This month, we invited Alison Smith, Charlotte Little and Andrew Miller to discuss making events accessible for all audiences.
This month, we hosted a roundtable for Scalarama Glasgow to discuss how organisations, independent exhibitors and programmers can ensure their events, both online and IRL, are accessible to disabled audiences. We invited Alison Smith (Pesky People), Charlotte Little (Film journalist for Flip Screen and UK Film Review) and Andrew Miller (UK Government Disability Champion Arts & Culture and Chair of BFI’s Disability Screen Advisory Forum). Our guests spoke about how organisations can sincerely build in accessability for D/deaf and disabled audiences throughout their events and the ways in which the COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated inaccessability.
“You know, that whole fear of missing out? Well, we’re getting it in spades.” Alison Smith, on disabled audiences and online activities.
The sessions highlighted that the pandemic possess a real threat to the progress made in the UK in regards to disablity access to arts and disabled representation. Including serious issues with the UK Cinema Assocations re-opening guidelines, considerations to be taken for audiences who find communcation with mask-wearers difficult and some handy tips on how to bake-in accessible provisons from the planning stages onwards.
You can watch the entire roundtable here (embedded above, with subtitles), read the transcript here or browse the minutes here.
Scalarama Glasgow’s monthly roundtables continue online (for now). Follow Scalarama Glasgow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date.
The next monthly roundtable, focussing the independent exhibitor’s timeline for returning to events, will be on Sunday 9th August, on Zoom. Details via the Facebook page, here.
Scalarama in Scotland is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
John Paizs is a legendary figure in Canadian cinema whose pivotal and influential cult masterpiece Crime Wave (1985) continues to entrance audiences but elude mainstream recognition. Following our UK premiere of the restored Crime Wave at Glasgow Film Festival, 2017, we are delighted to present his first major work, The Obsession of Billy Botski, on its 40th anniversary, as part of Glasgow Short Film Festival’s DIVE IN Cinema season. Watch it now here.
In The Obsession of Billy Botski, “a young man meets his obsession, a ghostly 60s Playboy-bunny styled “Connie”, and is never the same!”
The film is accompanied by The Obsession of John Paizs, a brand-new 26min video created by Matchbox Cineclub, featuring a rare and exclusive interview with Paizs himself. Our DIVE IN programme is live for only 48 hours from 10am on 18th July, and The Obsession of John Paizs will not be available anywhere afterwards. The entire programme features all-new optional English SDH/captions for D/deaf audiences, created by Matchbox Cinesub.
DIVE IN Cinemais a donation-based online season, coordinated by Glasgow Short Film Festival’s Sanne Jehoul and programmed by a cohort of Scottish independent exhibitors and film festivals.
Thanks to John Paizs, Winnipeg Film Group and VUCAVU.
The Winnipeg Film Group, founded in 1974, is an artist-run education, production, exhibition and distribution centre committed to promoting the art of cinema.
VUCAVU is an online screening platform working with independent film and video distributors from across Canada to improve access to Canadian works and to provide greater national and international awareness of Canadian filmmakers and video artists.
DIVE IN Cinema is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
We invited We Are Parable, Watershed, Umulkhayr Mohamed and Inclusive Cinema to discuss making programming and organisations sincerely inclusive
This month, we hosted a roundtable for Scalarama Glasgow to discuss how organisations, independent exhibitors and programmers can work to make their programmes and events sincerely inclusive. We invited Anthony Andrews (We Are Parable), Umulkhayr Mohamed (freelance consultant, writer, curator), Clare Reddington (Bristol’s Watershed) and Toki Allison (Film Hub Wales’ Inclusive Cinema). dardishi, originally billed, were unfortunately unable to take part due to illness. Our invited guests spoke on their work for and with Black and ethnic minority audiences, their experience of institutional racism and the increasing demand for sincere and lasting change to take hold in our industry. Resources were shared to help educate, interrogate our institutions and inform develop practical ways to overhaul the sector.
This session highlighted some of the fundamental changes that need to occur to sincerely undermine oppressive and racist systems which underpin the film exhibition sector, and which make it near-impossible for Black and minority ethnic practitioners to progress with parity, professionally. These include debunking the concept of whiteness as the neutral state, professionalism (“Western professionalism is rooted in white supremacy”), increasing personal and organsational accountability, and addressing the pressures put on non-white staff and colleagues to deal with institutional, white racism.
