Since the dawn of the theater, there have been films that have defined Spectacle’s identity and its ethos—films that transcend the walls of our humble ex-bodega and tap into the sense of radical rediscovery that our collective is always chasing. The weird, the pertinent, the beautiful, and the ineffable—these films have been cataloged in our long-running annual series “Best of Spectacle.” At the end of every calendar year, in a tradition that began in 2013, the collective votes on what films should get a second showing in January. Our January calendars have thus become a repository for some of our fondest memories spent with both packed houses and loyal, solitary midnight Spectacleheads.
September of 2025 marks our 15th anniversary at 124 South 3rd Street, and as such it seems a ripe occasion to play the entire catalog of hits. Unfolding in chronological order until we catch up with the present, Spectacle is excited to unveil the “Best of Best of Spectacle”: a running series of films that built our foundation like bricks and resulted in some of Spectacle’s greatest trailers, posters, screenings and memories.
SEVEN WOMEN SEVEN SINS
dirs. various, 1987.
Various, 101 min.
MONDAY, JUNE 1 – 10 PM
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As wide-ranging an omnibus film as there has ever been, a group of some of the most important international filmmakers of the last few decades – all of them female – take on each of the biblical vices. Bette Gordon, Chantal Akerman, VALIE EXPORT, Maxi Cohen, Laurence Gavron and more contribute a contemporary celluloid sin. The result is a thoroughly unpredictable introduction to each filmmaker’s work; encapsulating devious narratives and experimental collages, film and video.
Extended from May in tribute to the late experimental performance icon and Spectacle favorite VALIE EXPORT.
Special thanks to Women Make Movies.
HISTORY LESSONS
dir. Barbara Hammer, 2000.
USA, 70 min.
In English
MONDAY, JUNE 1 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 18 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 25 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 30 – 10 PM
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The final installment in Barbara Hammer’s groundbreaking “lost queer trilogy,” HISTORY LESSONS imagines a world in which lesbians are as omnipresent as white heterosexual cis men. Manipulating everything from Eleanor Roosevelt studded newsreels to analog skin flicks, Hammer rewrites history with this reclamation of an almost always marginalized demographic.
“Radical sexual politics in a jester’s surprise package of impudent humor and Situationist-style found-footage monkeyshines” – Variety
BUMMING IN BEIJING
( 流浪北京)
dir. Wu Wenguang, 1990.
China, 70 mins.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 15 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 22 – 7:30 PM
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“In 1990, Chinese documentaries were almost exclusively stodgy, didactic talking head affairs broadcast on state-run media. Then Wu Wenguang’s BUMMING IN BEIJING came out, kicking off an entire independent documentary scene in the country. Shot directly before and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre on cameras taken from a government TV station, BUMMING IN BEIJING follows five broke bohemians (including future art stars like Zhang Dali, long before they found fame) in grimy late 80s Beijing. Shot in a vérité style that would soon be adopted by a new generation of filmmakers, the movie includes an onscreen mental breakdown, a time-capsule view of the emergence of the country’s avant-garde, and proof that the hippest place in China used to be KFC.” – Aaron-Fox Lerner, Time Out Beijing Film Editor
“The prolonged moments of near silence in BUMMING IN BEIJING produce the aesthetic effect of outlasting the remembered roar of government tanks.” – Ernest Larsen, Art In America
THE RIDER OF THE SKULLS
(aka EL CHARRO DE LAS CALAVERAS)
dir. Alfredo Salazar, 1965.
80 minutes, Mexico.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 — 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 — 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 19 — 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 29 — 10 PM
TICKETS
A masked rider (not Zorro) arrives in a sleepy Mexican villa in the midst of a slew of vicious werewolf attacks during what seems like a solid month of full moons. The Rider is given lodging by a señorita and her young son – Perico – who appear to be the next targets of the flannel-clad lycanthrope. The Rider, with the help of a local witch dispatches of the monster who turns out to be the boys father. As he rides off into the sunset with Perico by his side one may expect the credits to roll but don’t rise from the opulent comfort of your seat just yet, viewer, this adventure is far from over. The Rider (now taller and with a different mask) along with the help of a new boy and their manservant Cléofas (the films “comic relief”) fight a vampire in some highly unconvincing day for night photography. It’s worth mentioning that the vampire not only has the giant head of a bat but also has the power to change into an equally unconvincing rubber bat and flies off. Finally, The Rider faces his deadliest foe yet when he teams up with a woman in possession of the cabeza of none other than the Headless Horseman and his two robed skeleton henchmen leading to a machete fight at sunset.
Director Alfredo Salazar is best known for his contributions to Mexican horror in the form of many, many Santo/Blue Demon movies as well as penning such psychotronic fare as THE NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES and the should-be classic THE MAN & THE MONSTER (produced by and starring his brother Abel). Star Dagoberto Rodríguez had a 30-or-so year career in Mexican film and television, which is more than likely the reason he removes his mask and reveals his identity in the middle of the film. Due to its “monster of the week” feeling and suspicious change of companions/mask/location/etc the working assumption is that THE RIDER OF THE SKULLS is actually three episodes of a serial stitched together to make it feature length. Nevertheless, Salazar wears his love of classic Universal monsters on his sleeve and creates a film unlike any other.
THE SECRET OF THE MUMMY
(aka O Segredo da Múmia)
dir. Ivan Cardoso, 1982.
Brazil, 85 min.
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4 — 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 12 — 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 16 — 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 22 — 7:30 PM
TICKETS
A tale as old as time: Dr. Vitus, a disgraced scientist (Wilson Grey who would go on to be one of Cardoso’s go to character actors for the majority of his career) devotes his dying days to the reconstruction of a map that had been divided into 8 parts and scattered to the winds with their owners meeting most mysterious deaths.
On a trip to Egypt he finds a mummy, Runamb, and brings it with him back to Brazil. You aren’t going to believe this – but it comes to life and wreaks havoc on all in his path obsessing over Nadia, a dancer who had scorned him when he was alive – well, more alive anyway.
Fleshing out his vision after NOSFERATO IN BRAZIL, Cardoso again takes advantage of the countryside and finds juicy roles for the legendary José Mojica Marins—better known as Coffin Joe—and Regina Casé (THE SECOND MOTHER).
