Marijuana is often lauded as being “hangover free”, maybe most famously by Tim Meadows’ character in WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY, but most stoners can attest to at least a slight fog the next day if one goes hard. And Spectacle went hard in April with the 420 double feature of [REDACTED] and DEALING: OR THE BERKELEY-TO-BOSTON FORTY-BRICK LOST-BAG BLUES. So hard in fact that our licensing agreement allows us to play the titles a few more times to recoup some of those expenses. Thus, this May Spectacle—groggily—presents the return of DEALING, paired with pornographer Alex de Renzy’s classic documentary WEED, for a look back at Marijuana under prohibition and the experience of trafficking bricks across borders, both fictional and non-fictional.

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DEALING: OR THE BERKELEY-TO-BOSTON FORTY-BRICK LOST-BAG BLUES
Dir. Paul Williams, 1972.
United States. 88 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, MAY 2ND – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 8TH – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, MAY 16TH – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27TH – 7:30PM

[ PURCHASE TICKETS ]

DEALING: OR THE BERKELEY-TO-BOSTON FORTY-BRICK LOST-BAG BLUES, a mouthful of a hyphen-laden title, tells the story of Peter (Robert F. Lyons), a privileged Harvard Law student who parlays his ennui into cross country drug smuggling at the behest of his posh classmate John (John Lithgow in his first film role).

Set against the backdrop of the ongoing Vietnam War, Peter makes his way from Cambridge to California under the alias Lucifer where he picks up a shipment of marijuana and becomes smitten with Susan (Barbara Hersey), who he meets during the basement deal. Safely back in Boston with a suitcase full of bricks, Peter implores John for another mule gig in order to bring Susan to the East Coast. But things don’t quite go to plan and Peter must further immerse himself in a world of corrupt cops, missing evidence, heroin, and the Cuban cartel, to get Susan out of trouble.

Based on the book by the brothers Crichton under the joint nom de plume of Michael Douglas, a combination of their first names respectively: Michael Crichton and Douglas Crichton (not to be confused with the actor Michael Keaton, who had to change his name because the son of Kirk Douglas beat him to the SAG card).

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WEED
Dir. Alex de Renzy, 1972
United States. 117 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, MAY 2ND – 5PM
MONDAY, MAY 18TH – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, MAY 26TH – 10PM

[ PURCHASE TICKETS ]

Presented as an educational film, adult film pioneer Alex de Renzy takes us on a journey through the methods, risks, and logistics of the 1970s drug trade.

In 1970, Alex de Renzy found commercial success with CENSORSHIP IN DENMARK: A NEW APPROACH (1970), a film that documented Denmark’s legalization of pornography while incorporating explicit sexual content. The film was the subject of obscenity challenges in New York, where rulings in its favor helped expand the legal exhibition of explicit films.

However, this win was short lived for de Renzy as this ruling allowed cheaper, less tasteful pornography to flood the market. In regards to this de Renzy said “I made films with style and fought to get them shown, and then this trash comes along and floods the market. It only demeans my own reputation.” As a result of this de Renzy decided to turn his attention to another subject that, in the early 1970s, remained shaped by legal restriction and social stigma.

WEED (1972) traces a path through Mexican border towns, Californian enforcement offices, and international trafficking routes, combining interviews with customs officials, narcotics agents, and small-time dealers. As it details techniques such as maritime transport, air routes, and concealment strategies, it gradually reveals an underlying interest not just in documenting these systems, but in understanding how they function in practice.

A year later, it became evident that WEED was more than just a film for de Renzy. On September 22, 1973, he was arrested by Canadian drug enforcement officers after a tip-off that the decommissioned naval vessel he had taken on an around-the-world trip was being used to smuggle hash. An initial search of the ship turned up nothing, but three days later authorities discovered a cache valued at nearly one million dollars hidden ashore. The charges against de Renzy and his crew were ultimately dropped, and he denied any knowledge of the operation for the rest of his life, famously asking, “Why would I do that for a lousy million dollars?”

