Spectacle Theater is a collectively run, independent movie theater that operates out of a small space in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant to the s ...

in New York, United States.

History

Spectacle Theater opened in September 2010 at 124 S. 3rd Street in Brooklyn in a space that used to be a bodega. From its beginning, the theater was dedicated to showing rare,

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, or

arthouse An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily ...

films (that cannot be found on DVD) at $5 per ticket. In 2013, Spectacle was awarded the "Best Weird Repertory Film Programming" by ''The Village Voice''. After a rent increase and lease-mandated improvements in 2015, the theater ran a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign to keep operating out of the same space in central Williamsburg. The campaign was successful and the theater stayed open at its location at 124 S. 3rd Street. As of 2017, the theater also runs a weekly radio show at

Newtown Radio Newtown Radio is a freeform Internet radio station with a studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York. Newtown was founded in 2009 by Mark Brinda, Tariq Abdus-Sabur and Colin Ilgen in a former brewery It features around the clock programming by blogs, ...

, where volunteers discuss music and film.

Venue

Spectacle Theater is a 35-seat

microcinema The term "microcinema" can have two meanings. It can describe low-budget or amateur films shot mostly on digital video, edited on a computer, and then distributed via videotape, disc or over the Internet. Or it can describe a mode of low-budget exhi ...

. The Theater is run by volunteers and screenings are

BYOB BYOB or BYO is an initialism and acronym concerning alcohol that means "bring your own bottle" or "bring your own booze" or "bring your own beer". BYOB is stated on an invitation to indicate that the host will not be providing alcohol and that ...

. Spectacle volunteers print their own posters for each screening, which are displayed outside the theater. The outside of the theater is unadorned, aside from the posters, and painted black.

Programming

Spectacle screens films seven days a week, often including midnight screenings and biweekly matinees, including "Blood Brunch" for

horror films Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoc ...

and "Fist Church" for

kung fu films Kung fu film () is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in ''wuxia'', a related martial arts genre that uses historical ...

. Programs are selected by volunteers, who prepare promotional materials like pamphlets and posters, as well as run the projector during shows. Spectacle has hosted the first-ever U.S. retrospectives of filmmakers such as Roland Klick,

Rogério Sganzerla Rogério Sganzerla (4 May 1946 — 9 January 2004) was a Brazilian filmmaker. One of the main names of the '' cinema marginal'' underground movement, his most known work is ''The Red Light Bandit'' (1968). Sganzerla was influenced by Orson ...

, Dore O., Andrew Horn,

Tadeusz Konwicki Tadeusz Konwicki (22 June 1926 – 7 January 2015) was a Polish writer and film director, as well as a member of the Polish Language Council. Life Konwicki was born in 1926 as the only son of Jadwiga Kieżun and Michał Konwicki in Nowa Wilejka, ...

Katrina del Mar Katrina del Mar is a New York–based American photographer, video artist, writer and award-winning filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Video, and ...

Sarah Minter Sarah Minter (born 1953 in Puebla, Mexico, died 2016) was a Mexican filmmaker and artist. Career Minter produced 8mm and 16mm films, video installations, and documentaries that displayed intersections of the body, politics, and the city. Her fir ...

, Sidney Sokhona, Alyce Wittenstein, and many others. Volunteers also cut and edit their own trailers for screenings and series presented at the theater. These trailers often mimic and mock the iconography of the

MPAA film rating system The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures ...

. Screenings sometimes have different formats like " VHS nights", talks, live-score shows, and Q&As with directors.

References

External links

* {{official, http://www.spectacletheater.com Repertory cinemas Theatres in Brooklyn 2009 establishments in New York City