SCENES ON SCREEN
The latest releases coming to cinemas and home media
Scenes on the big screen
Following its premiere at the BFI London Film Festival this October, the BFI has announced a nationwide cinema release of 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 on the 5th of January, 2024.
Based on the FAB Press book Scala Cinema 1978-1993 by former programme manager Jane Giles, the film is directed by Giles and Ali Catterall and tells the story of how the Scale cinema became a cultural hub during the post-punk, Thatcher years.
It brings together archive footage and newly commissioned animations, as well as interview footage with audience members and Scala staff. Among those interviewed are: Barry Adamson, John Akomfrah, Ralph Brown, Adam Buxton, Caroline Catz, Mary Harron, Matt Johnson, Princess Julia, Isaac Julien, Nick Kent, Beeban Kidron, Stewart Lee, Mark Moore, Thurston Moore, James O’Brien, Paul Putner, JoAnne Sellar, Peter Strickland, Cathi Unsworth, Ben Wheatley, Jah Wobble, Stephen Woolley and John Waters.
Following its cinema release, the film will then move onto Blu-ray and the BFI Player on the 22nd of January.
Scenes on the small screen
Following the success of the first two editions, the BFI Flipside label has announced Short Sharp Shocks Vol. 3, which celebrates the weird and eerie British short films that made up support programmes.
Available for the first time in high definition, the films included are:
Return to Glennascaul, Hilton Edwards, 1951
Strange Stories, John Guillermin and Don Chaffey, 1953
Grandpa’s Portrait and Old Silas, Derick Williams, 1956
Maze, Bob Bentley, 1969
Skinflicker, Tony Bicât, 1973
Two public information films from 1973: Broken Bottle and Don’t Fool Around With Fireworks
The Terminal Game, Geoff Lowe, 1982
Wings of Death, Nicola Bruce and Michael Coulson, 1985
A series of interviews are included in the two-disc Blu-ray collection, which releases on the 9th of October.