Once in awhile I come across little stories that are relevant to this column that don't necessarily call for so many words of commentary. But it's a shame to skip over them, so occasionally, I'd like to break The Exhibitionist up a bit and write about a few of them at once.


The first thing that caught my attention this week was a report of a study focused on ambient lighting, such as the kind used in cinemas. According to research conducted by academics at the University of Cumbria in England, and at University College Dublin in Ireland, movies should be viewed in rooms that are as well lit as the movies themselves. So, yes, that means your local multiplex has the lights dimmed way too low.

But, you wonder, isn't it dark in theaters because we can see the movie much better that way? And when we're at home don't we turn out the lights, or, when it's daytime, close the shades for the same reason? Well, yes, but incorrectly so, say Cumbria's Professor David Manning and UCD's Professor Patrick Brennan. Their findings indicate that such darkness actually hinders the eye's ability to see at optimum capability. "Ideally, ambient light should be adapted to the brightness of the screen for the eye to pick up as much detail as it can," Manning said. "However, most people prefer to watch films in a darkened room, but as the eye adapts to the surrounding light these conditions may not be conducive to picking up maximum visual detail."

OK, this has gone waaaay out of control, but in a hilariously awesomely geeky way. It started with a sold-out midnight screening of the undeniably (hysterically) awful Troll 2 -- which led to an as-yet-unfinished documentary feature called Best Worst Movie -- which led to ... man oh man is this crazy. Turns out that Morgan, Utah is where "Nilbog" was created for Troll 2 ... so it only stands to reason that the Best Worst Movie crew and the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow lunatics would join forces and bring Nilbog back to life.

I'm including the Alamo's full and complete press release after the jump, but here's a quick recap of the impending festivities: Screenings of Troll (1986), Troll 2 (1990), The Crawlers (1990, aka Troll 3), Quest for the Mighty Sword (1990, aka The Hobgoblin, aka Troll 3), Beyond Darkness (1990, aka House 5) -- some of which have NEVER been seen before! Oh, and there will be panel discussions and meals with the cast and crew members, fan flick contests, dances, parties, eating competitions, and approximately 214 additional insane activities. All in the name of wonderfully inept filmmaking that's so much fun to watch it almost feels dirty.

The date: June 27 - 29. The place: Nilbog (aka Morgan, Utah). The expense: Event packages start at a mere $40. For a whole LOT more information, check out the full press release below. And remember: You don't wee-wee on hospitality like this!

I find it kind of interesting -- no, funny, actually -- that while tons of movie fans were down in Austin for SXSW, enjoying the greatest cinema experience available, at the Alamo Drafthouse (Ritz and South Lamar), exhibitors from all over the country were piling into Las Vegas for ShoWest, the annual convention and trade show, where discussion and conversation often turns to the question, "how can we make moviegoing a better experience and, more importantly, a more lucrative business?"

Maybe some of the suits should have made the trip to SXSW instead, had a beer and a burger (ahem, a Royale with Cheese), and started lobbying their districts, if need be, to begin following the business model of the Alamo. I know that in my state of New York, it's not technically legal to serve alcohol in a cinema, but surely it is part of some antiquated law that needs to be adjusted (like how technically you're not allowed to dance at many bars in NYC).

At last night's raucous midnight world premiere of Dance of the Dead, director Gregg Bishop said in his introduction that he was thrilled to have the film debut at the Alamo Drafthouse. He said it with a certain reverence, like he couldn't believe his luck. Several other filmmakers have echoed those sentiments at past screenings, i.e., that getting your film into the festival is pleasure enough, but having it play at the Alamo is nirvana. And I realized that the Alamo truly sets SXSW apart from most other festivals.

Think about Sundance. They use a dozen or so venues around Park City, Utah. Many of them are perfectly lovely and functional, and one or two even have some local historical or cultural significance. But I can't imagine any filmmaker ever saying, "I'm so glad my movie is having its world premiere at the Eccles Theatre!" None of the venues have any cachet. My impression is that this is the case with most venues at most festivals. Some of them are cool enough, but do you dream of one day premiering your film at that particular place?

But people who make movies -- especially horror flicks and rowdy comedies and other types particularly suited to the Alamo's irreverent attitude -- actually do dream of that. The Alamo really has (and richly deserves) that kind of "cool" status.

