New release - another chance to see the film, Plus Q&A and live piano before the screening!
Scala!!!
Or the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits. Back by popular demand, plus Q&A and live piano with director Ali Catterall!
Director: Ali Catterall and Jane Giles
Cast includes: John Waters, Cathi Unsworth, James O'Brien, Mary Harron, John Akomfrah, Ben Wheatley, Isaac Julian, Caroline Catz, Stewart Lee, Adam Buxton, Peter Strickland, Thurston Moore, Jah Wobble
New Release - plus Q&A with Ali Catterall
96 mins / 2023 / UK
We've put it on again due to popular demand!
Meet director Ali Catterall for a Q&A after the screening. He will also be playing live piano for your entertainment before the film!
Heartfelt big screen documentary about the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll repertory cinema which inspired a generation during Britain's turbulent Thatcher years. The cinema was housed in a wonderfully stately building with a cupola in London’s scuzzy and pre-gentrified King’s Cross between 1981 and 1993; the building in fact now survives and thrives as a nightclub.
The Scala also became legendary for its wonderful monthly poster-style foldout sheets advertising the forthcoming attractions which were sexier and more exciting than the earnest booklets in other cinemas; it became a movie theatre with the excitement of a 24/7 punk festival, not a college of further education. And this was the pre-Google, pre-YouTube age, when simply finding out about the existence of films, never mind actually seeing them, was very difficult.
Who you'll see in the film: John Waters, Cathi Unsworth, James O'Brien, Mary Harron, John Akomfrah, Ben Wheatley, Isaac Julian, Caroline Catz, Stewart Lee, Adam Buxton, Peter Strickland, Thurston Moore, and Jah Wobble.
Meet director Ali Catterall:
Ali Catterall is an award-winning author, journalist, filmmaker, film writer and editor. In 2001, he co-authored Your Face Here: British Cult Movies Since the Sixties, and in 2018 edited Jane Giles' Scala Cinema 1978-1993, winner of the 2019 Kraszna-Krausz Award. Scala!!! is his debut film, co-directed with Jane Giles.
This film is F-Rated. The F-Rating is applied to all films which are directed by women and/or written by women. Find out more about F-Rating.
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