Apar Films Night

Tom Soter on APAR FILMS NIGHT

 It was 1971, and after making dozens (or was it hundreds?) of audio-only tape shows, my high-school friends Alan Saly, Tom Sinclair, and I gathered in front of Christian Doherty's Super-8 camera to make action movies under the name Apar Films. Usually, the plots were simple: Saly and Sinclair would chase Soter (WISHING YOU WERE DEAD), or Soter and Sinclair would chase Saly (THE THEFT OF REASON), or Saly and Soter would chase Sinclair (PRESSURE POINT). Then there was the occasional innovation: Sinclair without Saly chasing Soter (GUN FOR HENRY), or even Doherty, as actor and director, chasing Soter (THIS WILL REALLY KILL YOU and MAKE A WISH). Some could see the movies as metaphors for life. Others might call them exercises in action-packed illogic. I think they were a good way to get some exercise. And they're also really, really well done.

In 2008, the four of us began "The Apar Films Restoration Project," which would take the surviving films – there were about 20 of them still around – and, with the help of DijiFi Films and Barking Tiger International, transfer them all to DVD. We cleaned up the deterioration as much as we could and attached the soundtracks, which were on reel-to-reel audio tape. Although I had never forgotten the films, these new editions revived my interest in my adolescent undertaking, which had been unusual to say the least. Starting last November and finishing only this month, February, I began  interviewing the participants (myself included) for a documentary about how the Apar movies were made. With Christian handling camera on a number of the shoots, it was like old times – except we now knew enough not to run around with toy guns in the frigid cold on the streets of New York. A fellow could get killed doing that. Thanks to Alan, Siny, Evan, Cam, Camilla, Ron, Marc, Jack, Michael (who did some camerawork and designed the graphics for the event), and, of course, Christian.

I hope you can come. An editor at a national leisure-time magazine looked at the documentary and said, "That Apar doc was really entertaining. I threw it on just to see what it was all about and ended up watching the whole thing. I wish I had known you all back then!" The admission fee and any additional contribution you might make goes to the event expenses and the Apar Films Restoration Project. We will also be showing three short Apar Films, take questions, and offer refreshments, though not necessarily in that order. See you on February 20.