Do you need a good laugh today? I saw Taxi to the Dark Side on Friday night and when we came home, I was in desperate need of comedy. I found respite in the short films that are entered in the Kindly Rewind contest, another scheme from those crazy folks at Alamo Drafthouse. Nearly 150 shorts are entered in the competition, most of them running 5-6 minutes long, all of them "swedes" of movies as popularized in the trailer for Be Kind Rewind. You can watch all of them online and if you sign up, you can vote for your favorites this week. The shorts are also all playing at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar this week if you live in Austin.

The sweded shorts include five different versions of Top Gun; six takes on Jurassic Park; four of The Karate Kid; two Back to the Futures (Marty wears a real life vest in one), one Back to the Future 2, and one Back to the Future trilogy; and one Be Kind Rewind -- the filmmakers must have been crushed when Michel Gondry did his own swede of the trailer. (But theirs contains a fabulous swede of The Big Lebowski.) Other choices for entries included a fully animated version of Bambi, Koyaaanisqatsi, An Inconvenient Truth (so funny we are developing household catch-phrases from it), Beastmaster with a seven-year-old in the title role, Run Lola Run with very dubious German, and March of the Penguins set in downtown Austin. I especially like the films where people are as low-tech as possible: humming or singing the movie's theme music, using pets as characters, and employing cut-out figures or plastic dinosaurs. (At the end of The Sound of Music, the characters walk up the street to a hand-drawn sign that says "Switzerland.")

What sounds like the more highbrow date? Going to see the artsy film I'm Not There while sitting on a couch, eating a pizza and drinking a cold beer, or going to see the mainstream blockbuster National Treasure: Book of Secrets while sitting in a VIP section with reserved, "luxury seating," eating a "sophisticated entree" and drinking an "elegant martini creation?" Both options feature wait service, great picture quality and the benefit of not having any youths around. In their own way, each is equally lowbrow and highbrow, but depending on your definition of those terms (dumb vs. intelligent; cheap vs. expensive), you might have said one or the other. To me, highbrow is intelligent and intelligent is cheap; so I pick the former, which will cost a whole lot less.

The first option was what you might have experienced this weekend at Oakland, California's Parkway Speakeasy (other movie choices were Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and American Gangster). Your movie ticket would have been a mere $6, your personal cheese pizza a fair $8.50 and your pint of Sierra Nevada only $4.50. The second choice was one of this weekend's offerings at the new Lux Level of Randolph, Massachussetts' Showcase Cinema (the other available movie was I Am Legend). The movie ticket cost $21.25 (you definitely bought it online and paid that $1 service charge), the personal cheese pizza about $8 (I don't see anything on the theater's online menu appropriately considered to be "sophisticated entrée", though other Showcase Cinema menus feature items such as "Bourbon Street Steak Medallions") and your Raspberry Mocha Tini was about $9.

Teens are a pain in the butt at the movies. I'll be the first to admit this. As a theater manager, one of my non-described job requirements was babysitting. But this is a task that sounds easier than it is. For many kids that we would kick out of an auditorium, or have removed from the lobby or parking lot, we would have to deal with angry parents who don't like other people disciplining their sons and daughters. No father wants to hear that his 15-year-old daughter was involved in sexual activity in a movie theater, but if he holds it against the people who discovered her, or against the theater in general, then it's no longer worth the trouble and the complaints. At that point it becomes easier to just let the kids have a run of the place.

Unless you have a laid-out, documented policy against certain activities in your cinema, there exists a problem of how to handle situations. This is probably the reason that some theater chains are in fact making new rules and regulations in order to properly deal with teenagers, who tend to go to the movies just to have a place to hang out, whether they're inside or out. One chain in particular, Kerasotes Theatres, made headlines recently for its controversial ban on teens, who are no longer permitted at late-night shows on Fridays and Saturdays (they call it "Adult Friendly Shows"). Unless they are with a parent and have a special Kerasotes-issued ID card, kids 16 and younger can't attend movies showing after 9pm.

In comparison with film festival veterans, I'm a newbie: I've attended all or part of about two dozen over the past five years. I've yet to make it to Cannes, Toronto or Sundance, but I've gone to regional fests, Asian fests, homegrown fests run entirely by volunteers and big city fests sponsored by large corporations. With all these fests, I've come to expect different things: red carpet premieres and well-known stars at the bigger ones, great enthusiasm and excitement for the films at the smaller ones. Fantastic Fest in Austin, which concluded its third edition this past Thursday, walks another line entirely.

