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| Divine and Tab Hunter in Polyester, which will be shown in Odorama |
Scalarama - billed as "a season of DIY film programming - is launching this year's programme with a special event, including an Odorama screening of John Waters’ Polyester - featuring Tab Hunter, who died this month - at The Seamore Neighbourhood Cinema, Glasgow, at 7pm, August 11. Official scratch ‘n’ sniff Odorama cards will be provided to the audience.
The festival itself will feature events in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, the Highlands and the Borders throughout September.
Glasgow highlights are set to include two weekend-long film festivals - Matchbox Cineclub’s KeanuCon, dedicated to the films of Keanu Reeves and Blueprint’s Theorem - which bookend activities at either end of the month. There will also be a rare outing for Gremlins director Joe Dante’s 4.5 hour The Movie Orgy, screenings of The Descent and Gangs Of New York with Glasgow actors Shauna MacDonald and Gary Lewis in attendance and Reel Scotland’s Taggart ‘83 event, featuring a cast and crew screening of the crime drama’s pilot episode, including vintage ad breaks.
The August launch event also features a screening of Michael Baig Clifford’s short documentary on the original inspiration for Scalarama, London’s legendary Scala Cinema. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Scala Cinema’s opening and the 25th anniversary of its closure.
Glasgow co-ordinator Sean Welsh said: “Glasgow and Scotland has recently seen an explosion in fringe film activity, with countless film clubs and seemingly hundreds of film festivals popping up. Scalarama is an umbrella for all of them, a platform to do something particularly special and also a scaffold to support inexperienced and amateur exhibitors who want to try it for the first time.
"Originally inspired by the eclectic programming of London’s Scala Cinema, which didn’t discriminate between European arthouse cinema and trashy US exploitation, Scalarama is a celebration of cinema, open to all and for everyone.”
Free tickets for the Polyester screening are available here.
