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Another streaming service, or a roster of films headed for the public domain? Earlier this week indie entertainment company A24 tweeted a cryptic new project called ‘#A24PublicAccess’, which has opened up a mine of potential meanings online. I’m more than excited for the studio to launch a new endeavour, and while it looks to be leaning towards a distribution manoeuvre, ‘Public Access’ has a bit of an unconventional USP.
You see, this was no ordinary announcement (and from a studio known for its offbeat releases, could we expect anything else?) The tweet features an 11-second video of a white frame filling a black screen, with the names of A24 films in the bottom right corner, with dates, times and very specific coordinates. Now it’s unusual for a studio to release anything quite this cryptic, but trust the Internet to take it into its own hands and to try to crack the code themselves.
#a24PublicAccess is coming pic.twitter.com/AWRWcninhr
— A24 (@A24) June 27, 2019
The films in question are Moonlight, Lady Bird, The Spectacular Now, The Bling Ring, Good Time and The Witch. Alongside these, the coordinates look to be for the settings of the narratives. Sure enough, a quick Google search of each set will correspond with each film. We know that Moonlight is set in Miami and Lady Bird in Sacramento, California — and taking a quick look at the latter, the cafe on the side of the street looks an awful lot like the joint where Lady Bird worked her first job. Other observers have noticed that each of the coordinates feature a billboard, so perhaps this is leading to some sort of announcement.
Several dates have also been affixed to the short catalogue, which some have suggested might lead to dates for public screenings. A quick scan of the studio’s website will direct you to a dedicated Public Access page, but at the moment, scrolling down will show you that it’s just populated with the same images, dates and coordinates as the tweet. A more telling clue lies in a tweet from the Safdie brothers (directors of Good Time) who used the same material with the caption: GOOD TIME 8.10.2019.
GOOD TIME 8.10.2019 @a24 pic.twitter.com/ZjMi4QO4lS
— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) June 27, 2019
The full list of times, dates and locations announced with each film are as follows:
8 PM July 20: Lady Bird, Sacramento, California. 38°34’35″N 121°28’47″W
8 PM July 27: The Bling Ring, Los Angeles, California. 34°13’7″N 118°27’59″W
8 PM August 6: The Witch, Ossipee, New Hampshire. 43°42’19″N 71°06’44″W
7:30 PM August 10: Good Time, New York City, New York. 40°44’59″N 73°56’11″W
8 PM August 17: The Spectacular Now, Athens, Georgia. 33°57’24″N 83°22’49″W
7:30 PM August 24: Moonlight, West Little River, Florida. 25°50’49″N 80°13’6″W
It’s still too early to tell what ‘Public Access’ means in its entirety, but we can safely say that it’s created a lot of buzz online. For those across the pond (or maybe just willing to travel a little farther), it looks to be a summer full of some of the best releases of the last few years. I’m guessing at least a DVD giveaway, or at best a free release of these films for an indefinite period. After all, I could watch Lady Bird on repeat for days.
A24 Teases Cryptic New Project, #A24PublicAccess [Paste Magazine]
