Ford or Stanley Kubrick will spend the afterlife bound to a lake of fire, for all eternity” True story.
It is absolutely unthinkable that films like Citizen Kane, The Searchers or 2001: A Space Odyssey, cinematic touchstones for generations of subsequent filmmakers, would be treated as anything less than the majestic works of art they are, and be condemned to circulation on poorly telecine’d DVD or YouTube rips. The fact the seminal wuxia epics of King Hu were consigned to such a fate, had been a bugbear for cinephiles the world over, for many years. This was until 2014, when the Chinese Taipei Film Archive unveiled a stunning 4K restoration of Hu’s first major work Dragon Inn in the Classics strand of the Cannes Film Festival - a similar restoration of his masterpiece A Touch of Zen premiered at the festival in 2015. Naturally, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive with the general consensus being that these great works of cinema were finally being experienced as they were intended. It was a treatment befitting of a filmmaker who – perhaps mirroring his work – transcended modest studio roots to blaze his own trail and, in turn, leave an indelible mark on cinema history. It was only after leaving Hong Kong for the creative freedom afforded by Taiwan’s much smaller industry, that King Hu’s lifelong fascination with the balletic choreography of Peking Opera, coupled with a love for the wuxia (‘chivalrous swordplay’) stories of his youth and sheer physicality of kung fu, would bear fruit in Dragon Inn’s innovative approach to action cinema. Hu’s lightning-quick editing style, epic widescreen compositions and gravity-defying fight choreography would come to define the grammar of the martial arts film for generations to come.
Many internationally renowned, award-winning filmmakers have either cited his influence, in the case of Yuen Woo Ping – who choreographed the groundbreaking action in The Matrix – and Wong Kar Wai (Ashes of Time, In the Mood for Love) or, paid direct tribute, as was the case with Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tsai MingLiang’s Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin.
cultivatefilmart.blogspot.com Visavisfilm (aka Jim Alan) is a blogger & promoter based in Manchester. @visavisfilm
The films of King Hu, just like the epic visions of The Seven Samurai or The Searchers, remind us of the awe, spectacle and pioneering spirit that the medium of cinema was founded on. See them on the biggest screen if possible.
The screening will be part of the Whitworth’s Thursday Lates, with all galleries open until 9pm including the exhibition M+Sigg Collection: Chinese art from the 1970s to now. whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/ exhibitions/currentexhibitions/ msiggcollection
Cultivate Film Art - established in 2012 by Ezra Zubairu - is Manchester’s only weekly cult/ world/independent film club. @cultivatefilm
Cultivate Film Art & Cinema Subterranea will proudly present the newly remastered Dragon Inn at the recently crowned Art Fund Museum Of The Year, the Whitworth on Thursday 24th September at 6pm.
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WHAT CAN WE DO? BY ALEXIA LAZOU When shipping magnate Sir John Ellerman, once described as the wealthiest man in England, died in 1933, his fortune and title passed to his son, John Jr. The Times’ obituary neglected to mention his eldest child, a daughter named Annie. As John Jr. had no children, much of his legacy went towards establishing a trust fund, which still operates today, and provides grants for arts, environment and welfare projects. His particular passion was for natural history. But what if Annie had inherited the fortune? What was her passion? Annie – who changed her name to Bryher (her favourite of the Scilly Isles) – was a firm believer in the relatively new medium of film. Between 1927-1933, she and her friends produced a journal Close Up, ‘the only magazine devoted to films as an art’, promising ‘theory and analysis – no gossip’. I would like to share with you an extract from the article What Can I Do? by Bryher, March 1928 (1): “What a pity it is that the type of letter most often repeated is the following: ‘Being alone here I should like to go often to the movies but they show such dreadful rubbish that it is only once in a while I make up my mind to go. How interesting Jeanne Ney sounds from your description but I suppose it will never be shown down here.’ “A lot of the letter is true. What one regrets is the attitude behind it. Because it is precisely the sort of people who write such letters who could do so much for the cinema. But they say, what can we do? How can we, a group of three or four at most, help cinematography in a tiny country town?”
Bryher then continues with useful advice on how to keep up to date with the latest cinema news, request screenings of better films, build a cinema library and organise your own film shows, ending on this note: “Interest, enthusiasm, vitality; these rather than money are the chief factors. Suppose you take a hundred people who all say, ‘we would go to the cinema if there were better films’ and reply, ‘there are better films and they can be shown to you. Which ones do you want to see?’ How many of the hundred would be able to give a single name in answer? “There are films now made. Psychological films. Films of great beauty. Copies of them are in England. They will be shown if people ask for them. When enough people hold together against the mutilation of films and the re-titling of them, these abuses will stop. Only it is really time that people stopped saying ‘I would go to the movies if...’ because the matter, perhaps the very future of cinematography, is in their own hands.” If Bryher was alive today, she would be an advocate of Scalarama. And when was she born? Why, September, of course... In memory of Annie Winifred Ellerman (2nd September 1894 – 28th January 1983) Quotes from What Can I Do? by Bryher, Close Up Vol.II, no.3, March 1928. Taken from Close Up: Cinema and Modernism, eds. James Donald, Anne Friedberg & Laura Marcus. Cassell, London, 1998. (1)
Alexia Lazou, Collections Assistant for the Film Pioneers project at Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, funded by The John Ellerman Foundation. brightonmuseums.org.uk @BrightonMuseums @ScalaramaBtn
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I WANT TO BE A CINEMA BY KIRSTY & DAN So you want to put on a film screening? Don’t know where to start? It’s a good idea to go along to other people’s events to see what they’re up to and be part of the community, and maybe even volunteer to help out on a night. Do your research on similar events happening nearby when you’re planning your event to avoid competing for a similar audience. TEMPORARY EVENTS NOTICES (TEN): Unless you’re using a space with an existing alcohol and entertainment licence (Premises Licence), such as a pub or licenced café, most events require a TEN. Look on your local council website for how to apply for one. FILM LICENCES:The greatest inhibitor to DIY film screenings is licence fees. For example if you’re showing films by local filmmakers with their consent this usually isn’t a problem, but any film with an established distribution network will require you to pay for a licence to screen it. For most well-known films these are easy to get hold of but costly (£80-£150, occasionally more for certain films). It’s a good idea to join Cinema For All. As a newbie you can join for around £40-50 and your membership means you can access their cheap booking scheme for certain films and if you need to get a film licence through Filmbankmedia (who have one of the biggest catalogues for different films) you can get 100% discount on their joining fee (worth £150). Park Circus are also good for certain licences. Another great resource for general advice and looking things up is the Independent Cinema Office (ICO). The licence is your permission to screen the film in public. You can still use your own DVD or similar to play the film. KIT & VENUES: If you’re hiring a space in a local art cinema (eg Broadway or Screen 22) they will handle licences for you
and also deal with equipment and tech support. So this is often a good option for minimal hassle. Venues can be anywhere, but they need to be dark or you need to black them out – the darker the better (tinfoil on windows is a good method as it reflects the light back out). Small galleries, back rooms of pubs, basements and people’s houses can all be cinemas. Borrowing (or hiring) kit is the best option if you are using a more DIY approach. As long as you are not doing anything too fancy (like screening outside where conflicting light sources are an issue) it’s likely someone will have a decent enough projector they’re willing to lend you, especially in a town like Nottingham where film clubs are plentiful. Likewise with PAs (most small galleries/venues have their own stash of this sort of thing). Screens can be white walls, foam board, sheets or white tarpaulin if you need to improvise.
TAKE ONE ACTION SAT 19 SEPTEMBER 11:00 EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE (GUILD ROOM) FREE Wish you could watch a wider range of films in your community? Want to share inspiring stories from around the globe to inform, challenge and inspire audiences where you live to create a better world?
TECHNICAL HELP: It goes without saying having someone on your team who knows their way around the technology you are using is a no-brainer. Not just for setting up, but problem-solving if something goes wrong part-way through the screening.
Take One Action, Scotland’s global change cinema project, is launching its LOCALS initiative – giving YOU the tools and resources to put on your own season of internationally acclaimed films. If you care about the bigger picture; can secure a regular audience and a little bit of budget and have a few hours a month to spare, Take One Action will support you to:
KEEP YOUR SHIT TOGETHER: Things may go wrong, even if you’re super prepared. You have to make the best of it. The great thing about doing a film night as part of Scalarama is you are not on your own. You can tap into a network of experienced people who can help you solve problems when they arise. And don’t forget, enjoy yourself on the night that you have put together!
– Access inspiring films for group / public screenings – Market your activities – Empower your communities Attendance at this FREE, two-hour event also includes a ticket to the afternoon screening of Black Ice as part of this year’s Take One Action Film Festival. 16-27 September, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Bees Make Honey Creative Community are a Nottingham-based community interest company who deal with people entering and working within the creative industries. Their sell-out screening of Amelie as part of Scalarama 2014 was considered by many to be one of the highlights of the festival. This year they screen Oldboy on 5th September at Cobden Chambers. @beesmakehoneycc
Travel subsidies available. For more info, please visit www.takeoneaction.org.uk/ about-take-one-action-locals. Full Festival programme available from takeoneaction.org.uk
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CELEBRATE
1 00 years OF UK FILM RELEASING
2015 marks the centenary of professional film distribution in the UK. 100 years ago, feature-length films were emerging as a storytelling medium in their own right, two decades after the invention of the cinematograph machine. In December 1915 the fledgling, ambitious enterprises dedicated to supplying and promoting filmed entertainment founded their UK trade body – now Film Distributors’ Association. Today distribution remains the unseen engine driving the film business, connecting films with audiences week in, week out – films only come to life and have any impact when they’re experienced and shared by public audiences. FDA is a proud sponsor of the National Film & Television School and of the accessible cinema information service for people with hearing or sight loss, www.yourlocalcinema.com
Discover more
• About how films connect with audiences, and our schedule of upcoming releases: www.launchingfilms.com • UK cinema ticket booking hub: www.cinematickets.link • Share your memories of favourite film experiences: www.filmscrapbook.com #FDA100
Delivering Dreams: 100 Years of British Film Distribution by Geoffrey Macnab published in paperback and e-book by IB Tauris.
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CINEMA FOR ALL BY JAQ CHELL Hello! We’re Cinema For All and we’re here to support, develop and champion film societies, clubs and community cinemas and the amazing film events they produce. We were set up by our members in 1946 (though we were then known as the British Federation of Film Societies) and we’ve been community cinema’s biggest fans ever since. We support groups throughout the UK with workshops, conferences and community projects, and by providing specialised film for hire at a low cost (through our Booking Scheme). We can also help groups make big savings on their annual insurance and save up to £150 when opening a Filmbankmedia account. We’re always available for advice
on programming, equipment and technical spec, licensing and anything else that can help make community screenings run smoothly – for both those that have been running for a while or are just getting going.
It connects audiences and film in a way that creates life-long memories.
We’re inspired daily by the awesome, tireless and creative work of the volunteers who put on film in their communities, which we believe has an underestimated impact on the film industry, local regeneration and people’s lives. Without this legion of committed film fans, people living in many parts of the UK would have no way to watch film the way it is supposed to be seen – with other people.
Take Dungannon Film Club’s screening of American Psycho, which took place in what can only be described as Patrick Bateman’s murder room. Or Handmade Cinema’s double bill of Up and Moonrise Kingdom, which took place in a Scout hut and featured workshops to design your own Scout badges. Or Minicine in Leeds, who pair amazing snacks with each film – like the unforgettable chocolate hot dogs that accompanied a screening of Mary and Max. If you have a community cinema near you, grab your seat and get ready for an amazing night of film.
