Cinema City
For many people “cinema” can feel like a pretentious, unapproachable medium. Not for me, of course. But for many people. Many a time in my college years I’ve been cornered at a VCU Cinema party, while a 19-year-old guy from Woodbridge explains to me the undeniable genius of Stanley Kubrick while my soul slowly leaves my body. Ah, memories.
If you also share these experiences, you may feel inclined to avoid spaces dedicated to discussing the silver screen. But I’m here to tell you that Richmond has film organizations for you. Yes, you!
Something you and the 19-year-old VCU Cinema student may not know about me is that I actually studied film in college. I took several classes on the history of cinema, both western and eastern, and I have a deep love of the medium. So when I saw Studio Two Three was screening Rouge, a 1987 Hong Kong film, I decided to check it out. I took a Chinese film history course in school and recognized the main actor, Leslie Cheung, who was incredible in 1993’s Farewell My Concubine. The screening was organized by Exposure Cinema, a project by Brandon Shillingford. He follows all his screenings with an intimate discussion about the movie’s themes, takeaways, messages, etc.
“Exposure can mean exposure to new people, new ideas,” Shillingford told me over a coffee at Gold Lion Community Cafe. “I’m interested in films where characters are being exposed, either literally or to circumstances that change them.” The film collective has been active for just under a year. Brandon told me he wanted to create an environment that everyone would feel welcome in, and I can say that he has. “It’s really important to me to create spaces where people can share, learn, and discuss,” he said. “A lot of spaces are stuffy—and black, brown, and LGBT people don’t always feel comfortable. I wanted to change that.”
Another local collective I love is Good For Her Films, a film series dedicated to feminine rage on the silver screen. Films like The Witch, Love Lies Burning, and Ms.45 have all been a part of the free screenings, with the next one being the 1999 cult classic, Jawbreaker.
Yet another is Hard Light Cinema. In filmmaking, hard light is a quality of light that casts harsh and well defined shadows with very abrupt transitions between highlights and shadows. I can only assume the films the collective screens cast harsh lights on a variety of topics.
Exposure’s theme for April is TEKNOEROTICA. It aims to question how technology reshapes desire and what happens when intimacy is mediated by A.I, cybernetics, corporations, and governments. These topics and more are explored through five films spanning speculative fiction, cyber-surrealism, and techno-eroticism, diving into the unsettling intersections of technology, intimacy, and control.
The series kicks off on April 2 with a screening of David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future (2022) at Ours. ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