Our own Scott Weinberg described it as "the slickest, screwiest, most user-friendly genre festival this side of the continent." (We'll get to Scott and the unexpected pleasures of the game show he hosted later in this article.) Allow me to explain further: the festival is held at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar location), a multiplex where, yes, you can order food and drinks from your seat, but, more important, all the auditoriums are superb screening facilities. Any projection glitches are fixed quickly and the sound is cranked up as loud as it should be.

Three of the six auditoriums were set aside for the festival, and clearly marked lines were set up in the lobby so you knew where to stand while waiting for your next movie. The staff and volunteers are friendly, well trained, knowledgeable and willing to share opinions on movies if they can spare a moment. It's a huge advantage to have all the festival screenings at one location, especially an exceptionally well-run facility with plenty of free parking. This gives Fantastic Fest a tremendous leg up on other well-meaning though poorly-organized festivals I've attended.

Welcome to The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar. Each week, we'll give you a round-up of what's going on in indie film (and sometimes just cool film news and screenings) in cities near you. If you know of cool stuff happening that's related to film -- a local fest, a series of classic restored films, lectures, workshops, open calls for casting of an indie film -- send your tips to me at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com and we'll add them to the calendar.

Here are this week's happenings in film from New York to LA and points in between, right after the jump ...

We're adding a new feature on Cinematical Indie: The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar. Each week, we'll give you a round-up of what's going on in indie film (and sometimes just cool film news and screenings) in cities near you. If you know of cool stuff happening that's related to film -- a local fest, a series of classic restored films, lectures, workshops, open calls for casting of an indie film -- send your tips to me at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com and we'll add them to the calendar.

Here are this week's happenings in film from New York to LA and points in between ...

New York City: This week at Film Forum, you can check out Live-In Maid (showing through July 31), Woody Allen's Manhattan in its last week, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis in a spandy-new 35mm print of the newly restored version! (Oooh, ahhh....). Special events at Film Forum this week include filmmaker Jorge Gaggaro at the 8:10 screening of Live-In Maid tonight AND (get this on your calendar's pronto, director at the 8PM screenings of his Iraq War doc, No End in Sight, next Friday and Saturday, July 27 and 28. I saw No End in Sight at Sundance, and attended a pretty impressive panel discussion of the film as well. It rocks -- don't miss it.

Over at the Walter Reade Theater, you serious film buffs might want to check out the celebration of Woodfall Film Productions, with Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave and Michael Sheen introducing some of the screenings. Check out the full program, it's a really nice lineup. Also at the Walter Reade, tonight at 7PM they have a screening of the restored print of silent film Way Down East. Sunday at 4:30 is an event you won't want to miss: Film Comment Selects Presents has a Norman Mailer event; tix include the 4:30PM screening of Tough Guys Don't Dance, a conversation with Mailer AND a complimentary pass to the 8PM screening of Maidstone -- what a great way to fill up a Sunday!

Los Angeles: Outfest -- the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival -- is still going on through July 23. There are still lots of films, panels and events going on through the weekend, so check out the schedule on the fest's official website to see what's happening.

Elsewhere in LA, American Cinematheque has the Mods and Rockers Film Fest going on. Friday and Saturday, the Egyptian has an "in-person salute to rock-doc pioneer filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker," with the West Coast premiere of his documentary 65 Revisited, with outtakes from his 1965 classic Don't Look Back. The full schedule can be found right here. Over at the Aero, there's a four-day engagement of David Lynch's Inland Empire, with discussions with "special guests."

Seattle: This weekend at Northwest Film Forum, they're screening June and July, winner of last year's Local Sightings Film Festival. Also, NWFF's Search and Rescue program continues the venue's exploration of 16mm film with a screening of 1964's Nothing But a Man. Coming up July 25 and 26, you can catch a screening of Jacques Tati's 1953 film, Mr. Hulot's holiday. Check out their website for complete schedule of events.

The Seattle International Film Festival may be long over, but the SIFF group is still bringing Seattleites great films all summer long with their SIFF Cinema Summer Series. This weekend through August 2, they're showing Apachatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's Daratt, Bahman Ghobadi's Half Moon, and Tsai Ming-Liang's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone.

