Marquee Mixtape: the podcast, is live on the Substack feed! I’m super proud to finally put my show out there. This has been a labor of love for over a year now and I’m excited to see how the show will grow and evolve.
I’ve been seeking out revival houses and repertory screenings since I was a teenager in LA discovering new parts of town in my first car. Cinemas were always my anchor points and I loved chasing after showtimes for classics like Shallow Grave, The Godfather, Gladiator, and more. Finding celluloid screenings was an added bonus and I appreciated the passion that the cinemas, audiences and programmers had in experiencing the movies in that format. I moved to San Francisco for college then New York City to start my career, and I always tried to stay tapped into the repertory cinema community.
Since the pandemic began I’ve been inspired by the efforts from filmmakers and film organizations in keeping local indie cinemas, art houses, etc. from going under. Since cinemas returned from pandemic lockdown measures in NYC I’ve noticed a new and electric energy from audiences including the fandom for repertory screenings. The cinemas here are doing the best work I’ve seen front of house, back of house, and behind the screens to celebrate their individual love for the medium. I was also hugely inspired by BFI London’s Film on Film festival this past summer which celebrated celluloid projection and repertory cinema. From an interview in Sight & Sound magazine, it was these questions from the festival organizer’s questions to the community that stuck with me: who would like to be doing this? what is needed to enable celluloid screenings? what is the appetite from audiences?
I chose to make Marquee Mixtape as my call to action to spread awareness for these unique events at the movies and uplift the work of the people who put it all together. My hope is that the listeners and I could all learn more about this community of film lovers, what goes into presenting retrospectives, and why it’s important for the culture.
I’m honored to have Frank Yan on the first episode of the pod. I saw him give a live introduction for FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE at Film Forum in September and we met after the show. In this episode you’ll hear us react to the movie and learn about his work as the co-fouder for CineCina, the first and only Chinese film festival in NYC. He’s also the co-founder of Soundtrack Magazine and Crescendo House where he distributes Mondo quality vinyl records and Steelbook Blu-rays.
Enjoy the show and look forward to more conversations with NYC film programmers, live score performers, and more!
Ep. 001: FRANK YAN