SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our JOHN FORD FUNDAMENTALS series!
SPECIAL MEMORIAL DAY SCREENING Monday, May 30, 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.
12pm DECEMBER 7TH (1943, dir by Gregg Toland and John Ford, 82 minute "uncensored" version)
145pm THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY (1942, dir by John Ford, 18mns) & TORPEDO SQUADRON 8 (1942, dir by John Ford, 8mns)
*Please note we are working to get these titles on 16mm and 35mm film from the archive but ask that audience be prepared for a digital presentation as well.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***ALL AUDIENCE are still 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.
***As of April 1, 2022, masks are now optional for indoor theater events if you're fully vaccinated. Anyone with a vaccination exemption can still attend as long as they have proof of a RT-PCR level negative Covid test ( within 72 hours of the event) but will be required to wear a mask. We will continue to update our protocols with the dynamic situation.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE BRING YOUR VACCINATION CARD (digital cards accepted).
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 celebrate Memorial Day 2022 with three of John Ford's World War II documentaries at the Secret Movie Club Theater.
Recently in 2017's documentary and book Five Came Back, the stories of Hollywood directors John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra, George Stevens, and William Wyler World War II service was chronicled.
The book and doc do a helpful service in showing how each individual filmmaker's unique experience (Stevens photographed the concentrations camps, Wyler flew bombing missions and lost much of his hearing, Huston recorded soldiers suffering from PTSD, Capra made homefront uplifting docs) and contribution would be hugely influential in their post war work.
Ford, who has often acknowledged "I really am a coward", was responsible for filming some of the war's most harrowing battles including the Battle of Midway and the D-Day Normandy invasion.
Today, we show the three documentaries Ford made during the war that greatly help to explain his own post-war film work including masterpieces like My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance all of which focus on the reality of racism, brutality, violence, politics, myth, and reality.
We start off with December 7th which chronicles the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 194 and its aftermath, the event which officially got the US into World War II. December 7th is filled with a strange (and now jarring) mix of fictionalized jingoistic scenes, actual horrific footage from the event, and staged model work and footage.
Co-directed with Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland (who shot The Grapes of Wrath and The Long Voyage Home with Ford), December 7th may, in some ways, be the least of the three documentaries from a perspective of artistic merit or lasting power, but the most important, in some respects, at showing the complex reaction of Americans at the same to the War.
Not discussed as often as it should be, the US entrance into WWII included a huge racist response to both US born and foreign folks of Japanese descent and media at the time was filled with horribly racist Japanese caricatures. Some of which unfortunately make it into this doc.
At the same time, Ford was determined here and to much greater success in The Battle of Midway and Torpedo Squadron 8 to really show the horrors of the war and why the US needed to full heartedly fight the war.
December 7th is a fascinating document both for its artistry and for some of its excesses.
We follow this up with Ford's two best World War II docs, the incredible The Battle of Midway and the heart-rending Torpedo Squadron 8.
Like his fellow enlisted directors, Ford felt the need to not just MAKE movies but to be a part of the battles. Maybe to prove to himself that he was contributing to the war effort just like the many young men and women he saw who sacrificed their lives daily to win the war effort.
Ford was one of the cinematographers himself on The Battle of Midway (catching shrapnel in the leg when a bomb exploded very near where he was filming) and there are shots of staggering power where the FILM itself jumps and bobs in the gate from explosions coming from the bombers flying overhead.
During this battle, Ford was horrified to watch almost the entire crew of Torpedo Squadron 8 lose their lives in battle. This wholesale butchering of young people for older people/countries/causes would make its way into Ford movies like Fort Apache where the wisest older folks would acknowledge that countries, tribes, peoples should be focusing on diplomacy and peace. Because in a war, its often an entire generation of the young who suffer.
Ford, to try to do something for the families who lost their loved ones, made a touching 8 minute documentary of all the footage he had of Torpedo Squadron 8 and sent it to everyone he could.
These documentaries and actions get close to the heart of the contradictions and complexities that are John Ford. Gruff, mean, bullying, evasive often on the exterior, striving for actual ideals, beliefs, kind, tender, humanist, profound, affected on the inside.
Come celebrate Memorial Day with these incredible works and documents.
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.