Photo courtesy of Donovan Bogney.
If you have a desire to not only watch a movie, but talk throughout it, you are not alone. And now, starting Friday, August 29, you can join your neighbors with the new “Let It Roll” film series coming to Oak Cliff.
Hosted by BlueBlaze Entertainment, a special screening of Final Destination 2 will take place at Top Ten Records with doors opening at 7:30 p.m.
Local artist Donovan Bogney, known as DonoSpectacular, is hosting the event with many more to come in the series.
With an educational background in film from the University of North Carolina, Bogney said everything he does is related to music or film and that is what sparked the idea.
“I just wanted to showcase stuff that was like stuff you would see at a dorm room party,” he said. “Just kind of recreate that slumber party Friday night movie night type of vibe.”
Blending that sense of nostalgia with “$5 Walmart bin” style movies, Bogney said he wants to create a local hangout that has little pressure and gives people the opportunity to connect while the movies roll.
With his last event, “Late Night Hour” in July which featured a Dallas version of NPR’s tiny desk, Bogney said he wanted to hit the ground running by continuing to host more events.
“There’s plenty of screenings, like communal little independent screenings that are around town,” he said. “And whenever you go to them they’re not necessarily labeled like a talk-through thing, but that’s kind of what they end up being.”
Although those local events draw chatty crowds, not everyone is pleased to be in on the conversation.
Half are there talking and half are there to be super serious and focused on the film, so he decided “Let It Roll” would become the dedicated space for folks to talk through, he said.
“I’m just really leaning into it,” Bogney said. “I just want to have a lot of interactivity.”
The first “Let It Roll” event will include games throughout the screening to keep the audience engaged, and mix and mingle portions of the event to get to know fellow attendees. With future events in the series, Bogney also said he hopes to use it as an opportunity to showcase Dallas businesses and experience-based things like workshops with VR or arcades.
Tickets for the first screening are available now, with few tickets left, so interested individuals should book quickly and keep an eye out for future events from Bogney.
“Be on the lookout for fun stuff that you might have grown up with or just remembered seeing on cable one time that you thought was interesting,” he said. “It’s always going to be just something that’s not super obscure, but just kind of something you wouldn’t have necessarily thought about immediately.”
