Q & A: Matt Pennachi of the Cinema Overdrive Film Series

As many of our local film buffs know, the Colony Theater here in Raleigh has hosted several successful film series in recent years. Inspired by the popularity of the once-monthly “Cool Classics,” the Colony has also added “Cinema Overdrive” to its line up in the past year. Taking place on the second Wednesday of each month, Cinema Overdrive has offered a monthly dose of well-received cult and exploitation films including Death Race 2000, Shogun Assassin, Vice Squad, Lady Terminator, Switchblade Sisters, Cut Throats Nine, Road Games, The Deadly Spawn, and Southern Comfort. The series also offers a cluster of horror films throughout the month of October (last year’s included Pieces, The Evil Dead, and The Monster Squad). Each film is accompanied by several retro trailers, prizes, the occasional special guest, and more recently, limited addition artwork for sale.

Locals Matt Pennachi and Adam Hulin are the driving force behind the popular series, in collaboration with the Colony’s manager, Denver Hill. Pennachi was nice enough to talk with us at New Raleigh to give us a little history and insight into the Cinema Overdrive series and what to expect in the coming months.

NR: “Can you tell us a little about the origins of the Cinema Overdrive series?”

MP: Cinema Overdrive was born in 2009.  I had recently been laid off from the Carolina Theatre, where I had founded the monthly Retrofantasma Film Series as a volunteer back in 1998 and had been working full time as the director of audience services (and later as the director of operations) since 2001.

Fellow film collector and Colony Theater manager, Denver Hill, invited me to come over to the Colony and create a new monthly series for them.  They had been experiencing great success with their “Cool Classics” series, and were looking for a companion piece to run with it.  Initially Denver had asked if I was interested in doing another all horror series like Retrofantasma, but that was something I wanted to get away from a little bit.  Not only did I not want to step on Retrofantasma’s toes since it was a well established, long running series, but I also wanted to use this opportunity to create something completely original and unique that would allow us more programming freedom than I had ever experienced before.  So I contacted my good friend Adam Hulin, and between the two of us we created and proposed the monthly Cinema Overdrive series.  Denver really liked the idea and was tremendously supportive, so in August of 2009 we kicked off the series with our inaugural screening of “Death Race 2000.”

NR: “How does Cinema Overdrive differ from Retrofantasma and the Colony’s other series, Cool Classics?”

MP: Cinema Overdrive differs from Retrofantasma, Cool Classics, and every other repertory film series in the area simply due to its eclectic, offbeat programming of drive-in and exploitation films.  We’re not pigeon-holed into one particular genre every month, and as film collectors we have access to some truly rare, obscure gems that you wouldn’t have an opportunity to see on 35mm anywhere else in the Triangle.  As collectors with access to so many resources, we feel that we owe it to film fans in this community to offer them a truly unique experience, and when we have a chance to present a hard to find print (or even trailers!), we get a lot of joy out of sharing that with our audience.  Film collecting can be fun and rewarding, but ultimately film has no intrinsic value unless it is being projected on a big screen to be seen and enjoyed with others.

NR: “How do you select which films you will show each season? How do you select the trailers to accompany it?”

MP:  Adam and I try to choose titles which we personally really believe in, and that we think our audience would respond well to.  The goal of this series is not necessarily for every patron to like every film shown.  If that does happen, that’s wonderful!  But what we’re trying to do is to champion as many films as possible that we think are unjustly overlooked and worthy of a larger audience.  A lot of the low budget gems that we present are very thoughtful, well made movies, many of which are much better than they have any right to be.  And we respect our audience enough to know that they will be able to analyze and appreciate a film based on its own merits, regardless of whether or not it had a massive budget or major stars in it. 

