PR: The Hollywood Theater Celebrates Art House Theater Day

PITTSBURGH, PA (PittsburghNewsWire.com) —  The Hollywood Theater joins theaters in Pittsburgh and around the country in celebrating the first annual Art House Theater Day. Art House Theater Day celebrates the legacy of independent theaters as advocates for cinema arts. In an age where media has become more digital than tangible, more solitary than social, art house theaters remain the physical spaces where film lovers congregate and connect with intrepid, creative filmmaking. They are the beating heart for new and exciting cinema that is shaping the future of the medium.

The Hollywood celebrates with two screenings on Saturday Sept. 24th:

At 1:00pm we present A TOWN CALLED PANIC: THE SPECIALS

Come visit A Town Called Panic, with two new, award-winning animated specials from the Academy Award-nominated directors of Ernest & Celestine. With disarming wit and hilarious visuals, A Town Called Panic revels in the simple setup of three plasticine toys sent on increasingly surreal and freewheeling adventures. Cowboy and Indian are always up to some harebrained scheme, with Horse left to clean up the mess.

In Back to School, a class assignment yields a special prize, but only Pig knows the answer. Cowboy and Indian use a special shrinking potion to try and sneak into Pig’s brain, where they discover a sodium-packed world of pig cops riding in bacon cars and sausage cycles. (Dir. by Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar, 2015, Belgium, in English, 26 mins., Not Rated / Suitable for all ages)

In The Christmas Log, their out-of-control antics lead Horse to call Santa and cancel the presents. But the boys figure they can still save Christmas – if they break into their neighbor’s house to steal his yule log!
(Dir. by Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar, 2015, Belgium, in English, 26 mins., Not Rated / Suitable for all ages

At 10:00pm we present PHANTASM (1979)
Doors open at 9pm

The original Phantasm starred Michael Baldwin as the teenager Mike, Bill Thornbury as his older brother Jody, and Reggie Bannister as a family friend named Reggie. Together, the trio attempt to thwart the plan of the late Angus Scrimm’s mysterious undertaker The Tall Man to transform corpses into dwarf zombies, a scheme in which he is aided by his collection of deadly flying spheres. Made for around $300,000, Phantasm grossed nearly $12 million at the box office and established Coscarelli’s reputation as one of horror genre’s most inventive talents. In addition to the first three Phantasm sequels, the filmmaker’s subsequent directing credits include 2002’s much-loved, Bruce Campbell-starring Bubba Ho-Tep and 2012’s John Dies at the End.

Phantasm: Remastered is a 4K digital restoration of the 1979 film, which was supervised by Coscarelli and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot company. Abrams is a huge fan of the series and named Gwendoline Christie’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens character Captain Phasma after the franchise.

The Hollywood Theater is operated by the Friends of the Hollywood Theater (FOHT), a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. The nearly 300-seat Hollywood Theater is located just minutes from downtown Pittsburgh in the heart of the Borough of Dormont.

Originally opened as a silent cinema in the 1920s, the Hollywood Theater is one of the last surviving single-screen movie houses in the Pittsburgh area. Recently renovated, it features a balcony, a large concession area, and a lobby with spacious comfortable seating. It is handicapped accessible.