I asked a few people what they are looking forward to about the upcoming SCALARAMA festival. Want to suggest your ownhighlights? share them here.
Amber Cropp – Cube Cinema – @ambercropp
Volunteer at the Cube Cinema in Bristol
Wow trying to pull out top picks from the amazing Scalarama programme this year is nigh impossible. Here’s what caught my eye at first glance:
OBJECTS ATTECK! @ The Gun, Hackney, 7th September
Shot entirely on Super 8 black and white reversal film Objects Attack! is an experimental narrative about a woman plagued by the evil machinations of inanimate objects. This looks like too much fun to miss on a Monday night and it won’t even cost you a penny, if I was in London I’d be there.
THE WATERMELON WOMAN @ Deptford Cinema, 12th September
The lovely volunteers of Deptford along with Bechdel Test Fest and Reel Good Film Club have joined forces to present this comic chronicle of a young filmmaker’s obsession with an obscure actress from the ’40s. There’s also going to be what looks like a fascinating post screen discussion on Screen Identities. Too bad if you don’t have tickets as it’s already sold out.
Though you can still catch the film at Liverpool Small Cinema, Wharf Chambers and Dukes at Komedia
EYES WITHOUT A FACE / THE SKIN I LIVE IN – DOUBLE BILL @ Liverpool Small Cinema, 6th September
The inspiration for many films to come (as well as a Billy Idol song) Eyes Without a Face is a stunning surreal, disturbing nightmare featuring the shiniest of macs and the most outrageous collection of 60’s nightwear. A spanking new reissue has just come out so do go check it out on the big screen, the perfect double bill with Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In.
WEST OF PLUTO plus shorts @ Liverpool Small Cinema, 9th September
A Québécois teen movie with hints of Gus Van Sant, Larry Clarke and Linklater… That’s all I know and I’m sold. The volunteers at Liverpool Small Cinema are on fire this Scalarama. You also get two more shorts including the fab THE DELIAN MODE (we love Delia Derbyshire at the Cube). This looks like a really great line up all #directedbywomen and at £3 it’s super bargainous to boot.
Also if you are able to get to any of the Shirley Clarke screenings happening across the nation, they are a treat, so do go see!
Ian Mantgani – The Badlands Collective – @badlandsfilm
Badlands Collective highlight films with popular appeal that are being overlooked for London screenings, and we focus on repertory films, special guests, real 35mm film prints and affordable prices.
L’ATALANTE – 35mm – David Lean Cinema, 8 Sep
PENDA’S FEN – 16mm – Whitechapel, 5 Sep
our own CANNON SEASON – 35mm – PCC 14 Sep (BARFLY + 52 PICK-UP) / Regent St 20 Sep (SHY PEOPLE + RUNAWAY TRAIN) / Ritzy 27 Sep (STREET SMART + SUPERMAN IV)
SALO – 35mm – HOME, Manchester, 12 Sep
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS – 70mm! – FACT Liverpool, 27 Sep
PINK FLAMINGOS – 35mm – FACT Liverpool, 30 Sep
NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN – 35mm – CCA Glasgow, 6 Sep
THE COOL WORLD – 16mm – Fabrica Brighton, 1 Sep
SEASHELL AND THE CLERGYMAN – 16mm w/live score – Fabrica Brighton, 17 Sep
UNE CHANTE L’AUTRE PAS + GIRLFRIENDS – 16mm – Cube Bristol, 13 Sep
BROKEN BLOSSOMS – 35mm w/live score – Curzon Clevedon, 13 Sep
PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO – 35mm – Electric Birmingham, 19 Sep
– all of the above represents heroic programming that keeps the dream of watching real celluloid film prints alive!
DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILISATION – Rough Trade Notts, 2 Sep
– A film finally risen from the ashes of copyright obscurity. About time this was seen!
