The Sprocket Society
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sprocketsociety.bsky.social
The Sprocket Society
@sprocketsociety.bsky.social
Presenting analog film screenings in Seattle, WA since 2008. https://sprocketsociety.org/
A good piece about a great, thought provoking movie (suppressed in part by the FBI) that you must see. You must also militate for someone solid to release the new 4K restoration on blu. (The only DVD release was 26 years ago!)
New today on the site:

“Ivan Dixon’s THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973) is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet, a vicious bit of malware streamed through hijacked plutocrat satellites.”

- Bryan Miller
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973): Weaponized Expectations
Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door is a pipe bomb on the video store shelf, a gasoline-filled wine bottle in your DVD cabinet.
www.brightwalldarkroom.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Same
November 17, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
We’re showing IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE for our 55th annual engagement, Dec. 18, 20, 21, 23 & 24 at @nwfilmforum.bsky.social! Mark your calendar or buy tickets right now!

grandillusioncinema.org/film/its-a-w...
November 11, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
Pixar designed Toy Story to be printed on physical film. The Disney renaissance movies were the same.

Today, it's hard to see them as they were meant to be seen. The versions on streaming and home media aren't quite the same films that ruled the '90s:
animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-toy-st...
November 11, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Tonight! Me and Seattle treasure Lori Goldston are doing a multi-projector + live cello improv film jam, as part of the 10th anniv celebration of @common-area.bsky.social at their “annex” space Common Objects (2601 1st Ave). Doors at 7pm. It’s free! RSVP now at www.tixtree.com/e/cam-10th-a...
October 31, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
The Engauge Experimental Film Festival returns to Northwest Film Forum NEXT WEEK for its 8th year! The festival celebrates sprocket-driven, artist-made experimental film, presenting six programs of shorts at NWFF’s cinema in Capitol Hill. All work featured in the festival originates on film stock.
October 30, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Our SECRET VAULT OF TORMENT show tomorrow 10/28 includes a secret feature that alarmed censors at the time. A sign with this “WARNING!” was displayed in some Canadian theaters. Ontario banned it outright b/c it was “Full of fiendish & diabolical doings.” Holland, too, b/c its “degrading effect.”
October 27, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Our all-16mm SECRET VAULT OF TORMENT is this Tues Oct 28 @ 7pm at NW Film Forum. We’re showing a bonkers secret mid-‘30s horror feature + a bunch of spooky shorts. Our feature’s an orig “SHOCK!” TV print. Here’s some pgs from the series’ 1958 pressbook. Tix & info: sprocketsociety.org/coming-soon/
October 27, 2025 at 2:59 AM
One week from tonight! 10/28 at NW Film Forum, our all-16mm show SECRET VAULT OF TORMENT w/ a secret 1930s horror feature + spooky shorts, including the “complete” Frankenstein saga via Castle Films digests. Also a 3-D short & more! Info & tix via sprocketsociety.org/coming-soon/
October 21, 2025 at 11:32 PM
“Will the future ever appear? Should we continue to look upwards? Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished? The ideal is terrifying to behold... brilliant but threatened on all sides by the dark forces that surround it…” - Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables”
October 18, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Speaking of authors at Pordenone, Richard Abel’s new book is available as a free PDF/EPUB download (or HB for purchase). “The Exhibitor as Producer: Stage Prologues in American Movie Theatres, 1917-1926” is heavily illustrated and short (179 pgs + cites & index). link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
The Exhibitor as Producer
This open access book seeks answers to a series of questions about the subject of prologues or theatrical presentations in American movie theaters
link.springer.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:55 PM
The Pordenone silent film festival includes presentations with authors and scholars. These are freely available on the fest’s YouTube channel. Click the “Live” tab to find them. Also check out the shorter chats with program curators. See youtube.com/@giornatecin...
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto
Nate nel 1982 dalla collaborazione tra la Cineteca del Friuli di Gemona e Cinemazero di Pordenone, le Giornate del Cinema Muto si sono affermate come la principale manifestazione internazionale dedica...
youtube.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Our next show! Tues. October 28 — a secret 1930s horror feature, Castle Films digests of the “complete” Frankenstein saga, plus more. All on 16mm film! More info + tix via sprocketsociety.org/coming-soon/ Part of ALL MONSTERS ATTACK! from @grandillusioncinema.org
October 7, 2025 at 8:47 PM
ICYMI the Pordenone silent film festival is underway, and folks like us who can’t teleport there can get in on their streaming edition. Films from day 2 are still online (for a bit), so if you carpe diem you’ll not have missed much. Recommended! www.mymovies.it/ondemand/gio...
Le giornate del cinema muto 2025 - Enjoy the silence!
In streaming su MYmovies. Scegli il tuo accredito
www.mymovies.it
October 6, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Heil, heil right in Der Fuhrer’s face youtu.be/I1583adUqSg
"Der Fuehrer's Face" Performed by Spike Jones and His City Slickers
YouTube video by History Comes to Life
youtu.be
September 20, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
RIP to local cinema legend Randy Finley. Before there was a Seven Gables theater chain in Seattle there was The Movie House at 1403 NE 50th St., also founded by Randy. He ran it until the late 70s when Paul Doyle took over and renamed it The Grand Illusion.

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...
www.seattletimes.com
September 19, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
If someone’s not mourning the death of Robert Redford in a manner that’s consistent with your views, make sure you set up a database, call their employer, and get them fired.
September 16, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
For most Americans, the date 1913 means nothing. For Americans on the far right fringes, 1913 has long been a date of great significance. Here’s a piece from the antisemitic rag “American Mercury” in 1957, for example. One of their writers at the time was George Lincoln Rockwell.
September 7, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
August 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
Groucho Marx and Marlene Dietrich on the Paramount lot, 1932
August 20, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Super excited to be part of this free outdoor show on Friday 8/22 in Bellingham! Melies, Keaton, Weber, Hazards of Helen, and Felix the Cat — all accompanied live by members of the Bellingham Symphony (incl. 2 new scores). More info at sprocketsociety.org/coming-soon/
August 16, 2025 at 8:09 PM
The Lubitsch Touch. …er, kinda literally.
The Marriage Circle (1924)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
August 6, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller
July 18,1951
July 19, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
Our most recent edition of ONLINE WITH SFFP is now available to view on our YouTube channel! On June 5, SFFP Board President Rob Byrne was joined by Ehsan Khoshbakht to discuss Lewis Milestone’s incredible body of work, including—of course—THE GARDEN OF EDEN, which SFFP restored! #FilmSky
1/2
June 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by The Sprocket Society
"It's really hard to fathom that the guy making my pizza for 25 years is a gangster and a terrorist, and the person who shows up in an unmarked car wearing a mask and body armor comes to take him away is somehow the good guy” www.wnep.com/article/news...
Wayne County community rally amid ICE raid at restaurant
Newswatch 16's Emily Kress spoke with people in the Honesdale community who are shaken after watching three restaurant employees get detained.
www.wnep.com
June 7, 2025 at 3:03 AM