Scala Beyond - Filmbar70 presents A Very British Apocalypse: NO BLADE OF GRASS/THREADS

Shocking evening at Roxy Bar & Screen, I left speechless. There were two films presented by Filmbar70. After the nuclear war training video the evening was introduced, we watched a part from The Changes, the trailer of The Day of the Triffids, of The Day the Earth Caught Fire, and a Filmbar70 teaser. The first feature was No Blade of Grass. The intro music is great. Listen to it: Roger Whittaker - No Blade of Grass. An ecological disaster creates panic in society people flee from the cities and are forced to fight for their survival. With guns. It is quite explicit and honest, with a successful rape scene and ultra violence, but still entertaining. Many times ridiculous but gives a lot to think about. Mixed up narrative. Flashbacks. The Rolls Royce advert. The graphic birth scene. Experimental special effects! Beautiful photography, I think it connects to Antonioni. The closing music is great. Listen to it: Roger Whittaker - No Blade of Grass.
After a short break a very effective introduction set the mood for the next film: Threads. Silence throughout. This film goes all the way. There is no entertainment here, no jokes, no fake scenes. 
What connects? I heard a shocking Hiroshima story on RadioLab - Double Blasted. Also, if you haven't seen, watch animated short The Big Snit. After the show a girl suggested me watching The War Game, and I recommended her Glen and Randa. Yesterday morning I was reading tweets of Alejandro Jodorowsky sharing his ideas on preserving life on the planet. On my bicycle I was thinking: 'Why the fuck do we need so many cars?' there are cars everywhere, with only one person sitting in most of them. Why do we need so much concrete? Why not redesign the whole city? Instead of pulling up skyscrapers for useless bankers and building all these cars, which are being thrown away in few years time anyway, Break the concrete, plant trees. Walk, cycle. Why rush? Who said we have to run everywhere, like crazy. Unhealthy. Insane. Slow down.

Don't miss 'Filmbar70 presents Eerie Down-Under Double Bill' at Roxy Bar & Screen on Thursday 30 August at 7.00pm.

Scala Beyond - The Duke Mitchell Film Club presents August Birthday Blow-out!

The Duke Mitchell Film Club. 5th birthday. I read the declaration. It was my first time there, at The Lion pub. As no friend showed up, I decided to learn using my camera. Until the screening started upstairs. There were nice lights, good music in the background, pictures of drive-in theatres on the screen like this and this, this, this, this... What would it be like screening a film onto a fractured, rusty drive in screen? The evening of fun started with Evrim's introduction and an intro film, and then we could choose between two 'Trailer Trash' compilations to see. We watched the first one, collected by Alex, which was the first one that was screened at the first screening of The Duke (if I remember well). Please watch these. Massacre Maffia Style, second time I see this trailer and now I want to see the film as well. And I really want to make a film with a shotgun scene in it. That is for sure. Or a film about a guy who wants to make a film with a shotgun scene in it. Bucktown. Shotguns! The Pink Angels. South indian rock & roll musical. Vibraton. Hot Rods to Hell. Police Women. The Young Runaways. Carmen BAby. Quiz for prizes. Then we chose to see Ducked and Covered, Australian survival guide to post apocalypse. Then, quiz for prizes. You were shown stills of board games/video games and had to find out which film they were made of. Images like this. Dawn of the Dead board game. Twin Peaks board game. Friday the 13th video game. It's interesting to see this stuff. Texas Chainsaw retro video game. Halloween. Waterworld . Escape from New York. Board game cover design. More trailers. Heartbreaker - great music, people tapping their feet, nod, tap. Buckstone County Prison. Meet the Hollowheads. Murder by the Book. Dark Incal. Phantom of the Ritz. Angel. Make sure to watch The Room.