OBJECTS ATTACK! – Top Gun Hackney, 7 Sep
– looks totally mental, and in Kate Taylor’s programming we trust
THE MAGIC BOX – Brighton Media Centre, 7 Sep
– a wonderful, overlooked movie about wonderful, overlooked cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene
WATERMELON WOMAN – Deptford Cinema London, 12 Sep
– a groundbreaking black-lesbian-directed, fun little oddity, long-unavailable, finally being seen
THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE – Barbican London, 16 Sep
– more obscure, passionate programming by the venerable, hardworking collector Cigarette Burns
THE PARTY’S OVER / PRIVILEGE – Cultivate Manchester, 20 Sep
– the dark side of the 1960s party dream always makes for arresting, grimy cinema
PORTRAIT OF JASON – Liverpool Small Cinema, 8 Sep
– once a lost legend, now rediscovered, screening in a heroic independent new venue
OVER THE TOP – Town House, Leamington Spa, 14 Sep
– a corny classic, and we want to give a shout-out to someone else programming from the Cannon Films back catalogue!
Monica Rodriguez – Think Cinema – @Moni10Monica
Film programmer and volunteer at Liverpool Small Cinema. Founder of Think Cinema. Blogger and film lover.
Needless to say that picking highlights for Scalarama is a real challenge as Scalarama is a celebration of cinema where every screening taking part on it will be a kind of film festivity. Unfortunately, the space on this blog is precious so I will try to do my best to summarise my choices .. what a difficult task!
Scalarama has partnership with Second Run distributor to celebrate their 10 years aniversary and three of their films caught my eye. The first is NIGHT TRAIN (1959) by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, director of the masterpiece Joan Mother Of Angels and leading figure in the so called “Polish Spring”. Kawalerowicz brings us a profound piece that is entirely set inside a sleeping-car during a one-night journey. Night Train is an innovative study on human isolation and their devastating consequences. Kawalerowicz goes beyond the surface by exposing his character’s inner feelings with a microscopical precision in ordeer to unveil our complexities and fears. Metal in Liverpool will screen and debate it in their railway station cinema!
Elsewhere Cinema will be showing at Liverpool Small Cinema, my second highlight for Scalarama, the feature TROPICAL MALADY (2004). Winner of the Jury Price at Cannes Festival.The film centers in the romance between a soldier and a country boy. TROPICAL MALADY is a Thai daring piece of astonishing beauty that challenge all the narrative cinematic conventions and deserves to be watched with an open mind.
My third recommendation is the Second Run Title THE STORY OF MY DEATH (2013) at FACT Liverpool. The Story Of My Death is an original account of the encounter between Casanova and Dracula. The film unconventional arrangement, is shot in mid grade video using natural and artifical candle light, the imagery become murky and innacessible. The director seeks to recreate an eighteenth century world, fragile and unbalanced, humorous and serious but equally intringuing and well worth watching.
Down South, in London, Rochester Kino will be screening two Jean Vigo’s masterpieces in a double bill L’ATLANTE AND ZERO DE CONDUITE. Both films combine poetic realism with a subtle surrealism in a visually captivating way. Jean Vigo breaks all the traditional rules on his use of use of cinematography and sound to the extent that French New Wave directors considered him the father of the movement. While Zero de Conduite turns Vigo’s traumatic experiences on a boarding school into an inspirational ode to youth rebellion, L’Atalante commences with an idyllic love that turns into a bitter disenchament. This is cinema with a sensitive approach that aims for immortality.
Back in Liverpool, at Liverpool Small Cinema I will be looking forward to the screening of QUÉBÉCOIS!: WEST OF PLUTO PLUS SHORTS, part of #DIRECTEDBYWOMEN film sessions. I am eager to watch three female directors from Montreal and their experimental approach to film making.
This September is a real cinema explosion, so many diverse films not mention in this blog but certainly worth to discover. Don’t sit at home go to the cinema.
Anthony Price – Cinema 22 – @amannamedprice
Three days a week I’m an employee for FACT and two days a week I’m the man behind Cinema 22.
It’s seeing the GRIMM ZOMBIE ALL NIGHTER as part of Grimmfest that has me, no Red Bull needed, bouncing off the walls and around the room. Whether it’s George Romero’s tragedy of how poor communication can lead to chaos in DAY OF THE DEAD (1985), or the strategic titling of 28 DAYS LATER (2002) that potentially insinuates society could crumble within the same number of days you have to return those jeans you bought that don’t fit. Whatever it is there’s something about the undead that’s always been fascinating and downright creepy and it’s for those reasons that an all-nighter is a thing of excellence.
However, to provide you with a more left field and less cannibalistic highlight, Nottingham’s upcoming LGBT festival appropriately entitled BRIEF ENCOUNTERS offers an interesting concept by encouraging its audience to come along and, well… socialise. It’s brilliant to see an event that not only provides cinema, but also attempts to get communities chatting to one another. What’s not to love?
