Mall City Documentary Celebrating Shopping Mall Culture Comes Home For Screening In New York City

New York City, New York Jul 31, 2023 (Issuewire.com) - Anthology Film Archives 32 Second Avenue New York, NY presents on August 2, August 11, and August 16, 2023, the ground breaking documentary video Mall City that will open the film series Shopping Worlds, with an opportunity to meet director Hugh Kinniburgh (Reality Check TV, Thomas Kinkade). The film series attends to the social and cultural phenomenon that is the suburban shopping mall. It's 1983 at Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island and the film documents the real-life mall rats, clerks, and old timers that made up the vibrancy of what was the modern-day town square. Funny, exciting, enlightening, and nostalgic Mall City takes you back to a more innocent time when kids with feathered hair and Members Only jackets roamed the malls looking for dates, record albums and to make the high score on Pac-Man.

Director Hugh Kinniburgh was a student at New York University Film School and used a documentary assignment as an opportunity to break new ground plus create a long-form music video for the art-punk band The Rawtones and their new song Mall City. Armed with (then) the latest portable video gear, the Mall City crew lets the mall people themselves answer the question, "Why do you hang out at the mall?" It all adds up to explain the inspiration behind the song which is performed live at the end.

"It is a combination of Cinéma vérité, man on the street, with a healthy dose of gonzo journalism," says Mr. Kinniburgh. "As as my hero and fellow NYU alumni, Martin Scorsese said, 'When I'm making a film, I'm the audience."

The NYU film school project became a Youtube hit (709,000 views and thousands of comments) that brings back many fond memories for those who grew up in the 1980s as well as a yearning for the 'good old days' from younger viewers from around the world. The film is called a time capsule popular with the resurgent fascination with shopping mall culture. Where were you in '83? Hanging out at the local mall, playing video games, and looking for a date? Then you might be one of the people interviewed in Mall City!

Screened in the spring of 2022 at the Forum des Images in Paris, France for another tribute to mall culture, the documentary returns home to New York City for three nights in the Lower East Side. Mall City will be screened with other mall-core classics such as Dawn of the Dead and Mallrats.

"You can catch the film on Youtube, but there's still nothing like an in-person experience. Go old school and get on the bus, come hang out, and meet your friends because like The Rawtones sang: "Mall City is Where I Want to Be!"

The 1983 Documentary Mall City, the video time capsule of classic shopping mall culture, will be screening during the Shopping World film festival at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue New York, NY on August 2nd, 11th, and 16th with an opportunity to meet director Hugh Kinniburgh (Reality Check TV, Thomas Kinkade) and experience other classic mall related films such as Dawn of the Dead and Mallrats.

Screening Information:
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003
(212) 505-5181

MALL CITY (80 mins)
Wednesday, August 2, 2023, 6:45 PM Meet the Director
Friday, August 11, 2023, 9:30 PM Meet the Director
Wednesday, August 16, 2023, 6:45 PM

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