A community cinema experience brings people together to share the magic of cinema.It brings back that habit of regular cinema-going that many had thought was lost.
If you’re inspired by Scalarama but don’t have community screenings near you, why not set up your own film night? Cinema For All has masses of information, advice, re-
sources and discounts to help get you started and support you along every step of your journey. cinemaforall.org.uk, @cinemaforall Jaq Chell is the Operations and Development Manager at Cinema For All and has worked in film exhibition for ten years. Her film heroes are Jacques Demy, Isabella Rossellini, Vivien Leigh and John Waters. @blowupchurch
PROUD SPONSORS OF THE 2015 SCALARAMA FILM FESTIVAL FILMbANkMEDIA is the leading non-theatrical distributor in the UK, representing independent distributors including Icon, Pathé, Lionsgate, StudioCanal, Entertainment Film, Trinity Films, Verve Pictures, Metrodome, Kaleidoscope Film, Eros International, Arrow Films and Renown Pictures. We represent many major Hollywood studios which includes Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, MGM and Paramount Pictures. Filmbankmedia boasts an extensive library of over 15,000 films spanning all genres with many new releases available to screen in a special pre-DVD release – often just 8-12 weeks after cinema release.* For more information, contact us on: t: +44(0)20 7984 5957/8 e: info@filmbankmedia.com w: www.filmbankmedia.com * Subject to availability.
GIRLHOOD, GIRLFRIENDS, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and A SNAkE OF JUNE are all being screened during the SCALARAMA FILM FESTIVAL and are available to book via FILMbANkMEDIA © Hold-Up Films & Productions/Lilies Films/Arte France Cinéma 2014. Distributed by STUDIOCANAL LIMITED. Filmbankmedia TM & © 2015 Filmbank Distributors Limited.
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PEOPLE POWER
A Radical Film Network Event
BY HAYLEY TROWBRIDGE In light of the General Election 2015 results, the people of the UK were facing more austerity measures, more social disunity, more inequality… the picture was bleak. There was a feeling that the ‘powers-that-be’ had won and the people were about to face the consequences of this. Had all really been lost? The Radical Film Network (RFN) has responded to this with the People Power event by gathering a collection of its affiliated groups together to show through film, the power that the people have when they unite over a common cause for a collective struggle. This coordination of simultaneous screenings of the same films across the geography of the UK is a first for the Network, whose overall aim is to support the development of a sustainable, oppositional film culture through bringing together people and groups involved in the production, distribution and exhibition of politically and aesthetically radical film. The events aim to unite individuals within the screening space and foster dialogues of what we can do individually and collectively to effect change. It’s about positivity, unity and struggle. The narratives of resistance that were selected from a range of suggestions put forward by the various groups involved in this project are Nick Broomfield’s short documentary A Time Comes (2009) and Franny Armstrong’s feature McLibel (2005). A Time Comes tells the story of six Greenpeace volunteers who were tried but then acquitted of shutting down a power station in the UK. Their actions were in protest over the Government’s plans to build a series of new, coal-fired power plants despite the ongoing climate change battle facing humanity. McLibel is a ‘David and Goliath’ tale documenting how gardener Helen Steel and postman Dave Morris took on one of the largest and most aggressive multinational corporations the world has ever seen– McDonald’s – in a court case over free speech… and won. Both films demonstrate what can be achieved when we pull together with collective aims, supporting each other to challenge oppression, exploitation, misinformation and destruction, and together create a better, shared world. Overall, the RFN are programming six double-bill screenings on Thursday 24th September as part of the People Power event and the Scalarama 2015 programme. The model used to coordinate this event has already brought together different voices and groups from the world of radical film for a united purpose.
The Bristol Radical Film Festival, which screens socially and politically engaged documentary and fiction films from around the world, at its annual festival and throughout-the-year screenings, are programming an event in the South West. Dart over eastwards to London and the Hackney Green Party have come on-board to organise a screening in their neck of the woods, while in the Midlands Worcester Radical Films – a group that brings the highlights of the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival to Worcestershire – are taking People Power to their area. Moving further north, the Liverpool Radical Film Festival – a voluntary group that screens radical films to communities across Liverpool as part of an annual festival and pop-up screening events – have teamed up with Liverpool Small Cinema (a grassroots, community-built cinema) to programme the People Power films in Merseyside. Over in Yorkshire, Little Reliance Cinema (an independent and intimate cinema-at-theback-of-a-restaurant), has come onboard to run an event in Leeds that continues their programme of provocative documentaries. The Document Human Rights Documentary Film Festival based in Glasgow – who specialise in programming documentaries with a focus on human rights – provide the final piece of the collective jigsaw and are organising their own event north of the border. The RFN need your support on this experiment in using film to bring people together across disparate geographies to engage in discussion about what we can achieve together and in fostering an alternative film culture in cinemas and pop-up screening spaces up-and-down the country. You can get involved in this motion-picture collective union, by attending one of the screenings or by participating in the online dialogues of resistance and unity, by using #PeoplePower on Twitter. radicalfilmnetwork.com Hayley Trowbridge is director of wehearttech C.I.C and a digital practitioner, with a PhD in film who uses tech to address inequalities & develop capacity within communities. Volunteer Co-Organiser of the Liverpool Radical Film Festival. @hayley07 Radical Film Network is a network for those involved with or interested in the production, distribution and exhibition of politically and aesthetically radical film. @RadFilmNet
THE SCREENINGS Organiser: Bristol Radical Film Festival Venue: The PRSC New Building, 14 Hillgrove St, Bristol, BS2 8JT Time: 7pm Details: Tickets £3 / donation Contact: bristolradicalfilmfestival.org.uk Organiser: Document Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Venue: Govan Hill Baths, 99 Calder Street, Glasgow, G42 7RA Time: 7pm onwards Details: Tickets are pay-what-you-can on the door. Contact: documentfilmfestival.org Organiser: Hackney Greens Venue: Passing Clouds, 1 Richmond Road, London, E8 4AA Time: 6:30pm onwards Details: Free screening / donations welcomed Organiser: Little Reliance Cinema Venue: Little Reliance Cinema, The Reliance, 76-78 North Street, Leeds, LS2 7PN Time: Doors 7.30pm, programme starts 7.40pm. Main feature - McLibel - 8pm. Details: Booking by phone, email or in person at the bar. Contact: 0113 295 6060 / info@the-reliance.co.uk Organiser: Liverpool Radical Film Festival Venue: Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Time: Doors open at 6pm Details: Tickets are on a set-your-own-price model and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. There is a 56-seat capacity at the event. Helen Steel will be joining us for a post-screening Q&A / discussion. Contact: liverpoolradicalfilmfestival.org.uk liverpoolsmallcinema.org.uk Organiser: Worcester Radical Films Venue: The Hive Studio, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester, WR1 3PD Time: 6.00pm to 9.30pm Contact: worfs.org
1-30 September 2015
SCALARAMA
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LISTINGS Over the next pages, you’ll find all of the events submitted to Scalarama 2015 so far. This isn’t the full picture of Scalarama... these are just the eager beavers who have planned their events well in advance! See the full list and find out how to submit your own screening event at Scalarama.com Each event’s venue, date, time, ticket price and advised age is displayed as submitted by the organiser. Further film and event details plus booking links can be found at online at Scalarama.com The Scalarama 2015 Core Themes are highlighted: #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN CELLULOID FOREVER
VHSTIVAL JOHN WATERS
Central East
Wed 09 Sep - 19:00
Nottingham I write this as a self-appointed spokesperson for the city’s cinematic culture, but the beauty of this city and the community it has spawned comes through inclusivity. The main driving factor of the group, especially around Scalarama, is to encourage and support individuals and new groups who wish to start their own film clubs. After reading the comments of a recent Guardian article about the city’s culture (Don’t ever read the comments section. Why did I read the comments section?) I’m fully aware that Nottingham (as with many other cities, to be fair) can have a reputation for cliques, or even elitism, within its cultural community. I’d be the first to jump and state that the film scene (or at least, our corner of the scene) are anything other than exclusive and can only keep relevant through continuous evolution. Last year we managed to have the second largest programme in the UK (after London, natch), which was an achievement we were all proud of. I’d argue however, this wasn’t necessarily because of organisation, but really through encouraging individuality and ideas into the programme and never turning anyone away, should they want to contribute to Nottingham’s ever expanding and evolving cinema scene. Whether we can better Doris Wishman’s Let Me Die A Woman in this year’s programme remains to be seen, but I can guarantee that it’s those new groups (launching during this September) that are worth your attention above all. Rich Dundas, 32 ½ years old
The listings are grouped by the BFI Film Audience Network’s Hubs, a UK wide initiative to support film exhibition at a local level:
The Kneel Before Zod Video Club of Nottingham Club were inexplicably described by The Guardian as ‘one of the top five film clubs in the UK’. They host infrequent film screenings (sometimes on VHS, others on Laserdisc, normally on DVD for ease) of questionable quality and taste. Occasionally they host gigs, do film quizzes, curate projected visuals for events and have special Q&A and guest screenings.
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Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex
London North
24 26
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, South Yorkshire
NW Central
26
Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire
Northern Ireland 28 Scotland
28
South East
28
Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, Surrey, East Sussex, Kent
South West and W Midlands
29
West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall
Wales
30
Tue 01 Sep - 19:00
SCALARAMA NOTTINGHAM LAUNCH NIGHT U
FREE Broadway Cinema, 14-18 Broad St, Nottingham, NG1 3AL
Sat 05 Sep - 19:30 Bees Make Honey Creative Community
OUTDOOR SCREENING OF OLDBOY 18
£10 adv (includes first drink) Cobden Chambers, Pelham Street, Nottingham, NG1 2ED
Wed 02 Sep - 18:30 Reel Equality and Sojourner Sisters GIRLHOOD 15
Sun 06 Sep - 19:00
Ticket price tbc New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 6BE
FREE Rough Trade, Nottingham, 5 Broad St, Nottingham, NG1 3AJ
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Wed 02 Sep - 19:00 Rough Trade Nottingham
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (1981) 18
SHORT STACK (SHORT FILM NIGHT)
Mon 07 Sep - 19:00 Strange Things Are Happening & Gods and Monsters
I’M IN LOVE WITH A VIDEO NASTY 18
FREE Rough Trade, 5 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AJ
FREE The Lounge, Broadway Cinema, 14 -18 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AL
Thu 03 Sep - 20:00 Mayhem Film Festival
Tue 08 Sep - 18:30 Screen 22 and Little Wolf Parade
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
BIKER MOVIE DOUBLE BILL: STONE/ PSYCHOMANIA £8 Broadway Cinema, 14 -18 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AL Fri 04 Sep - 19:30 The Film Exchange
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA 18
£10 (ticket includes a FREE drink) Cobden Chambers, Pelham Street, Nottingham, NG1 2ED
FREE Rough Trade, 5 Broad St, Nottingham NG1 3AJ Thu 10 Sep - 19:30 Screen 22
DIRECTOR’S CUT
£5 Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Fri 11 Sep - 19:00 Nottingham and Derby Society of Architects
METROPOLIS + GET LUDER + LACE
AN EVENING OF LIVE ART AND FILM
£7.50 Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Tue 08 Sep - 19:00 LeftLion & These City Lights
F IS FOR FAKE (LACEHOUSE SECRET CINEMA) Ticket price tbc The Lacehouse, Broadway, Nottingham, NG1 1PS
Sat 19 Sep - 19:30 Screen 22 and Little Wolf Parade
Fri 25 Sep - 19:00 Cinema Diabolique
Ticket price tbc National Videogame Arcade, 24-32 Carlton Street, Nottingham, NG1 1NN
£8 Broadway Cinema, 14-18 Broad St, Nottingham, NG1 3AL
OUTDOOR ROOFTOP SCREENING
Sun 27 Sep - 15:00 Sumac Centre - Nottingham’s DIY Social Centre
Donations National Videogame Arcade, 24-32 Carlton Street, Nottingham, NG1 1NN
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
CHILDREN’S FILMS AND GAMES
Sun 20 Sep - 20:00 Nottingham Alternative Film Network
Sun 13 Sep - 14:30 Screen 22
£5 Lord Roberts, 24 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AN
FILMS FOR ACTION (LAUNCH)
Ticket price tbc Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Sun 13 Sep - 20:00 Nottingham Alternative Film Network
HEDWIG... LIVE!