You can watch the entire roundtable here (embedded above, with subtitles), read the transcript here or browse the minutes here.
Scalarama Glasgow’s monthly roundtables continue online (for now). Follow Scalarama Glasgow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date.
The next monthly roundtable, focussing on accessibility for online and IRL screenings takes place on Sunday 19th July, on Zoom. Details via the Facebook page, here.
Scalarama in Scotland is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
KeanuCon 2020, our second annual Keanu Reeves film festival, was cancelled due to COVID-19 – so we made this 28-page zine instead, with contributions from the world’s foremost Keanu aficionados.
The KeanuCon 2020 zine is here! It’s free to all weekend-pass-holders-that-were and £5 from our online shop, here.
As originally intended, this publication would have accompanied our second annual Keanu Reeves film festival, KeanuCon 2020, scheduled to take place 19th-21st June at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. Although the festival was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19, we are very happy to be able to share this celebratory collection of Keanu-themed writing and artwork with you. This first KeanuCon zine is dedicated to every scientist, doctor, nurse and front-line worker currently saving our world.
We’re really happy with how it turned out and we hope you’ll enjoy it too. KeanuCon will return. In the meantime – be excellent to each other.
Thanks to Ex Why Zed for a typically brilliant job on the printing, and yes, we will have prints of Vero’s beautiful cover artwork before too long too.
We invited AGFA, Arrow Video, Factory25, Modern Films, Northwest Film Forum and Spectacle Theater to discuss models for online screenings
Last week, we hosted a roundtable for Scalarama Glasgow to discuss different models for screening films independently online. We invited a variety of guests with recent experience delivering programmes online in various contexts, including New York’s Spectacle Theater, whose team of volunteers usually deliver their programme to a maximum of 35 people in their Brooklyn microcinema and now curate Twitch streams for hundreds of people at a time.
We also welcomed the American Genre Film Archive, based in Austin, Texas, who work with and advise distributors and exhibitors, as well as producing their own content, and Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, who have developed their own timed screening format for rentals, including the online debut of Paul Bartel’s “lost” final film, Shelf Life.
We also invited distributors like Arrow Video, based in UK but distributing internationally, Factory25, whose recent Other Music documentary was released in collaboration with a variety of independent organisations, and the UK’s Modern Films, who have quickly pivoted to their own online release platform, working with a variety of exhibitors.
You can watch the entire roundtable here (embedded above, with subtitles), read the transcript here or browse the minutes here.
Scalarama Glasgow’s monthly roundtables continue online (for now). Follow Scalarama Glasgow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date.
The next monthly roundtable, focussing on accessibility for online and IRL screenings takes place on Sunday 21st June, on Zoom. Details via the Facebook page, here.
Scalarama in Scotland is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
Legendary film programmer Kier-La Janisse joined us for a conversation on her career in cult film, from basement screenings to international film festivals and beyond
Fearless film programmer and Matchbox hero Kier-La Janisse joined us last week via Zoom to discuss her inspirational career in cinema. In a two-hour conversation, Kier-La very generously held forth on everything from her zine editing to basement horror screenings; to founding the CineMuerte film festival; to programming the Alamo Drafthouse; to running her own micro cinema; to publishing her landmark memoir House of Psychotic Women; to launching her own publishing house, Spectacular Optical.
Kier-La shared the secrets of her Cannibal Holocausticles, her Montreal microcinema Blue Sunshine (more on that and the scene around it in Donna de Ville’s dissertation, The Microcinema Movement and Montreal), and her hilariously ill-fated stint as a scout for Drafthouse Films. We also heard some of the highlights of her career in genre film programming, including screening Until the Light Takes Us onto a screen made of snow in the dead of the Canadian winter, hosting Deep End in a swimming pool surrounded with electrical equipment and recruiting Udo Kier to help live dub an unsubtitled print of Black Bell of the Tarantula.
Watch our Kier-La Janisse-inspired playlist
We also had a chance to quiz the veteran programmer on the ethics of film programming, the evolution of horror fandom, her advice for aspiring programmers and some of her favourite films – including some of her most memorable screenings, her wishlist and the ones that got away.
You can watch the whole conversation on our Vimeo page here, or YouTube here, or you can read the transcript here.
Scalarama Glasgow’s monthly roundtables continue online (for now). Follow Scalarama Glasgow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date.
The next monthly roundtable takes place on Sunday 24th May, on Zoom. Details via the Facebook page, here.