Once we have a film chosen, we try to select a package of trailers that will be a nice compliment to the feature.  Sometimes we choose trailers that just advertise our upcoming Cinema Overdrive offerings, but most of the time the trailer packages have a theme.  For example, before our Southern Comfort screening, all of the trailers were for films that director Walter Hill had worked on.  The trailers after our Deadly Spawn screening were for other low budget alien invasion movies.  Sometimes we base a trailer package on a lead actor, or the year a film was released.  There’s a variety of different ways to craft a trailer package, but it is one of the most fun things to do in preparing a show. 

NR: “Many of the films shown for Cinema Overdrive come from your personal collections. Just how many films and trailers do you each own, and how did you get started amassing such a large and diverse collection of 35mm prints?”

MP: Between Adam and myself we own over 100 features and over 1,200 trailers dating back to the late 1950s.  I had started collecting films on a small scale when I started Retrofantasma back in 1998.  In 2000, Adam and I met and we decided to pool our resources and started collecting and archiving films together.  Fast forward a decade and the collection has grown exponentially from its humble beginnings.  Adam and I often marvel at the fact that we own 35mm material that we never thought in our wildest dreams we’d ever even be able to find, let alone own.  Yet for all of the films and trailers we have found, there are still thousands more out there that we hope to unearth one day.  The quest is pretty much never ending.

NR: “You’ve recently branched out by collaborating with artists to develop merchandise to accompany each of the films in the series. Has that been successful? Do you feel the artwork adds something to the Cinema Overdrive experience?”

MP: We feel that there is a real art to putting on a presentation of a Cinema Overdrive show, so it seems like a natural fit to have some of our local artists design the ad posters and merchandise for the screenings.  We wanted to have the opportunity to create something that was as interesting and unique as the screenings themselves.  However, it had to be something of really nice quality that we could offer at a reasonable rate.  There has been this major resurgence in hand silk screened, signed and numbered posters for rock gigs in the last 10-15 years, so we figured why not have some of the local artists who do gig posters design material for us? 

We pitched the idea to a few talented artists, and the response from both the art community and the fans was absolutely amazing.  Many of our early edition posters are not only completely sold out, but are now being sold and traded on art collection web sites for much more than the original issue price!  And, having those posters out there has drawn a lot of additional, positive interest to the series, which is just fantastic.  We’re starting to get requests from some nationally recognized artists who want to do work for us as well, and that’s extremely flattering.  You can check out all of the posters we’ve issued so far at our official web site.

NR: “Some of the films you screen are particularly edgy, violent, or controversial. What has been the public’s response to this series?”

MP: The public’s response has been absolutely fantastic to this series, so much so that it allows us to have as much freedom as possible in the films we choose to present.  Our audience is extremely knowledgeable, intelligent, and savvy.  There tends to be a great appreciation for the types of films we present, and a solid understanding of the context in which we’re presenting them as well.  We’ve had an opportunity to run some features (and trailers) that we never thought we’d really be able to present, and that is a terrific feeling.  If people keep supporting what we do and providing us with positive feedback, we have an opportunity to continue to bring out even rarer, more controversial material as the series progresses.  But ultimately making sure the shows are fun first and foremost is absolutely key to us.

NR: “When will you announce next season’s line up? Can you give us any hints as to what we can expect for the Fall?”

MP: We’re planning on announcing the entire Fall lineup at the August 11th screening of Lightning Swords of Death, and at the September 8th screening of Rock N’ Roll High School. We’re hoping to have a trailer package featuring many of the upcoming films in the Fall lineup as well.  It is a little too early to drop any serious hints about what viewers should expect from Cinema Overdrive in the Fall, but we can say that they should expect no fewer than four cult classic horror films in the month of October (a different film each Wednesday, leading up to Halloween) and a couple of other notable exploitation gems in November and December as well.  We’ve got some really terrific offerings for the rest of 2010 that we think people will really love.  Stay tuned!

The next Cinema Overdrive offering will be Revenge of the Cheerleaders, showing next Wednesday, June 9th at 8pm at the Colony Theater. Tickets are $5.

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