STONE ZONE MARATHONE

STONE ZONE MARATHONE 4.20.2024

Is your idea of a perfect Saturday getting stoned and watching movies for 13+ hours straight? Ours too. Especially if it’s 4/20 and they are covertly (and overtly) political weed movies. Take a trip with Spectacle to the not so distant past, when cannabis was still accepted on the state level as a Schedule 1 narcotic, and your eyes weren’t assaulted on every block by the bright colored flashing LED lights of less-than-legitimate “dispensaries.” When the culture was still counter, and the fuzz was still hot. Burn one outside, or load up on gummies, and sit back and relax as we present the best in stoner comedies, weedsploitation, doped up documentaries, homegrown edits, and much much more.

As is Spectacle marathon tradition, all movies will remain a mystery until they screen. Sadly, we cannot allow smoking or vaping inside the theater (that’s what the sidewalk is for). No harshing anyone’s mellow, no bummer highs. And if you don’t like the films, don’t worry, you probably won’t remember them anyway.

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, NOON–END

DAY PASS: $25 [ PURCHASE ]
INDIVIDUAL FILMS: $5 each*; first come, first served

*No membership discounts will be offered


Run of Show:

MOVIE 1

******** ****
Dir. *** *********, 1973.
United States. 83 min.

Starting things off easy, real casual like, with this early 70s documentary about the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of cannabis sativa, you know, weed. And while it is a documentary, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a pot-smoking animated dog baked out of his mind singing at some point. Like a classic surf film without the surfing; think ENDLESS SUMMER or FIVE SUMMER STORIES, but instead of catching waves, we’re scoring grass and learning about the drug trade first hand.

 
MOVIE 2

**** ****** *** *****
(aka ** *** *******)
Dir. *** ****, 1977.
United States. 90 min.

Then it’s time to ramp things up, take things higher, as we head to the deep south for an action packed escape from the fuzz. Based on a true story, in the original locations, with locals playing the parts. One character even plays themself, an American Airlines DC-4.

 
MOVIE 3

******’* ******** **.
Dir. ****** *. ** *****, 1973.
United States. 70 min.

After that jolt of action, it’s time for a giggle with the original stoner comedy. Directed by and starring the future screenwriter of a slew of high profile 1980s and 90s action flicks, this before-its-time satire takes big swings at American corporatism, corruption, police, and draconian drug laws. But just so we can start this one at 20 past, we’re gonna watch this accompanying short first:

*****
Dirs. *** *** ******, **** ****, & ******* *****, 1994.
United States. 20 min.

A short slice of life by a renowned Ohio regional horror persona and his cohorts, showcasing a few “high-functioning” stoners as they go about their daily lives, getting stoned, working, getting stoned, drinking beers, driving to get more weed, getting stoned some more, and of course, being awarded Employee of the Month.

 
MOVIE 4

*******
Dir. *** **********, 1978.
Jamaica. 100 min.
In Jamaican Patois with English subtitles.

For our halfway point feature, oh boy do we have a treat for you. Do you fuck with Robin Hood? Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor? Do you like reggae? Then you will fuck with this Kingston-based tale quite heavily, as it stars some of the biggest names in the genre. And while the plot doesn’t specifically deal with cannabis, there’s enough on screen smoking to abide; plus this film is just too damn good to leave anybody, stoner or otherwise, unsatisfied.

 
MOVIE 5

******* *********
Dir. ******* ********, 1970.
United States. 89 min.

Our fifth entry of the day is one of the earliest independent films to depict the American political and cultural issues surrounding the Vietnam War, and was banned by the US military for it. A one-night-only Spectacle hit a few years back, we’re excited to bring this one back for the special occasion. It’s that thing where you’re in Vietnam, killing a bunch of women and children, but then your dad dies. So you have to come back home for the funeral and get caught up with a group of drug-running, war protesting, free-lovin’ hippies because you’re thinking with the rifle in your pants.

