15 Questions With Shona Sanzgiri, Editor
"Governments should subsidize independent theaters."
Name: Shona Sanzgiri
Location: LA
Occupation: Editor, freelance writer, photographer
Latest work by Shona: Folk Tattoos for Modern Living, That Cool Girl from India
1. What’s your favorite day & time to go to the movies?
I love a 3 or 4pm summer Saturday movie because it usually means I can get a 5-5:30pm dinner and talk about the movie and still be home roughly by sunset in time to walk my dog.
When I was a kid, my dad and I would see a Saturday morning matinee every week, often before 11am if I remember correctly. These days I fantasize about a weekday matinee, though I’ve somehow internalized the idea that enjoying myself before 5pm on a Tuesday is a federal offense.
2. What’s your favorite movie theater?
I’ll pick two.
The first is the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, CA. It opened in 1925 and got a major restoration in 1989. There’s a big flashing marquee, marble columns, 1,200 seats, tall red curtains, a balcony, and a live organist who rises from beneath the stage before and after each movie to play a triple-tier Wurlitzer.
I’ve seen so many classics there: Pather Panchali, Summertime, Shadow of a Doubt, The Searchers. The popcorn is remarkably bad, but hey, tickets are $8.
Vidiots in Eagle Rock is my platonic ideal of a movie theater, with programming that spans middlebrow favorites (they recently screened my childhood favorite So I Married an Axe Murderer!), the usual classics and rarities, and new indie releases in the cozy microcinema. The concessions are maybe 50% of the reason I’m there so often: refrigerated Junior Mints, good hot dogs, pastries from Cafe Tropical, and leftover popcorn handed out for free at the end of the night.
They pull an impressive lineup of actors and filmmakers for Q&As, people like Jacob Elordi, Lucretia Martel, Riz Ahmed, Gus Van Sant, Penelope Spheeris, RZA, and I think Kaia Gerber showed up recently to be interviewed by The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey. I live close by and have seen more than one celebrity at the Sprouts across the street.
3. What’s your go-to movie theater snack & drink combo?
Two hot dogs, Diet Coke, and cold Junior Mints (only if they’re cold), all of which I disgustingly inhale during the trailers.
If I’m exercising my A-List status at AMC, it’s a complimentary upgraded large popcorn with a box of peanut M&Ms scattered inside. The chicken tenders recommended by Tasbeeh are great too.
I don’t always get a snack. Sometimes sparkling water is enough.
4. What’s your dream movie theater snack & drink combo (if noise and sound weren’t an issue)?
Chaat, aka Indian street food, and chai. Samosa chaat in particular, which is a deconstructed samosa with crispy bits of shell on top. Or maybe something handheld, like veggie pakoras. Either way, extra tamarind, extra chutney.
5. First movie you remember seeing in a theater?
The Rocketeer starring Jennifer Connelly in 1991 at the Oaks (RIP), a discount movie theater in Cupertino, California. I’d just turned 6 and Connelly was my first crush. I remember my heart beating fast and thinking I needed to lay off the candy.
6. Last movie you saw in a theater?
Abbas Kiarostami’s Close Up at Vidiots.
7. Is there a movie you wish you could have seen in a theater?
Goodfellas, The General, or an Almodovar film, all at the time of their release and in the location they’re associated with.
As for a film I saw in the theater and would like to see again: Rangeela, which was my first Bollywood film.
I was maybe 9 or 10 years old and we sat in the balcony because the lower level was full and full of “rough” people—my dad disputes this last part, but I remember someone we were with saying as much.
By “rough,” it seemed like they were mostly working class—rickshaw drivers and laborers who’d spent what little discretionary cash they had to see hot people dance for a couple of hours (this is also how many family members have justified the length and musicality of Bollywood films).
Whenever the lead actress, Urmila Matondkar, would appear onscreen, I remember some guy would stand up in ecstasy, yelling something at the screen (maybe loudly professing his love?) Occasionally colored fog would stream through the room. Both of these details were confirmed by my dad.
8. Have you ever seen a movie more than once in theaters?
I saw One Battle After Another three times with different family members and liked it less each time.
I think I saw Jurassic Park, like, five times when it came out. It ran in my local theater for close to a year.
9. Do you stay through the credits or leave as soon as the film ends?
I usually leave right away. Is that rude? Sometimes the credits give me an opportunity to decompress before reentering the world.
10. What’s one thing you would change to make movie theaters better?
Governments should subsidize independent theaters, which are more like community spaces than just entertainment venues. The ones that survive do so on a kind of civic faith that the market doesn’t reward and probably can’t explain.
11. Tell me about an especially memorable moviegoing experience that stands out in your mind.
I saw Amores Perros in 35mm at the Aero followed by a talk with director Alejandro Iñarittu, who said he hadn’t watched the movie in almost 20 years. I can’t remember everything he said, but he revealed so many fun facts about the production of the movie. At the beginning, the moderator asked if anyone was watching the film for the first time and not a single hand went up.
12. What’s a movie you’re looking forward to seeing?
The Odyssey (although the trailer is so bad).
13. What’s your dream combination of director and lead(s)?
I would have loved to see Satyajit Ray direct non-Indian actors.
As for pairings within the realm of possibility: Barry Jenkins and Sterling K. Brown, Michael Haneke and Nicole Kidman, Richard Linklater and Sam Rockwell.
14. If you could live in a movie, which one would it be?
The Great Beauty for the parties, the ruins, the light, and that quintessential Italian idea that melancholy and pleasure are not in opposition.
15. Why do you think people should continue seeing movies at the movie theater?
It’s critical that we push back against this wretched “second screen” idea—the assumption that attention is a resource to be optimized rather than surrendered. Art is immersive or it’s décor. It shouldn’t always feel easy, and it doesn’t have to.
There’s a reason people keep returning to record players and film cameras, analog holdouts that require you to actually be there for them. There needs to be some friction.
This is corny and/or a cliché, but I think of the theater as a kind of church— not in any way I could or would want to defend theologically, but the experience of watching a film in the dark, silent, surrounded by strangers in a room, is clearly reverential. It’s also the cheapest way to be somewhere else.