SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents

Part of our JOHN FORD FUNDAMENTALS series! Wednesday, January 19, 2022

LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021

*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate. We’ll have staff to help guide/park you.

8pm FORT APACHE (1947, dir by John Ford, Warner Brothers, 35mm, 127mns)

IMPORTANT NOTES:

***ALL AUDIENCE will be required to show proof of vaccination at the door. PLEASE HAVE YOUR VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL VACCINATION CARD READY BEFORE ENTERING THE THEATER. If you have an exemption, please have proof of a negative PCR level COVID test within 3 days of the screening.

***ALL GUESTS WILL BE TAKEN THROUGH PROTOCOLS PRIOR TO ENTERING THEATER SO EVERYONE CAN HAVE A FUN AND SAFE TIME.

***EVERYONE WILL STILL BE REQUIRED TO WEAR MASKS INDOORS WHEN NOT EATING/DRINKING CONCESSIONS IN THEIR ASSIGNED SEATS.

HOW TO:

1)PLEASE BRING AND WEAR A PROPER MASK AT ALL TIMES WHEN NOT EATING/DRINKING INSIDE THE THEATER AS A SAFETY PRECAUTION.

2)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.

We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!

3)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer your complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!

We kick off our JOHN FORD FUNDAMENTALS series with the first chapter of his US Cavalry trilogy Fort Apache. On 35mm!

Director John Ford is our filmmaker of 2022. And we'll spilling lots of ink on why we hope you'll watch as many of his movies as possible. Why we feel he is one of the best practitioners of the cinematic art that ever lived. Why he still must be studied today. Why he can inspire the next generation of moviemakers no matter their goal, their subject matter.

For now, let's just start by saying that director John Ford, more cleverly and fascinatingly then almost any other US filmmaker, was able to amass a body of auteur-driven poetic work WHILE consistently working within the Hollywood studio system.

One of the ways he did this was by making sure he turned out movies in a commercial genre (for him the Western) enough to show that he was always bankable and able to turn in movies on or under budget that would make money.

But Ford also found ways to turn in surprisingly progressive, even subversive movies, that simultaneously showed his profound intelligence and sensitivity unbenknownst to almost anyone writing the check.

Exhibit A is Fort Apache which Ford made mid-career that dared to actually say that the Native Americans, often portrayed as the villains in Westerns, were in the right and that the US military and white man were the violent aggressors.

Ford cleverly tells a fictional variation of Custer's Last Stand. Henry Fonda plays the Custer-like military man assigned to a ramshackle outpost Fort Apache. Determined to make a name for himself, Fonda forces his men, who all know better, to increase their aggression against the neighboring Native Americans for a quick military victory. All the men, most pointedly represented by Fonda's 2nd in command, John Wayne (!!), know that Fonda is in the wrong. That the battle can't be won. And that the battle shouldn't even be fought.

But Fonda won't listen to anyone and hurtles blindly into a battle that everyone but himself tries to avoid.

A stunningly bracing variation that Ford would re-visit again with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Fort Apache is filled with everything that makes John Ford, John Ford: amazing cinema, incredible scenes of tenderness and humour, affirmations of the community and family, but also a very shrewd intelligence that the American myth of always being in the right is often wrong.

Ford shows already in 1947 a willingness to question and provoke and re-examine stereotypes and prejudices. This drive, always strong in him, would resurface again and again in his work of the 1950's and 1960's.

So let's start this journey and learn our Ford Fundamentals.

Best always,

Craig Hammill

35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS

REFUNDS:

We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.

However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.

HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:

We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.

We will have a staff member on duty to monitor all cars parked in the street-art alleyway at our entrance.

There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.

HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?

You can follow us on Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm or Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub

You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter by writing us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.

HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:

You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.