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Matinee: 'Slide-O-Matic'
14 June 2025
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 608th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Slide-O-Matic.
It only takes 42 seconds for Mia Rose to demonstrate her Slide-O-Matic, which "will be making its debut at my show Vivid Memories on June 14th and will be traveling around Portland forever after," she notes.
June 14 would be today, as it happens.
If you're in Portland, Ore., you can find Vivid Memories: A Slide Film Showcase at the Concordia Commons from 8 to 10 p.m. "Mia Rose of Forage Films will be presenting a projected art show featuring five Portland photographers in celebration of color reversal film," John McSherry of the Concordia Neighborhood Association explains. "While you are there, check out the Slide-o-matic mystery slide vending machine."
Otherwise, you have this video of the "slide vending machine" to amuse you.
The machine is elegant in its simplicity and quite advanced in its user design. You select a random slide from one of three categories -- People, Places or Things -- by dropping a quarter into the corresponding slot on the right. Crank the handle by the slot and a slide is deposited like a candy bar (wrapped even) at the bottom of the machine.
You can view the slide by opening a small door marked "Pull Up" that reveals a small light box. We detected a small button under the viewing area you may have to press to turn on the light.
You might think that's all there is to it. And as a slide vending machine, you'd be right. Simple. Elegant. Friendly.
But what about the slides themselves?
Well, we don't actually know but for Rose's Foraged Film project (alluded to by McSherry), she "visited my favorite local art store and started sifting through their giant bin of donated mounted slides -- a few visits and over 800 slides later, [I] fell absolutely in love."
So her stock may be those 800 found images she foraged. Which increases the odds you might be surprised by what you get from the Slide-O-Matic.
In fact, it could be something, um, familiar.