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Toy Sheep Microcinema: SCALA!!! (2023)
On Friday, February 7, the Appalachian Theatre, Awesome Space, and Toy Sheep Microcinema will present SCALA!!! OR, THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE RISE AND FALL OF THE WORLD’S WILDEST CINEMA AND HOW IT INFLUENCED A MIXED-UP GENERATION OF WEIRDOS AND MISFITS (Ali Catterall and Jane Giles, UK, 2023, 96 minutes), a freewheeling documentary about London’s outrageous cult movie theater, open from 1978 to 1993. And the event will be introduced by one of our “Cine-Talks,” as we invite two friends of Toy Sheep, poet and Wilkes Community College professor Annie Woodford and Appalachian State film media professor Benjamin Thevenin, to answer a provocative question: “What’s the strangest experience you had in a movie theater?” This event begins on 2/7 at 8:30pm (doors open at 8pm, as the First Friday Art Crawl winds down) and will take place in the Appalachian Theatre’s Community Room, 559 West King Street, Boone. This event is FREE and open to the public. This documentary is unrated but recommended for adults. In SCALA!!!, management, staff, and celebrities (including movie auteurs John Waters, Ben Wheatley, and Mary Herron, as well as musicians, politicians, activists, comedians, and writers) tell outrageous stories about their adventures at the Scala, and the influence that the theater’s DIY spirit and adventurous programming had on their aesthetic tastes and their lives. The result is a wild yet moving portrait of a “third place” beyond home and work where creative souls connected to a like-minded community. As film critic Matt Zoller Seitz writes, “The Scala didn’t just show films, it stimulated interest in cinema, challenged and offended viewers (on purpose), and pushed the limits of what was then considered acceptable to screen in England. It championed pro-union and LGBTQ-friendly films, early works by subsequently legendary directors (including David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD), and underground movies that blurred arthouse and grind-house categories.” Today, as moviegoing is imperiled by convenient streaming technologies, SCALA!!! reminds us of the unbridled joy of watching movies (especially movies like SCORPIO RISING [1963], FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! [1965], and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW [1975]) with our friends and with a crowd. Join us at 8:30pm on Friday, February 7 in the Appalachian Theatre’s Community Room for SCALA!!! and our Cine-Talk presentations! And other surprises!
Event Links
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