Are acts of violence viable and warranted solutions to political oppression? To fascism? Should individuals take it upon themselves to affect political change by going as far as murder or assassination? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? The Spectacle as a screening space has no official stance or answers for such trivial questions, but we do have a wholly unconnected and unrelated series of films about the DIY ethos that we are calling: NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK. Apropos of nothing else going on in the world, we suggest you see the following films:

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FAREWELL, MR. PRESIDENT
(JÄÄHYVÄISET PRESIDENTILLE)
Dir. Matti Kassila, 1987.
Finland. 87 min.
In Finnish with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1 – 7:30 PM – [TICKETS]
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9 – 10 PM – [TICKETS]
TUESDAY, AUGUST 12 – 10 PM – [TICKETS]
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 – 10 PM – [TICKETS]

Asko Mertanen is a working waiter who is obsessed with two things: the corrupt government’s unfair treatment of the country, and guns. Mertanen’s obsessions combine into a deadly self-assigned edict: to kill the President of Finland. Like any well engineered plan, Mertanen builds to his ultimate act by testing his weapons, his accuracy, and his ability to take a life. A confluence of Mertanen’s savviness as well as a serendipitously timed murder of another waitress lead police detectives Hanhivaara and Kairamo on a confused chase to stop him before he achieves his final goal.

A late work for one of Finland’s most prominent filmmakers of the 1950s and 60s, Matti Kassila. With a screenplay written with his son, Taavi Kassila, and based on the novel of the same name by Pentti Kirstilä. The film’s president, played by accomplished Finnish actor Tarmo Manni, is never mentioned by name but bears a striking resemblance to politician, and Finland’s longest serving president, Urho Kekkonen. Who during his extensive term consolidated government power to the presidency and developed a cult of personality. How about that?

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PASSPORT TO DESTINY
Dir. Ray McCarey, 1944.
United States. 65 min.
In English.
16mm.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 05 – 7:30 PM – [TICKETS]
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 – 5 PM – [TICKETS]
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 – 5 PM – [TICKETS]
SUNDAY, AUGUST 31 – 5 PM – [TICKETS]

“If you had a charmed life, what would you do?”
“I’d find my way to Germany, and I’d give that Mr. bloomin’ Hitler what for!”

Elsa Lanchester (the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) stars as Ella Muggins, a Cockney cleaning lady who feels proud and empowered in her work attending to the office of the head of the firm. But with the 2nd World War hitting its heights, her working class life in London is soon to be interrupted. After her regimental sergeant major husband perishes (lost not to the war, but underneath a motor truck in Piccadilly Circus) Ella inherits from him a magical amulet. According to her husband who was known for spinning yarns, the amulet—or magic eye—carries with it powers of protection. After a close encounter with a bomb care of the Germans’ air raids, Ella is convinced of her husband’s tall tales, and with a new lease on her ‘charmed’ life, she makes her way to Germany to do what the British military seemingly can’t: kill Hitler.

PASSPORT TO DESTINY is a charmingly hilarious comedic romp, and a lovely piece of anti-Nazi do-it-yourself regime change propaganda care of RKO. With Lanchester turning a brilliant performance as the naively headstrong Muggins, whose fortuitous actions through Germany resemble that of the Mr. Magoo character, who himself would not be created for another 5 years. Released in early 1944 only a handful of months before the Allied forces’ invasion at Normandy, and over a year before Hitler would eventually blow his own brains out.

We are pleased to present the film on 16mm for all engagements.

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THE EDGE
Dir. Robert Kramer, 1968.
United States. 100 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2 – 5 PM – [TICKETS]
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7 – 10 PM – [TICKETS]
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 – 7:30 PM – [TICKETS]
MONDAY, AUGUST 25 – 7:30 PM – [TICKETS]

THE EDGE follows Danial Rainer, a disillusioned political activist, over the course of six days as he navigates the inner politics of his organizing group as they struggle to have any effect on the actions of their government and its war on Vietnam. Dan is tired of theory, and wants to take decisive action, but the rest of his similarly white and middle class cohort are going to be difficult to get out of their comfort and on board. The plan? Assassinate the President of the United States.

Robert Kramer presents the events unfolding like an intelligence outfit surveilling and gathering evidence. The cast of characters; introduced like that of a police debriefing or dossier; names, ages, and political histories. The camera; at times a lingering distant voyeuristic point of view like that of an observing agent gathering intel. The audio of conversations; as if they were being picked up by planted bugs.

Kramer deftly showcases that feeling of despair as one hears the numbers of deaths grow daily as war wages on the other side of the globe. The cognitive dissonance of the comfort of your bohemian day to day not lining up with the horrors being perpetrated by your own government. Do you want to affect change with a single violent revolutionary action? Or are you comfortable to play activist while talking shit about the president over a bottle of wine at your friend’s flat? When Dan is driven to the brink, but left high and dry by his comrades, does the plan have any chance of success?

