Support SLFS here or join the Red Carpet Club here. | Māsima Pacific Island Film Festival May 20-22 | Right Person, Wrong Time starts May 2nd. Get tix here.
Join us at SLFS in May 2023 for our Music May retrospective series is curated by musician John Doe from the band “X” every weekend on Fridays and Saturdays starting May 5.
John Doe is a founding member of the legendary punk rock band X, who released ALPHABETLAND in April 2020. His eleventh solo record, Fables in a Foreign Land (Fat Possum Records) was released in May of 2022. He has appeared in over 60 films and television productions, some of his most notable roles have been in Road House, Georgia, Roadside Prophets, Great Balls of Fire, Pure Country and Roswell. His most recent film effort is playing the lead, Frank Bigelow, in a period correct, re-imagined version of the film noir, D.O.A. So far it has won several film festival awards including Best Picture & Best Actor. He currently lives in Austin, Texas.
Showtimes may vary. Tickets will be on sale at www.slfstix.org.
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:
Anderson and Anderson SLFS Staff Picks
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001) – Jesse Sindelar, Development Manager
“Before I watched THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS for the first time, the friend who recommended it to me told me that the whole film culminated in one single line near the end. After being entranced by the stacked cast, every one of which brought their A-game, and following this horribly dysfunctional family to a surprisingly optimistic ending, I finally discovered what my friend had meant. In one of the last scenes, Ben Stiller’s recently widowed character finally forgives his dad, played by the perfect bastard, Gene Hackman and opens up to him with a simple “I’ve had a rough year Dad”. Not only does it exemplify the emotional growth of the whole family, but I think everyone can deeply relate to that line to some extent.”
P.T. ANDERSON – Tori Baker, President/CEO
“A cinefile simply cannot pick! THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a tour de force that will likely land though cinematic history much in the way CITIZEN KANE has. BOOGIE NIGHTS is so unique and original and “of the moment;” MAGNOLIA packs a punch for anyone who has experienced death intimately, or love absently. Eat that frog or drink that milkshake, either way, thank you PT for the brilliance.”
MAGNOLIA (1999) – Marcie Collett, Associate Director of Development
“MAGNOLIA is my third favorite movie of all time – right after EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE and BARTON FINK. It is epic, mundane, magical, ridiculous, hilarious, heart-breaking, ecstatic, mysterious, and utterly nonsensical. It is unbearably long as the intertwining, desperate characters unravel until that biblical moment. I fell in love with Philip Seymour Hoffman in 1999 after watching him in this. He is the knight who tends to the mythic, dying Fisher King – Jason Robards who was himself dying in his last role, and he compassionately leads an extraordinary cast who have gone on to star in multiple P.T. Anderson roles.
RUSHMORE (1998) – Rachel Getts, Associate Director of Digital Content
“RUSHMORE is a coming of age story that incorporates quirk, angst, art, and the Kinks. This sophomore film represents a less stylized Wes Anderson, with an emotional depth that elevates its love-triangle premise. Bop your head to the soundtrack and remember the pain of discovering that you don’t know everything that you thought you did. It happens to some of us at 15, and to some of us a bit later. But you can get back up and start anew. ”
PUNCH DRUNK LOVE (2002) – Stephen Simmons, Associate Director of Production
“When I was a wee kid, I was a projectionist, and every-time we built up our 35mm prints, we would have to screen the film, checking to see if the print was damaged or out of order on the reels. One night, we received cans of PUNCH DRUNK LOVE for an advanced screening. It was 2am in the morning as we screened the print. This dramedy was so unexpected, original and awkward. I never laughed so hard in an empty theater. Adam Sandler’s performance alone was worthy of an Oscar nomination. The use of red, white, and blue visuals/colors was hypnotic and carried the anxiety of the plot. When the film ended, it was 4:30 am. I went right up to the projection booth and started it up again. Didn’t leave the theater until the sun came up. That’s how much I love this film.”
Indie Movie Theaters in Salt Lake City – SLFS
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.
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.
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.
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.
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
FIRE OF LOVE
CODA
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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.
Supporting Independent Film in 2023 With SLFS
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.
Some the SLFS staff and board members at the SLFS office
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!