 
MOVIE 6

****** ****
Dir. ***** *****, 2007.
United States. 84 min.

Not going to lie, we may have put this entire day together just so we could watch this next movie with y’all. As far as movies that Spectacle likes to shine a light on, this one probably needs no help, but as far as stoner comedies go, it’s an unsung bonafide classic. The writing: impeccable; the directing: flawless; the acting: inspired. Think along the lines of a Safdie bros anxiety odyssey, but instead of being fueled by cocaine or amphetamines, it’s thoroughly baked out of its mind on herb.

 
MOVIE 7

***** *****
Dirs. **** *. ******* and ***** ******, 1972.
Florida. 80 min.

Like many a great picture, the audience’s suspension of disbelief weighs heavily on our final joint of the night. You’re gonna have to go into this one pretending that marijuana is highly addictive. And what could be more potent than pot to a pothead that’s become the victim of an agricultural business’s nefarious lab experiments? The blood of other drug addicts of course. What appears as a piece of Christian propaganda could very well just be a stoner’s elaborate joke, a decidedly hilarious one at that.

 


Poster by Benjamin Tuttle

THE EARLY OBSESSIONS OF BIGAS LUNA

“The thing that interests me most in films is to create credible subworlds. I prefer not to call them fantasies. I want to explain the stories in logical and realistic forms.” – Bigas Luna

Bigas Luna, born José Juan Bigas Luna in 1946, trained in interior and industrial design before beginning his filmmaking career in his native Barcelona in the mid-seventies. He exploded onto the silver screen with the gritty low-budget thriller BILBAO in 1978. Though many might recognize the name from REBORN (1981), his only American film, starring Dennis Hopper and Michael Moriarty, or ANGUISH (1987), his inventive and intense film within a film horror film, starring Zelda Rubinstein, he is perhaps best known for introducing audiences to Penelope Cruz, and for introducing her to Javier Bardem, in the torrid love triangle JAMÓN, JAMÓN, in 1992. The film would join GOLDEN BALLS (1992) and THE TIT AND THE MOON (1994) to form his Iberian Trilogy, also called his Iberian Passion Trilogy, a trio of seductive, surreal, erotic and painterly melodramas that would bring him critical and commercial success.

His early works BILBAO (1978) and CANICHE (1979), though less polished, maintain an intensity, a provocative power and a rebellious spirit that render them continuously fascinating and disturbing, as shocking and fresh as anything else produced in his career, distinguished as vital films in his filmography and in the whole of Spanish cinema. They belong to a time of renewed freedom in Spanish culture and filmmaking, a period of transition after the death of Franco, in which orthodox ideas could be challenged, icons shattered, and taboos destroyed. This April, in collaboration with The Bigas Luna Tribute and Tierra Extraña NY, Spectacle is proud to present two of his early works, BILBAO & CANICHE.

BILBAO
dir. Bigas Luna, 1978
Spain. 98 min.
In Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles

FRIDAY, APRIL 26TH – 7:30 PM (W/Q&A)
FRIDAY, APRIL 5TH – 5 PM
THURSDAY, APRIL 11TH – 10 PM
MONDAY, APRIL 15TH – 10 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS! Q&A

GET YOUR TICKETS!

A disturbed middle-aged man (Ángel Jové) becomes obsessed with a stripper and prostitute named Bilbao on his nighttime prowls through Barcelona’s Chinatown. He follows and studies her, setting a plan in motion for her abduction. Shot in 16mm, the second feature shot by Bigas Luna following TATUAJE (1979) was actually his first to premiere on Spanish screens, shattering the taboos of Spanish society of the era and inaugurating a cinema of iconoclasm and eroticism.

In BILBAO, we share a dangerous intimacy with our obsessive protagonist. His thoughts and words, images and objects, sounds and pieces of music repeat incessantly over the course of the film, haunting him and us, as they reappear in sinister unexpected ways, stained by the rising tides of his lust and shaped by the shifting contours of his perversions. His everyday objects turned fetish objects become our fetish objects, as we join him in the crafting of his idealized sex object and the construction of his ultimate crime.

