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ladybird-2017.jpg

Decoding A24's Mysterious Public Access Message

By Kristy Puchko | Film | June 27, 2019 |

By Kristy Puchko | Film | June 27, 2019 |


ladybird-2017.jpg

In just under 7 years, A24 has become a hot brand in film distribution. They’ve released such critically heralded hits as Lady Bird, The Spectacular Now, The Bling Ring, Good Time, The Witch, and Best Picture winner Moonlight. And all of these terrific titles come into play with A24’s next gambit, Public Access. What Public Access is; however, is a bit unclear.

Check out the tweet that’s sparking debate:

It’s a listing of the above movies, but instead of images from them, a white screen on a black backdrop laying out their aspect ratios. I took this tweet to the Pajiba Slack to crowdsource from the Overlords what to make of this mysterious message. Our first guess was a streaming service, presumably where all the original aspect ratios would be intact. But then Genevieve pointed out the numbers below the film titles. Those signify location. So we did some digging.

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Lady Bird: Sacramento, California
The Spectacular Now: Athens, Georgia
The Bling Ring: Los Angeles, California
Good Time: New York City, New York
The Witch: Ossipee, New Hampshire
Moonlight: West Little River, Florida

For Lady Bird, The Bling Ring, The Spectacular Now and Good Time, the city listed is where they were set and shot on location. The Witch is set in an untamed 1630 New England territory, but shot in Canada. So Ossipee seems as good a spot as any to assume that’s its intended setting. But Moonlight shot in Miami, a three-hour drive West Little River.

What does that mean? Well, there’s also dates in the tweeted video. So there’s a time and place announced. We suspected A24’s Public Access is a series of free showings of some of their best films, screened in the places that inspired them.

That boils down to:

8 PM July 20 — Lady Bird, Sacramento, California

8 PM July 27 — The Bling Ring, Los Angeles, California

8 PM August 6 — The Witch, Ossipee, New Hampshire

7:30 PM August 10 — Good Time, New York City, New York

8 PM August 17 — The Spectacular Now, Athens, Georgia

7:30 PM August 24 — Moonlight, West Little River, Florida

However, a lot of these specific locations would be a curious place to screen a movie. Click the links above to take a look for yourself.

So, what could these be? Screenings? A DVD giveaway? A scavenger hunt? Weigh in with your theories in comments.



Header Image Source: A24