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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
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Ever since he moved here from Texas, Tim Massett has been bringing underground cinema to Jacksonville the likes of which this town has not seen before. Back when the San Marco Theatre was a smoke-filled, second-run house, the closest you could get to an art film was the off chance that the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, then located on Art Museum Drive inside of the Koger Center between Beach and Atlantic, might run a couple of art films over the summer. The Florida Theatre also ran some movies over the summer, but their’s were mostly nostalgic films and classics.
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Then Tim Massett came to town with a collection of films and rented a little warehouse in the Brooklyn area of Riverside to store his films. It wasn’t long before he struck up a deal Fuel Coffeehouse, then a new business in Five Points, to show films under the name Subterranean Cinema. He built up a small but loyal following of film-lovers that couldn’t wait for the once-a-month showing. Fuel, on the other hand, was less than enthusiastic about continuing the program for this elite, albeit small, group of supporters.
Tim then started showing them in “The Screening Room at the Pit,” ie. On a smaller screen inside of his warehouse space. There was a ramshackle of folding metal chairs, cozy but brutally used furniture, such as thrift store couches and handed-down recliners, and walls lined with towers of film canisters. He quickly learned that Jacksonville’s underground needed a little tapping to wake up from their slumber. He did interviews, he ran ads, and he even started combining showtimes of the films with live music performances, since live music was one thing that young, interesting people came out of their holes for. After cultivating this audience for many months, Massett was ready for a bigger screen and a more accommodating venue so that he could show films outside of his own collection or his small network of distributors.
The new owner of the San Marco Theatre, David Blue, had returned the venue to its original historic glory, cleaned out the smokers, and started to show first run films, even sometimes incorporating artistic fare. Although Blue was not an easy sell, he eventually let Massett come to the theatre and experiment with showing midnight movies. And that was really the start of Tim Massett having an opportunity to show this cow town that cinema was about more than Titanic.
In 2002 some local people with plenty of money and influence decided it would be fun to start the Jacksonville Film Festival. So they mustered their forces, got some sponsors, and put together a half-hearted film festival that piqued the interest of many locals, but didn’t exactly deliver groundbreaking cinema to the first coast. Enter Tim Massett.
Since Massett came on board to the festival, their films have been better than ever. The standard family fare is not excluded, but Massett’s focus is more on the underground films that are making waves in the independent film circles. So between his savvy at booking great films and his innovative concepts, such as “The TALKIES,” he is poised to take the festival to a higher plane.
The Talkies is a series that Massett came up with when he invited Florida’s own Herschell Gordon Lewis, the godfather of gore, to come and provide live commentary to during San Marco’s screening of Two Thousand Maniacs. Although it was a struggle to get the audience he needed for the event (since it was up against the Florida-Georgia game) he still pursued the concept.
“These directors do speaking engagements all of the time, so it isn’t asking much for them to come here and talk about their own movies.”
He has recently booked the king of kitsch, John Waters, to come to the San Marco Theatre during a presentation of Polyester and provide the live commentary. The bill was steep, but this particular engagement is being hosted by the Jacksonville Film Festival, so he has more backing. The rumor is that he is currently pursuing David Lynch and even the spastic Quentin Tarrintino to come and provide live commentary throughout presentations of some of their films.
Check out the midnight movies that Massett currently programs almost every weekend. For the new year, the San Marco Theatre presents American Hardcore, a film about the lost subculture of America’s rebellious, Reagan-era hardcore kids. “Disillusioned by politics, angered by greedy record labels, and bound together by a powerful anti-establishment sentiment, bands such as Minor Threat, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Bad Brains paved the way for such later bands as Nirvana and Pearl Jam by fearlessly questioning - and frequently mocking - the status quo, and proving that you don’t need radio play to reach an audience.”
American Hardcore plays at the San Marco Theatre December 29th and 30th at midnight and on New Year’s Eve at 1pm.
If you miss that show, check out Last House on the Left, a classic horror movie by Wes Craven from 1972.
“The story of The Last House on the Left closely follows that of Ingmar Bergman’s classic film The Virgin Spring (1960), an Oscar winner for best foreign language film. The Craven film was controversial for its graphic depiction of violence, and also for the manner in which the villains imposed their psychopathic and sadistic will upon the victims. Craven was highly influenced by news footage from the Vietnam War and wanted to convey that sense of violence he saw in that footage.”
Last House on the Left shows at the San Marco Theatre on January 5th and 6th at midnight.
Celebrating its fifth year in 2007, the Jacksonville Film Festival continues its mission by bringing the best in independent and international film to Northeast Florida by inviting filmmakers from around the globe to submit their shorts and features.
If you are a filmmaker, or know one that has a film to submit, the 2007 Jacksonville Film Festival is accepting submissions.
To submit a film, go to www.jacksonvillefilmfestival.com.
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