The last time we covered a film series programmed by Steve MacFarlane was in May for PRIMATE VISION at Spectacle and The Roxy Cinema. A sequel to his 2017 series SIMIAN VERITE (Anthology Film Archive) and MISSING LINKS (Spectacle) that was co-programmed by Nico Pedrero-Setzer who was my sole guest on that episode of the pod since Steve was unavailable. I didn’t get to experience Spectacle for myself back then because of scheduling conflicts so I jumped at the chance to cover Steve’s next slate of programming when he began promoting Shusuke Kaneko’s 1990’s Gamera trilogy on his Instagram. I’ve been on a Kaiju high since last year when GODZILLA MINUS ONE came out and we recently covered the International Premiere of SHIN GODZILLA: ORTHOCHROMATIC at Japan Cuts film fest in July. But I’ve never seen a Kaiju movie from the pre-digital age (only clips) and I’ve been trying to scratch this itch for a very long time.
When I asked Steve how he became a film programmer it was pretty clear there was a natural progression from the time he was raised in Seattle, WA mining VHS tapes from three different mom and pop video rental shops, to volunteering at the Grand Illusion Cinema in the university district, and organizing at-home screenings for his teenage friends. During a visit with an older cousin in NYC his head exploded when they came across Kim’s Video. That trip inspired him to move there for college then he joined a crew who called themselves Cine Beast and that became his outlet to organize underground screenings in bar basements and lofts with a DVD player connected to a projector. By around 2009 he met the founders of Spectacle who were in the trenches of converting a bodega into a non-profit microcinema and he’s been programming there since 2011.
Spectacle is a really sick space. Community-driven, volunteer ran, and the $5 tickets go towards keeping the lights on.
Steve writes about film at a myriad of outlets such as Hyperallergic, Slant, Filmmaker Magazine, ScreenSlate, and more. He’s also a Department Assistant at MoMA’s Film Department. MoMA is actually where he had some formative exposure to rep film programming in his college years.
His Kaiju fandom runs deep from as far back as 1993 when his parents wouldn’t allow him to see JURASSIC PARK. So his older brothers helped ease his pain by renting some Kaiju movies from the VHS rental shops mentioned earlier.
I didn’t get to ask if this was planned or just a coincidence but Steve will introduce a rare 35mm screening of GODZILLA 1985 at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn on 9/18 for Liz Purchell’s WEIRD WEDNESDAY series. Lots of Kaiju goodness coming to Brooklyn this month!
Here’s the trilogy of Gamera films you can see at Spectacle in September:
GAMERA 2: ATTACK OF LEGION (1996)
GAMERA 3: REVENGE OF IRIS (1999)
🎟️ Get your tickets HERE!
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Credits: Produced by Alec Rodriguez, original artwork by Cristina Montes, original music by Jeremy Bullen.
NEXT ON THE POD: Reactions to WEIRD WEDNESDAY and THE GAMERA TRILOGY in early October!
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