Kickstarter launched to fund Scala Club Cinema documentary
Campaigners HOPE THE FUNDRAISING INITIATIVE WILL HELP finish a big-screen documentary on the legendary venue, based on Jane Giles’s award-winning book Scala Cinema 1978-1993
Located in London’s King’s Cross in a post-punk, pre-digital era, the Scala Cinema was said to be the world’s most influential and notorious cinema, with over a million people passing through its doors for revolutionary double-bills and all-nighters of classics, cult movies, horror, kung fu, LGBT+ and music. It existed during a particularly turbulent period which culminated in a perfect storm of recession, redevelopment and a devastating court case.
Jane Giles’s book, published in 2018, served as both a complete collection of the Scala's monthly film programmes and social history. Since then many readers, impressed by strength of the book’s visual material, have contacted the author asking if a documentary could be made.
To fulfil this dream, Giles, a former Scala programme manager and film distributor, has teamed up with Guardian journalist and author Ali Catterall with the pair co-directing the groundbreaking film.
Catterall credits the Scala Cinema with changing his life. And he’s not alone. Among the diverse audiences at the Scala Cinema were young people who'd become renowned filmmakers, such as Steve McQueen, Mary Harron, Ben Wheatley, Joanna Hogg and Christopher Nolan, who still carries his last Scala membership card in his wallet.
Through a mix of exclusive interviews, rare archive footage, extreme clips of the audiences' most memorable movies, plus Scala-style graphics, the production aims to be a uniquely entertaining theatrically released feature documentary about a cinema, its impact on a generation of creatives, and its long term legacy.
Filmmaker and actor John Waters is one of 50 interviewees who has shared his memories of the Scala Cinema. He said: “The Scala had magic. It was like joining a club – a very secret club, like a biker gang or something... It’s like they were a country club for criminals and lunatics and people that were high... Which is a good way to see movies.”
John Waters being interviewed for Scala
Like John, many of the Scala Cinema audience were or went on to become, filmmakers, musicians, writers, actors, activists and artists. Others that have shared their memories of being in the Scala audience for the documentary include: Barry Adamson (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds); Ralph Brown, Paul Burston, Adam Buxton, Caroline Catz, Mary Harron, Douglas Hart (The Jesus and Mary Chain); Graham Humphreys and Matt Johnson (The The); Princess Julia, Isaac Julien, Nick Kent, Beeban Kidron, Stewart Lee, David, McGillivray, Mark Moore (S'Express); Kim Newman, James O’Brien, Lisa Power, Paul Putner, Smoking Dogs, Peter Strickland, JG Thirlwell (Foetus); Cathi Unsworth, Chris Watson (Cabaret Voltaire); and Ben Wheatley, Jah Wobble (PiL).
With such high calibre interviews in the can, the film needs more funds to help it through the post-production and distribution stages.
Teaser video for the Scala Cinema documentary fundraising campaign
The documentary is being made by Fifty Foot Woman, Scala insiders who’ve worked their professional lives in the film industry. Reviving the Scala's tradition of hiring talented 20-somethings to run the show, the film's camera, lighting, sound recording and other roles are fulfilled by an upcoming generation of exciting new talent, including recent graduates from the NFTS.
Giles also wrote the books The Crying Game (BFI Modern Classics) and Un Chant d’amour: the Cinema of Jean Genet (BFI). Catterall is co-author of Kindness: a User’s Guide (Bonnier) and Your Face Here (4th Estate).
Find out more about the Scala Cinema Club documentary, and help raise the minimum of £25,000 required to pay for the third party post-production and other costs at the Kickstarter campaign page.