Like an in-the-know insider, those who are subscribed to the Outside the Box Office mailing list receive exclusive invitations to film screenings of both indie and VIP studios as late as the day of. Taking advantage of USC School of Cinematic Arts’ multiple screening rooms, the Outside the Box Office’s calendar boasts a wide selection of films for both the USC community and the general public to enjoy.
As a testament to the university’s and industry’s connectedness, Outside the Box Office partnered up with streaming giant, Netflix, this past Friday. Together, they presented a screening of Wes Andersons’ “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” with a Q&A session to follow with the film’s cinematographer Robert Yeoman, a faculty member of the School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) and producer Steven Rales.
The screening series calendar is both star-studded and jam-packed. On Thursday before, audiences enjoyed the country of Georgia’s official Oscar submission for Best International Film, “Citizen Saint” with a discussion to follow with the director-writer-producer Tinatin Kajrishvili.
The ambitious and well-connected screening series reflects the rigor and reputation of SCA. It came to fruition 15 years ago due to the efforts of its still-active founder, Alex Ago.
Born from USC’s most popular elective of over 50 years, CTCS-466: Theatrical Film Symposium, also known as Thursday Night at the Movies with Leonard Maltin, Outside the Box Office screening series was a result of Ago’s refusal to turn away external screening offers for the once-a-week class. The opening of the new SCA complex in 2009, complete with new screening rooms, was the opportunity to begin a screening series that is independent of the weekly class. Ago details this beginning, “As long as distributors were still willing to give us the same resources and provide access to movies and guests, then we could offer them for free to the campus at large.”
That is still to say there is an Oz-like wizard at work, as Ago states that this screening series is also carefully curated. Ago said his own criteria for a selection to make it to the screening calendar, is that it must be able to be “discussed on its own merit as a film and not simply as a topic.” He strives for a film festival structure that equally commends the content as well as the craftsmanship that makes it possible. Therefore, subscribers and audiences of the Outside the Box Office series have a filmmakers’ workshop resource directly and actively contributed from awarded and on-the-rise creators.
An event that encapsulates this educational and community-building spirit is a 2022 screening that brought together multiple supporters to celebrate. “Lumpia with a Vengeance” was a crowdfunded action comedy film that was hosted at SCA’s Ray Stark Family Theatre under Outside the Box Office, and whose co-writer and director, an SCA alumna, Patricio Ginels.
The lobby was lively with members from screening partner USC Troy Philippines and catering from Lumpia Mania. A sneakers sweepstakes was propped on a table near check-in as well as the QR code for a free digital comic book—of which the film was spun off of and was crowdfunded by its supporters.
As if a local middle ground between “a packed theater at Century City on opening night for a Marvel movie” and “driving all the way to Santa Monica to the one three-quarters empty theater that a new French film is playing at,” Ago works around the clock for the Outside the Box Office screening series to be a place to discuss with like-minded peers and dismantle the idea that cinema is a “siloed experience.”
While the program was maintained through the pandemic with online screenings, Ago stands firm that Outside the Box Office is tied to a physical place, also aligning with distributors. Like a “year-long film festival,” Outside the Box Office allows a place on the USC campus for pre-release films, international Oscar submissions, and crowdfunded works alike. This year, the screening series celebrates 15 years of hosting a space for inspiration, collaboration, and education for those who act in both creator and audience member roles.
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