£9.90 The Maze, 257 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham, NG1 3FT Mon 14 Sep - 19:30 Screen 22
APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR
£8 Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Tue 15 Sep - 19:30 Screen 22 & Beeston Film Club
LGBT DOCS NIGHT
Sun 20 Sep - 20:00 Porlock Press
BAD BOY BUBBY 18
Ticket price tbc Address tbc, Check twitter.com/ CineDiab for updates. Mon 21 Sep - 19:00 Strange Things Are Happening SLEAZEMANIA! 18 FREE The Lounge, Broadway Cinema, 14 - 18 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AL Tue 22 Sep - 21:30 Fortune & Glory Film Club
FILM CLUB LAUNCH: WITHNAIL & I
£10 Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AP
BEESTON INVADE SCREEN 22!
Wed 23 Sep - 19:00 Strange Things Are Happening
Wed 16 Sep - 19:00 The Monster Company and The Kneel Before Zod Video Club of Nottingham Club
FREE Rough Trade, 5 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AJ
Ticket price tbc Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AP
A LASERDISC RESURRECTION
FREE Broadway Lounge, 14-18 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AL Wed 16 Sep - 19:00 LeftLion & These City Lights
ONCE WERE WARRIORS
FREE Rough Trade, Nottingham, 5 Broad St, Nottingham, NG1 3AJ Thu 17 Sep - 19:00 Screen 22
SHIRLEY CLARKE DOUBLE BILL
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Ticket price tbc Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Fri 18 Sep - 19:30 Kino Klubb
THE DANCE OF REALITY
£8 Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Sat 19 Sep - 18:30 Nottingham Alternative Film Network
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS £8 The New Forester, 18 St Ann’s St, Nottingham, NG1 3LX
SHOTS IN THE DARK FESTIVAL (#BROADWAY25)
Sun 20 Sep - 11:30 Screen 22 & National Videogame Arcade
Ticket price tbc Cobden Chambers, Nottingham, NG1 2ED
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
SECOND RUN DVD
Central East
SHORT STACK: SURPRISE FEATURE FILM
THE KILLING OF AMERICA AND THE MADELINE RUST LIVE! 18
SITA SINGS THE BLUES (2008)
Ticket price tbc Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, NG7 6HX Sun 27 Sep - 20:00 Sumac Centre
WORKING SLOWLY (AKA RADIO ALICE)
Ticket price tbc Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, NG7 6HX Mon 28 Sep - 19:30 Impact Film & TV
‘DANGEROUS AMBITION’ DOUBLE BILL 18
£16.50 (£15 early bird price) Screen 22, 25 Broad Street, Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 3AP Tue 29 Sep - 20:00 Sumac Centre
THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ (2014)
Ticket price tbc Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Forest Fields, Nottingham, NG7 6HX Wed 30 Sep - 19:00 The Kneel Before Zod Video Club of Nottingham Club
SCALARAMA NOTTINGHAM CLOSING PARTY (INCLUDING ‘LISZTOMANIA’ HOSTED BY TKBZVCONC) 18 FREE Rough Trade, Nottingham, 5 Broad St, Nottingham, NG1 3AJ
Want to join in? Contact Scalarama Nottingham organisers via Cinema Diabolique on Twitter @CineDiab
The Film Exchange by Jude Fx The Film Exchange is the playground dream of one 1980s child/video junkie, to work in a great video store and share a love of films. Inspired by the social heart of The Music Exchange, the meticulous curatorship of Brick Lane’s Close Up Library and the amazing phenomaly that is Movieworld Droylsden, The Film Exchange is one step closer to that dream (largely thanks to the formidable energy of Nottingham’s film clubs and DIY community). It has hosted various screenings since its conception in October 2014. Its pop up shop has been selling a selection of inspiring Blu-rays, DVDs and hand printed cards at events throughout the Midlands. We’re currently working hard preparing our film rental service for trials and to establish a network of film societies for the residents of assisted living facilities and residential homes. We work to re-appropriate disused technologies (like VHS players for example) and put them to good use entertaining the more vulnerable members of our community. Please check out thefilmexchange.uk for more details. We’ll be out and about throughout Scalarama because there’s tons of great stuff happening. Be seeing you!
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SCALARAMA
1-30 September 2015
London From 01 Sep Institute Of Contemporary Arts
ONWARDS AND OUTWARDS #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
CAMBRIDGE 03 -13 September
34TH CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL including
54: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT &
ROAR
Dates, times and venues tbc
£11/£8/£7 The season takes place across a wide-reaching UK partnership of 12 organisations comprised of: the ICA and JW3, London; Reading Film Theatre; Gulbenkian, Canterbury; Phoenix, Leicester; HOME, Manchester; Watershed, Bristol; Chapter, Cardiff; Pavillion Dance Southwest, Bournemouth; Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle; Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast and Glasgow Film Theatre.
FILM HUB CENTRAL EAST
01 Sep - 06 Oct BFI Southbank
IT ISN’T VERY PRETTY... THE COMPLETE FILMS OF JOHN WATERS (EVERY GODDAMN ONE OF THEM)
To find out more about Film Hub Central East and how it supports film screenings and cinema activity, visit filmhub. broadway.org.uk or find them at @filmhubce
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT Fri 04 Sep - 19:30 The Tin Kan Kinema
THE BOFORS GUN (DIRECTOR JACK GOLD 1968) 18
Nottingham and Derby Society of Architects
£5, £4 concessions The Tin Kan Kinema, 12-18 Cambridge Ave, Kilburn, London, NW6 5BA
by Beth Bird
ENGLAND’S DREAMING: PENDA’S FEN PG 16MM
The Nottingham and Derby Society of Architects is a regional branch of the Royal Institute of British Architects, run by local professionals, dedicated to increasing the profile of architecture within the local community. Scalarama has presented a fantastic opportunity for us to engage the public through films which are tangential to and influential within the world of architecture. The first short film we will be screening is local photographer Joe Dixey’s film entitled Lace. Shot alongside his photographic project of the same name, Lace is a brief look at the familiar and unfamiliar of the city of Nottingham. Subverting the banality of the urban environments, Joe Dixey projects a little bit of magic into the everyday. Our second short film is Get Luder about the Brutalist architect Owen Luder who faces the prospect of seeing all his key buildings demolished in his own lifetime – the latest being the iconic Get Carter car park, made famous by the Michael Caine gangster film. We will also be screening Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s iconic sci-fi masterpiece from 1927. Germany at the beginning of the 20th century experienced the devastation of the First World War which subsequently developed a culture of radical experimentation and exciting new visions of how to construct and design the world in which we live, during a time when the Bauhaus and Futurist movement was born, and Modernism prevailed. Metropolis is a highly stylised film which presents these contrasts in society through a vertical city where the working class live in arduous conditions and turmoil, contrasting with the elitist intellectuals who live amongst the clouds in Eden. The Nottingham and Derby Society of Architects will be showing this exciting selection of films at Cobden Chambers as an outdoor cinema event on Friday 11th September 2015.
Sat 05 Sep - 15:00 Whitechapel Gallery Film
And Now for Something Completely... Deptford by John Demmery Green Early last year a few residents of London’s Borough of Lewisham noticed something strange: Lewisham has no cinema. Not only that, it was one of just two boroughs in London without one. This intrepid handful of Lewishamites then decided to take matters, quite literally, into their own hands, and build one from scratch. The idea of Deptford Cinema was born. They secured the necessary approvals, started renovating a vacant shop on Deptford Broadway, and incorporated it as a Community Interest Company. To run the cinema they’ve set up a completely democratic organisation, run entirely by volunteers, with the motto ‘cinema by the people, for the people, with the people’. Now partially finished, Deptford Cinema offers a not-forprofit space where the local community can not only see films at affordable prices, but can also help manage the cinema and organise their own screenings and events. By joining any or all of the cinema’s various working groups, volunteers can gain valuable experience and bring their own knowledge and skills to the table. To get involved is gloriously easy. Simply come to a weekly general meeting (Sundays, 4pm) at 39 Deptford Broadway (near Deptford Bridge DLR), or visit the website: deptfordcinema.org John Demmery Green is a playwright, fantasy author, and musician living in South East London. He’s the founder and artistic director of Da Vinci’s Kitchen theatre company. @davinciskitchen
£9.50 Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX Sun 06 Sep - 14:00 Rochester Kino
CINE SALON L’ATALANTE + ZERO DE CONDUITE
£8 Cine Lumiere, 17 Queensberry Pl, London, SW7 2DT Mon 07 Sep - 18:30 The Prince Charles Cinema
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA: EXTENDED DIRECTORS CUT 18
£8.50 for Members / £11 for Non Members The Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY Mon 07 Sep - 19:00 Paperworks
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DIRT : LETHAL HUNTER Adult Only VHSTIVAL £5 in advance / £7 on the Door Corsica Studios, 4/5 Elephant Road, London, SE17 1LB Mon 07 Sep - 19:30 She Shark Industries with Jukebox Kino
OBJECTS ATTACK!