“Luna’s debut is a wonderful ample catalog of perversions, a voyeuristic exercise full of suggestive imagery… that brings the most fetishistic and twisted Alfred Hitchock to the damned and dirty Barcelona of the late seventies.” -Xavi Sánchez Pons

Each screening of BILBAO will be preceded by a video introduction from Carolina Sanabria, author of Bigas Luna, El ojo voraz.

The April 26th screening of BILBAO will be followed by a special discussion about the film in Spanish with Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Carolina Sanabria of The Bigas Luna Tribute and Casilda García López of Tierra Extraña NY.

CANICHE
(Poodle)
dir. Bigas Luna, 1979
Spain. 90 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles

FRIDAY, APRIL 12TH – 7:30 PM (W/Q&A)
FRIDAY, APRIL 19TH – 5 PM
THURSDAY, APRIL 25TH – 10 PM
MONDAY, APRIL 29TH – 10 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS! Q&A

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Brother and sister Bernardo (Ángel Jové) and Eloisa (Consol Tura) lead a cloistered existence in a crumbling Catalan mansion where they subsist on the charity of their wealthy aunt as they await the inheritance they’ll receive from her death. They lavish their attention and affection on their pet poodle Dany, sublimating erotic desires onto their canine companion. Dany is the witness to and the victim of their downward spiral of debasement, which only accelerates as their financial fortunes grow.

Bigas Luna’s odyssey of the perverse continues in CANICHE, a provocative and perturbing dissection of the incestuous, cannibalistic and bestial bourgeoisie.

“… (CANICHE is) the spiritual sister of the John Waters films FEMALE TROUBLE (1974) and DESPERATE LIVING (1977). The first three Bigas Luna films are just as corrosive, free-spirited and punk as Waters’ films from the seventies; they seduce us with a dirty realism -very pop- which turns beautiful and causes Stendhal syndrome.” -Xavi Sánchez Pons

Each screening of CANICHE will be preceded by a video introduction from Santiago Fouz-Hernández, co-organizer of Bigas Luna Tribute, editor of the book and podcast El legado cinematográfico de Bigas Luna and author of the forthcoming book The Films of Bigas Luna.

The April 12th screening of CANICHE will be followed by a virtual Q&A with Santiago Fouz-Hernández.

THE EARLY OBSESSIONS OF BIGAS LUNA is presented in collaboration with The Bigas Luna Tribute and Tierra Extraña NY.

The Bigas Luna Tribute provides audiences with the unique opportunity of seeing some of Bigas Luna’s most critically acclaimed works and participating in in-depth discussions with special guests (academics and members of the Spanish film industry who worked with Bigas Luna).

Tierra Extraña NY is a living social network for New York’s Spanish diaspora, encouraging each other’s feats and initiatives and bringing Spain to life in NYC in events, productions & culture.

Special thanks to Santiago Fouz-Hernández, Carolina Sanabria and Casilda García López.

FANTASY A GETS A MATTRESS

FANTASY A GETS A MATTRESS
Dirs. Noah Zoltan Sofian, David Norman Lewis, 2023.
United States. 79 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 – 7:30PM, Q&A MODERATED BY EMILY PIERCE
SATURDAY, APRIL 6 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, APRIL 7 – 5:00PM, Q&A MODERATED BY ARIEL MOTTO
MONDAY, APRIL 8 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, APRIL 9 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY APRIL 11- 7:30PM

ALL FANTASY A GETS A MATTRESS SCREENINGS FEATURE A Q&A WITH THE FILMMAKERS / $10 TICKETS

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS

The larger-than-life rapper with autism FANTASY A is well-known in every corner of Seattle for his unconventional and memorable guerilla marketing tactics. After being unfairly kicked out of his group home, FANTASY A is forced to use his genius towards a new goal: getting a good night’s sleep. Along the way, he’ll face off against seedy club owners, hip-hop vampires, scummy dojo losers, and a slew of other wack Seattleites who hope to stop FANTASY A in his tracks and crush his dreams of fame, fortune, and a safe place to catch some Zs.

