If you are of my generation, any mention of Nickelodeon immediately brings to mind Saturday mornings vegging out in front of the television, taking in what many of you continue to swear was some of the finest animated children's programming ever to exist. Shows like Doug
and
Hey Arnold
and
The Angry Beavers
helped to define many a childhood. But! The term “nickelodeon” harks back to 1905, and denotes a vastly important step in the evolution of the modern film viewing experience. The nickelodeon was the first group-based exhibition space for film, where previously people would look into peeping machines. These places would usually charge five cents for admission (hence the “nickel”) and would generally showcase collections of short films.
Tomorrow, Friday, the Louisville Film Society seeks to recapture the essence of this early form of cinema with Nickelodeon Nights, presented at the Dreamland Fil
m Center. The night will feature a wide selection of short films, including:
+Excerpts from Sigur Ros'
Valtari Film Experiment
+Jesse McLean's
Magic For Beginners
+
Zachary Trietz's
We're Leaving
+
Jim Henson's
Timepiece
+
Wladyslaw Sarewicz's
The Revenge of a Kinematograph Cameraman
To name a few..
Nickelodeon Nights is presented in conjunction with the First Friday Trolly Hop. The show starts at 6:00 and is free with purchase of a concession. The Dreamland Film Center is located at 810 E. Market Street. Complete information can be found at the LFS website [4].
P.S. Check out the most recent episode [5] of the Movie Meltdown podcast, wherein we, the Meltdown crew, sit down with LFS president Tracy Heightchew to discuss Andrea Arnold's film
Fish Tank
(along with tangents about strip clubs, Klaus Kinski, spaghetti westerns and sex doll films).
Image: LFS website