Then came more fun. Commercials collected by Alex. Commercials of Stan Freberg, Jeno's Pizza Rolls for instance, and more. Psychedelic Levi's commercials narrated by Ken Nordine, this here for example, and this. Good to see it on youtube to get the idea, but on a screening you get good quality, large scale, darkness, people to share the experience with and someone passionate and alive who talks you through stuff, and many of the films are rare finds and are not available online. Dark, nightmare flavor commercials by Joe Sedelmaier, Federal Express, Southern Airlines (disgusting quality),  Wendy's, and another one. I hate commercials. These are interesting. And there were more, but I can't find them...  Then came more commercials. Hagoromo tuna. Streetsounds 18. AFri Cola. Evrim's slots with Allstate Insurance commercial,  Rabies commercials, a pushchair safety animation, Play Safe - Kites and Planes,  nuclear war safety video, escalator safety Stand still!, Billy Blunders,  electricity can kill.

A Day with the Boys to give an end to the evening, a rather dark mood short photographed by Laszlo Kovacs. Image is so powerful on its own. Experiment. Film and experimentation for its own sake.

Thank you for yesterday, great show! I wouldn't have got a fraction of this fun in a normal cinema.

The Duke Mitchell Film Club is doing a 16mm night on 26 Sept, and a Night of the Trailer at Roxy on 23 Sept. Watch the teaser here.

Scala Beyond - Savage Cinema presents THE COMPANY OF WOLVES / PAPERHOUSE

I just got back from Roxy Bar & Screen where I saw two fantastic films screened by Savage Cinema for Scala Beyond. Kids' films for adults. Both are recommended. I'm not sure what to write, but I'll try to jot a few notes down. Homemade elderflower cordial. First film was The Company of Wolves, a Little Red Riding Hood story. Full of surreal scenes. Giant mushrooms, psychedelic colours, rainbow. Forest, magic items, fantasy. The dining scene was my favourite. Quite a few funny fake effects. What is the reason for its sexuality? There is a link that connects to this film and subject: The Childrens Bizarre (got it from Today is Boring Adam).
Then after a short break came Paperhouse, a girl's dreams respond to her drawings, we move back and forth between her dreams and wakeful states. Dreams are dreamlike, absorbing. Now, opposed to the previous movie, there is very little sexuality here on the surface, the girl even looks and dressed as a boy. Why?
It was great to see two good films I have never heard of before.
The sofas are much much much more comfortable than the wooden chairs when it comes to watching a movie. I would fill the room with sofas, or pillows. Quality of the screening was perfect, enjoyed both films. thank You
I'm very sleepy, I want to dream.
Meet you there!

Scala Beyond - Pub Space presents THE RULES OF ATTRACTION/AMERICAN PSYCHO

Went to The Hanbury Arms yesterday with Ted, a future film producer friend, to watch two films written by Bret Easton Ellis. The pub is in a very calm, quiet area, it had a Sunday mood. Beautiful summer day. There were about 20 people watching the film upstairs. Very cute room with its own bar, available for free hire (call 02072882222 to book). After a couple of pints we sat down to watch the movie - The Rules of Attraction. American college drama, quite cheesy. Beautiful people everywhere having orgies, eating drugs, and having problems, crying a lot. The less pretty is killing herself straight away. There was a song I liked: The Cure - Six Different Ways. I have two questions. Why was the guy having a Full Metal Jacket smile? What is the meaning of Terminator riding by at the end of the film? I was looking forward to watching American Psycho as I haven't seen this film before. Enjoyed it. Especially the film look of the movie. I would like to find out how is that crisp texture is made. Must be very costly. After leaving the pub it was great to see people enjoying the warm night on the streets of Angel. Thank you Pub Space. You should have seen the guy on tube next to us, drawing childish sketches into a notebook like crazy. Probably was on the way to chop someone up with an ax.

