Salt Lake Film Society partners with University of Utah department of Film and Media Arts and KUER’s RadioWest host Doug Fabrizio to bring you a conversation about THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. This month’s special guest will be University of Utah Associate Professor of Film Studies Sarah Sinwell. Admission includes a screening of the film followed by a live panel discussion.
Join us for this one night only special event! Tickets are now available here.
Since the early 1990’s, there have been few directors who have crafted more iconic films with iconic casts than Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson (no relation). Throughout the last 25 years, each director has utilized his unique style of visual storytelling, as well as an incredible amount of acting talent to deliver some of the more impressive and acclaimed works of cinematic art out there.
Salt Lake Film Society is proud to be curating a whole month of films to showcase their artistic contributions to the Salt Lake City community! So whether you are a fan of P.T’s deeply flawed characters and suspenseful long takes, or Wes’s unique visual style and sense of humorous storytelling, come down to the Broadway and relive these all-time classics on the big screen! To get you in the mood , here are some SLFS Staff favorites from both Andersons:
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001) – Jesse Sindelar, Development Manager
P.T. ANDERSON – Tori Baker, President/CEO
MAGNOLIA (1999) – Marcie Collett, Associate Director of Development
RUSHMORE (1998) – Rachel Getts, Associate Director of Digital Content
PUNCH DRUNK LOVE (2002) – Stephen Simmons, Associate Director of Production
We hope you enjoyed our staff selections (and nostalgia trip), and we hope you get to enjoy a bit of reminiscing yourself with our Anderson and Anderson film series! Click here to see the upcoming schedule of Anderson and Anderson films for this April.
As the home of independent film in Utah, Salt Lake Film Society has been proudly offering access to unique visual stories on the big screen for over two decades. Being a non-profit organization, SLFS relies on community members and film-fans alike to volunteer and support our front of house staff in providing a welcoming art-house cinema experience. Our volunteers come from all across the Salt Lake valley and beyond, and everything they do helps to fulfill our mission and provide you with a great experience at our theaters.
From helping people purchase tickets at the door, to supporting our Red Carpet Club events and special screenings, our volunteers play a pivotal part in helping us show the films that you know and love. We make sure to recognize the effort and involvement of every volunteer, from free movie tickets to special access to certain events and screenings. But for many SLFS volunteers, it’s not just the perks that encourage them to support our theater and mission. For some, like frequent and more-recent volunteer, Celeste Blodgett, their dedication stems from the contributions they are making to independent film in Utah as a whole.
“I love being a part of something bigger than myself, and cinema is a perfect example of that. There is a real effort on the part of SLFS to highlight voices from communities often forgotten by the box office. By putting films like these on the big screen, SLFS is providing the greater Salt Lake City community an opportunity to learn new things, feel extraordinary emotions, and cherish all sorts of stories.” Blodgett commented.
“It takes so many people to make a movie, and it takes so many people to run a theater that showcases independent film, especially in our current age of streaming and constant recycling of IP (intellectual property). Volunteering at SLFS makes me feel like I am contributing in my own small way to keeping cinema alive,” continued Blodgett.
For others, like long-time volunteer and even longer-time patron Taylor Kelley, their engagement is fueled by the cherished memories and experiences they’ve had at Broadway Centre Cinemas, and the important part they play in creating those experiences for others.
“I enjoyed seeing movies and going to events at the Broadway even before becoming a volunteer 5 years ago. I really love being a part of the people who create the Broadway “experience”, where you can see art-house films, as well as go to special events that actually feature the actors, directors and writers [who made these films],” Kelley remarked.
SLFS volunteers are key contributors to the personal experience you receive each time you come to our theater. It fills us with pride to hear volunteers talk about what their involvement means to them, because SLFS feels the same way. “As a non-profit, we are lucky to be able to utilize community volunteers,” said Amy-Beth Aste, Director of Theater Operations at SLFS.