Jacqueline Valencia – These Girls On Film – @jacqvalencia
Jacqueline Valencia is a film critic and poet based in Toronto. Her book “There Is No Escape Out Of Time” is out from Insomniac Press in Spring 2016.
It’s a bit overwhelming the amount of cinema at Scalarama, but here are a very small selection of highlights to look forward to:
The JOHN WATERS Retrospective by the BFI: The Complete Films of John Waters (Every Goddam One of Them…). You’ve got quirk, filth, sex, and quirkfilthsex in Waters’ PINK FLAMINGOS and HAIRSPRAY.
Then there’s the highly under-seen CITIZEN RUTH starring Laura Dern. A film from 1996, director Alexander Payne’s strengths lie in his keen observations on how human and flawed debates surrounding supposedly “moral” issues can be.
MONSOON WEDDING is a film I consider to be a must-see for all film enthusiasts because it is a slice of life.
If anything, I want people to go out and check out Directed By Women – SHORT AND FUN in NYC at Ryan’s Daughter. The diversity promised in this programme is not something to be missed.
Hannah McHaffie – Reel Insights – @HannahMcHaffie
Programme assistant for They Eat Culture, freelance film journalist and founder of www.reelinsights.co.uk
I’m really looking forward to the fantastic variety of cinema popping up all over Lancashire as part of Scalarama 2015. Who could resist a Scorsese/De Niro classic at The Dukes? RAGING BULL is a cinematic and technical triumph which deals with dilemmas of masculinity between each bloody boxing-ring scene. Screening in Lancaster’s beautiful art house, Raging Bull remains one of Scorsese’s most iconic and admirable accomplishments. At FACT, Liverpool – Tim Burton’s EDWARD SCISSORHANDS will be captivating audiences in 70mm whilst John Waters’ PINK FLAMINGOS will be scandalously shocking others in 35mm. Whether you enjoy the romantic or the repulsive, FACT will be catering for all tastes.
However, I’m most looking forward to Liverpool Small Cinema‘s double bill. Dealing with identity, body horror and transformation, Pedro Almodovar’s THE SKIN I LIVE IN (2011) and Georges Franju’s EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960) promises to be a chilling and captivating double bill that questions and condemns the superficial.
Chris Brown – Liverpool Small Cinema – @orange_monkey
Writer and journalist, and host of Video Nasties Podcast and A History of Horror Podcast. Chris also programmes the Cheap Thrills cult film event at Liverpool Small Cinema.
If I was to pick one film from the hundreds on offer around the country for Scalarama I’d have to go for the Cigarette Burns screening of the 1971 horror film THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE. Partly a Dracula retelling, partly a satire, the film is a pointed attack on media manipulation and the tendency for people to do as they are told. The story is of a poor employee at a car company who ends up at his boss’s posh mountain-top home. But his employer is more than just a businessman and their vampiric tendencies revolve around commercials and capital gain rather than blood-sucking. The film is in a collection of movies looking at cash and capitalism in the cinema, called The Colour of Money.
For fans of simpler gory pleasures Certificate X in Manchester presents THE GODFATHER OF GORE documentary, telling the story of the man who invented the splatter film with Blood Feast, Herschell Gordon Lewis. This is paired up with THE BEST OF SEX AND VIOLENCE movie trailer compilation, allowing for an intoxicating mix of nastiness and sleaze.
Jason Wood – HOME – @jwoodfilm
Artistic Director of Film at HOME, Manchester and co-author of New British Cinema.
10 YEARS OF SECOND RUN – ICA, London (18 – 24 Sept)
A just celebration of an incredible label.
SALO: OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM – HOME, Manchester
Nothing says Scala like Salo!
NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN – CCA, Glasgow (6 Sept)
Just extraordinary and like Salo very much in the spirit of Scala.
Moxie McMurder – A Shared Madness – @A_SharedMadness
Ex-rollergirl, film critic for the Garden City Cinema and editor of Lead Jammer Magazine.
