Something radical happened to film culture in Atlanta during the pandemic.
Isolated at home, a whole new generation of young cinephiles went deep into film, streaming back catalogs of international films, American independents, Hollywood classics, cult favorites and experimental films as their personal tastes and predilections took them down myriad cinematic rabbit holes.
These newly minted film fans posted their reviews on the Letterboxd website, ordered DVDs from the artsy film distributor Criterion Collection and expanded the depth and breadth of their film appreciation.
Then the pandemic ended, and the film floodgates opened. Suddenly, craving social contact and a community of like-minded aficionados, these film lovers discovered that buying a ticket to see a movie at the local multiplex wasn’t cutting it.
Across Atlanta, pop-up screenings in living rooms, rented theaters and community spaces began to materialize. A whole microcinema movement blossomed with names like We Watch Stuff, Resistance Cinema, Atlanta Film Freak Society, Film Love Atlanta, Reel Friends, Cine Club ATL, Audio Video Club and Hi, Mom!
Jason Carroll hosts We Watch Stuff microcinema along with fellow film industry colleagues Morgan Moore and Remington Swales every month at the postproduction house Encyclomedia on DeKalb Avenue in Old Fourth Ward. Carroll describes it as “kind of like a book club, but movies instead.”
Credit: Atlanta Film Freak Society
Credit: Atlanta Film Freak Society
We Watch Stuff holds free screenings of “vintage” films more than 20 years old, like the 1981 Jean-Jacques Beineix-directed French cult film “Diva” that was screened last month. But each Atlanta microcinema has a unique focus.
The Atlanta Film Freak Society is run by husband and wife Dylan and Vanessa Reynolds, transplants from Los Angeles who both work in the film industry. Their focus is on “deep cut” schlocky lowbrow genre films with storylines that often capitalize on big Hollywood productions. For the past two years, the Fayetteville couple has organized monthly screenings at the Limelight Theater in Old Fourth Ward.
“I would say our focus is showing movies that are either undervalued, under-loved, underappreciated or overlooked,” said Dylan.
On July 25, the Atlanta Film Freak Society presents a program dubbed the Furious Wasteland Marathon featuring “Equalizer 2000,” “Bronx Warriors,” “Wheels of Fire” and “The New Barbarians.”
“These are all essentially ‘Mad Max’ rip-offs,” said Dylan of the copycat, postapocalyptic road movies that sprang up in the wake of George Miller’s 1979 blockbuster film franchise.
The boom in microcinemas is not just a young person’s game, though. Many of the organizers are in their 30s, 40s and even 50s. And all of them testified to the diversity of their audiences, encompassing a broad range of ages from audience members in their 20s through their 70s.
Two married Atlanta university professors — who prefer to maintain their anonymity — run Resistance Cinema focusing on “free screenings of radical films” at WRFG in the Little Five Points Community Center (with the occasional special screening at the Tara Theatre).
They’ve screened revolutionary film classics like “The Battle of Algiers,” (1966) and “Salt of the Earth” (1954), several documentaries about Palestine, films from India, Kashmir and Bangladesh and also feature speakers who discuss the themes and politics in the films.
Their purpose is not entertainment but activism. There’s an educational component to the films that expose viewers to “left-wing ideas” and foster conversation and community.
Most microcinemas promote their screenings with a combination of old-school posters hung in bookstores, coffee shops and record stores or via social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. But organizers cite the shortcomings of social media as the reason these in-person communities have begun to flourish.
“People are hungry for community right now,” said Andy Ditzler, founder of pioneer microcinema Film Love Atlanta, which focuses on experimental films. He believes in-person filmgoing is “partly a reaction to that feeling of alienation” fostered by social media.
Ditzler started Film Love Atlanta in his Grant Park living room and transitioned to public screenings in 2003. He took a hiatus during the pandemic and was amazed at the size of the crowds that flocked to his first post-pandemic screening. And interest has only grown.
Credit: Pennebaker Hegedus Films
Credit: Pennebaker Hegedus Films
In May, he presented “The Big Screen: Historic Psychedelia, Animation and Avant-Garde films in Large Format,” co-curated with Gregory Zinman. It was such a hot ticket they had to turn people away after the Plaza’s 324-seat main theater filled up.
“I never would have expected that to happen,” said Ditzler.
There are also underground microcinemas not open to the public where local cineasts like Wayne Staats commune with fellow film fans he has met through the nexus of Videodrome and the Plaza and the Tara Theatres, which have cultivated a community of film fans eager to explore the forgotten gems of cinema history.
A few times a week, Staats gets together with fellow cineasts to attend and discuss repertory screenings at local indie theaters.
“It’s so hard when you’re watching from your couch to, you know, not look at your phone or be distracted or hit pause, right? The value of watching on the big screen is, you can more easily lock in, and then, especially when it’s over, you can talk about it,” said Staats.
Many Atlanta microcinema organizers attest to how a post-pandemic interest in social, communal experiences has fueled the rise of these independent viewing experiences.
“They’re very excited to be in a room seeing it with other people,” said Vanessa Reynolds of the crowds that flock to Atlanta Film Freak Society screenings. “Because some of the stuff is just crazy, and it’s so fun to experience that kind of thing in a crowd, instead of by yourself watching it on Tubi.”
In an era when $500 million comic book mega productions have dominated the industry for so long, “we crave things that feel real and tangible,” she said. “It’s time for smaller movie experiences.”
FILM PREVIEW
Atlanta Film Freak Society. Furious Wasteland Marathon: “Equalizer 2000” (1987), “1990: The Bronx Warriors” (1982), “Wheels of Fire” (1985) and “The New Barbarians” (1983). 7:30 p.m. July 25. $15. Limelight Theater, Pencil Factory Flats, 349 Decatur St. SE, Suite L, Atlanta. @atl_film_freak_society
Film Love Atlanta. “Dont Look Back” (1967). 7:30 p.m. July 31. $16.49. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.plazaatlanta.com, www.facebook.com
Resistance Cinema. “Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth” (2011). A short film screening followed by discussion. 5 p.m. July 26, Free. Little Five Points Community Center, 1083 Austin Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.instagram.com/resistancecinemaatl
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