Phillyist Interviews... Jay Schwartz

It was the name of a short film by Paul Bartel, a feature film actor and director who died a few years back. I met him before he died at a film festival in Spain, and he gave me his blessing to use the name. I just like the sound of it. I also thought that there was something secret about both the nature of moving place to place - which I do less of than when I started I guess...well, when I started I was just in one place, I wasn't moving at all. It was upstairs at the Khyber, the nightclub they call the Khyber Pass, and after the first year I moved to different places. I guess it was more like the stuff I was showing was kind of secret; the fact that I was showing movies not in a movie theater was kind of unusual at the time. Now thanks to the convenience of light-weight video projection, everyone is doing exactly what I do; in restaurants, bars and nightclubs, which I haven't done so much lately. Now I see all these "movie nights" in places where they show them on TV sets. But I used to do the same thing; in the same kinds of small coffee place or whatever, but I would actually lug hundreds of pounds of equipment there, black plastic to stop light from coming in the window, giant screen - and I would do all that. So, I guess it seemed a little bit secret, but at the same time I was trying to give it as much publicity as possible. It's not really a secret.

Since I took that name, and since Paul Bartel gave me his blessing, I've noticed other things using that name. Around the same time I started there was some techno group in Europe using the name. I don't care about that, but I've found more and more and more things similar to what I do using the name, which drives me crazy. I'm afraid to look on Google now.

Are these local things?
No, they're not local. If they were local they'd probably realize they had to stop. thesecretcinema.com is now my website. There is a website in London of some clearinghouse of information about underground film screenings. So I wrote to the guy and said, "Gee, you know I've been using this name for several years now, and not only in Philadelphia but in other cities and other countries." And he said, "Well, I'll put a disclaimer on the website saying it's not to be confused with you." That's the nicest thing that's happened. Since then, I've seen like all these film festivals in different American cities will have a section of the festival called "The Secret Cinema" or other things like that. And the worst thing of all, I got an email message saying, "Oh, hi. We're the other Secret Cinema website. Well, not the other one. We're the other other one. We're the one that's based in Hong Kong. We facilitate the trading of copyrighted movies on the Internet. We're a business site, and you have some great stuff on your site, and we'd like to do business together." I just never responded, but that was the last thing I want to be identified with or confused with.

But I'm thesecretcinema.com.

Anyway, lot's of people seem to think it's a good name, because they're using it now. I'm sure many of them thought of it on their own, or saw the Paul Bartel movie, which is not that obscure. It was a short film made in 1969 - but it was remade for the Steven Spielberg show Amazing Stories - and that's the kind of fan-boy show that people write about a lot on the Internet, so if you search on "Secret Cinema," there are a lot of things that come up. Based on that, based on the techno group...things are inspiring many other people to start film series called, "The Secret Cinema."

I have brought Secret Cinema programs to cities other than Philadelphia. I did several shows in New York, I did some in Baltimore, I was invited to an art center in San Francisco, I was invited many times to the film festival in Spain, so I wish I trademarked the name.

Is it too late to do it?
I don't know. That's a good question. We're a pretty low-budget operation, so...it's not that cheap to make a trademark, I think. But I should find out.

Of all the shows you've done (and I realize that's a number) do you have either a particular favorite that you do, or a particular favorite genre to show?
There are certain themes as far as genres, like anything to do with '60s rock music. There are certain things in film that I am always looking for, and I guess a lot of these I've already done in shows. Or the Philadelphia films, I just did the third volume of that, the third edition of that concept. I always want to collect and archive that kind of stuff, and when I get enough of it, put together another night of it.

So here's some things I seek to collect: I like to collect 1920s, non-theatrical programming, meaning educational films from the silent years, or industrial films from the silent years. I like to collect that stuff from all years, but it's especially interesting to me to find them that early, because most people have never seen them. I did do one show of that once, and I'd like to do another one.

It can be '60s rock music, which I did, but it was only one show that wasn't a feature film. Also any feature film that features that kind of stuff.

Another thing I did recently was solo, comedy short films of Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges...these are all things I had listed on a want list.

One thing I've stopped seeking actively, although I see on eBay other people are seeking it, is strangers' home movies. I did several shows of that. I forget the first year I did that. I did it about three times, and then I topped that by doing a show of found home movies of strangers backed with a band playing an original score. That was a big project, and I give a lot of credit to the band of local rock musicians. They put a lot of time into that. That's why I don't repeat that too often; it takes a lot of rehearsals. Since then, there's been a great rise in interest (not because of me, but around the world) in the historical importance of home movies; a genre that was totally ignored. Now they're being studied by academics.

