'Scala Forever' Film Season: 13th August - 2nd October

Scala Forever

Bringing Cinema Back for the Future

A season of films reliving the Scala Cinema’s programming history and celebrating the current repertory film scene in London

13th August – 2nd October 2011 at venues across London

This August will see the start of a monster season of film screenings under the title Scala Forever. During 80’s and early 90’s The Scala Cinema in Kings Cross was one of the most famous repertory cinemas in London screening a wild mix of Cult, Classic, Arthouse, World cinema and everything inbetween. As John Waters said, “The Scala had magic.”

Nearly twenty years later, over 26 cinemas and film clubs in London are joining forces to highlight the range of repertory or classic film programming taking place over a seven week period. Festival Director Philip Wood, “Cinema didn’t die when video arrived in the 80’s and now survives despite the perceived threat of downloading and filesharing. Film exhibition is changing, but people still want to come together and enjoy more than just new films at the cinema.”

Originating at Roxy Bar & Screen, a unique bar / cinema in London Bridge, the season includes screenings taking place at the likes of BFI Southbank, Riverside Studios, Prince Charles Cinema, Ritzy Picturehouse, Rio Cinema, The Phoenix Cinema, ICA, Shortwave Cinema and many, many more, including film clubs Midnight Movies, Duke Mitchell Film Club, Close-Up, Cigarette Burns Cinema, Passenger Films, The Amy Grimehouse and Filmbar70 who also produced the magnificent festival trailer (see below).

The season will highlight a wide range of films including old Scala titles and newer rep cinema classics crossing genres of Horror to Hollywood, Arthouse to Asian, Musicals to Melodrama, Queer to Comedy and Classic to Cult, screening in double and treble-bills, all-dayers and four special all-nighters, plus panel discussions and several guest speakers introducing the screenings.

Highlights include:
John Waters double-bill of Female Trouble and Desperate Living with a specially recorded introduction from John Waters himself (7:30pm, Sun 14th Aug, Roxy Bar & Screen, £6)
Filmbar70’s Zombie All-nighter (11pm, Sat 20th Aug, Roxy Bar & Screen, £15),
Jeanne Moreau double of Lift to the Scaffold and Jules et Jim (6:30pm, Sun 28th Aug, Riverside £8.50/£7.50),
Filmbar70’s American Monsters All-nighter (11pm, Sat 10th Sep, Roxy Bar & Screen, £15)
Phoenix Cinema and Contemporary Films presents Music Doc Double-Bill of Tonight Let’s All Make Love and Jazz on a Summer’s Day (2pm, Sun 11th Sep, Phoenix Cinema)
CLOSE-UP presents Kieślowski’s Dekalog (20th Sep - 18th Oct, Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club)
Cigarette Burns Cinema presents The Female Convict Pinky Violence All-Night Triple-Bill (11pm, Sat 24th Sep, Rio Cinema)
Midnight Movies present “I Could Have Danced All-Nighter” (11pm Sat 1st Oct, Roxy Bar & Screen, £15)
The Portobello Pop Up Cinema presents The Colour of Pomegranates (8:30pm, Sat 20th Aug, £4)
Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor present Thundercrack! (Tues 20th Sep, The Horse Hospital, £6)
Panel Discussions on Scala + the future of repertory cinema, followed by a double-bill of Pink Flamingoes and The Bride of Frankenstein (2pm, Sat 17th Sep, Cinema Museum)
Rio Cinema Triple-Bill of Glen or Glenda + Un Chant D’Amour + Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle (1:30pm, Sun 28th Aug, Rio Cinema, £9)

Plus double bills from filmmakers including Russ Meyer, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Marx Brothers, Dario Argento, Pedro Almodovar, and films from Ken Russell, Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Ed Wood, Alain Resnais, Jean Genet, Kenneth Anger, Stanley Kubrick, Buster Keaton, James Cameron, John Boorman, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Luis Bunuel, Barney Platts-Mills and Powell & Pressburger plus many more!!

To see the full listings and buy tickets visit www.scalaforever.co.uk and join the season on Facebook or Twitter for the latest updates, plus see the season trailer and other film trailers on the YouTube channel. Or pick up a special season flyer printed in the style of the original Scala programmes and designed by the original Scala designer Mike Leedham.

All audiences* will also receive a free copy of the Scala Forever Programme, a specially commissioned 36 page booklet including memories of the Scala from the likes of Stephen Woolley and Jane Giles, directors James Marsh, Peter Strickland and John Waters, critics Mark Cousins, Danny Leigh and many others.
* (subject to availability)