FUNERAL SINIESTRO
(SINISTER FUNERAL)
dir. Jairo Pinilla, 1977
103 mins. Colombia.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 — 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 — 5 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 — 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 — 7:30 PM

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In keeping with our long tradition of exhibiting Latin American genre cinema, Spectacle is excited to premiere the new 2K restoration of Colombian horror master Jairo Pinilla’s debut feature FUNERAL SINIESTRO, in collaboration with Petroglyph Media.

Much like earlier Spectacle favorite THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE, FUNERAL SINIESTRO is told from the perspective of a child, this time Isabel (Constanza Rincón), the adopted stepdaughter of an evil landowner named Lucrecia (Derly Diaz), in the forests outside Bogota. Incensed by the fact this young girl is entitled to half of what her late husband left behind, Lucrecia tries to get rid of Isabel in a variety of ways; Isabel’s reciprocal attempts to find help outside their unhappily shared hacienda escalate things, leading to a struggle between life and death.

Steeped in Catholic macabre and inspired by the filmmaker’s experience of witnessing a dead body as a child, FUNERAL SINIESTRO is widely considered the first ever horror film from Colombia. While Pinilla is sometimes dismissively referred to as “the Ed Wood of Colombia”, the film is played entirely straight, a horror thriller that works just as well as a meditation on grief and isolation. Whatever FUNERAL SINIESTRO might lack in production value, it more than makes up for in slow-burn psychological intensity, aided immensely by the performances of Rincón and Diaz (alongside the filmmaker himself in a supporting role.) It builds to an unnerving final act that channels the spirits of Poe and Lovecraft, a must-watch for fans of ALICE, SWEET ALICE or LA RESIDENCIA.

FORBIDDEN LOVE: THE UNASHAMED STORIES OF LESBIAN LIVES
dir. Aerlyn Weissman & Lynne Fernie, 1992.
Canada, 84 mins.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 6 — 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 — 7:30 PM (16mm, $10)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 — 7:30 PM (16mm, $10)

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2k restoration by the National Film Board of Canada, 16mm print provided by the New York Public Library.  

Wryly following in the tradition of the 1965 exploitation “documentary” Chained Girls, Weissman and Fernie’s Forbidden Love is a sweet and tender oral history of mid-century Canadian lesbianism dressed up in pulp trappings. Reveling in the aesthetics of verboten paperbacks and sleazy exposé, this style is merely an ironic wink of a framing encapsulating the true stories of openly gay women in the forties, fifties, and sixties, searching for community, rebellion and love. Nine women dramatize their own personal histories, and the filmmakers additionally interview lesbian pulp novelist Ann Bannon. Along with the feature documentaries of Barbara Hammer and the fictional melodrama of Desert Hearts, Forbidden Love played a role in reclaiming the lesbian narrative from tragedy to triumph, becoming a staple in many young queers’ first KG freeleech queues in the decades since. Lovingly restored by the National Film Board of Canada in 2022 from a 16mm interpositive (the film is shot on a mix of 16mm and 35mm), Spectacle is pleased to show the film both in its recently cleaned-up digital form as well as on a 16mm print, care of the NYPL.

MIX NYC PRESENTS: APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
dir. various, 1984-2025
US, TRT 52 min.

$10 SPECIAL EVENT

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1 — 10 PM

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In honor of April Fools’ Day, that most subversive and roguish of holidays, co-programmers Lucy Talbot Allen, Jac Renée Bruneau, Xavy Lang, and Payton McCarty-Simas present an evening of foolish film and video. The selected works make use of parody, satire, absurdity, camp, and the grotesque. Indebted to queer practices from cruising to drag to shitposting, these films remind us of the porous borders between humor and theory, between YouTube poop and abstract collage film, and between goofing off and shifting paradigms.

featuring:

PICKLE SURPRISE
dir. Tom Rubnitz, 1989
US, 2 min.

Rubnitz enlists a legendary lineup of Club Kids in his glittering spoof of early television ads.

BUST UP
dir. Cathy Cook, 1989
US, 7 min.

Presented on 16mm! Milwaukee drag queen Holly Brown stars as a Baby Jane-esque grande dame, her dramatic gestures chopped up and re-sutured with chaotic aplomb.

