Packing a movie theater on a pleasantly sunny Saturday, over an extended holiday weekend, is not an easy task for most film screenings. However, Scary Cow Productions, a San Francisco indie film collective, did just that as they packed the Castro Theatre with their many members and filmmaking crews in tow—along with their family, friends, and significant others doubling as their enthusiastic fans.
Scary Cow is a film incubator that has managed to grow quite a niche Bay Area community of filmmakers through pitch sessions, production assistance, and networking opportunities to filmmakers. Since taking root in 2007, the collective has completed around 500 short films and has roughly 210 currently active members. The group has also awarded $355k over the years to fund their most promising projects which are selected through an audience voting process at the screenings like this one.
Every film that comes out of the Scary Cow collective is screened at the Castro Theatre, which is a perk of the membership fees. While it means that many emerging filmmakers might get to prematurely check off that goal of seeing their shorts on a big screen, most have even bigger bucket lists or personal reasons why they have fallen into the labor- (and passion-) intensive field of film to begin with.
As a viewer, this guaranteed screening also means there is a good chance you are watching a lot of films that might not have made it through a standard industry gatekeeper. But hey, we all have to start somewhere, right? And while this is more about community than Cannes, it’s also a great starting place for those looking for their first unlocked door.
On Saturday, ten films shown with Q&A opportunities following each short film, including Poster Boy, written, directed, and edited by Guillermo Gómez; and Snaggletooth, written and directed by Colin Bishopp. The two shorts were entirely different but both very San Franciscan in their flavor. Poster Boy was styled like a light-hearted Charlie Chaplin silent comedy, rebooted with modern scenes of the Castro and nods to San Francisco’s gay-friendly, and somewhat risqué, counter-culture glitter-bombed throughout.
“Snaggletooth” - [trailer] from Joe Sikoryak on Vimeo.
Snaggletooth, was filmed at the WIlliam Westerfield House, a eerily handsome and ornate Victorian Era mansion overlooking Alamo Square, featured a decidedly local and playfully gothic personality. The dark-humored short, starring a little girl with Vampire-esque teeth and a love of puppies, also felt like something, in a city where “there are more dogs than kids” (said loud and proud), would also be appreciated.
There seemed to be something for everyone here, and while many of the films felt like a work in progress (because, stating the obvious, making films is HARD!) it was a worthwhile afternoon, and a reminder that, with anything that takes years to master, improvements over time are expected. Those who make the effort and put themselves out there should be celebrated.
If you are looking for your fellow tribe of filmmaking enthusiasts, Scary Cow might be your answer. For the rest of us, stay tuned for future film screenings; you never know where the next Stanley Kubrick or Spike Jones will be discovered.
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