Films
SCALA!!! SYDNEY PREMIERE
SCALA!!!
SYDNEY PREMIERE
• 6.30pm, SUN SEPTEMBER 15th, 2024
DENDY CINEMAS, Newtown
Co-presented by Groovescooter for
Sydney Underground Film Festival
+ AFTERPARTY at BOOTLEGERS (Kelly’s On King)
▣ BUY TICKETS
Watch the trailer below
Starring: John Waters, Princess Julia, Jah Wobble, Isaac Julien,
Barry Adamson, Douglas Hart (Jesus & Mary Chain) & many more
Directed by: Jane Giles, Ali Catterall
Original Music: Barry Adamson
★★★★ “Winningly leftfield… wildly infectious” [Time Out]
“…A window into a beautiful, druggy, sexy lost world… [their] all-nighters were legendary.” [The Standard]
“…They were a country club for criminals and lunatics and people that were high.” [John Waters]
★★★★ “You’ll be agog at what people used to get away with” [Rolling Stone]
“An electrifying tribute to the wild heart of London’s underground cinema scene – Scala!!! is a must-see for film lovers and rebels alike” [Film Festival Insider]
SCALA!!! (or, the incredibly strange rise and fall of the world’s wildest cinema and how it influenced a mixed-up generation of weirdos and misfits) is a highly entertaining deep dive into London‘s infamous music-venue-cum-cinema. It’s full of debauched stories from its drug and sex fuelled heydays of all-night counterculturalism. Whether its staff remembering nights where they found a dead body in the seats, or the countless post-punk musicians, artists, fashion misfits or future-filmmaker patrons recalling stories of wild nights at The Scala, you’ll be amazed at what went on in the notoriously cold, uncomfortable and seedy cinema and its toilets, backrooms and stairwells.
Delirious, debauched and downright dangerous, The Scala was a mecca not only for those looking to see cult-classics or the latest sexploitation, horror or queer underground films in a pre-VHS era, it was also a place to meet like-minded freaks and find your tribe. Nestled in Kings Cross with the rumble of trains shaking the building and adding to the haunted atmosphere, its leftfield programming ran from 1978 to 1993 as a kind of middle finger to Thatcher-era conservatism. Originally a music venue, it was at The Scala that Spandau Ballet launched themselves and Iggy Pop played his first London show; Iggy causing many to cower near the exits. For bands coming from outside of London – who might be lucky to get £50 for a gig in the capital – it was cheaper (and far more fun) to buy an all night Scala ticket than book into a hotel and spend the early hours dozing and waking throughout back-to-back films, only to open their eyes in the middle of anything from a film featuring erotically entangled bodies, to chainsaw wielding psychopaths, alien invaders or flesheaters. This was no place for sweet dreams! Whether screening Jörg Buttgereit‘s controversial Nekromantik, the latest John Waters transgressive odorama, black & white classics or the then banned Clockwork Orange (the latter landing the owners in court and initiating the cinema’s closure) The Scala’s programming and notorious monthly film posters were second to none. With nearly 50 contributors and brimming with exuberant anecdotes and unseen archival footage, this fast-paced documentary celebrates the Scala’s legacy as a cultural beacon that inspired a generation of creatives.
Enjoy a complimentary Wayward Beer or Little Ripples Wine pre-film and then join us after this Sydney Underground Film Festival Closing Night film at Bootleggers (Kelly’s On King) for an Afterparty featuring Scala-inspired tunes played by Groovescooter DJs.
