This week at 5th Avenue Cinema—Oregon’s only student run theater—the staff are screening a film that the students of PSU voted in: Pan’s Labyrinth on 35mm.
This creepy film was directed by Guillermo Del Toro in 2006. The Spanish filmmaker set his film in 1944 Spain—only a few years after the country faced a civil war. It follows a young girl seeking refuge from her wicked stepfather when a faun leads her through an overgrown, abandoned labyrinth. The girl, Ofelia, meets several strange, magical creatures that help her navigate the trials she faces. Meanwhile, her stepfather, Captain Vidal—the sadistic army officer—hunts down the Spanish Maquis who resist the Francoist regime and Ofelia’s pregnant mother grows increasingly ill.
Pan’s Labyrinth is a haunting parable influenced by fairy tales. Del Toro considers it a “spiritual successor” to his 2001 film The Devil’s Backbone. The film is critically acclaimed and admired globally. Upon its premiere in 2006 at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, the film received a 22 minute long standing ovation.
Normally, the staff of 5th Avenue Cinema select a film for each week of the term. However, as the Fall term approached, they offered four movies to their Instagram followers and let them vote for the film to be screened for Halloween weekend. The students chose between Onibaba, Heart of Glass, Memories of Murder and Pan’s Labyrinth.
5th Avenue Cinema Projectionist Alyssa Glaze chose the Del Toro film.
“I enjoy how raw it is as a fairy tale,” Glaze said. “It’s really bizarre and out of the ordinary.”
Director Del Toro is well known for telling his stories through peculiar methods and characters.
The Cinema Coordinator Sarah Schaeffer commented on how she enjoys how the film lets you escape to another world while staying based in reality.
“It’s not quite an escape from the fascist theme,” Schaeffer said, referencing the real world events of the era. “I feel like this is probably a lot of people’s introduction to Franco-era Spain—at least it was for me.”
“Del Toro tells a really painful and traumatic chapter of Spain’s history in such an accessible, poetic and obviously magical way,” she said.
She went on to recognize the mythical themes as an approachable method to learn a bit about the country’s history.
The other 5th Avenue Cinema Projectionist Clara Johnson admired how the elements of the film lined up together. Specifically, she was fascinated by how fascism was narrated through the eyes of a child.
“I feel like it takes root in children and that’s how it prevails,” Johnson said. “And to have the main character be both a child and a girl, I think it’s really interesting because she’s at odds with the men in her life but also the grown women who don’t see the world as she does.”
Johnson—with the rest of the staff—appreciated that 5th Avenue Cinema sees a consistent audience that connects with their film choices. She talked about how everyone has their preferences for movies to watch, yet it’s rewarding to see regulars continue to return to see what the staff has picked for them.
“There’s a level of trust,” Johnson said. “That was a big layer of giving it back to them.”
Schaeffer described their poll as a nice way to build community.
“It’s really fun getting to interact with each other,” she said. “It was so cool when people were coming in that weekend and they were like, ‘Oh I voted for Onibaba!’ It was a really good way to connect with each other.”
The Cinema Publicity Coordinator Naomi Nguyen also enjoyed communicating with the people interacting with the poll, as the person running their Instagram account.
“I’ve been having a lot of really good conversations with people through DMs, talking about what they’re most excited to see,” Nguyen said.
The voting process led to a decent amount of engagement and the staff thinks it has grounded them to be seen more as peers to their audience of students.
The staff reflected on an instance when a movie they had played resonated with a man who came across their theater during his visit from Japan. He happened to be in Portland during their screening of Kikujiro and thanked the staff for playing his favorite film. Glaze appreciated the fact that they could randomly play a movie that meant so much to someone passing through.
“He even bought a t-shirt and brought it back to Japan—just because we played his favorite movie!” Johnson said. They were all super stoked to give him that moment and were proud to know their shirt was wandering somewhere on the other side of the ocean.
The 5th Avenue Cinema team loved scouring Letterboxd to learn about the movies that fit their programming repertoire. This November, they’ve curated their film selection around the theme of food.
“There’s so many good food movies, why not make it a theme?” Schaeffer said. “I mean any kind of artistic representation of food is kind of exciting. It’s such a sensorial experience, like if you can’t smell it, you can still feel a provocative sort of emotion or story.”
Nguyen also described the theme as a source of inspiration for brainstorming ideas—which Letterboxd made helpful with its plentiful variety of lists.
“I love going down rabbit holes on Wikipedia,” she said. “If there’s a cinematographer I like, I’ll click on their name and see what else they’ve done. That route is very fun and exciting because it feels like I don’t know what to expect—it’s not based on an algorithm of what is being catered to me specifically—it just feels more open ended.”
“I think it’s also very helpful to follow international arthouse cinemas, like if you follow ones in Ireland and Greece and India, you just start finding stuff!” Schaeffer said.
These methods keep the selection of films at 5th Avenue unique and help the staff feature movies that are beloved by small groups of people—which makes the theater very special.
“I think every theater in Portland stands on their own and we want to define our own tastes in our own way,” Schaeffer said. “I feel like every theater offers something special and we also stand alongside them. We’re just smaller.”
The staff are very excited for people to come to the cinema for the movie that students chose themselves. They’re not sure when the opportunity to vote for a film will come again, but they’re open to doing it if it feels right!
Students can catch Pan’s Labyrinth in 35mm this weekend for free at 5th Avenue Cinema. Showings are at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with a 3 p.m. screening on Sunday.
