how i learned to love indies, foreign & mainstream film as a teenager in San Francisco...
as a kid, i guess we went to alot of movies, as t.v. was not a favorite or a mainstay in our house probably in 1960 started seeing movies, i remember the big screens and "it's a mad,mad, mad world-the big CinemaScope screen. ..when the original pink panther came out-they was a promotion where the was pink champagne, pink popcorn, candy or promo items i wish i still had oddly enough it was really early in the morning as i recall...horror, western, Hercules abounded...and cartoons...and coming attractions for days....if you could hear the film, that wad considered state of the art...so a lot of movies in s.f. about 50cents to get in ..a buck for fancy theaters....a quarter would get you stuff to eat, unless you snuck some in...my mom would bring a back of stuff...as a kid ya wanted to get something at the snack bar...it doesn't scar ya...just relish the few times you did. now fast forward about 6 years
now my best friend bart and i during high school were offered a job running a theater in the haight ashbury...how this came about i can not recall but we were shown the place and given keys to the cinemateque (sp) bart had run projectors in school and said he'd show me how to run the projector and splice film...we didn't realize we ran the whole deal from opening to selling goodies, stash the cash (credit cards weren't even a concept) clean up, close run a slide show/light show at intermission and passed out flyers. the odd thing, we never saw the people who ran it after the first day we opened...it was an "art house" film theater, not sure if bart was as esoteric, as pragmatic and saw nude women there. one of the films "el topo" alejandro judorowsky-shirley clarke-and foreign films this was about 35 years ago....but it did put the seed of interest in non-traditional films in me...then with angela i saw kwaidan and was blown away-there was another Japanese film also and that and the work at that theatre started my love for film, not only mainstream, but independent, not widely released, art house and foreign.....but the way...after being paid weekly..it stopped suddenly, can't remember but i think we deposited the till everyday at the bank.....and we had about a month go by.....and we decided that the slide projectors and a few other things, after being unable to contact anyone and still depositing the money daily- were close to a trade off as we were informed the rent wasn't paid on the theatre and the doors were closing in a few days...so there was the catalyst that made films a world as deep as books, emotional if that was to be conveyed, a look to see i wanted as mad as i thought or in the scope of things did it really matter......you get a piece of life from films as you do books, except with books the film is in your head as the director, with films there's a directors who leads you there..but let's you take it the rest of the way smiles