Coming Soon!

Experimental Memoria
A special series commemorating the work of three notable experimental and underground filmmakers who left this plane in 2011, featuring films in their original 16mm format. Honoring George Kuchar, Robert Breer, and Adolfas Mekas. Coming this spring, to the Northwest Film Forum.

Now Playing!

Sci-Fi Saturday Secret Matinees II

Every Saturday at 2:00 PM for 12 thrilling weeks!
January 7 – March 24, 2012
Grand Illusion Cinema (University District, at 50th Ave. NE and University Way)

Passes available for purchase online now!
Full Series pass: $56 general / $35 GI members / $42 seniors, students, children
Monthly passes: $24 general / $15 GI members / $18 seniors, students, children

Scintillating Series Details Below!

Poster: Sci-Fi Saturday Secret Matinees II, every Saturday at 2:00 PM, Jan, 7 - Mar. 24, 2012, at the Grand Illusion Cinema, Seattle, WA

Strap on your helmets and charge up the disintegrator, folks — good old-fashioned Saturday matinees return again to the Grand Illusion!

Each week you'll see...

  • A cliffhanger episode of the original Buck Rogers serial from 1939 (12 episodes, complete) — the way it was meant to be seen! ...After 500 years in suspended animation, our hero awakes in a fantastic world ruled by the despotic super-gangster, Killer Kane. Joining forces with the last hold-outs in the Hidden City — including the brilliant Dr. Huer and the lovely Wilma Deering — Buck and his buddy, um, Buddy, wage a futuristic war to form an alliance with the Saturnians and save Earth from eternal tyranny!!
  • Plus a secret classic sci-fi feature — favorites, rarities, and cult classics from 1919-1974! Incredible vistas, amazing stories, and epic destruction that will transport you to spectacular futures beyond imagination!

And don't miss our special Leap Year Time Warp Show on Feb. 25, with mind-bending shorts and a chronosynclastic featurette! (And the original time-warpeteer Buck Rogers, of course.)

Brain-shattering monthly themes guide you to the Future!

  • January: Space Madness!
    Aliens and high strangeness...invasions and doomsdays!
  • February: Steampunk Adventures!
    Retrofuturist worlds of wonder...and other time warps!
  • March: Beasts From Beyond!
    Strange creatures and monsters...giants and bug-eyed behemoths!

Galactic savings with Monthly and Full Series passes!

Available online via Brown Paper Tickets (credit cards accepted)
or, at the Grand Illusion box office (cash or check only).
1403 NE 50th St. in Seattle, WA — tel. (206) 523-3935

Full Series pass — 5 free shows! Over 40% off:
$56 general / $35 GI members / $42 seniors, students & children

Monthly passes — 1 free show! 25% off:
$24 general / $15 GI members / $18 seniors, students & children

Day-Of Admission:
$8 general / $5 GI members / $6 seniors, students & children

Memberships at The Grand Illusion start at only $30 — the best movie deal in town!

Secret Matinee Episode Guide

JANUARY, 2012: SPACE MADNESS!
Hostile aliens and high strangeness...invasions and interplanetary doomsdays!

Jan. 7

An alien invasion wreaks destruction across the globe! Will humanity be exterminated?!

Buck Rogers, Episode 1: Tomorrow's World - After an airship crash in the frozen Arctic, Buck and Buddy fall into suspended animation. When they awake 500 years later, the world is ruled by a despotic gangster. Oh crap!

Jan. 14

Undead aliens lure intrepid space explorers into a ghoulish trap! Who will escape?!

Buck Rogers, Episode 2: Tragedy on Saturn - Buck and his crew travel to Saturn to get help in their battle against Killer Kane. Instead they are taken captive and stand trial.

Jan. 21

A rogue planetoid is on a collision course with Earth! How can humanity be saved?! (Not available on US home video!)

Buck Rogers, Episode 3: The Enemy's Stronghold - Buck tries to stop Prince Tallen of Saturn from forging a treaty with Killer Kane.