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Ticket price tbc The Gun, 235 Well Street, Hackney, London, E9 6RG
Tue 08 Sep - 19:30 Save The David Lean Cinema Campaign
L’ATALANTE 35MM
£6.00 - £7.50 David Lean Cinema, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon, CR9 1ET Wed 09 Sep - 19:00 amakino
DARK MATTER (MATERIA OSCURA)
FREE Rye Hill Tenants Hall, 241 Peckham Rye, London, SE15 3AA Wed 09 Sep - 20:45 Arrow / The Prince Charles Cinema
ARROW FILM CLUB PRESENTS NIGHTMARE CITY 18
£5 for Members / £7.50 for Non Members The Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY Thu 10 Sep - 19:00 The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies - London
FREAKS, HIPPIES AND WITCHES: THE STRANGE, SALACIOUS CINEMA OF ANTONY BALCH 18
£11 on door/£10 advance/£8 concs Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 1JD Thu 10 Sep - 19:00 Disposable Cinema
HUMAN NATURE 15
£4 Backroom Cinema, Montpelier Pub, 43 Choumert Road, London, SE15 4AR Thu 10 Sep - 19:00 The Bechdel Test Fest
BIRTHDAY FEMINIST FILM QUIZ #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Donation Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Rd, London, E1 4UJ Thu 10 Sep - 19:30 Ramage Film Club
JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (GIULIETTA DEGLI SPIRITI) 15 £4 Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 0DR Thu 10 Sep - 20:45 The Prince Charles Cinema
ROAR : LONDON PREMIERE PG
£5 for Members / £7.50 for Non Members The Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY Sat 12 Sep - 15:00 Reel Good Film Club & The Bechdel Test Fest
THE WATERMELON WOMAN + PANEL DISCUSSION #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN FREE Deptford Cinema, 39 Deptford Broadway, London, SE8 4PQ Sat 12 Sep - 19:00 Loud Minority
THE TREE CIRCLE CINEMA Family Friendly
FREE The Tree Circle, Millfields Park, Chatsworth Road, Clapton, London. E5 0AR
1-30 September 2015
Mon 14 Sep - 19:00 Paperworks
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DIRT : A RAT IN THE DARKNESS Adult Only £5 in advance / £7 on the Door Corsica Studios, 4/5 Elephant Road, London, SE17 1LB Mon 14 Sep - 18:30 The Badlands Collective
A TRIBUTE TO CANNON FILMS: BARFLY/52 PICK-UP 18 35MM
Ticket price tbc Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY Tue 15 Sep - 20:20 Institute Of Contemporary Arts
SCALARAMA
Mon 21 Sep - 20:00 The Exhibit
FISH STORY : FEAT. INTRODUCTION FROM JAMES ACASTER 15
£10 The Exhibit, 12 Balham Station Road, Balham, London, SW12 9SG Tue 22 Sep - 19:00 The Exhibit
SUPERBOB + Q&A WITH BRETT GOLDSTEIN & JON DREVER £10 The Exhibit, 12 Balham Station Road, Balham, London, SW12 9SG Wed 23 Sep - 19:00 Disposable Cinema
Sun 27 Sep - 15:45 Institute Of Contemporary Arts
ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£11/£8/£7 Institute Of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH Sun 27 Sep - 19:00 Rochester Kino
SILENT SALON - THE CAMERAMAN
£7 Sands Films Studio, 82 St Marychurch Street, Rotherhithe, London SE16 4HZ Mon 28 Sep - 19:00 London Short Film Festival
UNCOMFORTABLE WOMEN 15
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI AT THE ICA
DARIO ARGENTO’S DEEP RED + AN INTRO TO GIALLO 18 £4 The Garrison, 99 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XB
Ticket price tbc Picturehouse Central, 20-24 Shaftesbury Ave, Piccadilly, London, W1D 7DH
Wed 16 Sep - 20:30 Cigarette Burns Cinema
Thu 24 Sep - 18:30 Hackney Green Party
Mon 28 Sep - 19:00 Paperworks
£9.50 Members £7.60 Concessions £8.50 Young Barbican £5 Barbican Cinema, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£5 in advance, £7 on the Door Corsica Studios, 4/5 Elephant Road, London SE17 1LB
£11/£8/£7 Institute Of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE 15
Thu 17 - Sun 20 Sep UP Projects | The Floating Cinema
PEOPLE POWER DOUBLE-BILL: A RADICAL FILM NETWORK EVENT PG
FREE Entry (donations welcome) Passing Clouds, 1 Richmond Road, London, E8 4AA
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DIRT : THE KILLER IS NOT ALONE Adult Only
Tue 29 Sep - 18:30 Rochester Kino
25 Sep - 4 Oct Doc’n Roll Films Ltd.
SALON ITALIA ZABRISKIE POINT
Small charges apply, please see floatingcinema.info for details: Canalside Steps, Granary Square, King’s Cross, N1C 4 AA
£5 - £13 Picturehouse Central, Corner of Great Windmill Street and Shaftesbury Avenue Piccadilly, London, W1D 7DH
Tue 29 Sep - 20:00 Tufnell Park Film Club
Thu 17 Sep - 18:45 Whitechapel Gallery Film
25 Sep - 27 Sep DDAANN
THE FLOATING CINEMA OPEN AIR WEEKENDER: HUMANS IN SPACE
ANIMATED: REMEMBERING DAVID ANDERSON PG
£9.50 Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX Thu 17 Sep - 19:00 Minor Literature[s] Film Club MAN PUSH CART 15 £5 (£3.50 concessions) Deptford Cinema, 39 Deptford Broadway, London, SE8 4PQ Fri 18 Sep - 20:15 Institute Of Contemporary Arts
10 YEARS OF SECOND RUN
£11/£8/£7 Institute Of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH Sat 19 Sep - 23:30 Roadside Picnic & Rio Cinema BUZZARD 18 £8.50 Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High St, London, E8 2PB Sun 20 Sep - 14:00 The Badlands Collective
A TRIBUTE TO CANNON FILMS: RUNAWAY TRAIN / SHY PEOPLE 18 35MM
£11 single film / £15 double-bill Regent Street Cinema, 309 Regent St, London, W1B 2UW
DOC’N ROLL FILM FESTIVAL 18
FACTUAL ANIMATION FILM FUSS
Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Rd, London, E1 4UJ Sat 26 Sep - 16:00 Institute Of Contemporary Arts
PORTRAIT OF JASON #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£11/£8/£7 Institute Of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH Sat 26 Sep - 19:00 Tate Modern
BENJAMIN CROTTY: FORT BUCHANAN
£5 / £4 concession Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG UK Sun 27 Sep - 11:00 The Badlands Collective
A TRIBUTE TO CANNON FILMS: STREET SMART/SUPERMAN IV 18 35MM £12 Ritzy Cinema, Coldharbour Lane, London, SW2 1JG Sun 27 Sep - 13:30 Institute Of Contemporary Arts
THE CONNECTION
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£11/£8/£7 Institute Of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
Mon 21 Sep - 19:00 Paperworks
Sun 27 Sep - 14:00 Rochester Kino
£5 in advance / £7 on the Door Corsica Studios, 4/5 Elephant Road, London, SE17 1LB
£8 Cine Lumiere, 17 Queensberry Pl, London, SW7 2DT
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DIRT: DIRTY WEEKEND Adult Only
CINE SALON - UN CHIEN ANDALOU + L’AGE D’OR
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FREE Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8NX
ALICE (JAN SVANKMAJER, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1988) PG
FREE for members (£15 annual membership) The Lord Palmerston, 33 Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 1HU Tue 29 Sep - 20:00 The Exhibit
MAGIC MIKE : W/ INTRO FROM CARL DONNELLY & CHRIS MARTIN 15
£10 The Exhibit, 12 Balham Station Road, Balham, London, SW12 9SG
If you want to get involved or put on an event as part of Scalarama in London, tweet @_foxwood or email hello@scalarama.com
FILM HUB LONDON
To find out how Film Hub London supports film events in the capital, visit filmlondon.org.uk/filmhub or follow @Film_London
Ladies and Gentlemen… Welcome to the Party Zone by Chris Boyd The Indie Slacker Movie gets wrestled to the ground and covered in Dorito dust in Joel Potrykus’ blackly comic new film Buzzard. Existing on an unsavoury diet of Nintendo video games, frozen pizza, grindcore and Pop Tarts, disillusioned temp Marty keeps himself occupied by ripping off the office where he works and by building his own replica Freddy Krueger glove. It’s only a matter of time before a scam too far leaves him paranoid, on the run from his ugly suburban surroundings towards the not-too-bright lights of Detroit and spiraling headlong into oblivion. Buzzard marks the third film in Director Potrykus’ ‘Animal’ trilogy and a further collaboration with actor Joshua Burge. Like Ape and Coyote, the film closely observes Burge’s central character with as much endearment
The Exhibit by Anthony Donoghue, Events Manager The Exhibit in Balham contains a hidden gem that makes it stand out from everywhere else. As well as being a well-known bar & restaurant, it also hosts London’s smallest cinema. With seating for up to just 26 people on plush leather sofas, it proves the point that size does matter, and the smaller the better.
as it does disdain. Marty somehow manages to exist entirely in the moment in an adolescent limbo of deadend jobs, friends’ basements and dingy motels. It’s difficult to look away when he gorges himself on spaghetti and meatballs on a pristine hotel room bed or gets accosted by a jobsworth at the bank. Potrykus, also seen on screen playing Marty’s nerdy childish workmate, has fashioned a film which picks the scab of how bored young white men interact with and rage against the world with a razor sharp fingernail. In an interview with Film Comment, Potrykus said “Never in my life have I ever met a villain. No one has ever been after me with a mask on. As much as I love Friday the 13th, for me the best villain is ‘the system’. We’re all fighting AT&T, our cable bills, the power company. That’s the most fascinating rebellion: fighting To celebrate Scalarama and the start of The Exhibit’s new resident stand-up comedy night, Always Be Comedy, The Exhibit Cinema will be screening a special series of movies with special Q&As and introductions from some of the UK’s top stand-up comedians. They will screen the new British comedy SuperBob, about a superhero from Peckham on his ‘day off’. The film stars comedian and Balham resident Brett Gold-
against this faceless system that’s always been there.” Channeling Harmony Korine, Mike Judge and Martin Scorsese (almost), Buzzard is also very funny. Potrykus and Burge squabbling over a play fight gone wrong or arguing over stolen office printer toner both ring hilariously true. As Marty races further and further towards self-destruction, the film catches up with him to pose a final, darker, more subversive and unexpected question mark over what has come before. It’s one of many barbed, surreal moments in a film which like its protagonist energetically freefalls from one skewed scenario to the next. Buzzard is the most realistic American Nightmare in years and just about the most surly, punk rock film of 2015. Roadside Picnic and Rio Cinema present the UK Premiere on Saturday 19th September at 11.30pm. stein (Ricky Gervais’ Derek & BBC Three’s Uncle) who will take part in a Q&A after the film along with the director Jon Drever. Three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee James Acaster will discuss obscure Japanese comedy Fish Story and Carl Donnelly and Chris Martin will discuss their curious obsession with Steven Soderbergh’s ode to the curious world of male striptease, Magic Mike, and explain why it has become a regular topic on their popular podcast.
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SCALARAMA
1-30 September 2015
NEWCASTLE Fri 18 Sep - 23:00 Tyneside Cinema + Screenage Kicks
LATE NIGHT DOUBLE BILL: GET CARTER + VILLAIN 18 £12 Full /£10 Concessions Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6QG
North
CARLISLE
Leeds
Sat 5 Sep - 16:15 Picnic Cinema
Leeds has a long, rich history with film and cinema. It is of course the birthplace of film - the very first moving images were captured right here in 1888 by Louis Le Prince. It boasts two of the UK’s longest standing cinemas and, in more recent years, has seen a tide of independent film exhibition rise throughout the city. Numerous organisations, many volunteer-led, and venues offer a diverse range of screening events, including several collaborations between different parties. Whether you’re looking for cult, classic, foreign language or arthouse cinema, Leeds has it all in abundance and Scalarama 2015 will provide the city with a platform for exhibitors and venues to come together and showcase what Leeds’ growing cinema community has to offer.
Thu 24 Sep - 19:00 Little Reliance Cinema
PEOPLE POWER DOUBLE-BILL: MCLIBEL / A TIME COMES
Welcome to Manchester! Whilst being a city known for its indie music legacy, its legendary football teams and the longest running soap opera in history, it has a lesser known but nonetheless vibrant history of cinemas.
£4 adv from the bar The Reliance, 76-78 North Street, Leeds, LS2 7PN
HOLMFIRTH
Scalarama’s key noble goal is to fill the land with cinemas and the land of Manchester was well and truly full in the 20th century. In the city centre there were over 100 cinemas with around 300 cinemas in neighbouring towns. Outside of the Stockport Plaza (the last remaining ‘classic’ cinema in the area) you can still see some of the remaining cinematic architecture around the city such as above McDonald’s on Oxford Road, whilst opposite is the old Paramount Cinema sitting derelict.