“We’ve worked with many dedicated volunteers over the past 20 years. Volunteers have almost always been the first point of contact [at the theater], helping patrons, supporting front of house staff, and of course sharing our non-profit story everyday. Event volunteers have always been a great support for galas, opening nights, and special events, not to mention they usually get to go to fun events too!” Aste continued.
“Where else can you receive free movie tickets doing something you love?”
Taylor Kelley, SLFS Volunteer
As much as our volunteers help us, Salt Lake Film Society takes some pride in being a good place to volunteer and offering some sweet perks. “We are a pretty fun organization to be involved with!” Aste exclaimed. “[The Broadway] is a great place to volunteer. You get to see lots of films, and if you’re someone who loves movies, you will quickly meet other people to talk to about the ones you like. Over the years, SLFS volunteers have become friends with each other, and even formed groups that go to movies together, so it’s also a great place to meet like minded people.”
We are always looking for new people to join our non-profit team. But don’t just take it from us; here’s what current volunteers have to say about why YOU should consider volunteering with SLFS:
“Where else can you receive free movie tickets doing something you love? I would encourage anyone who enjoys movies and people to join our team of volunteers.” – Taylor Kelley
“You should volunteer with SLFS if you love movies and people who love movies! Volunteer to give to an outstanding organization, to get to know incredible employees and patrons, and access remarkable films of course. Volunteering connects you to your community like nothing else- get to know the cinephiles in the city and help out SLFS while you’re at it!” – Celeste Blodgett.
If you value your access to independent film, and you value the unique and underrepresented stories we offer at SLFS, consider joining our volunteer team, and playing a starring role in supporting independent film in Salt Lake City. Click here to apply for our volunteer program today, or send an email to jessesindelar@saltlakefilmsociety.org for any questions about volunteering.
Join us at SLFS in April 2023 for a retrospective series featuring the films of P.T. Anderson and Wes Anderson every weekend on Friday and Saturday starting March 31st.
Paul Thomas Anderson (known as P.T.) grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the ’70s and 80’s. At an early age, he decided that directing was all he wanted to do and started making short films with his friends. As a senior in high school he wrote, produced, and directed a 30 minute short film “The Dirk Diggler Story”. (This became the basis for his film Boogie Nights.) While at the Sundance Feature Film program he developed the film “Sydney” which became the acclaimed film Hard Eight. After struggles with his distributor, he took his own version of “Sydney” to Cannes where it screened in the Un Certain Regard section. Eventually “Sydney” was released as Hard Eight in 1996, of which film critic Roger Ebert wrote “Movies like Hard Eight remind me of what original, compelling characters the movies can sometimes give us.”
Wes Anderson was born in Houston, Texas in 1969. Also at a young age he was driven to become a filmmaker making silent films with his brothers and friends. Later working as a projectionist at the University of Texas at Austin he met writer/actor Owen Wilson who he collaborated with in his early films such as Bottle Rocket. His signature post-modern style and subversion of main-stream storytelling stands out amidst commercial filmmaking today. Big star-studded casts, fast paced humor, and a nostalgia mark his films which are never quite what you expected.
These popular directors, who happen to share a last name, represent a new wave of stylistic directing that always surprises. Their way of telling stories is unique in a world of short attention spans and easy endings.
Showtimes may vary. Tickets will be on sale at www.slfstix.org.
Mar 31: The Fantastic Mr. Fox
April 1: Boogie Nights
April 7: Punch Drunk Love
April 8: The Grand Budapest Hotel
April 14: Hard Eight
April 15: Bottle Rocket
April 21: There Will Be Blood
April 22: The Royal Tenenbaums
April 28: Magnolia
April 29: Rushmore
Join us at SLFS in March 2023 for a fast paced ride through late 1960s to 1970s cinema as we present our Killer Cars & Joy Rides series every weekend starting March 3.
Showtimes may vary. Tickets are now on sale – > www.slfstix.org.
