Reader, in just a week and a half, it’ll be the most wonderful time of the year—in Birmingham, Alabama, at least.
The 28th annual Sidewalk Film Festival kicks off Monday, August 24, and hits full swing two weeks from today with the Opening Night Film: John Wilson’s Sundance hit The History of Concrete.1 And that means it’s time for thousands of locals and visitors to take a good hard look at this year’s impressive schedule.
As I’ve done in past years, I’ll drop a list of festival recommendations later this month. And we’ve got something special cooking for next Friday’s guest piece. But today you’re getting a sneak preview in the form of a recycled post from the spring of 2022, back when this baby newsletter was still finding its first-year footing.2
Because Sidewalk isn’t just hosting a 100th anniversary(!) retrospective screening of The General—they’re showing it at the historic Alabama Theatre (which opened a year after the film was released) with a live original score from the theater’s Mighty Wurtlizer organ! Truly a one-of-a-kind event that shouldn’t be missed.
I crossed this film off my watchlist right after James Mangold’s Buster Keaton biopic was announced—a project that moved to Matt Reeves’ plate, stretched to a miniseries, and cast Rami Malek as its star about a year later. Nothing has been written about that project for a good three and a half years now, so hopefully it’s dead.3 Nevertheless, it was a great excuse to watch one of Keaton’s signature cinematic achievements.
For the newsletter, I scattered in some general reactions to the film along with some reflections from being on the set of Don’t Die months earlier.4 But the main focus was the stunts. The stunts! Folks, they don’t make films like this anymore (because people would die on set). If you love action movies and you want to see what they looked like back when they were incredibly unsafe to make, you owe it to yourself to check out The General. And if you can’t make it to the Sidewalk Film Festival, there are lots of streaming options available.
I left the original title of my write-up intact, but it is blessedly almost inaccurate; on New Year’s Eve, that “Nearly” will no longer be necessary. I hope you’ll celebrate this milestone of cinema accordingly. And I hope to see some of y’all at the Alabama Theatre!
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March 4, 2022
Buster Keaton has been in the news a lot lately for a man who died in 1966. (And, thankfully, it’s not because he’s been retroactively canceled.)
In case you’re wondering why a week-long film festival features an “opening night film” on its fifth day, well, it’s because Sidewalk was once only two and a half days (or three and a half for filmmakers if you include the parties and retreats and things). It used to be the festival’s kickoff event, and now it’s when things really kick into full swing.
A quick peek behind the Substack curtain: This piece is one of the handful of early Dust On The VCR pieces that found a decent life beyond this platform and subscriber inboxes. As of today, 68% of its hits have come from Google. Glad to know that people still want to read about Buster Keaton films!
I say “hopefully” not because Keaton doesn’t deserve the biopic treatment but because Rami Malek doesn’t feel like a very good choice when Joshua Burge is right there.
Since the promo window never really closes, here’s an obligatory reminder that Don’t Die is now streaming for free(!) on Tubi, Fandango, and Fawesome, and it is available to rent or purchase elsewhere.
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