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Fri 25 Sep - 20:30 Minicine
WAYNE’S WORLD + AFTER PARTY PG
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £5 Left Bank Leeds, Cardigan Road, Leeds, LS6 1LJ Sat 26 Sep - 23:00 Creatures of the Night
SCALARAMA SPECIAL tbc
If you’d like to be involved in this year’s Scalarama celebrations – whether you’re a venue looking to host an event, a would-be programmer, or you’d like to help out with one already taking place – email Woody at woody@minicine.org. uk or tweet @ScalaramaLeeds.
£9 full, £8 conc, £7 members Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Road, Leeds, LS6 1JD
SHOOTERS IN THE PUB
FREE The Palace Pub, Kirkgate, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 7DJ Thu 03 Sep - 19:00 Oblong Cinema
DEVOUT WARRIOR 12
FREE Woodhouse Community Centre, 197 Woodhouse Street, Leeds, LS6 2NY Sun 06 Sep - 23:00 Creatures of the Night
LA GRANDE BOUFFE 18 £5 - £7.50 Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Road, Leeds, LS6 1JD Tue 08 Sep - 20:00 Films at Heart
LOVE IS STRANGE 15
£6/£4 HEART, Bennett Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS6 3HN Wed 09 Sep - 19:30 Leeds Queer Film Festival
THE WATERMELON WOMAN 15
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £3.00 suggested donation Wharf Chambers, 21-23 Wharf Street, Leeds, LS2 7EQ Sun 13 Sep - 15:00 The Hyde Park Picture House
PROVINCIAL ACTORS (AKTORZY PROWINCJONALNI) cert tbc #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £5 - £7.50 Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Road, Leeds, LS6 1JD
Tue 15 Sep - 19:00 Oblong Cinema
RAZA MALLAL MASTERCLASS + SHORT FILMS 15
FREE TalkingLens Productions, Yorkshire Dance, 3 St Peter’s Buildings, St Peter’s Square, Leeds, LS9 8AH Wed 16 Sep - 20:00 Minicine
MANAKAMANA U
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
PAY AS YOU FEEL Seven, 31A Harrogate Road, Leeds LS7 3PD Thu 17 Sep - 19:00 Minicine
£5 - £7.50 Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Road, Leeds, LS6 1JD Sun 27 Sep - 13:30 The Hyde Park Picture House
SHIRLEY CLARKE DOUBLE BILL: ORNETTE - MADE IN AMERICA & THE CONNECTION
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Tue 15 Sep - 19:30 Holmfirth Silents
HAROLD LLOYD IN SAFETY LAST! WITH LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT U £6, children under 18 and the unemployed are FREE Choppards Mission, Holmfirth, Choppards Bank Road, Holmfirth, HD9 2RP
DONCASTER Fri 25 Sep - 19:30 Phantom Cinema MAD MAX 15 £3.40 (adv) £5.00 (door) Phantom Cinema, Doncaster Brewery, 7 Young St, Doncaster DN1 3EL Sat 26 Sep - 19:00 Phantom Cinema
ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS / NIGHTMARE CITY (DOUBLE BILL) 18
£7 (adv) £10 (door) Phantom Cinema, Doncaster Brewery, 7 Young St, Doncaster DN1 3EL
Sheffield Sheffield Independent Film Programmers present ALTERNATIVE FORMAT WEEKENDER From 8mm to internet streaming via laserdiscs, the members of the Sheffield Independent Film Programmers group will be teaming up for a weekend festival dedicated to Alternative Formats involving mediums from across the ages. Plus there will be workshops and zine-making. Scheduled for the weekend of 12th - 13th September at Picture House Social, make sure you check Scalarama.com for confirmed details.
WESTWORLD 15
£5 Armley Mills, Canal Road, Leeds, LS12 2QF Sat 19 Sep - 16:00 Minicine
STILL ALICE (DEMENTIA FRIENDLY SCREENING) 12A
£5 The Arch Café, Mark Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 8JA Tue 22 Sep - 18:30 The Hyde Park Picture House
THE ILLUMINATION (ILUMINACJA) 15 £5 - £7.50 Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Road, Leeds, LS6 1JD
Manchester
£25 with camping £15 non-camping £1.00 per child under 16 (must be accompanied by an adult) Kirklinton Hall, Kirklinton, Carlisle, CA6 6BB
Events coming your way include the 101-year-young Hyde Park Picture House showing a selection of Polish classics curated by Martin Scorsese as well as the sexual feeding-frenzy La Grande Bouffe; food-ethics docs are back on the menu at The Little Reliance Cinema with the revelatory McLibel; and Mincine continues to build its brand of ‘social cinema’ with a Manakamana charity screening, Still Alice dementia-friendly screening and a showing of cult fave Wayne’s World plus an after party in partnership with Left Bank Leeds.
Tue 01 Sep - 19:00 Oblong Cinema
BURLESQUE BALL FEAT. MOULIN ROUGE 12A
North West Central
Groups involved: Magic Lantern Film Club, Celluloid Screams, Five and Dime Picture Show, Handmade Cinema, Edge of the Universe Printing Press & Cafe #9 Shorts Also in Sheffield... 25 Sep - 3 Oct
SENSORIA
The UK’s Festival of Music | Film | Digital Highlights include WACKEN 3D, INDUSTRIAL SOUNDTRACK FOR THE URBAN DECAY, ALTERED STATES, TRAINSPOTTING and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. Fri 25 Sep - 18:00 Sensoria
B-MOVIE : LUST & SOUND IN WEST-BERLIN 1979-1989/ Q&A 18 £5.90 - £8.10 Showroom Cinema, Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX
Sun 27 Sep - 19:30 Sensoria
DEADLOCK 18
£3 Picture House Social Mini Cinema, Abbeydale Road, 387 Abbeydale Rd, Sheffield, S7 1FS
FILM HUB NORTH Based in Sheffield, Film Hub North supports cinema activity. Sign up for updates at filmhubnorth.org.uk or follow @FilmHubNorth
Now in 2015 we have collaborated to fill the city with cinema screenings once again for Scalarama! Hatching plans in Manchester Central Library since May, our film scene collective has assembled an impressive and diverse line up of cinematic treats. From HOME’s 35mm showing of Salo to Certificate X’s pick of the ‘aerobsploitation’ fitness horror genre: Death Spa. With screenings like Cultivate and Vis a Vis Film’s showing of Dragon Inn at The Whitworth Gallery & Grimmfest’s Zombie All-Nighter at Z-Film Studios, there is a bit of movie gold for everyone. So whether it be Warriors and beers (Optic Films), Tokyo Tribes (Not of This World) or Queer Stories (Queer Media) be sure to catch a screening or five in Manchester this September! – Greg Walker Greg is fuelled by Cinema, Quality TV, Music and Cups of Tea. He is currently lead organisational chap at R.A.D. Screenings, Grimmfest and Scalarama Manchester. @thatsnogreg Sat 05 Sep - 19:30 Grimmfest
THE GRIMM ZOMBIE ALL-NIGHTER!!!! 18
£16.50 Z Film Studios, Battersea Rd, Stockport, SK4 3EA Sun 06 Sep - 18:00 Cultivate Film Art
Sat 12 Sep -20:20 HOME
SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM 18 35MM
£8.50 (full) /£6.50 (conc) HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN
HEROSTRATUS
Sun 13 Sep - 12:00 RAD Screenings
Tue 08 Sep - 20:00 Certificate X Cult Film Screenings
14+ £15 Gorilla, 54-56, Whitworth Street West, Manchester, M1 5WW
FREE Joshua Brooks, 106 Princess St, Manchester, M1 6NG
THE GODFATHER OF GORE + THE BEST OF SEX & VIOLENCE 18 £3.00 advance, more on the door Hold Fast Bar, 50 Newton Street, Manchester, M1 2EA
Thu 10 Sep - 19:00 Kinofilm, Manchester International Film Festival
KINORAMA PRESENTS VIVA VHS! 90S UNDERGROUND CINEMA 18 VHSTIVAL £5.00 and £4.00 (concessions) Three Minute Theatre, Afflecks Arcade, 35-39 Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JG
Thu 10 Sep - 19:30 NOT OF THIS WORLD FILM NIGHT
A SNAKE OF JUNE & TOKYO TRIBE 18 FREE ENTRY Bangkok Bar, 40 - 44 Princess St, Manchester, M1 6DD
ROBIN WILLIAMS CHARITY ALL-DAYER
Sun 13 Sep - 18:00 Cultivate Film Art
BLACK PANTHER/ EDVARD MUNCH
FREE Joshua Brooks, Manchester, 106 Princess St, Manchester, M1 6NG Sat 19 Sep - 20:40 HOME
ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £8.50 (full) / £6.50 (conc) HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN Sun 20 Sep - 18:00 Cultivate Film Art
THE PARTY’S OVER/ PRIVILEGE FREE Joshua Brooks, 106 Princess St, Manchester, M1 6NG
1-30 September 2015
Tue 22 Sep - 20:00 Certificate X Cult Film Screenings DEATH SPA 18 FREE Hold Fast Bar, 50 Newton Street, Manchester, M1 2EA Thu 24 Sep - 18:00 Cultivate & Cinema Subterranea
DRAGON INN
FREE Whitworth Art Gallery, The University Of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M15 6ER Sun 27 Sep - 18:00 Cultivate Film Art
MUSIC SPECIAL FEAT. PUNK ATTITUDE/ BODYSONG FREE Joshua Brooks, 106 Princess St, Manchester, M1 6NG
Wed 30 Sep - 19:00 Kinofilm, Manchester International Film Festival
KINO SHORTS 60 : INDIE FILMMAKERS ‘BRING THEIR OWN SHORT FILMS’ SPECIAL 18 £5.00 and £4.00 (concessions) Three Minute Theatre, Afflecks Arcade, 35-39, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JG
SCALARAMA
Liverpool
Cinema of Acceptance by Sinéad Nunes Recently, I have found the subject of Liverpool feeling ‘insular’ and ‘unwelcoming’ to new people too common a theme among friends, family and online. Having grown up in London, Glasgow and Preston before moving here, I consider myself an honorary Scouser, which thanks to the warmth and openness of this city, is really no different from being a born and bred Liverpudlian. This very real sense of community stretches much further than the school yard gates or the bar stools of the pub - just take a walk down Victoria Street and see what you find. Liverpool Small Cinema and countless other pop-up, independent, and voluntary-run spaces like it are a testament to the community spirit of the city. In Liverpool, things happen: be that on the infamous music scene, in the visual arts, or now more than ever, in the world of cinema. Like many art forms, cinema has always been a medium which brings people together, whether they be discussing a film at home, or sitting with strangers in a dimly lit auditorium to watch the latest release. Cinema provides a platform for conversation, shines a spotlight on social injustice and allows filmmakers and audiences alike to consider the notion of kinship.