Also this weekend in Seattle: On Saturday, July 21 at 2PM, The Film School's Speaker Series, by Warren Etheredge, will host Sandra Nettelbeck, whose film Mostly Martha has been remade into the upcoming No Reservations starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin. Nettlebeck will discuss her film the remake, and what's different between the two. Upcoming on July 28, TFS brings Oscar-nommed director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) into town to sneak-preview his latest doc, Taxi to the Dark Side, which played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Taxi is about torture practices used by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, told through the story of an innocent taxi driver who was tortured and killed in 2002. Gibney's a sharp guy and a solid filmmaker -- that one's a must-see for you Seattle film buffs. Tix for both available at Etheredge's website, The Warren Report.


Austin: This weekend at The Alamo Drafthouse at Lake Creek brings you a special midnight screening of one of my fave Hitchcock films, Rear Window, Daft Punk's Electroma, and a screening for the kids (or those of us who haven't quite grown up yet, Dark Crystal. At the South Lamar location Master Pancake Does Conan -- the Barbarian, natch -- on Wednesday. Plus: The Village location has Rocky Horror Saturday night at 11:PM, so break out your corsets and fishnet stockings! Also, the Village and Lamar locations will have Simpson's Feasts, and the Village location

Dallas: Coming up in Dallas, the Dallas Video Fest runs July 31- August 5. The fest is surprisingly affordable -- all-day passes range from $10 weeknights to $25 weekends. Check out the full schedule and start making your plans now.

Oklahoma City: This weekend at the Oklahoma CIty Museum of Art: Parker Posey in Broken English and Oklahoma! Upcoming: Away from Her, Summercamp!, Once and Ten Canoes. Also, a panel discussion on images of Oklahoma in the movies. Full schedule is right here.

Want your city covered? Send your film news and links to me at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com ...

I was going to help Tim League and his Austin Fantastic Fest crew pick a few movies for this year's event, but unfortunately I had to head back to the east coast for the summer. But it sure doesn't look like the FF programming crew is having ANY trouble without me! (A crew that includes Twitch's Todd Brown, SXSW's ever-classy Matt Dentler, the Alamo's mad genius Kier-la Janisse, and AICN's recently-wed (congrats) Harry the K, just so you know who's pickin' the flicks.) Anyway, released just today is a brand-new batch of genre titles that can soon be enjoyed at the third annual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. I may be a little biased (since Austin and everyone in it rocks the proverbial house) but I'm getting pretty darn excited for FF this year. (Plus I've had a rotten summer, and the only thing that can make me feel better is a full week of horror movies!)

In addition to the already-released list of titles, the FF posse just unleashed another batch of gore-soaked goodies. Nope, it wasn't enough to book movies like End of the Line, Flight of the Living Dead, The Last Winter and Spiral (all of which I've seen and awarded S. Nerd Weinberg stamp of approval) and get Uwe Boll himself to introduce Postal ... nope, these guys had more blood to spill. (Clarification: Fantastic Fest does a lot more than just horror; it's just that I always choose to focus my eyeballs there first.) Anyway, their new batch includes titles like Joe Lynch's Wrong Turn 2 (I've seen an excerpt and boy is it splattery!), Winona Ryder in Daniel Waters' Sex and Death 101, and the very amusing Sundance mockumentary Finishing the Game.

For everything you need to know about Fantastic Fest (which runs September 20 - 27 at the awesome Alamo South Lamar), feel free to pick through the official site. It's there you can check out plot synopses, find a few reviews, scope some trailers and make up a handy little schedule of what you'd like to see ... even if you can't attend. But fear not: Cinematical will have a small team of lunatics there to keep you up to speed. Can't wait! (And they still have some titles to announce yet! I'm promised some big news, too!) For the "old" news, check out Jette's May 17 report right here.

Unless I am with hardcore film geeks, it seems like every time a group of friends or relatives talks about movies, they vent about why they don't go out to see movies in theaters as much anymore. It's too expensive, they can rent perfectly good movies at home, babysitters cost way too much, it's not worth dealing with a loud and annoying audience, and by the time they sit through 30 minutes of high-volume commercials and banal previews, they are ready to leave before the movie even begins. Even my sister complains about the pre-movie ads, and she has no problem with watching commercials on TV.