Scalarama in Scotland is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
Our second annual Keanu Reeves Film Festival has been cancelled until further notice due to COVID-19 – refunds will be issued automatically, full details below
We are very sad to announce that KeanuCon will not take place as planned in 2020. Refunds will take place automatically and weekend pass holders have been informed directly. We plan to relaunch KeanuCon IRL in 2021, dates TBC. If you have any questions after reading all of the details below, get in touch: info@matchboxcineclub.com.
Please enjoy this special memory of our Wyld Stallyns performing live at KeanuCon 2019 and Be Excellent To Each Other until further notice.
We have/had been working hard on alternative plans, including rescheduled dates for later in 2020, which is one reason why updates have been scarce as goalposts continually shifted, but it’s become clear that despite our best efforts and hopes, the festival will be impossible to deliver this year (more detail below).
We are looking at the best ways to bring everyone together to celebrate Keanu online (watch this space for those), around the original dates, and we’re happy to say weekend pass holders will all receive our KeanuCon brochure/zine, with new and exclusive content from Vero Navarro (beloved KeanuCon illustrator), Kitty Curran & Larissa Zageris (For Your Consideration: Keanu Reeves), Will Harris (Mixed Race Superman) and more TBC.
NB The brochure/zine will go out to all weekend pass holders, regardless of automatic refunds. If you would like to waive your refund by way of donation to support Matchbox Cineclub/KeanuCon, thank you very much and please get in touch here: info@matchboxcineclub.com.
In more detail:
Our original dates in June are impossible to deliver due to the current circumstances (our venue, CCA Glasgow, is closed until July at the earliest). We had confirmed rescheduled dates in August, but these are now unviable since CCA will be closed until the end of July at the earliest, with no way of knowing with any certainty that it will reopen fully in August. This makes it difficult for us to plan and promote the event in good faith, or for audience members to make plans to attend.
CCA is smaller in capacity than mainstream cinemas. Even when mainstream cinemas re-open (no earlier than July 4th, and still contingent on a significant reduction in confirmed cases of COVID-19), they will have to adhere to the COVID-19 Secure guidelines, which at present involve distancing between individuals, enhanced hygiene and limiting numbers of people in any one space. This will impact events like ours even more severely again, since we have a lower capacity to begin with. Clearing and cleaning the theatre space between screening will make back-to-back screenings and day-long events next to impossible to deliver practically and safely, for audiences and staff.
Additionally, CCA’s theatre has a capacity of 150, which would potentially be reduced to 50 under these guidelines. We already have sold in excess of 50 weekend passes and we’d expect to sell out the venue in normal circumstances. The costs involved in venue hire, film licences, marketing and everything else involved couldn’t be covered with an audience of only 50 without dramatically impacting ticket prices. 50 attendees would make for an intimate and certainly fun event, but sadly wouldn’t be practical financially (NB at the best of times no other local cinemas could accomodate KeanuCon without charging an impossible fee).
Finally, while we are optimistic that more activity will be possible towards the end of the year (including our rescheduled Remakesploitation Fest), CCA has a full calendar at the best of times and even if we were 100% confident of being able to deliver KeanuCon to the standard and capacity it deserves, there simply aren’t dates available to us for the rest of the year, among events that were already booked and those that have been rescheduled since the advent of COVID-19 (assuming, of course, any of these will be able to take place anyway).
We’re very sad about it, but know that we’ll get through this and celebrate (Keanu) together before too long.
Our second Scalarama roundtable of 2020 (hosted on Zoom, Sunday 26/04/20) continued to explore the new challenges independent exhibitors are faced with, but also invited special guests from across the UK and Europe to talk about their current activities. Our main focus was on film licensing, with special guest Greg Walker (Pilot Light TV Festival) on hand to talk about his experiences, good and bad, and share some useful advice.
We passed along updates on current plans for Drive-In screenings across the UK, from Live Cinema and we welcomed Anna Kubelik from Window Flicks, who discussed the development and delivery of their ongoing public screening project in Berlin. Caris from Rianne Pictures spoke about their online quiz collaboration with Screen Queens and Ben from Penarth’s Snowcat Cinema shared his programme of online engagement. Closer to home, Backseat Bingo‘s Casci Ritchie reported on their recent Prince-themed watch-along and Lauren Clark of Femspectives spoke on their ongoing #FemspectivesAtHome activities.
You can watch the entire roundtable here (embedded below, with subtitles), read the transcript here or browse the minutes here. Our 2019 hand-out on the principles and practicalities of film licensing is here.