Any theories on why that is?
Well, because they're very valuable looks into Real America, or Real Wherever They Were Shot. They show things that weren't depicted in regular films, or were depicted in regular films where you saw a re-creation of it, and this was the real thing. It's a look into people's homes, what they did, their furniture, & their clothing. A lot of them are all the same. They're almost all birthday parties or Christmas; gift-opening occasions. After a while, you get tired of seeing the same thing. But sometimes you find ones that aren't the same thing. I have one that I showed in that program that began with some vacation footage (this was from the 1920s or early 1930s) and then suddenly it shifted, on the same roll, to a film of a disinterment of a body at Laurel Hill Cemetery, which we figured out because they had all these reporters standing around with cameras. At first I thought it was a funeral, but someone said no, it was a disinterment; it was coming out of the ground.

That's pretty cool. And creepy.
Yeah. Why would this person, who was shooting these rather shaky hand-held shots in Canada before of his travels, suddenly go to a disinterment with a camera? It was definitely amateur footage; it wasn't a news crew or anything.

If I can switch topics, you mentioned your interest in the music films. Is that what got you into DJing?
Yeah. Well, interest in music got me into DJing. It's all the same.

You just did the Shindig! show, and that was also '60s music. Is that where your tastes lie?
It's one of my big focuses; it's not the only place where they lie. I'm finally starting to lose touch with contemporary music, I'll admit, but I think I did a pretty good job of it for a long time. I have a lot of music. I have '60s in my collection. Once in a while I'll buy a current artist, but I guess my favorite period would be '60s rock. But I have older than that, also. Older than rock.

Can you tell me a little bit about your involvement with the Save the Boyd project?
I'm interested in old movies, and I like pretty much all old buildings, a lot more than new buildings; I like all old things. So when I heard someone was organizing an effort to save the theater, I, like many other people, immediately got involved. Howard Haas started that organization, and he's still very much the main person, but I help here and there where I can.

Would you like to screen things there when it re-opens?
Well, in theory, yeah. But we're still fighting to guarantee that showing any movies there is a possibility. It looks like the new owner is going to be open to it, but there's no formal agreement yet. I know they're not interested in doing it themselves. They're interested in making it a venue for Broadway musical plays, live theater and probably concerts.

So more like the Prince Theater?
Probably more like the Academy of Music than the Prince; meaning more big-budget, Lion King-type things. They're definitely not thinking of showing films as a for-profit company. I'm not sure what it will be when they're done, but it was 2,300 seats originally. It's pretty hard to show movies to that big of a theater these days, which I understand. We still want to do it, just to keep the experience alive, but it would probably be promoted and organized by Friends of the Boyd if they let us use it when they're not using it a few times a year, just as a charitable gesture.

So, myself, perhaps will be involved with the effort, but it probably won't be any Secret Cinema program, because I screen to much smaller numbers. Sometimes I have large shows; once I had 400, but it's mostly in the 50-100 range.

Given the secret name, can you recommend any "secret" places in the city, sort of hidden gems that people don't know about?
Frank's Spaghetti house in Northeast Philadelphia is a restaurant we go to a lot. There's a lot of ethnic eateries in Northeast Philadelphia too that lots of people might not know about.

Here's one I haven't been to in a long time. I actually discovered it in a book that came out about 15 years ago, called, Philadelphia Beyond the Liberty Bell, a guide of places to go to that people don't know about. My favorite thing, (which according to the author, Ron Avery, was the inspiration for the book), and I haven't been there since the early '90s, but it was great: The Wagner Free Institute of Science. It's a natural history museum in North Philadelphia that was built in the late 1800s and hasn't been changed at all since then. It actually serves as a museum of a museum. It still has the same specimens and hand-written labels and the display cases weren't opened. And almost nobody goes there. But I'd recommend this to anyone.

As promised, here's the skinny on Friday night's screening. Also, look for a future post on the Wagner Free Institute. Phillyist is intrigued, and plans to check it out!

Secret Cinema Presents: Convicted
Friday, June 2 at 8:30 pm
Eastern State Penitentiary
22nd & Fairmount Sts
Admission: $8.00