All the way from the Emerald City, please welcome FANTASY A and his crew to Spectacle for a weeklong run of their new bizarro dark comedy FANTASY A GETS A MATTRESS! Each night will feature an extra special cast and crew Q&A, April 5th through April 11th. Only at the Burning S.

Funny A.F.” – Sir Mix-a-Lot

Already a cult classic—one of my favorite Seattle movies of all time.” – Rachel Kessler

Vibrantly offbeat, highly original” – Cynthia Brothers (Vanishing Seattle)

I SEE A DARKNESS

I SEE A DARKNESS
dirs. Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly, 2023
Ireland. 133 mins.
In English.

FRIDAY, MARCH 15 – 7 PM followed by a discussion with Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly
SUNDAY, MARCH 17 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, MARCH 25 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, MARCH 31 – 5 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

This March, Spectacle is honored to host the U.S. premiere of I SEE A DARKNESS, a new essay-documentary about both the origins and the future of photographic imaging directed by Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly.

Following Trevor Paglen’s edict that “It’s imperative for other artists to pick up where [Harun] Farocki left off, lest we plunge even further into the darkness of a world whose images remain invisible yet control us in evermore profound ways”, the makers of I SEE A DARKNESS describe the film as a political and philosophical manifesto for seeing differently. While pushing back against standardized myths of individual genius, Waugh and Daly thread their exploration of this technology’s origins with the story of Lucien Bull (1876-1972), an Irish-born inventor and key figure in the development of chronophotography and onetime assistant to Étienne-Jules Marey. I SEE A DARKNESS also considers the work of Harold E. Edgerton, who developed high-speed film cameras on behalf of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, thus meditating on the relationship of innovation to the natural world and resulting in a kind of threnody for the untold number of animals sacrificed in the name of so-called scientific progress.

Born of a multimedia installation project spanning several years and dedicated to the memory of the filmmakers’ close friend and collaborator Sylvère Lotringer, I SEE A DARKNESS combines historical footage from dozens of archives with original material shot at locations such as the Conservatoire des Techniques de la Cinémathèque Française, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Death Valley, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, White Sands National Park and others. The result is an unforgettable rumination on the way supposedly objective practices (whether time-based cinematography in the 19th century, or AI-enabled digital imaging in the 21st) are perhaps inevitably deployed to political ends.

I SEE A DARKNESS ultimately questions what was disappeared in the ‘progressive’ narrative of image-capture technologies, especially considerations of the non-human and animal, and gestures towards what Jean-Christophe Bailly reminds us of when he writes: “the world in which we live is gazed upon by other beings, that the visible is shared among creatures, and that a politics should be invented on this basis, if it is not too late.”

“I’ve always liked that quote from Nietzsche, ‘We hear only those questions for which we are capable of finding an answer’, which suggests that to really think critically we must create new modes of questioning rather than seek easy answers, that fostering new problematics is what thinking in film (as in any art) should promote… In this sense, the way different subjects come together in I SEE A DARKNESS became a kind of organic process whereby certain ideas, concepts, histories, and political  and philosophical concerns, formed their own Venn diagram and impetus, finding expression in the final film in the form of creating new questions.” Katherine Waugh

“After a recent viewing of their film I SEE A DARKNESS, it is safe to say that Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly’s new work together is not only one of the most significant Irish films of this century but one of the most significant films of this century more generally. This is a work that not only engages with critical and pertinent philosophical ideas but it places itself among a rarer breed of film essay that will actively do the work of philosophy, while also engaging and creating clarity around complex philosophical thought and ideas. It is in my opinion a stunning achievement and a work that should be widely seen.”Daniel Fitzpatrick, Co-Director of aemi

“Fergus Daly and Katherine Waugh may not be the most recognizable names on the Irish filmmaking landscape but over the last 20 years they have proved themselves to be pre-eminent crafters of the film essay. They have used both the world and mechanics of cinema as springboards to a range of deeply considered ideas and observations. I SEE A DARKNESS is a typically cerebral and meticulously constructed meditation on a variety of topics ranging from image capture to the atomic bomb. Engrossing!”Don O’Mahony & Si Edwards, Programmers, Cork Film Festival

This event is presented in association with the Irish Film Institute’s IFI International programme supported by Culture Ireland. Special thanks to Ruairí McCann.

