Events—Trash Cannes Film Festival
Text Box: When viewers attack: Club loves bad movies Augusta Chronicle: February 20, 2003 Though Edmond Kida holds nothing against the two-thumbs-up features that unspool daily at local cineplexes, he believes there is a certain beauty in the truly bad. A champion of the lost and lacking, Mr. Kida rescues Hollywood's flawed and forgotten features, screening them for an appreciative, if somewhat snide, audience on a loose monthly basis. The aptly-named Trash Cannes Film Festival, which will screen the 1959 thriller (using the term loosely) The Killer Shrews on Saturday, began life as a fund-raiser for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta, where the showings are held. "We were trying to come up with something that was very different and very social," Mr. Kida, the "festival's" founder said. "Our thinking was, if you go to a movie theater and pay good money, you aren't supposed to talk. In our theater, we're looking for just the opposite. That's why we pick the worst movies of all time." For the Trash Canners, film viewing is an audience-participation sport. During a recent screening of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, verbal thrusts and jabs were leveled at the unlikely tale of a rock star/scientist intent on saving the world from John Lithgow. Mr. Kida said the secret is finding a film so bad that audiences can abuse it without guilt. "There have been times when we thought about picking a certain movie and then decided that it might have too many good points," he said. "We've also had situations where we thought we had a bad movie, and when we played it, it wasn't that bad. Fortunately, only a few good movies have crept into our bad-movie nights." Mr. Kida is particularly enthusiastic about this month's Killer Shrews offering. "It's going to be great," he said enthusiastically. "The makeup effects are basically pieces of carpet attached to dogs. I can hardly wait." NOW SHOWING WHAT: The Killer Shrews, presented by the Trash Cannes Film Festival WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday WHERE: The Unitarian-Universalist Church of Augusta, 3501 Walton Way ADMISSION: $5, $15 for families of three or more. Pizza, popcorn and drinks provided. Call 733-7939.

Over the years, we’ve tried many innovative ways in which to raise money.  One of the most interesting was the Trash Cannes Film Festival.  Originally the idea of Kay Michelson.  In addition to watching the movie, the audience could also purchase souvenir t-shirts.  The film festival fell in decline in the late 90s, only to be revived by Edmond Kida, onetime Defender of the Universe, in 2002.