“What interests me is this: How do you understand cinema? How do I understand cinema? Why has nobody seen my films here in the United States, etc.? Most of the time, my films don’t relate to what people believe. Without a doubt this is a flaw in the films. They all deal with such questions as: how people fulfill themselves and assume a role in history, how do or don’t they rejoin the principal current of history. All this, …, in the context of the United States and of the specific kind of isolation that we’ve made for ourselves here—we, the subjects of films. There is this rhythm between political engagement where we lose a lot of things—relations between people, families, children, nature—not as ideas but as bodily experiences. In The Edge, we can see the two very clearly.”
—Robert Kramer, December 1978 Cahiers du Cinéma interview

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BRIGHTON WOK: THE LEGEND OF GANJA BOXING
Dir. Gabriel Howard, 2008.
United Kingdom. 90 min.
In English.

SUNDAY, APRIL 20 – 5 PM with Q&A, this event is $10
FRIDAY, APRIL 25 – MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, APRIL 27 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, APRIL 29 – 10 PM

[ BUY SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS ] | [ BUY REGULAR TICKETS ]

Ninjas, Ganja, Kung Fu.

Terror has befallen the English coastal city of Brighton in the form of the Italian ninja Vafan Cuolo and his army of kung-fu warriors. The people of Brighton’s fate is up to one man, Ryu, who is just recently out of a care home himself and not exactly up to the task. Ryu must find the Ganja Master, learn the ways of Ganja Boxing, uncover the origins of Cuolo, and defeat him once and for all to save Brighton before it succumbs to tyranny.

Low in budget, but high in action, and just high in general; BRIGHTON WOK is 4/20’s answer to St. Patrick Day’s all-time Spectacle classic: FATAL DEVIATION. A completely DIY affair, filming began in 2004, wrapped in 2006, and was finally released in 2008 after post production was split up over a couple years between other responsibilities: jobs, school, and ganja of course. The making of the film was all-hands on deck, and entirely Brighton-made, with fight choreography and stunts even being taken care of by a local martial arts instructor and his pupils. For a ragtag labor of love, its achievements are impressive. And audiences will be charmed by the film’s ambitions and ability to wear its childhood inspirations on its sleeve.

To help celebrate one of our favorite holidays, Spectacle will be joined on April 20th by the film’s director Gabriel Howard, producer Saul Howard, writer/actor Samson Byford-Winter, and editor/cinematographer John MacDonald, virtually for a very special audience Q&A after the film.

CHILDREN OF THE STONES
Dir. Peter Graham Scott, 1977
United Kingdom, 174 min
In English

THURSDAY, MARCH 20 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 28 – 7:30 PM

TICKETS
Advance tickets are sold out, but additional seats may be made available at the door for standby customers.

This vernal equinox, Spectacle is chuffed to present the TV folk horror phenomenon CHILDREN OF THE STONES. Unleashed on an unsuspecting British audience by Welsh network HTV in 1977, it’s often described as the scariest children’s series ever made.

Peter Demin stars as Matthew Brake, a boy accompanying his astrophysicist father Adam Brake (Gareth Thomas) to the sleepy English village of Milbury to study the local stone circle. But from the start, something is not quite right. After strange interactions with the locals, father and son meet Mayor Hendrick (masterfully played by Scottish character actor Iain Cuthbertson), who knows an awful lot about astrophysics for a civil servant. What secrets are Hendrick and his cohort hiding, and what do they have to do with the stones?

A maze of multiple timelines, ley lines, pagan folklore, and a dissonant, cacophonous musical score of wailing voices converge into a mystery that will have you on your toes until the final title crawl. It’s pretty phantasmagorical.

All seven episodes will be played in succession, with a 15-minute intermission between episodes 4 and 5.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 – 5 & 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY – FILMMAKERS IN PERSON FOR Q+A!

BUY TICKETS

Childhood Delusions Film Festival, now in its third edition, is an NYC film festival for adults to showcase delusional films and videos they made as children. To celebrate the upcoming 2025 Childhood Delusions Film Festival (Sat Feb 8th), Spectacle is partnering with CDFF to present the festival’s universally acclaimed 1st and 2nd editions, featured in The New Yorker and Screen Slate.

Childhood Delusions Film Festival is a whirlwind, one-night celebration of childhood filmmaking and creativity, including montages of childhood home videos, claymation, music videos, delusional feature film attempts—and stuff that truly defies description.

The festival, created by Curtis Whitear, a documentary filmmaker and editor based in Brooklyn, and Co-Directed by Joe Soonthornsawad, a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and producer, invites people from all backgrounds to reconnect with their uninhibited creativity and experience collective childhood memories on the big screen.