At Salt Lake Film Society, we believe that the visual stories of film are at their best on the big screen. Whether it’s the dark room, the imposing visuals, or the access to movie theater popcorn, the unique experience of watching a movie in a movie theater is not lost on our patrons, or our staff members. In our blog this week, we hear from Ally Lantz, Theater Manager at Broadway Centre Cinemas, on the amplified experience of watching her favorite director, Celine Sciamma, on the big screen.
“Why do we enjoy spending our time watching movies at a movie theater? While it’s a seemingly simple question, there are a wide variety of answers depending on who you ask. For some, it might be the popcorn and snacks, while for others it might be the communal and social viewing experience. For myself, I like watching in a theater because I enjoy being immersed in the pace of a film. Watching at home, time is beholden to our control and to our terms. You can pause and disrupt the film experience at any moment.
But in a theater you must entirely relinquish your control of time. You allow yourself to be swept up in the story’s passage of time, often experiencing time in a different way. If you are lucky, you will find yourself leaving the cinema feeling as though you have just emerged from a cocoon, where the film’s relatively brief runtime has materialized into an epic cinematic journey.
Sciamma in The Movie Theater
This unique passage of time is why I love watching films in a theater, and is no better exemplified than through the work of Celine Sciamma, a favorite of mine. Sciamma manipulates time in the service of elevating the emotional weight of her stories. Earlier this year, she released a new film, Petite Maman, which follows an 8-year-old named Nelly after her beloved grandmother passed away. She helps her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home and what follows is a tender meditation on grief and familial relationships.
Lantz standing next to the Petite Maman poster at the Broadway
Petite Maman is a film that has led me to months of decryption and contemplation. If you asked me how long a movie should be to fully explore the complex thematic content typical of Sciamma, I would say you would need something akin to a 3-hour narrative. Yet Sciamma manifests a layered epic within a brief 72 minutes.
The young girls’ interactions occur beyond the sphere of chronological time, but these characters are not in stasis, and the full weight of emotion that the more traditional passage of time would imply is still communicated effortlessly. I saw this film at our own Broadway Centre Cinemas and even with an unusually short runtime, I drifted into a sort of limbo; where literal time passage was irrelevant, it felt like days or even weeks had gone by.
The Passage of Time in Portrait of a Lady on Fire
In another Sciamma film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, there are only a few indicators that time has passed at all, in reality and in the story. The clearest is the presence or absence of the Mother character, and upon her departure, our two female leads find themselves suspended in a timeless bubble. Within this space the characters are free to indulge in infatuation, their mutual experience undisturbed and their love permitted to develop.
When the Mother returns, this bubble suddenly bursts, and with a twisted urgency, it all begins to move too quickly. Time starts running out, and our characters become aware of the impending and unavoidable conclusion. We watch their experiences begin to transform into memories, which are altered by the emotions and complexity of their circumstances.
Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, and director Celine Sciamma on the set of Portrait of a Lady On Fire
This memory of mine was made possible by the insulated and attentive nature of the movie theater viewing experience (and the following dream-like state). If I had not experienced the story within the controlled theatrical environment, the impact of Sciamma’s story and the connection I felt to it would not have been possible.
If you look at Portrait of a Lady on Fire as a story told from the memory of Marianne, one of the two main characters, the intent behind the malleability of time is clear. It is her memory that alters time and the pace of this story, blending moments and experiences into the physical passage of time itself. I remember walking out of the theater after watching this film, feeling like I had just emerged from an emotional fever dream.
The experience of watching Celine Sciamma’s films has been described as “unwrapping a present from someone who loves you”; tender and intimate, and occupying not just the linear flow of moment to moment, but the space of memory and feeling. The best way to immerse yourself in this playful rendering of time is to give yourself fully to the experience. The spell may be broken if you hit pause, so please next time Sciamma or any of your favorite filmmakers releases a film, head to your nearest cinema (like Broadway Centre Cinemas). These films are made to be seen in theaters and being in one is a part of the experience you will not want to miss out on.”
To see a list of our upcoming films and events, click here. To join our Red Carpet Club, or to learn more about RCC levels, discounts, and benefits, click here.
At Salt Lake Film Society, our love of cinema and belief in its power to entertain and engage our community drives the very purpose of our non-profit organization, and its mission. As a non-profit, we must make considerable and constant effort to raise the funds necessary to show the diversity of films you love on the big screen.