WILLIAM BANKS VS. PEOPLE’S POPS

WILLIAM BANKS VS. PEOPLE’S POPS
dir. Sam Blumenfeld, 2024
United States. 20 min.
In English
World Premiere

THURSDAY, MARCH 7 – 10 PM (W/Q&A)
THURSDAY, MARCH 21 – 7:30 PM (W/Q&A)

ADVANCE TICKETS Q&A

On October 14th, 2018, William Banks was locked inside a walk-in freezer for 45 minutes. “William Banks vs. People’s Pops” examines William’s trauma from the incident and his quest for revenge on People’s Pops, in a delirious yet heartfelt comedy, performed and composed with madcap energy, that defies simple documentary, mockumentary, or fiction categorizations.

Written by William Banks, Sam Blumenfeld and Russell Katz and starring William Banks, Anthony Oberbeck, Jamie Linn Watson, Maya Sharma, and William’s Former Boss, Spectacle is proud to present the world premiere of “William Banks vs. People’s Pops.”

Screenings will be preceded by a foreword by William Banks and followed by Q&As with the cast and crew.

MOSS BEACH

MOSS BEACH
dir. Armon Mahdavi, 2023
United States. 73 min.
In English and French w/ English subtitles

MONDAY, MARCH 4 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, MARCH 10 – 7:30 PM (W/Q&A)
FRIDAY, MARCH 22 – 7:30 PM (W/Q&A)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 – 10 PM

ADVANCE TICKETS

ADVANCE TICKETS Q&A

A literary translator in San Francisco is unexpectedly visited by her niece, who she has not seen since a tragic family event. The two spend the weekend together in a small coastal town, where on hilly drives and misty beachside walks, in front of the fire, and over glasses of wine and plates of rigatoni, they discuss the power of literature and the perils of translation, share grief and regret, and find compassion and companionship.

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2023 Lower East Side Film Festival, Armon Mahdavi’s debut feature is an assured minimalist work wrapped in fog and patience, presented in mournful landscapes and intimate interiors, marked by sensitive performances, gentle rhythms and quiet intensity.

  

LUNAR NEW YEAR FILMS

LUNAR NEW YEAR FILMS

This March, Spectacle Theater dives into the longstanding tradition of the Lunar New Year movie with a pair of Hong Kong holiday classics.

The Lunar New Year movie, or hesuipian (贺岁片), is a tradition dating back to the early years of the Hong Kong film industry, with the February 1937 release of Tan Xiaodan’s BLOOM AND PROSPER timed to coincide with the holiday. By the 1980s, the term took on a whole new meaning beyond just a film’s release date. Lunar New Year movies came to be seen as something of a genre all their own— widely-marketed, crowd-pleasing films, often blending elements of comedy, romance, action, and fantasy, and highlighting the festivities, teachings, and customs typically associated with the holiday.

Join us this month as we (belatedly) ring in the Year of the Dragon with these two timeless New Years classics, each a celebration of food, family, and good fortune in the year ahead.


IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD
(富貴逼人)
dir. Clifton Ko Chi-sum, 1987
Hong Kong. 100 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, MARCH 1 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 9 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, MARCH 18 – 7:30 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

TV reporter, Bill (Bill Tung), struggles to make ends meet to support his wife, Lydia (Lydia Sum), and three daughters in a rapidly changing Hong Kong. When Lydia wins the lottery, Bill assumes all their family’s prayers will finally be answered. Yet after a series of compounding mishaps, misunderstandings, and misadventures, Bill begins to wonder if this stroke of good fortune may have ultimately changed the family’s luck for the worse.

