SCALA!!! An interview with filmmakers Jane Giles and Ali Catterall | My Soho Times

Truly a legend in its own lifetime, there’s never been anywhere quite like The Scala Cinema, and it’s doubtful there will be ever again. Across 15 years and two locations, from the late 1970s to the early 90s, the Scala reigned supreme as the epicentre of subcultural cinema. With more than a touch of good, old fashioned flea pit.

It’s a story begging to be told and who better to bring it to the screen than Jane Giles, a former Scala programmer and author of a book detailing its wonderfully debauched history. She and co-director, Ali Catterall, took time out of a busy promotional schedule at the BFI London Film Festival for a quick chat with Soho-based filmmaker Angela Fealy.

As a filmmaker and a previous volunteer at BFI LFF, it was an absolute delight to be invited by My Soho Times (MST) to interview the filmmakers of the documentary feature ‘SCALA!!!’ Immediately at ease, I sat with my questions eager to discuss the filmmaking progress with its makers. We had an in-depth chat about the inspiration behind the documentary feature, funding, and being picked up by the highest film authority in the country for release early 2024.

MST: How hard or easy was it to get your hands on the footage that covered such a considerable timespan? And how challenging was it to edit the footage?

Jane: Hours and hours of archives and four hours initially of movie clips. 

Ali: Jane has a great phrase, it’s like putting together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, but with no picture on the front of the box. As a filmmaker, you’ll understand it’s a matter of juggling so much! Mixed metaphors here, but juggling a lot plates at once. There are so many ‘in’s’ to this film, so many avenues and we decided to go in through the audience, rather than the management. 

MST: It’s giving me Studio 54 vibes.

Ali: I’m so glad you said that because our three cornerstones in the film are related to that vibe. If you’re any kind of artist you have influences and inspiration at the back of your mind. The three big ones for us are: The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, which shares a lot of cultural DNA with our film in terms of the people; 24 Hour People, which we really wanted to capture that vibe, that circus of chaos and Spinal Tap, well why not? It shares that sense of humour.

MST: How did you condense the material?

Jane:  We transcribed the audio of all the interviews, using a transcription tool, and then Ali and I edited them.

Ali: We literally took a highlighter pen and highlighted what amused us and if it amused us then hopefully will amuse the audience. We had to go through huge shades of interviews. What’s left at the end could easily one day end up in a book, the oral history of youth in the 80’s of subculture. Then it was seeing what fitted and what didn’t and shuffling things around on the page or in the edit. 

Jane: You make something called a paper edit out of those highlights. We chose what made us laugh and cry and we had in our heads a three act structure. The film is organised as Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and legacy, so we worked within that as an editorial structure. Then the editor and assistant editor turned the timecode of highlights into an assembly. 

MST: With the nature of the film, did you find funding more difficult or easier to approach investors, given the nostalgic dive back in time?

Jane: Regarding funding, the people who got it, really got it. The people who got it were The Doc Society, particularly Lisa Marie Russo who was our first commissioner. She really understood that Scala was an important place in terms of the diversity of the people who went there and the importance of what they went on to do. Secondly, we had a crowdfund of over 400 people, an easy decision for them because they loved the project. £1, £5, £100 or in some cases £5k were suggested donations.

MST: What was your crowdfund budget, if you don’t mind me asking?

Jane: It was a third of the total budget of the film. Then the last bit of the film funding budget came back from The Doc Society, Part 2 to pay for the licensing of the archive of the material. What we didn’t manage to do is get a TV commission upfront. Sales agents, distributors and TV, they’re all like “see how it works out”.  It’s a buyers market. 

Ali: Not a single platform picked us up.

Jane: Also, they didn’t need to develop us as young filmmakers because we aren’t young filmmakers. Commissioners, they mostly have projects to support emerging filmmakers.

Ali: And rightly so.

Jane: The great Andy Starke, our producer, says “Once you get the first bit, the rest will follow, once you get the first good review, the rest will follow”. 

MST: You have been picked up now.

Ali: Yes, we are being distributed by the BFI, out on 5th January. Channel 4 bought it, so from nobody picking it up to the highest film authority in the country distributing us and Channel 4, it’s a perfect fit. We also have North America distributors talking to us. 

MST: Do you see another Scala-like cinema making a comeback? What cinema nowadays is most like Scala cinema?

Ali: Prince Charles cinema, they modelled their whole ethos on Scala, if you like. They probably wouldn’t admit that but it’s true! Film festivals per-se, which have the same sort of energy and diversity as a Scala. This has been the Scala!! natural audience so far, as we have been touring so many festivals. Sometimes the more far-flung, the greater the reception, Athens loved us! Also big up Garden Cinema, they are doing God’s work with their range of eclectic programming! The management of Garden Cinema do think of Scala as the Shangri-la of cinemas, it’s been their biggest influence. 

MST: Thank you both and I look forward to seeing the film at the festival and on its official release in January 2024.

For news and updates follow @scalacinema on Twitter.

Written by Angela Fealy @fealyfilms | Edited by Gillian Smith | Images: Kai Lutterodt / My Soho Times

More from the blog!

Get social with us – follow and tag us! @mysohotimes #MySohoTimes