This September, cinemas, film societies, clubs, festivals and enthusiasts from across the country will come together for Scalarama, an inclusive season that showcases the diversity of film screenings in the UK, whether it be picture palaces, pop-ups in parks or in your own home!
Over 100 screenings have already been confirmed across UK with over 50 partners from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Derby, Leeds, Hull, Glasgow, Belfast and Cardiff taking part, plus many more still to be confirmed. A totally not-for-profit, cooperative event, Scalarama seeks to unite all film exhibitors in an annual, inclusive season that celebrates communal film watching in all its forms and encourages everyone to show films to one another, meeting similar minded people and discovering local initiatives.
From 31 August – 29 September, exhibitors from across the country will be holding screenings as part of Scalarama’s Open programme. Operating much like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, screenings are submitted to the season, with the choice of film totally up to the exhibitor in order to showcase the diversity of independent cinema screenings and the range of film clubs and societies in the UK.
Scalarama also has a Core programme of 8 titles that will be screened across the country, ranging from digitally restored masterpieces to rare prints, live rescores to children’s films. Working with a range of distributors, archives and festivals, the core programme displays the full gamut of cinema. Titles includes a new 2K DCP of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (from Eureka/Masters of Cinema), Czech sci–fi gem Ikarie XB-1 (from Second Run DVD) and a double bill of horror from the BFI Flipside label, as well as The Children Film Foundation classic Sammy’s Super T-Shirt (courtesy of the BFI) which will play at 32 venues across the UK.
The season will officially launch with Film Jam at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton on Saturday 31stAugust, which will see 11 film clubs from across London each given 30 minutes of screen time to dazzle, delight or terrify the audience, whilst in the upstairs bar, 5 soundtrack obsessives will be playing tag team on the decks. As part of the closing celebrations, on 28th September, Scalarama has joined forces with filmmakers Ben Rivers and Shezad Dawood to mark the 25th anniversary of the BBC’s Moviedrome, an influential inspiration to a generation of film fans, with a secret double bill in a secret location!
Scalarama culminates in Home Cinema Day 2013 a nationwide, inclusive event that anyone can take part in. Taking place on the last day of the season, Sunday 29 September, Home Cinema Day is a 24 hour event where members of the public are encouraged to pick films to show in their own homes, inviting friends, family or neighbours round and turning their home into a cinema for the day.
Keen to inspire the next generation of film exhibitors, Scalarama has been running free workshops, titled I Want To Start a Film Club, in London, Nottingham and Brighton, with a repeat in London on Monday 9 September, as well as partnering with education charity FILM CLUB, encouraging schools to create their own French themed screenings during the season.
All events will be listed on the Scalarama website www.scalarama.com,whilst the London screenings feature on a replica of the original Scala A2 programmes, created by original designers 2D Design.
By encouraging people to think about what films to show and how to present them, Scalarama intends to start a cinema revolution, inspiring a whole new generation of film enthusiasts…. So spread the word – Fill the Land with Cinemas – Scalarama is Coming!