Next to the Hui Brothers, who effectively revitalized the concept of the Lunar New Year movie in the early 1980s, Clifton Ko may be the name most closely associated with the tradition. Released on New Years Eve 1987, IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD became hugely popular on its initial run, spawning a string of successful sequels and helping shape the humor, style, and feel-good tone of New Years movies in the years to come.


THE CHINESE FEAST

THE CHINESE FEAST
(金玉滿堂)
dir. Tsui Hark, 1995
Hong Kong. 100 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, MARCH 5 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 15 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 30 – 5 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Chiu (Leslie Cheung) is a triad looking to start a new life as a chef in Canada, starting at the very bottom under the stewardship of overly critical restaurateur, Au (Law Kar-ying). Au, meanwhile, is fighting to save his restaurant against a takeover by the shady, faceless megacorporation, Super Group. When Au and Super Group’s leader agree to a cooking contest at the prestigious Qing Han Imperial Feast, Chiu seeks out the aid of Kit (Kenny Bee), a once renowned master chef whose life was left in shambles following a major personal and professional embarrassment.

Tsui Hark’s food-centric ensemble comedy re-united him with former Cinema City cohort, Raymond Wong, fresh off producing three consecutive, highly successful New Years releases, ALL’S WELL, ENDS WELL (1992), ALL’S WELL, ENDS WELL TOO (1993), and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1994), all directed by Clifton Ko. The film is a testament to Tsui’s versatility as a director, hitting all the right comedic and feel-good beats in keeping with its New Years stylings, while still maintaining the kineticism and grandeur of the wuxia and heroic bloodshed work he’d been best known for. But historical context aside, this is basically “food porn, but with martial arts choreography by Yuen Bun,” and there shouldn’t be much more we need to say to sell this one.

SINGULA

SINGULA
dir. Yukihiko Tsutsumi, 2024
Japan, 76 min.
In English
North American Premiere

THURSDAY, MARCH 7TH – 7:30PM (W/Q&A)
SUNDAY, MARCH 17TH – 5 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 22ND – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, MARCH 28TH – 10 PM

ADVANCE TICKETS

ADVANCE TICKETS Q&A

Veteran cult filmmaker Yukihiko Tsutsumi, director of the Best of Spectacle 2023 smash hit EGG, returns to the goth bodega to premiere his newest film SINGULA, a debate club battle royale death game pitting fifteen human-like AI androids against each other in the ultimate debate to decide whether humanity should be destroyed.

Starring Japanese actor and singer spi/William.Spearman in the role of all fifteen AI bots and based on a play by Kyosuke Ichinose, Tsutsumi’s new film is a singularly strange reflection on human dignity and the role of AI in the modern era.

The March 7th screening of SINGULA will be followed by a virtual Q&A with director Yukihiko Tsutsumi and producer Kyosuke Ichinose.

GRIER/MARKOV: SAVAGE SISTERS

GRIER/MARKOV: SAVAGE SISTERS

Abbott & Costello… Martin & Lewis… Lemmon & Matthau… These are just a few of Hollywood’s most famous on-screen duos that Pam Grier & Margaret Markov could easily beat the shit out of. Though they only appeared together in two films, Grier’s & Markov’s presences loomed large over exploitation cinema in the 1970s, appearing in over half a dozen “women-in-prison” films between them in the early part of the decade.

With the loosening of censorship practices in the 1960s, women-in-prison movies saw a resurgence in popularity, the setting lending itself easily to the more extreme depictions of sadism, sapphism, voyeurism, and fetish acts that B-movie studios and filmmakers were after. Enter Pam Grier & Margaret Markov, soon-to-be staples of the revitalized genre. Grier, a switchboard operator working at American International Pictures, caught the attention of Roger Corman affiliate, Jack Hill, leading to Corman casting her in his early 70s “prison cycle” of films that included THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971), WOMEN IN CAGES (1971), and THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972). Markov, meanwhile, had only a couple of minor credits to her name before landing her big break as one of the lead roles in another Corman WIP production, THE HOT BOX (1972).