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £9-£10
LANCASTER Thu 10 Sep - 20:30 The Dukes JAWS 12A £5.50 - £6.50 The Dukes Lancaster, The Dukes, Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1QE Wed 16 Sep - 18:20 The Dukes
GENERATION RIGHT #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN 12A £5.50 - £6.50 The Dukes Lancaster, The Dukes, Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1QE Thu 17 Sep - 20:30 The Dukes
RAGING BULL 18
£5.50 - £6.50 The Dukes Lancaster, The Dukes, Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1QE
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £3 Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Thu 03 Sep - 19:30 The Film Book Club
‘THE BACK TO THE FUTURE EXPERIENCE’ PG (Film), 15 (Podcast) Venue may be 18+ (TBC) £3 Kabinett, 2A Myrtle Street, Liverpool, L7 7DP
03-05, 10-12, 17-19 Sep - from 19:30
SECRET GARDEN CINEMA
£15 Queen Square Rooftop Car Park, 4 Queen Square, Liverpool, L1 1RH Fri 04 Sep - 20:00 L15 Projector and Cinema Cooperative
EYES WITHOUT A FACE / THE SKIN I LIVE IN 15
£3 per film, £6 double bill Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
£9-£10
NORTHERN SOUL 15
THE WATERMELON WOMAN
Sun 06 Sep - 17:00 / 19:15 THINK CINEMA
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S U
Thu 03 Sep - 19:30 Sat 05 Sep - 19:30 The Dukes
Wed 02 Sep - 19:00 A Small Cinema
FREE 81b Ullet Road, Liverpool, L17 2AA
Tue 01 Sep - 19:30 Fri 04 Sep - 19:30 The Dukes
£5.50 - £6.50
FREE Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
The Morecambe Winter Gardens, Marine Rd Central, Morecambe, LA4 4BU
ALICE IN WONDERLAND U
SCALARAMA LIVERPOOL LAUNCH & FILMJAM
BORN IN FLAMES
MORECAMBE
Wed 02 Sep - 14:00 Sat 05 Sep - 12:00 The Dukes
Tue 01 Sep - 18:30
The Small Cinema is an incredible community project; a real, functioning movie hub was completely built by volunteers from donated materials and is now a space where a vast community can enjoy cinema for as little as £3. If you just look a little further, you’ll see Liverpool is bursting with exciting, one-off film experiences. In Wavertree, the L15 Projector and Cinema Cooperative are taking social issues into their own hands, by making screenings freely accessible to refugees and asylum seekers, and breaking down language barriers through programme and print. A few stops down the line at Metal, a gallery and creative space on the platform of Edge Hill train station, the team are reinventing local cinema with Film Station - a fortnightly film event where the audience pick the features, which are preceded by artist shorts. Elsewhere, groups like the Liverpool Radical Film Festival programme screenings of documentaries to inspire reflection, encourage debate and raise awareness of the wider community. These budding institutions are as diverse as the audiences they hope to reach and embrace the community spirit. So is Liverpool really how people say it is, or is it what you make of it? Sinéad Nunes is a writer, and Features Editor at artinliverpool.com as well as working at FACT. Her favourite movie genre is film noir. @SineadAWrites Want to get involved in Scalarama Liverpool? Tweet @SmallCinemaLpl or email michael@cinemanation.co.uk
Tue 08 Sep - 19:30 Liverpool Small Cinema
Page 27
Sun 13 Sep - 18:00 Cheap Thrills
HAIRSPRAY (1988) 12A £4 / £3 concs Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Tue 15 Sep - 19:00 Elsewhere Cinema
TROPICAL MALADY 12 SECOND RUN DVD Ticket price tbc Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Wed 15 Sep - 18:30 THINK CINEMA
STALKER (1979) PG
£3 Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Thu 17 Sep - 18:30 tbc Future Histories
REPO MAN
Ticket price tbc Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Fri 18 Sep - 19:30 Cheap Thrills
FEMALE TROUBLE 18
‘TRASH TALK’, A NIGHT OF LIVE CULTURAL ANALYSIS 15+ Donations accepted but by no means required. Golden Square Coffee, 28 Wood Street, Liverpool.
THE CONNECTION / ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £3 per film, £6 double bill Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Fri 11 Sep - 18:30 Metal DAISIES 15
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
SECOND RUN DVD
Tickets £3 (FREE for L7/L8/L15 postcodes and no one turned away due to lack of funds) Edge Hill Station, Tunnel Road, Liverpool, L7 6ND
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN Set-your-own-price Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE Fri 25 Sep - 18:30 Metal
NIGHT TRAIN 12 SECOND RUN DVD
£3 (FREE for L7/L8/L15 postcodes and no one turned away) Edge Hill Station, Tunnel Road, Liverpool, L7 6ND
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS 70MM Mon 28 Sep - 18:30 Dumbulls
FOOD & FILM NIGHT
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Drop the Dumbulls, 2 Dublin Street, Liverpool, L3
Mon 21 Sep - 18:15 Picturehouse @ FACT
Tue 29 Sep - 19:30 Liverpool Small Cinema
Ticket price tbc FACT, 88 Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
£4 / £3 Liverpool Small Cinema, 57 - 59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
STORY OF MY DEATH SECOND RUN DVD
MAN OF THE STORYPG SECOND RUN DVD
Wed 09 Sep - 19:30 Liverpool Small Cinema
Thu 10 Sep - 18:00 / 20:15 A Small Cinema
PEOPLE POWER: A TIME COMES/ MCLIBEL/ Q&A HELEN STEEL A RADICAL FILM NETWORK EVENT
Ticket price tbc FACT, 88 Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
£3 / £2 Liverpool Small Cinema, 57 - 59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
Thu 24 Sep - 18:00 Liverpool Radical Film Festival
Sun 20 Sep - 18:00 L15 Co-op and EFFTC
£3 Liverpool Small Cinema, 57 - 59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£5 / £4 concs Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
Sun 27 Sep - 15:00 Picturehouse @ FACT
Tue 22 Sep - 19:30 Elsewhere Cinema
QUÃBÃCOIS!: WEST OF PLUTO PLUS SHORTS 15
ANTHROPOPHAGOUS: THE BEAST 18 VHSTIVAL
£5 / £4 concs Liverpool Small Cinema, 57-59 Victoria Street, Liverpool, L1 6DE
PORTRAIT OF JASON #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Wed 23 Sep - 19:30 Cheap Thrills
PSYCHARAMA: THE HOLY MOUNTAIN 18
Wed 30 Sep - 20:30 tbc Picturehouse @ FACT
PINK FLAMINGOS 35MM
Ticket price tbc FACT, 88 Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
The L15 Projector and Cinema Cooperative By Jonathan Tinsley We are a loose group of people who collectively own and utilise one video projector. We counter the increasingly atomised cinematic experience and instead re-engender a feeling of film as a socially rewarding and actively engaging medium by running free, open events out of domestic and community spaces. Our screenings occur in living rooms, kitchens, churches, cafés or any other space open and amenable to our purpose of creating an inclusive and convivial cinematic experience. Membership of the cooperative is fluid and unofficial, with all members encouraged to borrow the projector to screen whatever they desire, creating a pluralistic and proudly unsystematic and democratic programme – from documentaries and independent films to major studio productions. We are currently establishing connections with local groups to actively assist in the founding of a new cooperative outside of Liverpool and to see the country swamped with people coming together under the glare of the video projector.
Page 28
SCALARAMA
Northern Ireland HOYLAKE
BELFAST
NEWCASTLE
Fri 04 Sep - 18:30 Hoylake Community Cinema
Details tbc
Details tbc
Queen’s Film Theatre, 20 University Square, Belfast, BT7 1PA
Annesley Hall, South Promenade, Newcastle, BT33 0EX
THE DAMNED UNITED 15
£5 The Parade, Hoylake Community Centre, Hoyle Road, Hoylake CH47 3AG Fri 25 Sep - 18:30 Hoylake Community Cinema CASABLANCA U £5 The Parade, Hoylake Community Centre, Hoyle Road, Hoylake CH47 3AG
DERBY Fri 04 Sep – 20:00 Fringe Cinema
VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS / CELIA – ARTHOUSE HORROR DOUBLE #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN SECOND RUN DVD
£10, £9 concession QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS Fri 11 Sep – 20:30 Crossing The Streams
THE ‘BURBS
£7.80, £7 concession QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS Sat 12 Sep – 20:00 Sound Of Static and Giant Axe Field
BEYOND ALL SUNS SECOND RUN DVD
£5 (advance) / £6 (on the door) QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS Fri 18 Sept – 21:00 Straight to Video: Satori Screen
V CINEMA NIGHT FEAT. DEAD OR ALIVE
£7.80, £7 concession QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS Fri 25 Sep – 20:00 Straight To Video: Fright Club
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE / CURSE OF CHUCKY DOUBLE
£10, £9 concession QUAD, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS
FILMGOER & QUEEN’S FILM THEATRE
If you want to put on a Scalarama event in Northern Ireland, please get in touch with @filmgoerr to link up.
FILM HUB NORTHERN IRELAND
For information on Film Hub Northern Ireland, visit filmhubni.org and follow them on @FilmHubNI
Scotland aka
Scaledonia GLASGOW Sat 05 Sep - 21:30
VHS TRASHFEST VHSTIVAL
£7/6 in advance Grosvenor Cinema, Ashton Lane, Glasgow, G12 8SJ Sun 06 Sep - 19:30 Strange Vice
NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN 18 35MM
£5.00 CCA, 350 Sauchiehall St, G2 3JD
Based at HOME, Manchester, Film Hub North West Central offers free membership to exhibitors. Learn more at filmhubnwc.org or follow @FilmHubNWC
INVERNESS Sat 13 Sep - 20:30 Eden Court
AMERICAN PSYCHO
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
35MM
Ticket price tbc Eden Court, Bishops Rd, Inverness, IV3 5SA Sat 26 Sep - 20:30 Eden Court
DECODER (1984)
Ticket price tbc Eden Court, Bishops Rd, Inverness, IV3 5SA
16 Sep - 27 Sep
TAKE ONE ACTION FILM FESTIVAL 2015
CCA, GFT, University of Glasgow and other various addresses Thu 17 Sep - 19:00 Matchbox Cineclub
HAUSU (1977) 18
EDINBURGH 16 Sep - 27 Sep
TAKE ONE ACTION FILM FESTIVAL 2015
£3 The Old Hairdressers, 27 Renfield Lane, Glasgow, G2
Filmhouse, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Pleasance Theatre and other various addresses
24 - 27 Sep
Sat 19 Sep - 11:00
CCA, 350 Sauchiehall St, G2 3JD
FREE Filmhouse (Guild Room), 88 Lothian Rd, Edinburgh, EH3 9BZ
SCOTTISH QUEER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Wed 24 Sep - 19:00 Document Human Rights Film Festival and The Radical Film Network
PEOPLE POWER DOUBLE-BILL: A RADICAL FILM NETWORK EVENT
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
FILM HUB NORTH WEST CENTRAL
NEWCASTLE COMMUNITY CINEMA
Pay What You Can Govan Hill Baths, 99 Calder Street, Glasgow, G42 7RA Sat 26 Sep - 22:30 Physical Impossibility
HERCULES RETURNS (1993) 15 £5 Grosvenor Cinema, Ashton Lane, Glasgow, G12 8SJ
ABERFELDY Sun 06 Sep - 18:15 The Birks Cinema JAUJA 15 £8.50/£7.50 The Birks Cinema, 1 Dunkeld St, Aberfeldy, Perthshire, PH15 2DA
TAKE ONE ACTION LOCALS
South East
Brighton Tue 01 Sep - 19:30 Bijou Electric Empire Forever in association with Open Colour
SHIRLEY CLARKE’S THE COOL WORLD 16MM
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£8/£6 Fabrica, Duke Street, Brighton, BN1 1AG Wed 02 Sep - 19:00 The Luxbry at Bom-Bane’s
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) 15 £5.55. Limited spaces, booking essential Bom-Bane’s, 24 George Street, Brighton, BN2 1RH Wed 02 Sep - 20:00 Legacy Film
LEGACYPOPUP: SECOND COMING 15 £4 Redroaster, 1d St James’s St, Brighton, BN2 1RE Mon 07 Sep - 19:00 The Luxbry
THE MAGIC BOX (1952) U
£5.00 (+95p booking fee) Brighton Media Centre, FrieseGreene House, 15-17 Middle Street, Brighton, BN1 1AL Thu 10 Sep - 19:30 Fabrica
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI WITH LIVE SCORE BY PARTIAL FACSIMILE U £8 / £6 concessions Fabrica, 40 Duke Street, Brighton, BN1 1AG Fri 11 Sep - 10:00, 10:45 Brighton & Hove Open Door
THE DUKE OF YORK’S CINEMA TOUR FREE Entry but advance booking is essential Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4NA Fri 11 Sep - 18:00 Brighton & Hove Open Door
‘NICE GIRLS DIDN’T GO TO THE ACADEMY!’ CINEMAS OF BRIGHTON TOUR
Details tbc
FREE Entry but advance booking is essential Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4NA
DUNLOP
Sat 12 Sep - 13:00 Bijou Electric Empire Forever
Sat 05 Sep - 19:30 Dunlop Community Cinema
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
CINEATTIC
HANNAH ARENDT12A
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN £4 adults, £3 children, or membership fee for season price tbc Dunlop Village Hall, 48 Main St, Dunlop, Ayrshire, KA3 4AG
Want to be a Scaledonian? Drop @morvc a line.