Scala Beyond opening Film Jam

The Scala Beyond film festival opening night was great at the Roxy Bar yesterday night. I wanted to put a review or reflection together to share my thoughts on the event and the films. It was free entry with a free cocktail and huge sofas to lie in. Film clubs that take part in the festival were introducing themselves and were screening their carefully selected shorts and trailers. First, Cigarette Burns Cinema was screening The Lie Chair by David Cronenberg, first time I saw it, a thriller, featuring a couple of funny murderous grandmas. Worth to watch. So good to hear other people laugh at odd scenes in the background. Hot summer night. 29th Oct to 3rd Nov at Leicester Place - says a short, quite disturbing advert, a nurse pushing another man in a wheelchair screaming in a straitjacket.. I forgot what is the advert for. Filmbar70 screened film teasers with music selected from the 70s. I haven't seen anything of those before and now I want to see all of them. This was true for the whole evening. Rare selection throughout. This was one of the teasers on giallo, check out the rest on youtube, amazing music. Watch this 70s commercial - ICI Fibres, was shown by Filmbar70. Then we saw a reading of a story, Late Night Story - Tom Baker 'The Photograph' , again, the darkness and the huge screen helps engaging, and the reading is something we don't often see today but so powerful, it is up to the viewer to visualise the characters, to connect the lines, imagine. There are no mistakes, fake, unreal scenery, I don't try looking constantly behind the scenes, it is only the story and my imagination, emotion. The 'spooky', 'magic realism' continues on Monday at Roxy Bar at the Night of the Psychotronic Soundtrack . Beautiful red curtain separates the screening from the pub, and you can somewhat hear the pub noise in the background, social feeling.

BFI Flipside brought Skinflicker, a training film made on how to kidnap a minister. In New Wave style. Characters were speaking to the cameraman, who was also involved in the story, very realistic, monologues reminded me of Godard. Tarantino might have seen this before Reservoir Dogs. I loved the silent 8mm footage, the image speaks for itself.. How to program films? (I was thinking) Why are these films being shown? Passangerfilms brought two films on whale hunt, one was Vive La Baleine by Chris Marker - I love, love, love La Jetee and I haven't had the chance to see another film of his - beautiful, the narrator talks to whales, telling their story in history and their relationship with humanity. Killing whales, killing ourselves, we want to slaughter all of them as fast as possible. Gives you another perspective on looking at animals. Whaling in the Antarctic was the next film, by Charles Swithinbank- a British glaciologist in 1949. I believe it is from his own personal records but came to light as part of the British Library Oral History of Science project. Black and white footage of a hunt and the carving up of whales. Somehow, it is watchable, probably because it isn't red, and an old footage, and the filmmaker talks you through the process. Surreal experience. Tiny people chopping up a giant, meat everywhere.  http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/  Have a look at  The Whale Hunt by Jonathan Harris , a photographic project he did in Alaska, might be interesting. London Short Film Festival - submissions are open until the middle of september, if you have a film, please submit it. Or make one. They screened a short animation by Robert Morgan - Bobby Yeah. Horrible, horrible, disturbing... improvised story, quality construction, well made. I didn't understand what is the point of screening purely disturbing stuff, then when someone shared his opinion at the Q&A, then I thought: it could be the point. Ask the audience what do they think and feel, make it interactive, so we can figure something out. As a way of getting out of that repressed, dark hole. What do they think the story is about, what is the meaning, who are the characters, what can we do with this, 'What the fuck?' Days are Numbers  came on with refreshing teasers of 70s films with music after the animation, I recognised the Hungarian version of the Soviet anthem, was the Elvis film that run underneath Hungarian as well? Codename: Dragonfly to follow. Suitcase Cinema presented another Chris Marker film - Valparaiso, straight from 16mm, a poetic documentary on a Chilean city, it has a Neorealist feel to it. It is really special to see it from the analogue projector and to hear the rolling noise in the background. Video Tape Swap Shop screened a must see film the Catman, one of the funniest things I ever saw. So bad. I love the idea of 'creating cult films' out of unknown. They will screen The Holy Mountain remade entirely out of dogs footage in Deptford, 25th of August. The last one for the evening, morning, was the Duke Mitchell Film Club with a selection of rare trailers found and mixed by Alex. Trailer for Black Panther Warriors, Strike Commando, Fun and Fury (subtitled for the first time by Alex). Tune for Two. Santo Gold was introduced - to a very joyful, energetic audience, and I don't remember what was the last thing, but it was fun. It is the Duke's 5th birthday celebration on Wednesday, check out their program.

Thank you Scala Beyond, great experience, fill the land with cinemas!!