Jan. 28

The doomsday machines of a dead alien race threaten Earth! Can they be stopped?!

Buck Rogers, Episode 4: The Sky Patrol - The Hidden City unwittingly attacks when Buck returns in Kane's ship.

FEBRUARY, 2012: STEAMPUNK ADVENTURES!
Retro-futurist worlds of wonder...and other spectacular time dislocations!

Dinosaurs run amuck, a super-rare sci-fi musical, and more...

Plus, on Sat. Feb. 25 only: a special Leap Year Time Warp Show, featuring mind-bending shorts and a chronosynlastic featurette! (...And Buck Rogers, of course.)

Did we mention you can get monthly passes?

Illustration showing how film passes through a movie projector.

The Sprocket Society seeks to cultivate the love of the mechanical cinema, its arts and sciences, and to encourage film preservation by bringing film and its history to the public through screenings, educational activities, and our own archival efforts.

Since 2007, we have produced film screenings in the Seattle area, with programs ranging from silent film, to documentaries, to experimental and electronic cinema, to the Secret Matinee series (complete with weekly serial episodes), and more.

To receive announcements of upcoming events subscribe to our email list by inquiring at sprocketsociety [at] gmail. We also have an official Facebook page.

Our Primary Goals

  • Present film programs and experiences, for both general and specialized audiences.
  • Encourage the continued exhibition of mechanical cinema of all eras in both professional and informal venues.
  • Provide and promote education about the history of cinema, its creators, and the technologies used.
  • Promote film preservation knowledge and activities.
  • Cultivate an appreciation of cinema as an important art form, technology, historic record, and reflection of the human spirit.

The Sprocket Society is not a corporation or business, non-profit or otherwise. It is simply a small group of people with a common interest.

The group had its genesis in a series of private backyard movie parties, which began in 2005 and are still ongoing.

Past Programs by The Sprocket Society Have Included:

  • Georges Méliès: Impossible Voyager - Special Effects Epics, 1902-1912 — Seven films by the first screen magician, including unconventional musical selections, live narration and Victrola accompaniments by Climax Golden Twins.
  • Visions: Animation and Abstraction, Masterpieces 1908-1976 — 19 films by 15 directors in 90 minutes. With films by Emile Cohl, Harry Smith, Len Lye, Mary Ellen Bute, Oskar Fischinger, Larry Jordan, Hans Richter, Robert Breer, Stan Brakhage, Piotr Kamler, and more.
  • First Light: The Birth of Cinema 1895-1901 — Pioneering films by the Lumière brothers, the Edison Company, Georges Méliès and James Williamson. Plus short documentaries about magic lanterns and the Library of Congress paper print collection.
  • Breakaway: Films by Bruce Conner, 1958-2004 — Brilliant and influential experimental works made primarily with found footage.
  • The Heart of Life — Robert Enrico's stunning trilogy of award-winning films based on Ambrose Bierce short stories.
  • First Words: The Birth of Sound Cinema, 1895-1929 — Rare short films tracing the evolution of sound, plus live re-enactments of Lyman Howe's pioneering Victrola accompaniments.
  • Halloween Spook Show I & II — Spooky short films and live-action insanity, with complimentary death insurance.
  • D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) — The epic "film fugue" interweaving parallel tales in four historical epochs.
  • Focal Points: Short Documentaries from 1969 — Co-presented as part of the year-long 1969 series, NWFF, 2009.
  • Sixties Synaesthetics — Experimental films by Robert Breer, Storm De Hirsch, Cecil Stokes, Jud Yalkut, Scott Bartlett and Tom DeWitt, Barry Spinello, and Tony Conrad. (Co-presented as part of the Visual Music series, NWFF, 2010.)
  • Funny Stuff: Silent Comedies and Cartoons — Classic two-reeler comedies, plus rare silent-era cartoons
  • Secret Matinees — Recreating the weekend matinees of yore, with weekly serial episodes and secret classic features.
  • and others...

Friends of The Sprocket Society