Mar 3: The Italian Job (1969)
Mar 4: Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Mar 10: Bullitt (1968)
Mar 11: The Driver (1978)
Mar 17: Grand Prix (1966)
Mar 18: Le Mans (1971)
Mar 24: Vanishing Point (1971)
Mar 25: Duel (1971)
At Salt Lake Film Society, we take a lot of pride in providing access to the movie theater experience. For many films and visual stories, the very nature of their production and exhibition is designed to be watched on the big screen, shared in a movie theater with others. In our blog this week, we hear from Landon Adams, Theater Manager at Broadway Centre Cinemas, and how his experience watching White Noise was enhanced through the movie theater experience.
“Watching a film in a theater is a profound sensory experience. We become entranced by both the screen in front of us, and the audience surrounding us. In Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, characters speak of the supermarket as a spiritual haven, a temple broadcasting soothing psychic data composed of words, images, colors and sounds. The cinema’s function is the very same.
The plot of the film concerns the exploits of the blended Gladney family. The main protagonist, J.A.K. Gladney (played by Adam Driver), is a professor of Hitler studies, who in an early scene waxes poetically to a group of wide-eyed college students about the allure of the crowd. They hang onto his every word on topics ranging from “deathward” plots, to mob mentality and the power of the collective. Their awe feeds into Jack’s sense of immortality in an unwitting ritual that summons the dark cloud of Jack’s tentative demise and sets the wheels of our story in motion.
It’s in the aforementioned lecture that Jack, pointing out into the lecture hall, singles out a terrified student as a member of the future dead. We see this moment in a POV shot, from the viewpoint of the student. Jack Gladney points directly into the camera, pointing at both the student, and projected overhead on a 45 foot screen, pointing into the theater at us. If we were watching this on TV, we might miss that throughout the film Jack is aware of us, speaks to us, asking us in states between wakefulness and dreaming, “Who are you?” So attuned to the crowd, he senses us even when alone in his room in the dead of night.
For the duration of the movie we are invited into various crowded scenes: An overstuffed home, a bustling campus, evacuation camps, supermarkets, even roadways; traffic stretching out past the horizon toward infinity. The characters’ relation to these crowds is ever-shifting. Sometimes they are leaders, sometimes members. They often look to these crowds to measure themselves and source how they should feel, or how they should act. They find comfort in crowds, a sense of subconscious immortality borne out of an esoteric reinforcement, the comfort from “the collective”.
The film opens with a monologue over a montage of car crash stunts. The monologue asserts that these crashes are a highlight reel, representing innovation and optimism. This opening contextualizes what happens later in the film while Jack is driving down the highway. In the midst of a crisis our cast witnesses an accident, or at least the children do. When it happens, Jack is looking away.
Again we see the action as a POV shot, this time inhabiting the viewpoint of Jack’s children. A car rushes into the frame, overturning in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, and when it occurs, Jack is looking away, into the camera, as if watching for our reaction, to determine from us, the audience, how he should feel.
The movie theater provides a communal experience, often complex and of multi-dimensions. We gather under the flashing lights of the big screen and allow ourselves to sink into the story, letting our worries fall away across a paltry runtime. Sharing this with an audience makes the spell all the more potent. The people surrounding us help transform the experience by virtue of their presence and individual experiences.
It’s these fellow movie-goers, these crowds of eager enthusiasts, who breathe life into a film, and ground us in the experience. It’s our physical presence with others that creates and completes this unwitting ritual, just as in the film. Acting as kindred travelers on the cinematic highway, we escape down reality’s off-ramp toward the open-road comfort of the surreal, where together we are immortal beneath the silver screen of the theater.”
Hello independent film fanatics, and congratulations on making it through another year! As we all worked our hardest to make it through the days, months, and year of 2022 whole, many of us found support and solace in film, and the incredible visual stories that we are engaged in. Whether exploring the multiverse to appreciate the true value of life and kindness in Everything Everywhere All at Once, or enjoying a quirky couple’s love for volcanoes and each other in Fire of Love, or learning more about those who are hearing-impaired and the beautiful burden of family in CODA, we have screened many beautiful and breathtaking stories at the Broadway in 2022.
