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Grainjaus Session 2 – GRINDHOUSE

It is with great pleasure that I present to you, dear reader, a Porto Diao project that’s close to my heart and has been on my constant watch list on things to resurrect for some time: “Grainjaus!”, Porto Diao’s exploitation and cult film festival. First started in La Casona with an awesome, gruesome zombie movie night, the premise of Grainjaus is simple: double features linked by theme, the first flick being an entry into the genre chosen that night coming from the exploitation “Grindhouse” era of the 1960’s-1970’s. After an intermission full of cheesy grindhouse trailers and spiffy commercials, as well as trailers for the upcoming session, you will have your mind blown out of its socket by a contemporary entry into the genre of the night, from the 90’s-00’s. What themes will there be at Grainjaus!, you ask? Well, let the definition of grindhouse give you a hint about what we’re going for, courtesy of my personal God and saviour, Wikipedia:

Exploitation film is a type of film that eschews the expense of quality productions in favor of making films inexpensively, attracting viewers by exciting their more prurient interests. Exploitation films rely heavily on the lurid advertising of their content rather than the intrinsic quality of the film.

Exploitation films may feature forbidden sex, wanton violence, drug use, nudity, freaks, gore, monsters, destruction, rebellion and mayhem. Such films have existed since the earliest days of moviemaking, but they were popularized in the 1960s with the general relaxing of cinematic taboos in the U.S. and Europe. Since the 1990s, this genre has also received attention from academic circles, where it is sometimes called paracinema. [...]

[...] A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly showed exploitation films. It is also a term used to describe the genre of films that played in such theatres. Grindhouses were known for continuous programs of B movies, usually consisting of a double feature where two (and very often three) films were shown consecutively. Most of these films were made for Drive-in theaters as second and third features. Since most large urban areas did not have drive-ins, these movies were shown in older theaters that formerly featured burlesque shows which included “bump and grind” dancing, leading to the term “grindhouse.” On the other hand, the producers, distributors, and exhibitors of the films were required to provide a large amount of low budget films for double features so would “grind”‘ them out like mincemeat. Beginning in the late 1960s and especially during the 1970s, the subject matter of grindhouse films was dominated by explicit sex, violence, bizarre or perverse plot points, and other taboo content. [...]

[...] There remains much affection for the grindhouse era amongst some cinephiles. An example is the 2007 release of Grindhouse, a double feature consisting of Planet Terror and Death Proof, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, respectively. Both films contain elements found in many grindhouse films, and are bridged by trailers for fictitious films that also fit into the grindhouse genre (sexploitation, slasher films, etc.). Grindhouse also features simulated film scratches, splices and some clipped dialogue, to recreate the feeling that the prints of the films are worn and battered copies, which was often true of the prints of many films grindhouse theaters showed in their heyday.

This leads me to the double feature we’ll be showing the night of April 11th at the Theatre Guild of Ancon starting at 8PM. As mentioned in the quote above, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino made an homage to this era of filmmaking with the release of “Grindhouse,” made up of two films to be seen back-to-back, with a midsection full of fake trailers by Eli Roth (Hostel), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween remake). “Grindhouse” was never released in Panama, surely because of the poor returns of its theatrical release in the United States. As it was, people just weren’t prepared for a 3-hour mind explosion of gleeful proportions. The flick was a darling at festivals and genre buffs eat this movie up; there’s been quickly-forming cult following to “Grindhouse,” with most of the fake trailers being in talks of turning into feature-lenght movies (they were gags, initially). Anyway, there’s no better way of telling you how an incredibly awesome time at the movies this thing is unless you see it, so enjoy this here trailer:

As you can see, “Schindler’s List” this ain’t. When it was released on DVD, “Grindhouse” was split into two, and sold separately. Ever since then people from all over have mobilized in order to present these films as they were meant to be seen: back-to-back, with trailers and huge crowd. Porto Diao is making his stab at it by celebrating the resurrection of Grainjaus! with “Grindhouse” as it was presented in theaters, along with our quirky stuff tossed in for good measure. Thanks to the Theatre Guild of Ancon, Blogs Panama, Panama Coffee Lovers and the ISAD School of Animation this has been possible. Of course, Porto Diao will be doing Grainjaus! at the TGA as a way to put it in the eyes of new potential patrons aching for different things to do. The donation is $4, and there will be a bar you can get acquainted with so that you and your buddies can enjoy the movies much better. There is limited seating as the Theater is over 50 years old and if we start throwing people up on the roof in might break. If anything, visit the Porto Diao portal, Facebook pages and the Grainjaus! itinerary page for updates and directions for the TGA… it is a little tricky to get there.

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