Victoria film enthusiasts launch event series to highlight underground films and bands

Two film and music enthusiasts have come together to launch an event series that highlights independent, underground films and live music in Victoria. 

Destroyed Cinema + Music pairs a film screening of a low budget, underground film with local bands and musicians that pair well with what is being viewed. 

The initiative was started by Nick Workman and JP Meldrum, who both share a love for the DIY mentality and the community that surrounds underground art. 

The duo met when Meldrum was interviewed by Workman on his Substack, which is a weekly newsletter that mostly highlights local music, but the two found a mutual love of film during their interview. 

“We got on the subject of movies and we both had a mutual love of underground, experimental and DIY kind of B-movies,” Meldrum told Victoria Buzz. 

“We had this idea of, why doesn’t the DIY scene in Victoria—which is awesome, super prolific and welcoming—have a space for cinema yet?”

Both Meldrum and Workman are involved in the underground scene and see how it embraces and encourages people to create art for the sake of creating it, but they saw a gap in that scene for filmmakers to have a platform to share their art. 

“What inspired it for me was that, when I lived in Toronto I used to go to a lot of underground screenings,” explained Workman.

“It was always a blast to have it be more of an event, than just going to a movie theatre.”

He added that one of the things that he and Meldrum wanted to bring to this, was to pair the screenings they wanted to show with music, because sometimes it can be hard to get people to go out to a low-budget, underground film they may not have heard of before. 

“Honestly I’ve met a lot of people who have made a lot of films and I am kind of sickened by the amount of ‘middle-manning’ that’s in the film industry,” said Meldrum. 

“You can put your whole heart and soul into a film and spend a lot of time or just a lot of energy and time, and just be rejected by people who are only concerned about certain fiscal optics.”

He added that there are a lot of filmmakers in Victoria and opportunities for many of them, but there is nothing for genuinely DIY work to be shown, which creates barriers for people who want to make movies with little to no funding. 

“It’s so important that art is this genuinely democratic thing that can be publicly displayed in any way, and this medium—film is such a popular and awesome medium—is just so institutionally overrun,” Meldrum continued. 

“Anything to kind of get in the way of that, to make it more punk-rock, or DIY, or equitable.”

Workman echoed Meldrum’s sentiment, in that he too wants to see DIY cinema respected in the same way as DIY music. 

Past and future events by Destroyed Cinema + Music

The format of their shows is that the bands play first, then they screen the film. The duo decided on this format because if they hosted their events the other way around, people might lose their energy by the time the bands go on. 

Thus far, Destroyed Cinema + Music have hosted two shows with their third coming up in June. 

At their first event in February, they screened Roach (2022), an experimental, anaglyph 3D, 31 minute film made by Vancouver Island’s own schnüdlbug. 

The film presents the story of ​​a young pilot who narrowly escapes the destruction of her home in a stolen ship, only to be followed by the colossal cockroach responsible.

The musicians Destroyed paired with this film were Trepomene, a solo atmospheric black metal, ambient artist, along with Roach FM, the filmmaker’s lo-fi, drone noise project. 

Following the show was a Q&A with the director. 

The second show in April featured the film It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This (2023), directed by Kirksville, Missouri directors Rachel Kempf and Nick Toti. 

The film tells the story of two horror fans who buy a creepy duplex to shoot a film. However, they find cult members gathering outside in a trance and investigate the phenomenon, but their obsession escalates as they pursue real-life horror thrills.

Destroyed paired local noise acts Landfill Park and Pseudo 73 with the film as well as one electronic act, Martina.

Their next event will feature the film Honeycomb (2022), which was made by Avalon Fast, a filmmaker based on Cortes Island. This film follows five girls who stray from society on the hunt for something more special.

The musical lineup will be Victoria punks Dastard and Cherry Venom, along with Elbow Kiss, a local ambient harpist. 

This event is slated for Sunday, June 22nd, at the Paul Phillips Hall, also known as ‘Little Fernwood.’

To keep up with Destroyed Cinema + Music’s bi-monthly events, visit their website.

Additionally, Destroyed is going to be launching another event series soon, called Destroyed Secret Cinema, in which they will show a secret cult classic film in a secret space once a month. 

Those who want to go, will go in blind and find out the information by following Destroyed on Instagram and direct message them for details. 

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