It’s going to be a busy Friday this week at Scarecrow Video*:
First, at 2 pm this Friday, March 21, there’s an in-store appearance and signing by Thelma Schoomaker:
Thelma Schoonmaker can be called nothing less than one of American film’s treasures. The award-winning editor has collaborated with Martin Scorsese on all 18 of his films. She has been nominated for seven Oscars in the Film Editing category, and has won three of them for Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed.
She has received seven BAFTA award nominations in Film Editing including for their most recent collaboration, The Wolf of Wall Street, and has won for two of them, Raging Bull and Goodfellas. She has also joined Martin Scorsese in her active commitment to film preservation, specifically focusing on the restoration and preservation of the films of her late husband, legendary director Michael Powell.
In addition to her appearance at Scarecrow, Ms. Schoonmaker will also be at Seattle Art Museum to present two of these films:
- Thursday, March 20 –A Matter of Life and Death (1946) 35mm, 104 min.
- Friday March 21—Gone to Earth (1950) 35mm, 110 min.
Both films start at 7:30pm at the Plestcheeff Auditorium in SAM Downtown. Ms. Schoonmaker will introduce the movies and answer audience questions each night. Tickets for both films are available at the SAM Box Office and at Scarecrow Video: $14—members of Seattle Art Museum, SIFF, Northwest Film Forum & TheFilmSchool. $18—nonmembers
Then, at 7 pm on Friday, Scarecrow Video welcomes Videoland author Daniel Herbert for an in-store appearance and book signing:
The evening will kick off with an in-store appearance by author Daniel Herbert to chat about the changing role of video stores in America and to sign his book, Videoland: Movie Culture at the American Video Store. Immediately following the book signing, Dan will introduce his pick for The Screening Room, Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector.
Videoland offers a comprehensive view of the “tangible phase” of consumer video, when Americans largely accessed movies as material commodities at video rental stores. Video stores served as a vital locus of movie culture from the early 1980s until the early 2000s, changing the way Americans socialized around movies and collectively made movies meaningful. When films became tangible as magnetic tapes and plastic discs, movie culture flowed out from the theater and the living room, entered the public retail space, and became conflated with shopping and salesmanship. In this process, video stores served as a crucial embodiment of movie culture’s historical move toward increased flexibility, adaptability, and customization.
Adjust Your Tracking is a new documentary by Dan Kinem and Levi Peretic about the subculture of video fiends who continue to hunt down and collect VHS tapes. The film features interviews with over 100 VHS collectors, video store owners, directors, producers, and more from across the country.
Join us in welcoming Dan back to Seattle, discover Scarecrow’s part in Videoland, and get ready to fall in love with VHS all over again. Viva physical media! Beer and snacks will be available at VHSpresso.
* Scarecrow is a Wallyhood sponsor.