The next roundtable is Sunday 24th May on Zoom, and we’ll have guests from the world of film exhibition and distribution to discuss new approaches to hosting film screenings online (NB not watch-alongs). Before that, we have a spin-off special in the shape of a In Conversation event with Canadian film programmer and writer Kier-LaJanisse on Sunday 10th May, 6-8pm. Read all about that here.
Scalarama Glasgow’s monthly roundtables continue online (for now). Follow Scalarama Glasgow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date.
The next monthly roundtable takes place on Sunday 24th May, on Zoom. Details via the Facebook page, here.
Scalarama in Scotland is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
The legendary film writer, programmer and general hero of cult cinema worldwide joins us for an online discussion about her work in independent film exhibition
Legendary film programmer, writer, producer, director Kier-La Janisse is joining us on Sunday 10th May, via Zoom/Facebook Live, for a Scalarama conversation about her career in cinema – from video shop to pop-up events to film festivals to cinemas and beyond. Janisse has long been an inspiration and a guiding light for independent programmers and cult exhibitors like Matchbox, so we’re thrilled to get the chance to talk to her about her ethos and her experiences screening films.
The discussion will take place on Zoom, hosted by Matchbox Cineclub’s Sean Welsh, with a small audience of film programmers, curators and writers, and streamed simultaneously on Facebook. If you’d like to participate directly, send us a message here or via email: info@matchboxcineclub.com. We’ll keep an eye on any points raised on the live Facebook stream, so feel free to pose questions there instead. The conversation will be archived and subtitled for access afterwards. Full details here.
Kier-La Janisse (photo courtesy of Kier-La Janisse)
Matchbox Cineclub co-ordinate Scalarama activities in Glasgow every September, and host monthly planning meetings year-round. With a very different context in 2020, we’re starting to think about new approaches to screening film independently
Scalarama’s role is to support, connect and grow with independent film exhibitors of all sizes, from those just starting to think about screening films to fully-fledged festivals and venues of all sizes. In the early months of 2020, film exhibition has been flipped on its head, so our first Scalarama roundtable of 2020 (hosted on Zoom, Sunday 05/04/20) explored the new challenges exhibitors are faced with taking things online.
You can watch the entire roundtable here, read the transcript here or browse the minutes here. The associated hand-out is here.
We were joined by Herb Shellenberger, a film programmer and writer originally from Philadelphia and based in London. Herb is Programmer for the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, where he has worked since 2016, and Editor of Rep Cinema International, a newsletter on repertory and archival film programming around the world. Via the latter (which you can sign up for here), Herb was a key advocate for cinemas, festivals and independent exhibitors to #CancelEverything in the early weeks of the global pandemic.
Herb Shellenberger’s #CancelEverything treatise
One of the best takeaways from the discussion was not to worry if your organisation hasn’t started putting things online yet – this seems like it will be a bit of a marathon, not a sprint, and with all exhibition facing the same issues, it’s probably best to have a think about what you want to achieve with your audiences and what’s the best method, for you and your organisation, before throwing all you’ve got at it.
As always, we encourage everyone who is thinking about screening films, online or otherwise, to do so legally – obtaining the right licenses and showing them securely. Online rights are something the industry is still untangling, but it’s worth noting that just because a film is on YouTube or archive.org, or Soviet Movies, or Eastern European Movies (or even Amazon Prime!), doesn’t mean it’s available legitimately.
AGFA’s legendary programming at Alamo Drafthouse is now available worldwide
Most organisations that have been able to take their programming online are showing films by filmmakers they have direct relationships with, or films they already hold the rights to (e.g. AGFA and Alamo Drafthouse’s Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday). But join us again via Zoom on Sunday April 26th for our second Scalarama session, when we’ll be discussing film licenses with special guest Greg Walker (Pilot Light TV Festival, Rad Film Screenings, Manchester Animation Festival).
Below, our notes on taking film content online. We’ll update this as we learn more – you can download the notes as a PDF here. Please feel free to let us know how you get on with any of these suggestions – share your own in the comments or by email: info@matchboxcineclub.com.
Megan Mitchell
Taking Things Online
Watch Parties/ Watch Alongs | Watch Parties aim to recreate a communal atmosphere for watching films, promoting audiences to watch a film already available on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, All 4, Curzon or Mubi at a certain time and participate in discussion throughout the film. This could be within the comments of a Facebook event or page, on Twitter using a specific hashtag or via a dedicated chat group (i.e on WhatsApp, Facebook). Variations on the Watch Party include audiences watching the film at different times and feeding into the discussion at a set time instead.
