THE ART OF THE CALENDAR
Kier-La Janisse, USA/Canada 2024, 49 mins
Appears as an extra on Severin Films’ 2024 blu ray release of SCALA!!!
Central to the reputation and sustainability of the late 20th century repertory theatre was the calendar: a densely-packed, daily-change program represented visually with an often anarchic one-page day-by-day breakdown of cinematic delights. Most commonly printed with a limited two-color palette, these (now collectible) posters summoned the DIY aesthetics of the underground press and zine culture, functioning as an enticing roadmap through that century’s most canonical and challenging cinema. The Scala was famous for its eye-popping calendar design, which had visual links to progenitors in the American repertory scene of the 1970s and earlier. For this original featurette, we speak to some of the most influential US pioneers of this design style – namely Mike Thomas of San Francisco’s The Strand, The Electric, The Times and more; Kim Jorgensen of The Fox Venice and The Nuart in Los Angeles and founder of Landmark Cinemas; Mark Valen, programmer for both The Nuart and The Scala, who personally delivered hundreds of thousands of these calendars throughout Los Angeles County; and Craig Baldwin – filmmaker, archivist, exhibitor and educator – whose own subversive take on the calendar rivals anything made before or since. Chicago film historian Adam Carston weighs in on the repertory theatres of the windy city (including a short-lived all-horror microcinema run by Herschell Gordon Lewis!). Through their stories – which include anecdotes about making the print calendars as well as their programming methods in general – we get a glimpse into the machinations fueling the glory days of rep cinema in the days before video and streaming.
