Venue: Armley Mills Industrial Museum
Canal Road
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS12 2QF

Twitter: @MinicineYorks

 

Just in this second from watching Westworld at Armley Mills, courtesy of MINICINE – my first time attending one of their events – despite best intentions.

The venue is absolutely amazing – a huge space – originally the world’s largest woolen mill – housing a museum, devoted to our collective industrial history. We were doing the quickstep through to make sure we were on time, but I will definitely be back to check out the exhibits in more detail. Particularly the Memoria – Memories of Light one that runs until October.

Our two hosts – (book clubber) Woody and Abby – were lovely, personable and welcoming, as well as being very well informed about the upcoming Fanorama event and the ongoing Scalarama festival  programme of events across the city. We opened with 4 shorts films ‘No Robots‘; ‘Cowboy, Clone, Dust‘; ‘(can’t think of the name right now)’ and my personal favourite ‘Wirecutters‘ (read more about Wirecutters here)

[youtube https://youtu.be/3Bs4LOtIuxg]

After the shorts, we had a brief intermission…with CAKE…tea and coffee were also available. Then we settled down for the main event.

Blurb

Westworld is a futuristic theme park where paying guests can pretend to be gunslingers in an artificial Wild West populated by androids. After paying a sizable entrance fee, Blane (James Brolin) and Martin (Richard Benjamin) are determined to unwind by hitting the saloons and shooting off their guns.

But when the system goes haywire and a guest is killed in a duel with a robotic gunslinger (Yul Brynner), Martin’s escapist fantasy suddenly takes on a grim reality.

I’m not going to do a review of the film here. It’s one that I’ve grown up with and I have a great deal of affection for it. Suffice to say that seeing it on a proper screen, with such a beautiful backdrop (red curtains!!), was really special. The whole night ran smooth as silk and when I say that I’m planning on becoming more involved with the indie scene – I mean that I’ve already bought tickets for my next event – Wayne’s World at Left Bank next week.

Party On Minicine!

Trailer

[youtube https://youtu.be/LcL3eP0Hfy4]

From the Minicine website

Scalarama is an annual celebration of cinema taking place every September. The season aims to unite all those who are passionate about showing films to one another, and to champion communal film watching and the cinema experience. Scalarama takes the form of a month long season of screenings taking place across the world at a wide range of venues, with all different types of exhibitors showcasing films from across the history of cinema and from all parts of the world.

A little info about Minicine

Since 2010, Minicine has been committed to screening the best independent and foreign language, cult and classic cinema that may not otherwise reach West Yorkshire audiences.

A non-for-profit, we currently screen every fourth Thursday of the month at The Palace Picturehouse in Armley Mills Industrial Museum. In the past we have held events in 51% Bourbon, The Maven and what was once Dock Street Market in Leeds city centre, as well as the Polish Parish Club in Bradford.

We try to offer our audience an alternative to the impersonal experience of the multiplex and offer short films and free refreshments at our events too, so if you like homemade cake we may just be the film society for you.

We prefer to inclusive and not exclusive so while we do offer membership Minicine has, is and always will be open to everybody.

We are a proud member of the British Federation of Film Societies and in 2012 we were awarded the BFFS Best Film Programming prize.

Cross-posted on Drneevil Notes