Many big theater chains are fighting the trend to home entertainment. They are against shorter windows between theatrical release and DVD, they snarl the minute they hear the term "day and date," they claim that the problem is that the movies just aren't as good as they used to be. I think that theater owners need to think about innovative ways to get audiences back into theaters, instead of arguing themselves into obsolescence. Fortunately, many theaters are doing just that, so you can still find some places to enjoy a night out at the movies.

Going to the movies is supposed to be fun. Theaters need to make the theatergoing experience special and fun and as hassle-free as possible. There's nothing like seeing the manager or owner of a movie theater right there in the audience with you because he or she can't resist joining in the enjoyable time you're having. I've come up with a list of seven ways in which theaters, both chains of all sizes and indies, can potentially draw people out of their living room home theaters and back into big theaters again. I've included a few examples from my part of the country, but feel free to tell us about other theaters that are innovating to keep audiences returning. And if you have more ideas for theaters yourself, I'd enjoy hearing about them.

I feel restless, as I sit here and write this. I just finished reading the 2007 tour dates for the third annual Rolling Roadshow Tour, and I wish I could ride along in the big Alamo Drafthouse projection truck as it circles the country this summer, showing classic and cult movies in strange, cool and appropriate locales. If you've heard me or Scott Weinberg raving at length about the Alamo theaters in Austin and feel slightly envious, well, now the Alamo experience may be coming to your part of the country -- at least the outdoor-movie aspect. You might remember the tour last year as the Netflix Rolling Roadshow, but this year Alamo seems to have acquired a number of different sponsors for the event.

The idea behind the Rolling Roadshow Tour is to show movies in locations related to the film's story, or similar to the locations where the movie was shot. The above photo is from a 2005 screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. This year's lineup includes North by Northwest at Mount Rushmore and A Christmas Story at the newly restored Christmas Story House in Cleveland. There are also a lot of other special touches and related events surrounding the screenings: you must take a canoe trip to get to the Deliverance screening on the Georgia river where it was shot, and the John Waters marathon in Baltimore includes free Odorama cards for Polyester as well as barf bags. Special guests often appear at the screenings; apparently the Alamo folks are working to get the Coreys at the Lost Boys screening in Santa Cruz. The tour kicks off on July 18 with Fandango, as the Rolling Roadshow folks drive from Austin to San Elizario, Texas (near El Paso) just like the characters in the movie, and ends on August 15. The entire schedule is listed after the jump -- check to see if the inflatable screen will be set up in your neighborhood.

I didn't manage to snap any celebrity photos at SXSW this year, unfortunately. I saw Richard Linklater at the Hell on Wheels screening but he was surrounded by a small crowd. And I didn't go to many parties, because I am a delicate flower who needs at least a little rest during festivals. Despite this, I did capture some interesting images during SXSW.

The photo above is one of my favorite SXSW venues, Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, all decked out for opening night. That sign on top of the marquee is actually a slide being projected to a big white screen; I think the original intent was to show movies in that parking lot, but that hasn't yet happened. There were a few times during the festival where I had to fight the urge to duck into another theater at Alamo and veg out to part of Children of Men, Black Snake Moan or Pan's Labyrinth, but I resisted and saw lots of new features and documentaries instead.

One part of the Oscar telecast that made me angry was Jerry Seinfeld's routine about the deal between the moviegoer and the movie theater. He claimed that people have the right to drop their trash on the floor after being ripped off at the concession stand. A lot of other people thought the bit was funny, enough to hope the comedian would one day host the awards, but to people like me, whose career is or was in the theater industry, pushing the idea that cinemas are completely to blame for their own attendance problems just makes matters worse.

Of course, the theater industry is at fault a good percentage of the time, at least as far as recognizing their place and duty in the distribution/exhibition process, and according to Techdirt, the industry may finally be waking up to the issues of demand and of the importance of the moviegoing experience. The blog features a great quote for theater owners to remember, originally stated by Marcus Loew: "We sell tickets to theaters, not movies." Some chains and indies have been conscious of the experience issue for awhile now, particularly fun theaters like the Alamo Drafthouse and theaters with special deals like AMC, but the issue of enhancing the movie-going experience has been difficult to address on a wide scale. There is some progress, though -- with the planned broadband and/or satellite distribution of digital movies to theaters, the ability to run more showings of a popular title will be easier and quicker. Theaters will just cancel a less popular movie and run the higher-demand title on its screen instead.