FILM HUB SCOTLAND The Film Hub supports film activity across Scotland. For more info filmhubscotland.com or follow @filmhubscotland
1-30 September 2015
SHIRLEY CLARKE’S PORTRAIT OF JASON £10/9/8/7 Duke’s at Komedia, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN Sun 13 Sep - 13:00 Bijou Electric Empire Forever with Brighton Alternative Jazz Festival
Mon 14 Sep - 21:00 Eyes Wide Open
TROPICAL MALADY
12A SECOND RUN DVD Adult £7, Concession/Child £6, Picturehouse Member £5, Concessionary Picturehouse Member £4 Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4NA Tue 15 Sep - 20:00 Nosferatuesdays & Fabrica
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979) 15
Adult £5, Concession £4 Fabrica, Duke Street, Brighton, BN1 1AG Wed 16 Sep - 19:00 The Luxbry at Bom-Bane’s WILDE (1997) 15 £5.55. Limited spaces, booking essential. Bom-Bane’s, 24 George Street, Brighton, BN2 1RH Thu 17 Sep - 19:30 Bijou Electric Empire Forever
THE SEASHELL AND THE CLERGYMAN 16MM + LIVE SCORE BY DRILL FOLLY & MILES BROWN #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£8/£6 Fabrica, Duke Street, Brighton, BN1 1AG Sun 20 Sep - 14:00 The Luxbry at Bom-Bane’s
THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (1960) U £5.55. Limited spaces, booking essential Bom-Bane’s, 24 George Street, Brighton, BN2 1RH Tue 22 Sep - 21:00 Nosferatuesdays
NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (1922) WITH LIVE HARP SCORE FROM ELIZABETH-JANE BALDRY PG
Adult £12, Concession £11, Adult Member £10, Concession Member £9 Duke of York’s Picture House, Preston Road, Brighton, BN1 4NA Wed 23 Sep - 19:00 The Luxbry at Bom-Bane’s
AN IDEAL HUSBAND (1999) PG £5.55. Limited spaces, booking essential Bom-Bane’s, 24 George Street, Brighton, BN2 1RH
Thu 24 Sep - 20:00 Bijou Electric Empire Forever & Paul Jackson (Legacy Film)
SHIRLEY CLARKE’S THE CONNECTION
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£6 Emporium, 88 London Road, Brighton, BN1 4JF
SHIRLEY CLARKE’S ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA
Sat 26 Sep - 16:00 Eyes Wide Open
£10/9/8/7 Duke’s at Komedia, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
Sun 27 Sep - 19:00 KISSKISSKINO & Sensoria
B-MOVIE LUST & SOUND IN WESTBERLIN 1979-1989 18
£10 Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4NA Wed 30 Sep - 19:00 The Luxbry at Bom-Bane’s
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (1952) U £5.55. Limited spaces, booking essential Bom-Bane’s, 24 George Street, Brighton, BN2 1RH Wed 30 Sep - 21:00 The Luxbry
SANTA SANGRE (1989) 18
Stalls: £10/£8 member, Conc £9/£7 Balcony: £15/£13 member or conc. Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4NA
Contact @ScalaramaBtn if you’d like to join in the fun!
SOUTHAMPTON Mon 07 Sep - 21:00 - An OURSCREEN potential Screening! Go and support Emily A!
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR 15
£10.00 ourscreen.com/screening/39577 Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Maritime Walk, Southampton, SO14 3TL
ROCHESTER Tue 15 Sep - 19:00 Rochester Kino
CINE SUPPER - THE GRADUATE
£12 Le Petit Cinema, Bruno’s Cafe, 10 High Street, Rochester, ME1 1PT Tue 22 Sep - 19:00 Rochester Kino
CINE SUPPER JULES ET JIM
£12 Le Petit Cinema, Bruno’s Cafe, 10 High Street, Rochester, ME1 1PT
CHATHAM Rochester Kino
FILM SALONS
Chatham Odeon, Leviathon Way, Chatham, ME4 4LL £9.90 / £7.60 conc Thu 3 Sep - 19:45 GIRLHOOD Thu 10 Sep - 19:45 JAWS Thu 17 Sep - 19:45 THE
WATER DIVINER Thu 24 Sep - 19:45 THE GODFATHER
THE WATERMELON WOMAN 18
FILM HUB SOUTH EAST
£10, Conc, £9, Member £8, Conc Member £7 Duke’s at Komedia, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN
Supporting film exhibition across 8 counties. Find out more about Film Hub South East at filmhubse.org or follow @FilmHubSE
1-30 September 2015
SCALARAMA
South West & West Midlands
C Fylm, Cornwall
Bristol Sat 05 Sep - 22:00 20th Century Flicks
VHSTIVAL SESSION 1 18
FREE, but only 11 people at a time folks 20th Century Flicks KINO, 19 Christmas Steps, Bristol, BS1 5BS Mon 07 Sep - 19:30 Bristol Radical Film Festival
IN TRANSITION 2.0
£5/4 Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD Wed 09 Sep - 19:30 20th Century Flicks
NIC CAGE FEST PROGRAMME 1: CAGEY IN LOVE : WILD AT HEART 18
£5 flat rate 20th Century Flicks KINO, 19 Christmas Steps, Bristol, BS1 5BS Thu 10 Sep - 20:00 Bristol Bad Film Club ROAR (1981) PG £5 Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip St, Bristol, BS3 4EA
Fri 11 Sep - 19:30 Seventyseven Film Club
HE (2012)
£3 Cafe Kino, 108 Stokes Croft Bristol BS1 3RU Fri 11 Sep - 19:30 Cube Cinema
THE 54 DIRECTOR’S CUT PARTY 15
£7 flat fee Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD Sat 12 Sep - 22:00 20th Century Flicks
VHSTIVAL SESSION 2 18
FREE, but only 11 people at a time 20th Century Flicks KINO, 19 Christmas Steps, Bristol, BS1 5BS Sun 13 Sep Cube Cinema 17:30 L’UNE
CHANTE, L’AUTRE PAS 18 20:30 GIRLFRIENDS 16MM
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£5 full, £4 conc (£8 / £6 for double) Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD
Wild at heart and weird on top: Nic Cage Fest 2015 by Tara Judah I co-run a video store in 2015 and I love Nicolas Cage. This is not a confessional.
Wed 16 Sep - 19:30 20th Century Flicks
NIC CAGE FEST PROGRAMME 2: CAGED ANIMAL : CON AIR 18 £5 flat rate 20th Century Flicks, 19 Christmas Steps, Bristol, BS1 5BS Wed 16 Sep - 19:30 Cube Cinema
VIDEO NASTIES NIGHT FEATURING ANTHROPOPHAGUS UNCUT UK PREMIERE PLUS Q&A 18 £6 full / £5 conc Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD
FREE Between 20th Century Flicks and The Bristol Cider Shop, on the Christmas Steps, BS1 5BS Sat 26 Sep - 20:30 Bristol Sunset Cinema
FLASH GORDON PG
£10 for adults, £5 for children Clifton Observatory, Litfield Place, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 3LT Sat 26 Sep - 22:00 20th Century Flicks
£5 / £4 Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD
Sun 27 Sep - 12:00 University of Bristol Film Society
Fri 18 Sep - 20:00 Hellfire Video Club
KUNG FU BANANAS!
£6 Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD Sat 19 Sep - 22:00 20th Century Flicks
VHSTIVAL SESSION 3 18
FREE, but only 11 people at a time 20th Century Flicks KINO, 19 Christmas Steps, Bristol, BS1 5BS Mon 21 Sep - 19:00 Cannoli and Gun
GOODFELLAS + SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS 18
Though being a Nic Cage fan is a reward in itself, the knowledge that I am not alone in my gif-seeking obsession is a comfort to me, and something I see as proof that the best use of my time and efforts this year are in putting together three nights of unbridled joy, also known as Nic Cage Fest.
JASON
FREE, but only 11 people at a time 20th Century Flicks KINO, 19 Christmas Steps Bristol, BS1 5BS
Sun 27 Sep Cube Cinema 18:00 KINETTA 15
SECOND RUN DVD 20:15 DOGTOOTH 18
£5 full, £4 conc (£8 / £6 for double) Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD Sun 27 Sep - 19:00 Seventyseven Film Club
Wed 23 Sep Cube Cinema 18:15 THE CONNECTION 20:45 PORTRAIT OF
Wed 30 Sep - 20:00 Cube Cinema
Single: £5 full, £4 conc Double bill: £8 / £6 Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD Wed 23 Sep - 19:30 Bristol Silents
So, after some deliberation and consultation with readers of our blog, 20th Century Flicks’ inaugural Nic Cage Fest will consist of three screenings; Wild at Heart, Con Air and Drive Angry 3D. But the essence of Cage Fest is more than just movies. What I hope to achieve is a bringing together of local fans in a safe Cage environment where impersonations, costumes and elaborate wigs are welcome. Live impressions of internet memes are also encouraged.
NIC CAGE FEST PROGRAMME 3: CAGE OF CRIPPLING DEBTS : DRIVE ANGRY 3D 18
ODDITIES OF SOVIET CINEMA PG
FREE The Lansdown, 8 Clifton Road, Avon, Bristol BS8 1AF Wed 23 Sep - 19:30 20th Century Flicks
5 flat rate 20th Century Flicks, 19 Christmas Steps Bristol BS1 5BS Thu 24 Sep - 19:00 Bristol Radical Film Festival
PEOPLE POWER: A TIME COMES/MCLIBEL : A RADICAL FILM NETWORK EVENT #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
£3/donation PRSC New Building, 14 Hillgrove St, Bristol, BS2 8JT
Programming ideas vary according to the widely diversified groups. The Hay Studio on Bodmin Moor show contemporary arthouse, a youth club for people in challenging circumstances screens animation and extreme sports, an eco-park screens music films while at a small, rural ex-mining hamlet there is programming for the retired population.
