The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Can the official Sci-Fi Marathon Twitter Hashtag be: "#OhioSciFi" (without the ") starting now and lasting until twitter dies? And Likewise for the Horror Marathon "#OhioHorror"???

Oh gosh... since I've been called out by name, I suppose I should ask something. (Though I had the privilege of grilling you and Bruce with all of my other questions in my podcast.)

So here's my question: Can we expect a mid-March date to be relatively set in stone for the SciFi Marathon? Or will there be conflicts (like rotating spring breaks) that will change the date?

Oh, and one more... What can we do as an audience (aside from buying a ticket and convincing others to attend) to help build the core audience and get the word out for this and future marathons?

It's why we stress to the Marathon faithful (and to newbies) that we need them to attend the events to keep them alive. We still too often meet attendees who, even if we announce the date, lineup, etc. months out, still take the attitude of "eh, maybe I'll show up if nothing else is going on that weekend" or "but do you have a guest?" (more on that later.) A few too many people seem to take the events for granted, but we need large crowds to keep these things alive...and vital.

Sorry, hope that didn't sound defensive. It's just the reality of the situation.

We are flying in a friend from New York City to go!

And speaking of the big Z! We'd absolutely LOVE to show ZARDOZ at a Marathon. It's so damn strange, and yet it's also a pretty cool, pseudo-avant garde genre film. And we've tried to get it for several years now. However, 20th Century Fox owns the rights to it, and they have recently instituted a very strict policy about what type of film rentals they will allow. If they have a DCP of a title, they'll rent it out to a venue. And they've also been known to clear screenings of collector prints in the past (which is how we screened that gorgeous print of SUSPIRIA last fall.) But they've also instituted a policy that doesn't allow for clearing screenings of DVDs or Blu-Rays, mainly because they want to maintain control over what materials involved in the video release are shown (for instance, they probably don't want a venue to show the film with the director's commentary running.)

So we're a bit limited as to what we can show when it comes to Fox titles. And we haven't been able to track down a good 35mm print of ZARDOZ. But don't give up hope.

What can you as an audience do? Wait! I know! When you tell people about the Marathons, make sure to emphasize that they're not just a collection of films, that the people and the experience are as much fun as the movies. We're going to try to emphasize that aspect more in the coming months, but in the meantime, let newbies (and remind lapsed believers) that this truly is an event.