Our seven screens in two iconic neighborhood venues offer unique and wonderful arts experiences everyday of the year, not a small feat for a non-profit organization to accomplish. What many people may not realize is that the income from these venues covers less than ½ of our operating expenses. To bring you the best in independent, international and art house films, we must rely on the generosity of donations from compassionate and charitable film fans and art lovers like yourself.
We are well aware that every charitable organization and their mother is making requests for donations and support during this thanking and giving season. So instead of adding on to the pile, we just want to boast a bit about the unique impact and offerings SLFS provides to our community and suggest that after giving thanks on Thursday, and buying a few more things you probably don’t need on Friday and Monday, that you consider supporting your community’s access to independent film on Giving Tuesday (Donations on Giving Tuesday will be matched through a very generous donation from our Board Chair, Brian Rivette).
What Makes Salt Lake Film Society Special
Contributions from supporters like you is why we can screen amazing films like Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
As a non-profit organization, our operation of two theater venues with seven total screens is quite distinctive in the art house cinema world. Not to toot our own horn too loudly, but we humbly consider SLFS to be an expansive oasis in a cinematic desert. You would be hard pressed to find another independent theater that offers more screens than the Broadway in any other state in the country not named California or New York.
This somewhat unprecedented access to quality, independent film offerings is a key component to the growth and future of the SLFS mission. It is why we have been able to continually bring a wide variety of high-quality independent films to the Salt Lake City community for over two decades.
In all of this time, we have worked diligently to strengthen our community, and showcase incredible and inspiring visual stories to as many people and underserved communities as possible. No other theater in the state of Utah has:
Screened as many independent films, international films, or films that represent marginalized voices (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, etc.)
Provided as many free or dramatically reduced admissions to underserved populations and non-profit community partners
Hosted as many culturally-focused film tours (FilmMexico, Czech, Masima, L’Chaim)
Programmed more unique films that weren’t screened anywhere else in the state
Sign up for the Red Carpet Club today and get discounts on tickets, and concessions!
How You Can Help Our Non-Profit
These incredible and distinct venues enable the positive impact we make on our community. But as vital as they are to our operation and identity, we can’t rely entirely on them: less than ½ our annual expenses are covered by ticket and concession sales. Income generated from these venues is crucial to our organization’s ability to show independent film, but the fact of the matter is that we rely much more so on the contributions of generous people and organizations to keep our doors open and our projectors running.
So if you have any funds leftover after the indulgent, capitalist pursuit that always occurs in the days following Thanksgiving, we’d love for you to consider supporting independent cinema, by contributing to your local, non-profit art house theater! And there’s more than a few ways you can do this:
Red Carpet Club – One of the best ways to support SLFS (and support your access to independent cinema) is by becoming a member of our Red Carpet Club! Get discounts on tickets and concessions, and build up rewards to save even more, all while supporting your local art house cinema.
Gift Membership – Rushing to find a good last-second gift? Shopping for someone who wants experiences over items? Consider a Gift Membership to our Red Carpet Club! Give your loved ones even more reason to support independent film, and combine it with a concessions package to really deliver a memorable experience that everyone can enjoy.
Ask Your Employer to Sponsor– The Salt Lake City business community does a good job of looking out for each other, and we always love to make more connections! Bring up the idea of sponsorship with SLFS at the organization you work for, and be the first domino that helps your local independent theater receive local support in a big way.
Donate– Whether it’s a one-time add-on to your next ticket purchase or a recurring monthly donation through our Red Carpet Club program, every little bit helps! Your support is why we are able to do what we do, and whatever you can manage means more to us than you know. (But we’ll be sure to thank you many times over, with some sweet perks throughout the year.)
Support SLFS Today
If you enjoy the visual stories of independent film in friendly, locally-run venues, and you appreciate the passion and perspective SLFS provides to the Salt Lake City community, support us today. Take a real step to show that access to cinema matters to you. Support Salt Lake Film Society this holiday season and enjoy great cinema all year long.
To learn more about sponsorship with SLFS, click here.
To make a donation, click here. And if you would like to see your donation matched, all donations given on Giving Tuesday, November 29th, will be matched through a generous donation from our Board Chair, Brian Rivette.
