SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our LET'S ALL GO TO THE MOVIES Series, Saturday, June 17, 2023
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.
4:00pm A PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH MARTIN SCORSESE THROUGH AMERICAN MOVIES (1995, dir. Martin Scorsese & Michael Henry Wilson, BFI, UK, 225mns, Digital)
IMPORTANT NOTE: We’ll be taking two fifteen minute intermissions every 80 minutes or so and will have plenty of concessions on hand.
Today we’re doing something a little loopy. First off, we’re showing one of this programmer’s all time favorite documentaries on American movies: A Personal Journey Through American Cinema with Martin Scorsese.
Then we’re taking a 45 minute break and diving immediately into a double feature of two movies by Panos Cosmastos (Beyond the Black Rainbow on 35mm and Mandy in a digital presentation). Why? Where’s the rhyme and reason.
Well. . .look. Cinema is amazing. First we’re going to have the best teacher in the world in Martin Scorsese. Then we’re going to see two recent bat-sh@t crazy movies that show that moviemakers are still making really wacky, mind blowing works.
First. . .in the mid 1990’s, the BFI commissioned many of the world’s greatest moviemakers to make documentaries about their country’s cinema.
Scorsese, tasked with the near impossible task of surveying American cinema, made the only sensible decision one could: he decided instead to do his best at looking at the movies that had a profound personal impact on his decision to become and his journey as a moviemaker.
Don’t worry. This isn’t a documentary filled with esoterica (although that’s there as well). Scorsese was influenced by the world class as well as the niche, the Hollywood craftsperson as well as the independent maverick. So we are treated to a near four hour look at the filmmaking and films of everyone from D.W. Griffith to Raoul Walsh to John Ford to Stanley Kubrick to Douglas Sirk to John Cassavettes all the way up to Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood. Scorsese does stop there though as he feels (intelligently) that he can’t and shouldn’t speak on the moviemakers of his generation or the generations after him.
Still, in this documentary you will probably get a must watch list of at least 20-30 movies you may have never heard of that will blow your mind forever and make you appreciate just how diverse American cinema has been. Scorsese also gives you a kind of road map into how possibly you can navigate the system while smuggling in truly subversive interesting cinema. Movies like Edgar Ulmer’s Detour or the Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur horror collaborations Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie show that crazy interesting work was being done even at the height of classic Hollywood with the backing of the studio moguls.
This movie is cinematic ambrosia from the Gods. But it’s taught by someone who remains beautifully open, honest, human, and passionate about one of the last hundred years’ greatest art forms.
Scorsese + documentary + cinema = time well spent.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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 to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
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.
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?
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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.