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

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 Unit ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, 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 * Independe ...

, or arthouse 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, K ...

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, 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 exh ...

. 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 gu ...

. 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, apoca ...

and "Fist Church" for

kung fu films Kung fu film () is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultu ...

. 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, Dore O., Andrew Horn, Tadeusz Konwicki, Katrina del Mar,

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