New Home for Old Trash

Stacey Case has been projecting ephemeral film on the wall of his screenprinting studio under the formal banner of Trash Palace since this past summer. Operating in downtown Toronto, his unique micro-cinema has offered strange pictures, good company, and cool beer to grateful cineaste nerds. Boasting rarely seen genre films like Schizo, Macon County Line, and Force On Thunder Mountain, Stacey and his compatriot 'Mouth' have provided a fun experience from the beginning, but I have had issues with the layout of the first Trash Palace venue. Size was definitely a constraint, and with Stacey as the ever congenial host, this sometimes meant everyone being jammed in beyond the number of seats available rather than him having to turn film lovers away.

Luckily the Trash Palace has just found a new home right next to the old that will allow the cinema to grow in both the quality of its screenings and the number of fans it can accommodate. This venue is roughly four times the size of its earlier home. There is now more than enough room for browsing souvenir ephemera, purchasing drinks and fresh roasted hotdogs, and best of all, plenty of seating. Each area is clearly defined and separated for comfort; a feature that was too frequently lacking in the previous venue. The new space also boasts a crude but effective projection booth to avoid sightline problems, jostling, and noise.

Though the idea of Trash Palace was always an exciting one to me, this new exhibition space should allow Stacey to realize the potential of his experiment. I hope to be seeing bizarre screenings there well into the future. Stacey and Mouth's happiness and enthusiasm for the material is contagious and a night at Trash Palace can be tremendous fun.

Currently the Palace holds screenings every second Friday night, the next being Frankenstein's Daughter on January 18th. Hit the link in the title to get more information. See you there soon.