As usual Scalarama has some wonderful events lined up and here are my highlights:
JOHN WATERS @ BFI Southbank, London (1st September – 6th October )
‘The Pope of Trash’, John Waters is endlessly fascinating and while I’m only a fan of some of his work, I could listen to the man talk for hours. He’s had one hell of a unique career and boy does he have some great stories.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY @ Bom Bane’s, Brighton (2nd September )
Also a highlight, the chance to see this wonderful adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s brilliant book on the big screen is too good to miss. Screening at Bom-Bane’s in Brighton I urge you to check it out even if you’ve seen it before and if you haven’t well my friend you are in for a treat. The desire to stay young has never had such dire consequences.
THE FILM EXCHANGE present BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA @ Cobden Chambers, Nottingham (4th September )
“Have you paid your dues Jack?”
Who doesn’t love Big Trouble in Little China? If you don’t, you’re a wrong ‘un, it’s that simple. This is one of John Carpenter’s best films, it’s got action, comedy, crime and is a shining example of what the 80’s had to offer. It’s a lot of fun.
THINK CINEMA present EYES WITHOUT A FACE @ Liverpool Small Cinema, Liverpool (6th September)
Eyes Without a Face is one of those films that you just have to see. Visually haunting this 1960 French-Italian horror was way ahead of it’s time. A father trying to redeem himself by helping his disfigured daughter takes things too far and not only commits terrible acts but allows his daughter to lose her sanity as she is kept in isolation due to her disfigurements. It’s a tragic story and one that will stay with you.
FREAKS, HIPPIES AND WITCHES: THE STRANGE, SLACIOUS CINEMA OF ANTONY BALCH @ Horse Hospital, London (10th September)
The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in London kicks off it’s Autumn semester with this lecture by William Fowler, cinema manager and film distributor, he also released European exploitation films. This lecture sounds fantastic and the Miskatonic have put on some excellent events this year so far and I’m seriously looking forward to this one!
THE BECHDEL TEST FEST presents: THE BECHDEL BIRTHDAY FEMINIST FILM QUIZ! @ Genisis Cinema, London (10th September)
Alison Bechdel created the test in 1985, it asks, does a work of fiction that features at least two women who talk to each other, is it about something other than a man? The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.
Which films pass the test and which fail? Find out at the Genesis Cinema!
THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI @ Fabrica, Brighton (10th September)
One of my favourite silent films and this particular screening has a live accompaniment by Partial Facsimile. If you’ve never seen a silent film before this is one of the best with which to whet your appetite. The dark German expressionism creates a wonderfully creepy atmosphere and the story itself is wonderful. Seeing this classic on the big screen is an opportunity not to be missed.
ROCHESTER KINO present JAWS @ Chatham Odeon, Chatham (10th September)
Do I really need to say anything? It’s Jaws! Of course you want to see it on the big screen at Chatham Odeon. This event has an introduction followed by a post-screening discussion.
CANNOLI & GUN present GOODFELLAS + SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS @ Vicenzo’s, Bristol (21st September)
What could be better than watching one of the best films ever made? Watching while eating some of the best Italian food of course! This screening should be an excellent night out.
DISPOSABLE CINEMA presents DEEP RED + AN INTRO TO GIALLO @ The Garrison, London (23 September)
Saving the best for last? Perhaps so. Profondo Rosso/Deep Red is one of my favourite Dario Argento films, it has so many classic horror creeps and scares. It’s a stylish killer on the loose classic from the legendary Italian filmmaker and one I’d highly recommend.
Barbara Ann O’Leary – #DirectedbyWomen – @directedbywomen
Film lover/maker posing the question to the entire global film community: How many films #DirectedbyWomen can we celebrate during the 15 day worldwide film viewing party this September? Let’s find out! Join the celebration….
I’m excited about all the films #DirectedbyWomen screening in #Scalarama2015 this September! Love that the #DirectedbyWomen Worldwide Film Viewing Party has teamed up with Scalarama to help the global film community fall madly in love with and wildly celebrate films #DirectedbyWomen.
A few particular favorites from all the choices? Wow… that’s tough. I’m going to give shout outs to…
NEW NEGRESS FILM SOCIETY SHORT FILM PROGRAM & Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture at IU Cinema in Bloomington, Indiana.
Desiree’s Akhavan’s APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR which will screen at Harbour Lights Picturehouse IF enough people get their tickets via ourscreen in the next few days!
Shirley Clarke’s THE CONNECTION / ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA at Liverpool Small Cinema….
Oh.. there are SO many… Look through them ALL… and get to as many as you can! Let’s celebrate together.