Consider: Cost, accessibility, content. Watch-alongs on free or freely-accessible platforms like terrestrial/freeview television, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Vimeo are ideal. Commercial television stations also allow ready-made breaks, ideal for commentary/catching a breath. Check if the film you’re recommending/scheduling has descriptive subtitles/SDH/captions, as all the main television channels do, as well as iPlayer, Netflix and often Amazon Prime. Audio description is often available on Netflix and other platforms too. Finally, content – knowing the film you are going to watch means you can provide content or trigger warnings if necessary. Read more about those here.
Netflix Party | Netflix Party is a free extension for Google Chrome which allows people to watch films currently on Netflix together through a shared link with an accompanying chat function running down one side of the screen. This allows for real-time interactions and engagement, although it does require all attendees to have a Netflix subscription. Hosting Netflix Parties does limit you to the films available on Netflix, but if you have a programming niche or focus (i.e queer representation, forgotten classics, bad films, etc) you could frame a film in this context to offer deeper engagement and get your audiences discussing the film through a specific lens.
Metastream | Metastream is similar to Netflix Party and works with more streaming platforms, like Twitch and Youtube. It’s also available as a Chrome extension. You can have private (invitation-only) or public sessions. NB Since it’s still in development, it’s fiddly and pretty glitchy; “theatre mode” may hide soft subtitles; attendees require their own subscriptions to Netflix, etc.
Two Seven | Works with Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube and private videos. An additional subscription fee is needed for some of the streaming services (e.g. Disney+), though the paid features have been lowered in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Supports video/audio chat. NB Attendees require their own subscriptions to Netflix, etc.
Twitch | Free and paid options to stream videos, usually used by gamers to stream gameplay but exhibitors like Spectacle Theatre are using the platform to screen a film once a week.
Vimeo | Vimeo is a video streaming platform, with free and paid-for options depending on what you need, and no ads. Deptford Cinema are currently screening shorts and features by local filmmakers on Vimeo, with a £2 pay-all or free if you email them. Glasgow Short Film Festival also use Vimeo for the embedded shorts on their website.
Live/ Recorded Introductions and Q+As
Film screenings aren’t the only things we can take online – there are a number of platforms that can facilitate live or pre-recorded activity.
Zoom | You’ll be forgiven for never having heard of Zoom before the past few weeks. It’s like Skype only a bit better, allowing you to video chat with multiple people, whilst also having typed chat and document sharing. This can be useful if you’re wanting to run post-screening discussions with audiences or live Q&As. You just download it onto your laptop/device or you can use the website, then set-up an account to set-up meetings or access them. NB optimise your settings and apply best practice to avoid unwelcome intrusion from randoms.
Facebook Live / YoutubeLive | Facebook Live is useful if you’re hosting a watch-along or a set-time screening and would like to provide the audience a live introduction. This can be posted on your main page or in the event page for whatever event you’re doing, if you have created one. Cinemaattic have been using Facebook Live, via Zoom, to host their Sunday evening chats / Q&A sessions.
Periscope TV | Periscope is a free streaming app that you can use on your mobile to go ‘live’ on the Periscope platform and on Twitter. Useful if you’re doing a live film introduction or give live updates about your organisations or some informal chats.
Hashtags | Using a dedicated hashtag (such as #WatchingWithMatchbox or #FemspectivesAtHome) across all social media sites can connect your audiences, whether it be for a watch party, post-screening discussion or just to offer a unified thread for film-related chat tied into your organisation.
Articles/ Film Writing | Film screenings aren’t the only things we can do online to stay engaged with our audiences. It’s a good time to research and develop ideas and especially to write on some film-related topics for your own website or blog or even just social media.
Quizzes | Online quizzes are proving an easy and popular way for organisations to continue to engage audiences, creating a sense of community and something fun to do together. These can be hosted on Facebook Live (like The Skinny) or via Zoom (like Screen Queenz) with interactive Google forms as quiz sheets or simply a downloadable document people can type into.
Scalarama Glasgow’s monthly roundtables continue online (for now). Follow Scalarama Glasgow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date.
The next monthly roundtable takes place on Sunday 26th April, on Zoom. Details at the Facebook event page, here.
Scalarama in Scotland is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
Matchbox Cine 