An interview with Mr. Psycho, programmer of the Psiego Bunker Cinema

Hidden in the bridge in the Vondelpark that connects Amsterdam West with Oud Zuid lies one of the best kept public secrets of the city in the form of the Vondelbunker. Every month, your favourite nuclear bomb shelter/cultural free space hosts a screening of Psiego Bunker Cinema, a very special film initiative. For Amsterdam Alternative we interview programmer and film freak extraordinaire Mr.Psycho about the initiative and the upcoming first anniversary screening.

AA: So you screen from film instead of from DVD, Blu-Ray or digitally. How does that work?
MP: I started collecting 16 mm film about four years ago. 16 mm film is old-fashioned film on film/celluloid/acetate cellulose materials, measuring 16 mm. The prints I show are short films and feature films that come on multiple reels of film. They mostly have come about because the 35 mm films were not supposed to fall into the hands of private individuals. So a lot of projectionists would have a 35 mm print copied to a 16 mm print for their private collection. But officially, they were not supposed to do so as the 35 mm print was supposed to be destroyed after the initial theatre run. So legally, we’ve been exploring a bit of a grey area with our screenings. Which makes them a great fit for the Vondelbunker as we don’t ask an entrance fee for the screenings, like every event in the Vondelbunker is free of charge to enter.

AA: How does an average screening look?
MP: Our host at the Vondelbunker opens with an introduction about the bunker and the donation system, then he introduces me and I give a disclaimer as we’re using a projector and physical film reels, so there are theoretically a lot of things that can go wrong as we’re working with a projector that is older than I am. I introduce the title of our feature film, which we never openly divulge but only allude to in our promotion and then I introduce and screen a short film. After that, there’s a small break while I rewind the spool and set up the first reel of the feature and I tell the audience some trivia about the film, sometimes relevant to the production itself, or sometimes concerning the physical state of the copy that we’re screening. Because of the physical medium, we might screen a copy with missing frames, discoloration, scratches or other damage to the print, etc. Depending on the amount of reels, we have one or two breaks during which I rewind the film and set up a new reel that allow people to have a smoke or get drinks at the bar. This is also when we pass around the donation film can to keep our screenings going. After the screening, everyone is welcome to stay a while and chat while enjoying more drinks (since the Vondelbunker also needs to be supported).

AA: How do you finance the screenings?
MP: I buy my films through Marktplaats from other collectors, it’s a small, but competitive world. We finance the upkeep of the equipment and such through donations during the screening. The projector can break down, the lamp has a limited amount of use before it breaks down, so there are expenses. But mostly I screen films because I just want to share this experience with people instead of just nerding out at my place with my fellow film geeks. Two of them help me organise the screenings by hosting, taking care of theme snacks and tending bar, so we’re actually a solid team.

AA: What can we expect from the upcoming anniversary edition on the 29th of April?
MP: Well, I can’t reveal the title, but we’ll have an exhibition of the twelve custom made posters that were designed specifically for the promotion of our screenings, we’ll have a bubbly welcoming drink for our loyal audience, there are snacks and nibbles relevant to the film as always and the feature itself is a very good fit for a Nuclear Bomb shelter film initiative, as it’s the perfect culmination of Cold War paranoia made flesh… over a metal skeleton. Afterwards, we’ll have an after party which just might feature an award winning VJ and DJ.

AA: Sounds like you’re going to party like it’s 1984!
MP: Well, the only curveball is that the Vondelbunker is such a popular venue that we accidentally double booked the night, so our anniversary edition will take place on the 29th of April at a stone’s throw away from the Vondelbunker at the OCCII opposite of the entrance of the Vondelpark in Zuid, which must also be a familiar place to most loyal readers of the Amsterdam Alternative. It’s also to make sure we throw all those pesky time traveling robots of our trail.

AA: What can we expect in the future?
MP: I will start screening 8 mm films and I’d like to introduce a wider audience to 8 mm films that reduce familiar feature films to a 20 minute length by focusing on just one storyline, or condensing the plot to an insane shortage. I’m a filmmaker myself, currently working on a long, gestating feature film made with the loyal PsychoCru which is an homage to the classic Italian Zombie films called Il Campeggio dei Morti Viventi after making some successful shorts like Schat… Ik ga Fietsen, Oma’s Verjaardag and The Vegan Vampire. We’re also working on exporting our programming to other cities, like Groningen and maybe Rotterdam.

1st Anniversary Screening of the Psiego Bunker Cinema, 29th of April at the OCCII, doors open at 19:30, feature starts at 20:30, donations are welcome!