The pair would go on to co-star in two productions, Eddie Romero’s BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA (1973) and Steve Carver’s THE ARENA (1974), but despite their brief career overlap, the chemistry between them was undeniable. Two equally headstrong, tough-as-nails vixens making for perfect character foils, but with a combined strength able take down prison guards, gangs, and gladiators alike.

Markov would retire from acting in 1974 shortly after the release of THE ARENA, her penultimate feature. Grier, meanwhile, would go on to become a superstar in the blaxploitation genre, her name synonymous with nearly every iconic blaxploitation heroine from Foxy Brown to Coffy, Sheba Shayne to Friday Foster.


BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA

BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA
dir. Eddie Romero, 1973
United States/Philippines. 87 min.
In English.

SUNDAY, MARCH 3 – 5 PM
MONDAY, MARCH 11 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 15 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MARCH 29 – 10 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Rich girl-turned-revolutionary, Karen (Markov), and brassy former prostitute, Lee (Grier), are the newest inmates at a Philippines jungle prison. The two immediately butt heads, causing enough trouble to warrant a transfer to a maximum-security facility. While en route to the new jail, their convoy is ambushed by Karen’s comrades, allowing her and Lee to escape, albeit still shackled together. With different plans, different enemies, and a mutual hatred for one another, the two fugitives must learn to work together to survive the peril-laden jungles.

Directed by Filipino film legend, Eddie Romero, BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA stands as the pinnacle of Grier’s & Markov’s work in the WIP genre. It was almost inevitable that their careers would cross paths, given that their prior WIP work had all been produced in the same budget-friendly Philippines (in some cases, at the same time). The concept for the film was originally pitched by Joe Viola and Jonathan Demme as a modern riff on Stanley Kramer’s THE DEFIANT ONES, updating its setting and themes and engorging it with titillating content, but keeping the fiery political spirit of the original intact.

The film became a box office hit for American International Pictures, with critics singling out the pairing of Grier & Markov as a “hit with audiences”.


THE ARENA

THE ARENA
dir. Steve Carver, 1974
United States/Italy. 82 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, MARCH 14 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, MARCH 19 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 29 – MIDNIGHT

GET YOUR TICKETS!

When the Roman elite force a group of female sex slaves to become gladiatrices tasked with fighting each other to the death, a Nubian dancer and a Gaulish priestess join forces to mount a vicious rebellion against their male oppressors.

Grier & Markov’s second collaboration landed them in Italy for a T&A-centric take on the story of Spartacus, the pair once again playing adversaries-turned-allies, united in oppression and driven to revolution. Unlike Corman’s previous Philippines-set WIP films, THE ARENA was one of New World Pictures’ few European co-productions, with several of the arena scenes filmed by Carver’s Italian counterpart, Joe D’Amato.

Corman later credited the success of the film to Grier & Markov’s talent on screen, acknowledging that the pair “were beginning to be well known and were emerging somewhat as stars of this kind of film.” Ironically, while the film cemented the duo’s stardom and box office dominance on the grindhouse circuit, its production was also where Markov met her future husband, producer Mark Damon, leading her to retire from acting soon after its release.


THE HOT BOX

THE HOT BOX
dir. Joe Viola, 1972
United States/Philippines. 85 min.
In English.

MONDAY, MARCH 4 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 16 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MARCH 22 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, MARCH 26 – 7:30 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Four American nurses working in the republic of San Rosario enter a hellish nightmare when they’re kidnapped by guerilla army to provide medical assistance in their fight against an oppressive government regime. Tormented by every man that crosses their path, the four women must band together in the dense jungle in pursuit of one shared goal: survival.

