The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Maybe my memory is cloudy, it often is, but doesn't Gravity have more highlights and shadows? Gravity seemed to be a digital transfer this year. It could be a difference in the projector, but it didn't look right. I am, of course, grateful for the chance to see our beloved traditional film, but I prefer the original print. Disregard this post if I am completly off my rocket and it was actually on film. I've been watching movies for quite a while now and the combination of wi-fi and standard marathon activities may be messing with me.

I could be wrong but I don't think that the Gateway is set up for 16mm. Most newer theaters aren't, sadly. That's why it was on DVD.

I got some info on "Space Boy" from the other threads (looks like a fun one!) but what is this Columbus Classic called "Gravity"?

The long, sordid history of the Marathon classic known as GRAVITY? Well. in the late 70's, aspiring filmguys David Wechter and Michael Nankin created a short parody of 50's educational films called GRAVITY. It tells the tale of little Mary Jane, who wants to know what makes the sun set. She bounces from family member to family member, but none of them seem to know the answer. Her trip to see her BIG SISTER is particularly memorable (for the audience), as a topless SIS is too busy receiving...er, oral pleasure from her boyfriend under the sheets to answer the question. It's up to her grade school teacher to inform her that GRAVITY is what pulls the sun down at night. MJ eventually ends up at the Karl LaFong Institute for Gravitational Research, where the esteemed Dr. Thornton Waxman educates her on the impending grabity shortage and cartoon hero Jiminy Gravity sends us home with a catchy ditty on how we can help.

When it showed during the early years of the Columbus Marathon, GRAVITY was obviously a crowd favorite. However, problems began to crop up when copies of the print started to arrive sans BIG SISTER. Sacrilege. Whether Big Sis would appear or not began to become an annual question. The nadir of this situation occurred during the 1997 Marathon at the Vern Riffe Center, when an uncut print of the film broke several times throughout the showing. On a whim, Host Organism Bruce Bartoo announced that the next year's Marathon would feature a live performance of GRAVITY to solve all these problems.

And so, in 1998, a small band of friends and I performed the first (and so far only) rendition of GRAVITY LIVE! The event was made even more memorable by the attendance of Wechter, Nankin and Michelle Stacey (who played Mary Jane and featured in AIRPLANE as the little girl who likes her men like she likes her coffee...) Bartoo had met one of the directors on a whim at a non-related event and had broached the topic of attending with him. The GRAVITY duo were so impressed that they donated an uncut print of the film to the Marathon for future use.

Thanks for the explanation!

Are you saying GRAVITY has never played Boston?!?!

For shame!

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

We haven't seen the infamous SPACE BOY either.

I remember Bruce B. saying that the print of SPACE BOY doesn't travel without him (meaning he won't mail it to us to show in Boston). I assume the same holds for GRAVITY. And, yes, we do invite Bruce to come back1

Come back, Bruce!

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

I wouldn't be surprised if SPACE BOY were now one-of-a-kind. I have no idea where Bruce found it, but I'm sure glad he did! That's one that needs backed up to digital just in case. It's already a tad on the pink side.