Notes From The Program Director | Week of July 28th, 2023

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Notes From The Program Director

Week of July 28th, 2023

Melissa Tamminga

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Hello, friends!

Well, it’s a quiet week in the sense that I have only one new movie that’s been added to our screens to share with you, but it’s been an absolutely buzzingly, joyously, delightfully busy week in every other sense! The overwhelming love for both Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer continue, two wildly different films that, nonetheless, have been wholeheartedly embraced by movie lovers across the nation as well as here at the Pickford, selling out shows day after day and night after night. We on staff were all doing incredulous double takes on both Monday and Tuesday of this past week when we realized our weekday shows were just as highly attended as our Friday shows. The pure joy of seeing a full lobby of folks, reinvigorated and excited about going to the movies, cannot really be described. (A special shout-out, too, to our wonderful projectionists and volunteers who have really stepped up this week, working longer, harder hours to make sure everybody’s experience at the Pickford is optimal!) And what a pleasure it has been to see patrons decked out in Barbie-pinks (and a few Oppenheimer-browns and Ken-blondes), the full-bodied costumed embrace of the movie experience. We don’t just love movies, we LIVE movies! (Photo #1 credit: Sophia Nunn/Cascadia Daily News)

The love for these two films, here and all over the country, is, I hope, a strong lesson to studio executives that we movie lovers are eager for new, creative, original films. Sequels and franchises have their place, but there’s real excitement when movie directors like Gerwig and Nolan are given the free rein (and the money) to create fresh, daring, even risky, new projects. And there’s a real hunger, too, clearly, for women-led films like Barbie, though studios in the past have made no secret of catering almost exclusively to the “18-34 year old male” market, accompanied by sweeping and stereotypical gender-coded assumptions about what that market “wants.” Indie, international, and arthouse directors, of course, of the kind we feature on our screens year-round are continuously offering fresh, daring, and new material, offering us art that challenges and invigorates from all kinds of voices and perspectives. But it would be a wonderful thing to see a shift in commercial films, too -- or, at least, more space for risk, for real creativity, for viewers who do not only identify as young, white, cis-gender men, but for all kinds of movielovers. As such, the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon gives me real hope.

In addition to Barbie and Oppenheimer, we also have the next entry in our Third Eye film series, “cult classics” selected by Pickford staff. This month’s wonderful selection, Catherine Hardwicke’s Lords of Dogtown, is from Andi Wells, our Database Assistant, and someone who has such a vast knowledge and love of movies, I am always eager to chat with her about all-things-cinema! Here’s what Andi has to say about this star-studded film from 2005: “Mid 1970’s So Cal: Surfers, Skaters, Empty Pools from the water shortage, and the invention of wide Polyurethane wheels – a recipe for the inimitable Lords of Dogtown: Jay Adams, Stacy Peralta, and Tony Alva. Non-conformists with skill, drive, and dedication to pure skating, they were not satisfied with the typically boring status quo nor would they be caught dead with a t-shirt tucked into short shorts, so they did it their way and revolutionized the world of skateboarding. Plus they were stone foxes. Dude! You’re gonna totally dig it! And the soundtrack is totally rad!” Tickets, as always for Third Eye are just $6, and the show starts at 10 pm, July 29.

See you at the movies, friends!

Melissa