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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Film A&P Film: Visual Parades for a Post I-502 City

Posted by David Schmader on Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 11:02 AM

Kelly O
Michael Anderson and Shane Wahlund

For many filmgoers, the primary pleasure of cinema is the propulsive narrative—you plop yourself down in the dark knowing you're not getting up until the Titanic sinks or Sophie chooses or Ben Affleck solves the Iranian hostage crisis without jostling his wig. But sometimes you want less plot and more immersion in a world of cinematic mystery, where excerpts of terrible Elvis movies rub up against game-show atrocities and instructional films explaining menstruation to the developmentally disabled. For such filmgoers, there is Collide-O-Scope.

Half video art installation and half stoner gawkfest, Collide-O-Scope is the cinema-collage extravaganza created by Michael Anderson and Shane Wahlund, Seattle men who bonded over a love of oddball video—news bloopers, educational films, B-movie gems—then joined forces to bring the treasures of their exploration to the public. First appearing on the north wall of Re-bar, Collide-O-Scope dazzled viewers and soon grew into a regularly occurring event, with the current Collide-O-Scope schedule bringing two shows a month at Re-bar, one show a month at Central Cinema, and occasional special nights at venues ranging from dive bars to Seattle Center. No matter the locale, the takeaway of the Collide-O-Scope experience remains the same: There's nothing more glorious, hilarious, ridiculous, and horrifying than human behavior, and here's proof.