Scalarama: the DIY film festival bringing Leeds cinema lovers together
Across the country, independent venues are significantly struggling to stay afloat, from pubs and restaurants to gig venues and other cultural hubs. These places are vital for forming a sense of community and fostering the development of art, but the UK government seems to care little about the impact of these establishments which are being consistently underfunded. The threat of music venues closing down is often talked about, but the issue spreads much further. What about our consumption of cinema?
Most of the cinema-going British public will attend chain cinemas like Vue or Cineworld on a semi-regular basis, and these venues will show the newest releases with the occasional re-release of an old classic thrown into the schedule. But this experience of watching films doesn’t encourage discussion with anyone besides the people you attended the screening with; everyone else in the room becomes an anonymous attendee, just another face in the packed crowd.
Over in Leeds – where the DIY music scene is thriving – cinema clubs and even a DIY film festival, Scalarama, are allowing film lovers to come together. The city is home to various independent film screeners, like Scour Cinema, Pervert Pictures, and Slime Presents, who programme a wide range of movies in the city’s indie venues, from transgressive cult favourites to comedy classics. Whatever you’re into, you’re bound to find a film screening for you, and Scalarama is a fantastic demonstration of what the city’s DIY film scene has to offer.
Founded in 2013, Scalarama emerged from Scala Beyond, which called for DIY film festivals to be created across the country following the success of the London-based festival Scala Forever. The Leeds offshoot of the festival has welcomed a variety of programmers, and this year, some new faces, such as the local band Static Caravan, have had a go at screening a film.
Scalarama ran for the whole of September, with venues like cosy pub the Cardigan Arms and the Headingley Enterprise & Arts Centre, better known as HEART, all showing films. Katherine from Pervert Pictures, who also serves as an organiser for Scalarama, explained the importance of the festival and Leeds’ DIY film clubs to Far Out.
She started Pervert Pictures a few years ago to “take controversial films out of their sensationalised context and into an open-minded and inclusive space for discussion and appreciation.” After screening Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom as part of Scalarama in 2022, she realised that the festival could bring her “a new audience and a community of like-minded people.” The following year, she signed up to be an organiser, “because I wanted to be part of what the Leeds film community had offered me: a newfound interest in film exhibition and a strong sense of community.”
Scalarama is hosting a range of screenings this year, from John Waters’ Polyester to the British horror comedy Theatre of Blood. Static Caravan screened the classic documentary Grey Gardens, marking the band’s debut as film programmers. The band simply got in contact with Scalarama and enquired about getting involved, telling me, “Six months ago we knew next to nothing about screening our own film, but thankfully there were regular sessions from the Scalarama team to point us in the right direction.”
The band members bonded over cinema when they became friends, and after attending last year’s Scalarama, they “got a further feel for how fun and exciting DIY screenings can be.” The opportunities on offer through these DIY film screenings were emphasised by the fact that the band’s drummer, Tom Carroll, “managed to get involved as one of the four drummers playing as part of the sprawling, 8-projector performance of ‘Cinéma Chaotique’,” an event which blended film projections with experimental musical performance.
They chose to screen Grey Gardens because they wrote their song ‘Marble Faun’ about it. Venue-wise, they were able to select the perfect place to complement the film. “There’s something quite haunting and eerie, yet decadent, about the upstairs room in Cardigan Arms which lends itself as a perfect set piece to Grey Gardens.”
The opportunity for the band to screen the film felt like a chance to unite more of Leeds’ music and cinema lovers, giving people the opportunity to bond over shared interests and perhaps even make new friends. “There’s a healthy overlap between people involved with local gigs and those attending/screening DIY films,” Static Caravan explained.
Meanwhile, Pervert Pictures showed several controversial titles, like The Lover by Jean-Jacques Annaud and a ‘Remake and Revenge’ double bill of The Virgin Spring and The Last House on the Left. “I’m particularly concerned with the way women are portrayed in film and how they engage with provocative cinema,” Katherine told me, hence why she often picks movies that centre women within their narratives.
Scalarama allows cinema lovers in Leeds to discover new films, support local venues and independent programmers, find community, and actually discuss art in a more proactive way. “We’re fighting alongside the DIY music scene to keep the independent entertainment sector alive. The more venues we lose, the less opportunities there are to engage with culture, and the less spaces there are to spend time with other people,” Katherine elucidated.
For this and other DIY film screenings to keep taking place in a landscape where venues are at constant risk of being shut down, all we can do is try and show our support as much as possible. “Pretty much everyone that puts films on in Leeds is connected to Scalarama Leeds in some way and often screened their first film through a Scalarama event. That kind of strong community is absolutely vital to any DIY scene,” Static Caravan emphasise, highlighting the importance of people joining forces and working together to sustain a thriving art scene.
In a world that can often feel isolating and bleak, the film screenings and adjacent events, such as quizzes or themed activities, hosted by DIY film clubs in Leeds offer a much-needed sense of togetherness. “It’s another aspect of Leeds’ art, culture and nightlife,” says Katherine, “You can go to the pub, you can listen to music, you can watch a film with friends, or you can do it all in one night. It’s not just about watching the films, it’s the discussions you have afterwards, the personality the individual programmer brings to their event, and the friends you make.”