Perhaps you got one of the last tickets to a Rocky Horror Picture Show accompanied by live performers, or maybe you were the only one in the theater to see a captivating, foreign independent film on a Tuesday afternoon; Salt Lake Film Society is proud and privileged to exhibit all kinds of incredible stories for the Salt Lake City community, all supported by dedicated patrons like you.
If you’ve enjoyed your experiences at the Broadway, and if you value the type and quality of films you see with SLFS, please consider supporting us! Join the Red Carpet Club, or make a donation online right now at SLFS.org, or at the theater the next time you see a film; even better, make a donation before Sunday and reduce your taxable income for the coming year! Every dollar supports our mission to exhibit, engage, and educate the Salt Lake City community through independent film. We couldn’t do it without you.
From our Salt Lake Film Society family to yours, thank you for engaging with diverse stories and supporting independent cinema in Salt Lake City, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2023!
It’s the holiday season! We have some changes in our hours at the Broadway:
Happy Holidays to Everyone from SLFS!
In Salt Lake City, the holiday season is a time of joy, compassion, and nostalgia. Whether you are spending time with family and friends, or enjoying the snowy slopes and warm drinks, this time of year is about loving traditions and memories as well as making new ones. Whether it’s the holiday movie you watched every year as a family, or going out to your local theater on Christmas Day, film has a special place in many of our hearts during this festive period.
At Salt Lake Film Society, our staff also have a special place for movies in their hearts during the holiday season. From all-time holiday classics, to obscure independent films, to the never-ending debate on whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, our love of film and cinema doesn’t take time off for the holidays. Check out the wide variety of picks and preferences that SLFS staff enjoy during this time of year and who knows, maybe you will find a new title to add to your family holiday movie tradition!
TOKYO GODFATHERS (2003) – Tori Baker, President/CEO
AUNTIE MAME (1958) – Marcie Collett, Associate Director of Development
GREMLINS (1984) – Rachel Getts, Associate Director of Digital Content
SCROOGED (1988) – Stephen Simmons, Associate Director of Production
CAROL (2015) – Ally Lantz, Theater Operations Manager
A PISTOL FOR RINGO (1965) – Landon Adams, Theater Operations Manager
RECKLESS (1995) – Brandon Suisse, Associate Director of Development
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) – Jesse Sindelar, Development Manager
SLEEPER (1973) – Susan Tive, Head of Development
THE FAMILY STONE (2005) – Amy Beth Aste, Head of Theater Operations
TANGERINE (2015) – Daniel de Santiago, Front of House Staff
POLAR EXPRESS (2014) – Sophie Nielsen, Front of House Staff
BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) – Patrick Charles, Theater Operations Manager
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1984) – Guy Wheatley, Head Projectionist
JUST FRIENDS (2005) – Abby Derrick, Front of House Staff
MIXED NUTS (1994) – Zoey Wiltsey, Event Manager
We hope the variety of seasonal movies and personal experiences shared by our staff add some cinematic perspective to your holiday season (and maybe even some inspiration for the next holiday movie night!).
At Salt Lake Film Society, we can’t think of a better present for the people you love then the gift of cinema. Consider sharing and supporting access to quality independent film this holiday season, with a gift membership to our Red Carpet Club!
Find this holiday list on Letterboxd! We have curated lists from SLFS Staff there, including the films mentioned in this post, here.
Looking for an alternative to the usual holiday fare? SLFS is here for you. During the month of December we are going to be screening some holiday films with a mix of fun and terror. We are calling it Tower Of Terror: Holiday Edition.
Check out the schedule below. Tickets are now on sale at www.slfstix.org.
Dec 16th: Die Hard
Dec 17th: Eyes Wide Shut, The Muppet Christmas Carol
Dec 22nd: Silent Night, Deadly Night
Dec 23rd: Black Christmas
Dec 25th: Scrooged
Jan 1st: Gremlins
All films will be showing at Broadway Centre Cinemas. Regular admission. Showtimes may vary.
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