The Cape Ann Community Cinema
Wednesday, I flew up to Gloucester, MA to run a night of fan films and discussion of the history of fan films, and it went pretty well. Rob Newton, head of the Mass Bay Film Project, hosted; the evening was part of his organization’s current ’60 Films in 33 Days’ festival, kicking off its current film season which runs through next May at the Cape Ann Community Cinema. The crowd had a great time, the lobby had more vegan-friendly popcorn than you can shake a cornstalk at (admittedly, it’s a need that never occurred to me before), and a good time was had by all.
The stage during set-up; picture playing lifesized Guitar Hero in front of that screen...
If anyone ever told you that arts cinemas are stuffy and pompous, go visit this place for a different viewpoint. It’s a cozy operation—the cinema itself is a black box-type theater with a professional screen that sits on the stage. Killing time before opening the doors, Rob put his Playstation 3 up on the 14×8-foot screen, and man, that was something to see. You really haven’t been to an arts cinema until you’ve watched the 6 1/2-foot curator with long blond hair play Guitar Hero IIIon the stage, jamming face-to-face with a lifesized CGI band as they tear through Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” (and he nailed it, btw). I really shoulda taken a photo….
We got a decent turn-out despite the bitter cold, blustery weather—maybe because it was a free show—and I got to hand out a few uncorrected proof copies of Homemade Hollywood. The final (and much better) version is coming out in late November, but still, it was nice to put books in hands after all this time. Since Chris from FanFilmPodcast.com asked in a comment the other day what fan films I screened, the program included Troops, Moonraker ’78, World’s Finest, Superman: The Super 8 Movie–Special Edition, Batman: Dead End, Hardware Wars, a trailer from The Green Goblin’s Last Stand, and a few others. The program ran a bit too long, but all in all, it was a good warm up for next month, when I do two fan film programs at New England Fan Experience in Cambridge, MA.
The trip back this morning was a breeze—Rob gave me a lift from the Wingaersheek Inn (nice place) to Logan Airport in Boston, suggesting that we stop “at that fine Scottish eating establishment, Mac Donald’s.” We had a great chat, and it was a fun experience—plus I got to try out Jet Blue’s brand-new terminal at JFK Airport, which opened just last week.
Photo by Jet Blue
The terminal got a ton of coverage in the press as being cutting-edge and innovative, a gorgeous place that you’d want to lounge in. Jet Blue itself sent me a spam email suggesting that I get there early so I could look around and marvel at the facility. Having now departed and arrived there, I can say definitively…it’s an airport terminal. Big whoop. It’s very clean, and the security checkpoint was fast, but it required a half-mile schlepp and a few escalators to get from the AirTrain to the terminal’s check-in area…and the opposite end of that area was where the entrance to the gates was, which meant even more dragging of bags. They’ve gotta do something about that marathon walk pronto, because even with a few of those motorized walkways, it still takes forever, making for a terrible first and last impression for those of us who use the AirTrain. Tsk, tsk.
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