Prior to her collaborations with Pam Grier, Margaret Markov had teamed up with Roger Corman and writer/producer/director team, Joe Viola and Jonathan Demme, for this unorthodox blend of the WIP and similarly trending “nurseploitation” genres (see: last year’s Stephanie Rothman program). Markov stars as Lynn, one of the captured nurses who begins to sympathize with the revolutionaries once she witnesses firsthand the government’s poor treatment of civilians. As with BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA, Viola and Demme foreground the politics inherent to the film’s WIP themes and banana republic setting, placing the women’s fight for liberation squarely within the context of an anti-capitalist struggle (a theme that some viewers may recognize as a recurring component of Jonathan “A luta continua” Demme’s later life and career).

WOMEN IN CAGES

WOMEN IN CAGES
dir. Gerardo de León, 1971
United States/Philippines. 81 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, MARCH 1 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, MARCH 12 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, MARCH 21 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 30 – 10 PM

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After being framed by her drug dealer boyfriend while vacationing in the Philippines, Carol “Jeff” Jeffries is locked behind bars in a harsh prison somewhere in the jungles of Manila. Jeff endures daily torture and degradation at the hands of the prison’s sadistic head matron, Alabama. After learning that a local drug kingpin is out to silence her once and for all, Jeff realizes that the only means of securing her freedom is escape.

Pam Grier, in just her third-ever film role, steals the show as the villainous Alabama, flipping the script on her earlier role as one of the tortured inmates in Jack Hill’s THE BIG DOLL HOUSE, released the same year. Apart from Grier’s standout performance, what sets this entry apart from most other 1970s WIP releases is the grittiness and brutality with which the prison conditions are portrayed. In contrast to Corman’s other productions, de Leon mostly eschews tantalizing scenes, moments of levity, and feminist or other political subtext in favor pure grindhouse exploitation. What’s left is a portrait of prison life so harrowing that one notable future Grier collaborator once referred to it as “soul-shattering, life-extinguishing”, describing its final shot as one of “devastating despair”.

DIGGING IN THE CRATES: THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY

Occasional Brief Glimpses of Beauty (OBGB) presents DIGGING IN THE CRATES, a video essay and philosophy lecture about the dynamics of cultural memory in 1990s hip hop, the way in which Golden Era hip hop sampling is defined by a “dual embrace and rejection of what came before” (in the words of musicologist Tom Perchard).

THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY
dir. John Akomfrah, 1996
45 mins. United Kingdom.
In English.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2 – 7:30 PM followed by discussion with Zed Adams
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
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Whereas some archive-based documentaries are backwards-looking in that they aim to make sense of the present through reflecting on our relation to past media (such as Bill Morrison’s DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME), and others are forwards-looking in that they aim to document the present in order to create an archive for the future (such as John Wilson’s HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON), John Akomfrah’s THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY is simultaneously backwards- and forwards-looking in proposing that sifting through the detritus of past media holds the clues for coping with the future. Akomfrah’s video essay combines sci-fi speculation with interviews with Juan Atkins, Octavia E. Butler, George Clinton, Samuel R. Delany, and others.

“A tantalizing blend of sci-fi parable and essay film [as well as] a fine primer on the aesthetics and dynamics of contemporary Afrofuturism—it was the first film to include the then-recently minted term.” – New York Magazine

THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SAMPLING

In this 30 min. lecture, philosophy professor Zed Adams will discuss the relevance of Walter Benjamin’s work for appreciating the aesthetics of 1990s hip hop. His lecture will be accompanied by a supercut of interviews with hip hop producers taken from BEAT DIGGIN’ (Jesper Jensen, 1997), SCRATCH (Doug Pray, 2001), DEEP CRATES I & II (Jeremy Weisfeld, 2004 & 2007), and BEAT KINGS (Ray Stewart, 2006).

This is the second installment of the OCCASIONAL BRIEF GLIMPSES OF BEAUTY (OBGB) documentary series. Special thanks to Icarus Films.