Back in 2003, when the first World 3-D Film Expo was announced,
promising to screen over 30 classic 3-D films in their original dual projection
format, I was chomping at the bit to go. But I was in the middle of production
on a television series, low on funds and the trek from Toronto to L.A. was just
more than I could take on. It happened again in 2006, and again I found myself
in similar circumstances. The event was referred to as “a Woodstock for movie
geeks” by Leonard Maltin and although I’ve missed the initial offerings, World
3-D Film Expo III, is set to begin September 6th in Hollywood at the
Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. I’ve booked my flight so I guess I’ll have to
settle for the “Lollapalooza for movie geeks”.
While the offerings seem scaled down from previous years and
I’ve had the opportunity to screen a number of the films in the last ten years,
this year’s World 3-D Film Expo promises to be very exciting for film buffs and 3-D
fanatics alike. They have a few firsts. The John Wayne classic, Hondo opens the
festival, making its first 3-D presentation since an anaglyph television in the
early eighties. And an early Russian 3-D film from the forties, Robinzon Kruzo
(Robinson Crusoe) will play in America for the first time.
I’m extremely excited to see the Richard Carlson vehicle The
Maze in 3-D, a film I’ve come to think of as a thematically connecting bridge
between the science and the horror to his other 3-D films, It Came From Outer
Space and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Carlson also teamed up with Ivan
Tors to produce another sci-fi 3-D rarity, GOG.
It's not playing this years festival.
It's not playing this years festival.
Other personal highlights promised by the festival is a
chance to seen the film that kicked off the 3-D revolution of the 50’s, Arch
Obler’s Bwana Devil, the first adaptation of a Mickey Spillane novel, I, the
Jury and a theatrical screening of the 70’s soft-core film The Stewardesses.
That film is closely tied to the depthsploitation asthetic here on this blog
and also featured the work of Chris Condon and Dan Symmes, two 3-D pioneers
that were my window into the stereoscopic world and have both sadly passed on.
More information of the 3-D World Film Expo III can be had at
their website, 3-dfilmexpo.com, and would it hurt to like them on facebook.
I’ll be in L.A. for most of the Expo and posting highlights
all week. If you’re in L.A. you owe it to yourself to get down to this even,
and if you’re an nut for 3-D you might consider getting yourself down there for
this event, lest you spend the next ten years, like I have, with a little
regret.