By donation - min. donation £4. All profits to go towards Cube refurb. Winston Theatre, Bristol SU, The Richmond Building, 105 Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1LN
THE GODDESS (1934) WITH NEW LIVE PIANO SCORE
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
C Fylm is Cornwall’s community cinema project. It grew out of demand for film screenings from the rural touring performing arts network Carn to Cove which connects 85 village communities in rural Cornwall, and Cornwall Film Festival’s desire to engage across the region during their annual week-long celebration of new film. Cornwall’s communities are remote and through lack of rural transport, rely on volunteers in village spaces to mount events. We have rapidly expanded since our formation in 2013 and now have 18 participating communities. We share resources from projection equipment and blackout to programming and training, and we offer interchangeable membership between villages to broaden the range of films which can be accessed.
SECOND RUN SUNDAY: CELEBRATING 10 YEARS 15
£11 Vincenzo’s, Park Street, BS1 5PB
Choosing three films from the vast catalogue of the great man’s filmography was nigh impossible. The silver lining, of course, is that at this rate of showing three films annually while he’s churning out an average of four a year, I can probably run the festival for the rest of my natural life, maybe even longer. #CageJoy
Tara is the Bristol Scalarama coordinator so get in touch via @midnightmovies if you want to join in or help out.
SCREENING ON THE CHRISTMAS STEPS U 16MM
VHSTIVAL SESSION 4 18
From the first time I saw his Sailor in Wild at Heart, to when I stood in the freezing cold for three hours to see him turn on the Christmas lights in Bath, Nicolas Cage has been my one true love. Even Left Behind and Dying of the Light haven’t stopped me from staring lovingly at that increasingly dodgy hairline.
Being in love with Nicolas Cage is an affair for life and, as the kind of person who thinks running a video store in 2015 is a wise business venture, all I can say is how utterly happy I am that this life truly is wild at heart and weird on top.
Fri 25 Sep - 20:00 20th Century Flicks + The Bristol Cider Shop
Thu 17 Sep - 20:00 20th Century Flicks @ Cube
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MS OSBOURNE 18
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£3 Cafe Kino, 108 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RU
VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS SECOND RUN DVD 15 £5 full, £4 conc Cube Cinema, Dove Street South, Bristol, BS2 8JD
CLEVEDON Sun 13 Sep 11:00 - 14:00
CURZON CLEVEDON OPEN DAY 14:00 Curzon Clevedon & Bristol Silents
BROKEN BLOSSOMS WITH LIVE SCORE FROM ANDY QUIN PG 35MM
£10 Adult, £7 Concessions Curzon Clevedon Cinema & Arts, 45 Old Church Rd, Clevedon, BS21 6NN
LEAMINGTON SPA Mon 14 Sep - 19:30 Leamington Underground Cinema: Masochist Film Club OVER THE TOP 18 £5 The Town House, 2 George St, Leamington Spa, CV31 1ET
The experience of rural cinema is somewhat different to urban cinema. Unable to replicate the anonymity and cocoon-like experience of enveloping sound, it is more of a social event. Yes, there is popcorn (home-made) and ice cream (Cornish of course) but food and chatter is an important part too. Programming a short as well as a feature is popular as it allows for the all important cake and tea stall or occasionally Indian curry (for The Lunchbox) to be patronised and make the clubs sustainable. At a recent screening of Pride, the local pub was booked out for pre-screening dinner and the audience was a packed room of locals and breeze-ins. Reminisces of the Coal Miners’ Strike, the Thatcher era and gay politics made Stithians village hall hum in the interval and there was collective laughter, clapping and emotion at the movie’s high and lows, more similar to a live theatre performance. We receive financial assistance from the Film Hub South West and West Midlands and from the BFI Neighbourhood Cinema fund to assist with gear, licensing and core cost. Upcoming in September we are embarking on pedalpowered screenings in unusual places. This is participatory cinema, inspired by Afrika Eye’s George Salt’s stories of screening film in Malawi and my own experience of screening film in Uganda for children at Kamazinda School. We will present screenings in Carnglaze Caverns, a disused Slate Quarry, a tram line station converted into a bicycle hire business near Helston and a University Freshers’ week jamboree in Falmouth. Tim Smithies is Project Director of C Fylm, runs the live performance programme Carn to Cove In Cornwall and is a music producer for the Metronome music label. c-fylm.tumblr.com @carntocove
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SCALARAMA
1-30 September 2015
Ian Francis set up the Flatpack Film Festival, and as well as this eclectic jamboree the Flatpack team produce all manner of events and projects throughout the year. During Scalarama they embark on a journey into Birmingham’s movie-going history. Although supposedly renowned for their self-deprecation, Brummies will happily credit their city with inventing everything from DNA and lemonade to flipbooks and celluloid. In the latter case, they have a point; local chemist Alexander Parkes patented a celluloid prototype in 1862 called Parkesine, and shortly afterwards some American came along with a more refined, stable version and made a killing. This is one reason we came up with the name Celluloid City (along with a fondness for alliteration, and the fact that it can be sung to the tune of Suffragette City).
Birmingham Celluloid City Fri 04 Sep - time tbc Vivid Projects
Time/date tbc Centrala
FREE Entry Vivid Projects,16 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, Birmingham, B5 5RS
Centrala, Unit 4 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, Birmingham, B5 5RT
REPEATOR: MATERIAL WORLD
Wed 16 Sep - 20:00 Flatpack Film Festival
DOTS & LOOPS 2: SIMON ELLIS AND THE BLAINE BROTHERS £4 The Oobleck , Custard Factory, Digbeth, B9 4AA
INNOCENT SORCERERS + THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS SECOND RUN DVD Plus:
VIVA VHS: THE COURIER OF DEATH / THE MAGIC CINEMA A RETROSPECTIVE / VIDEO STROLLS / CAMERA OBSCURA
Sat 19 Sept - 14:00 Flatpack Film Festival
CELLULOID CITY: THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO 35MM Price tbc The Electric, 47–49 Station Street, Birmingham, B5 4DY
FALMOUTH Sat 19 Sep - 19:30 The Poly
MINIMA: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA PG £12 / £10 The Poly, 24 Church Street, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 3EG
TORRINGTON The Plough Arts Centre 9 - 11 Fore Street, Torrington, Devon, EX38 8HQ £6 Full / £5.50 Concession / £5 Plough Supporter Wed 09 Sep - 20:00
THE WONDERS + ITALIAN MEAL 15
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN Sat 12 Sep - 20:00
INTERACTIVE SCREENING OF PINK FLOYD THE WALL 15 Sun 13 Sep - 17:00
ED WOOD & PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
15 & PG Double bill: £10 Full / £9 Concession / £8 Plough Supporters One film: £6 / £5.50 / £5 Wed 16 Sep - 20:00
THE LIGHTHOUSE
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
SECOND RUN DVD
If you want to get involved in Scalarama Birmingham, please contact Andy via @themagiccinema.
Wed 23 Sep - 20:00
ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD + INTRODUCTORY TALK #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
PLYMOUTH Plymouth Art Centre’s Cinema in the City Royal William Yard, Plymouth, Devon PL1 3RP £5 Standard, £13 VIP (VIP includes a prosecco/soft drink & VIP badge)
However, this project is not so much about the materiality of film as the experience, whether analogue, digital or entirely imaginary. How you saw a film was crucial, even in cinema’s infancy. The elaborate presentations of early Birmingham showman Waller Jeffs had all kinds of unforeseen consequences, cited as inspirational by Iris Barry (who went on to set up the first film archive at New York’s Museum of Modern Art) and Michael Balcon (founder of Ealing Studios). Soon the buildings themselves were beginning to outshine the films, thanks in part to Balcon’s schoolfriend Oscar Deutsch. His 1930s Odeon boom was built on the rapid
THE DANCE OF REALITY
£5.50-£6.50 Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DE
CARDIFF Sun 06 Sep - 19:00 Trinity Centre
MINI-SEASON OF WORLD CINEMA WITH WORLD MUSIC: WADJDA PG #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
FREE Trinity Centre, Four Elms Road/ Piercefield Place, Cardiff, CF24 1LE Mon 07 Sep - 19:00 Trinity Centre TIMBUKTU 15 FREE Trinity Centre, Four Elms Road / Piercefield Place, Cardiff, CF24 1LE Sun 13 Sep - 19:00 Trinity Centre
WHEN I SAW YOU 12A
FREE Trinity Centre, Four Elms Road / Piercefield Place, Cardiff, CF24 1LE
£7.90, £5.80 concessions Chapter, Market Road, Cardiff, CF5 1QE
Sat 12 Sep - 19:00 Plymouth Arts Centre
JURASSIC WORLD 12A
FILM HUB SOUTH WEST & WEST MIDLANDS A network of cinemas, venues and festivals enhancing access to film. Find out more at watershed.co.uk/filmhub @FilmHubSWWM
The Purple Rose of Cairo screens on 35mm at the Electric Cinema (on 19th September). For more information on the Celluloid City project, please go to flatpackfestival.org.uk. Flatpack Film Festival returns in March 2016.
Thu 10 Sep - 19:00 Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Fri 11 Sep - 19:00 Plymouth Arts Centre
#DIRECTEDBYWOMEN
The city’s last holdout for 35mm, the Electric is a fitting place to kick off our first Celluloid City season with Woody Allen’s love-letter to movie-going and the blurring of fantasy and reality.
ABERYSTWYTH
Mon 14 Sep - 18:00 Chapter Wails
MAMMA MIA! PG
The cinema experience can be a prism for so many other things – class and sex, dreams and design. We’d like to map out a century-plus of film-going, in a city that boasted over 100 picturehouses at its peak. To start with we’re gathering people’s stories, and concentrating on a few key locations including the UK’s oldest working cinema. Compared with some of its grander 1940s competitors you might not have predicted such longevity for the Electric, a back-street newsreel theatre that has somehow survived a whole century by shape-shifting from cartoons and soft porn via repertory fleapit and right up to the boutique sofa era.
Wales
Thu 10 Sep - 19:00 Plymouth Arts Centre
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL 15
spread of suburbia, the willingness of builders to work on spec during the depression and the elegant, streamlined work of a group of young architects fresh out of school. As well as the balti, Birmingham may also lay claim to the notion of Bollywood in the UK; the first South Asian cinemas sprang up here, functioning as makeshift community centres as much as entertainment venues.
EYES WITHOUT A FACE WITH GUEST INTRODUCTION U
Mon 14 Sep - 19:00 Trinity Centre
THE WIND WILL CARRY US U
FREE Trinity Centre, Four Elms Road / Piercefield Place, Cardiff, CF24 1LE
FILM HUB WALES Celebrating and supporting the vibrant cultural film sector in Wales. Find out about membership at filmhubwales.org and follow their updates at @FilmHubWales
Home Cinema Day SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER
This year’s Scalarama culminates in the fourth annual Home Cinema Day, an initiative that inspires people to bring the cinema experience into their homes and share films with friends and family. Whether it’s a chance to invite a few people round to put on a group favourite or an opportunity to try something new with themed food and music, Home Cinema Day is here to offer ideas and inspiration, following the tried and tested five-step method:
Pick - Invite - Prepare - Watch - Share Previous Home Cinema Days have seen people programme cult film all-dayers, set up projectors in back gardens or revive old VHS tapes. Regardless of whether you want to create an immersive experience or just arrange a simple evening with friends, Home Cinema Day is the perfect time to celebrate film and the best excuse to stay indoors. Society is built around the sharing of stories, so start telling your story now and make your Home Cinema Day 2015 a trip to the cinema you will always remember.
homecinemaday.co.uk #HCD15
1-30 September 2015
SCALARAMA
Page 31
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