Enjoying the Locals, and their movies

This one seems odd, since Blair Sterret is really more a friend then a neighbor. But boy, he is someone you should meet.

A while ago Mr. Wood and I stopped by for Blair’s practically weekly “Incredibly Strange Movie Night”.

I know what you are thinking. No, this isn’t a whole bunch of hipster college students getting together because someone has a copy of “Dark Crystal”. These are actually the strangest movies known to earth. And, Blair isn’t just some random hipster. He is the curator of the Lost Media Archive. He is the expert. ISMN is over a decade old you know.

Here is the Lost Media Archive official statement:

LMA is a Utah-based collection of mondo/ kitsch/ cult/ ephemeral/ experimental/ historical/ obsolete/ forgotten/ unearthed audio-visual and textual documents. LMA is also a resource for those who cling to bygone media formats. The LMA was founded by Blair Sterrett and works together with loaf-i productions, the Free Form Film Festival and Salt Lake City Film Festival to arrange screenings, viewings, and concerts. The LMA also promotes and initiates the creation of new and unusual films, albums, performative projects, and book events. We accept donations of any and all projection, recording, and filming devices. When possible, we maintain these machines for use by recordists and filmmakers. (We now curate over 35,000 films.)

This is what we watched last night. “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies”, for which ISMN was named after. So, you see, it was a special night. As we learned from Mr. Sterret, Ray Steckler (director) doesn’t use a script. So his movies are essentially made up as they go along, depending on materials available, what he gets bored with and so on. Yes, it was ridiculous. But somehow charming. We got to watch a bonus interview of Ray Steckler before the film. Apparently he gave it the ridiculous name because he thought bigger name, bigger movie.

If you want to see Blair's archive or partake of his extensive strange movie knowledge, look at the Lost Media Archive site. All year he is also doing an ISMN show once a month at Brewvies movie pub in SLC (which are free!) This month is going to be incredible (if you are interested in George Melias, or just wonderful things). Find out about the film here on the facebook page. Check it out tomorrow! July 31st.

Here is a trailer for all the shows he is showing at Brewvies in 2012.

Which sums up ISMN pretty well.

If you are at all curious, you should go to one of his shows. I can honestly say, that no matter how odd the movie was, I’ve never regretted going to ISMN. I can also say that Blair Sterret is possibly the nicest, kindest, and most mysterious man in Utah County. Plus, he has the best stories to tell about all the incredibly strange things.

Shannon