A VERY ROMANTIC MOMENT
dir. Carter Amelia Davis, 2025
US, 2 min.

@annabelle.sweetie.pumkin fields an onslaught of comments and DMs from pleasure-seeking @spatial_jake. The short utilizes shitpost aesthetics and features an unexpected climax…

SEX BOWL
dir. BABY MANIAC (Shu Lea Cheang & Jane Castle), 1994
US, 7 min.

With the bowling alley as a spiritual center, a sultry narrator riffs about an array of lesbian characters and their exploits.

TRUMP BLOWS TRUMP
dir. Christian Meola, 2019
US, 3 min.

The President indulges his carnal side—with himself.

WINNER
dir. Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, 2002
US, 16 min.

When a person wins a cruise from a local radio station, the station sends their videographer for a promotional soundbyte—but the winner has other plans for her moment in front of the camera.

FUN WITH A SAUSAGE
dir. Ingrid Wilhite, 1984
US, 16 min.

Wilhite pokes fun at Castro clonedom and lesbian separatism alike by introducing a kielbasa-phallused trickster-masc into these staid San Francisco communities.

MIX NYC (est. 1987) is a non-profit organization dedicated to platforming, promoting, and supporting LGBTQIA2S+ experimental filmmakers and artists. Through our annual MIX FEST and year-round programming, we are committed to showing films that challenge conventional filmmaking practices, test bold ideas, and offer insight into the wide, evolving array of queer experience.

Filmed in rapid succession throughout 1970, the STRAY CAT ROCK series captures a moment of cultural upheaval in post-occupation Japan. The five-film series follow the Alleycats, a girl gang led by the magnetic Meiko Kaji (who goes by many names throughout the series, and would soon go on to star in the iconic LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973) and FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION series (1972-73)). STRAY CAT ROCK latched onto the booming popularity of yakuza films, infusing them with a feminist countercultural energy reflecting the international women’s movement and hippie culture brought over to Japan courtesy of the lingering influence of the American occupation. Each installment of the series tackles the politics of its time, and this April, Spectacle is proud to present three of these films and their accompanying themes: racism in SEX HUNTER, student-led anti-war movements in MACHINE ANIMAL, and the enduring power of countercultural ideals in BEAT ’71. Kaji’s character lives by a strict code of honor, leading the Alleycats through a landscape where Americana, youthful rebellion, early psychedelic rock, club culture, and traditional Japanese values collide in an explosion of pop exploitation.

STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER
Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970.
Japan, 86 minutes.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4 — MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 — 10 PM
MONDAY, APRIL 27 — 10 PM

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Shot in a small coastal town sitting in the shadows of the Yokosuka US naval base, STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER follows the Alleycats as they engage in a turf war with the Eagles, a band of racist macho gangsters. When Mari, one of the Alleycats, rejects the advances of Susumu, an Eagle, because of her love for her half-Black boyfriend Ichiro, the personal slight enrages Baron, the leader of the Eagles. Haunted by memories of mixed race men raping his sister when he was a child, Baron launches a terror campaign to violently purge the town of mixed race men, starting with Ichiro. As the Eagles’ hateful harassment escalates the Alleycats fight back, forging an alliance with the mysterious drifter Kazuma to combat the rising tide of racial violence and help him find his long lost sister.

STRAY CAT ROCK: MACHINE ANIMAL
Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970.
Japan, 82 minutes.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, APRIL 2 — 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 4 — 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 — 7:30 PM

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The fourth STRAY CAT ROCK film to be shot & released in 1970, MACHINE ANIMAL begins with an Alleycats gang member stealing a package of LSD pills from a Vietnam war deserter trying to sell the drugs with his buddies so they can buy boat tickets to Sweden and flee Japan. The Alleycats never meant to steal a man’s freedom: after learning the truth — that the drugs are his only ticket to safety — their leader, Maya, is wracked with guilt. She rallies her fierce biker gang to do whatever it takes to make things right and help the boys sell their drugs. Their plans quickly spread throughout the underground, and rival gangs soon descend on them to snatch up the pills for themselves. What begins as an act of solidarity quickly becomes a free-for-all, forcing Maya and her crew to fend them off while racing against time to secure the boy’s escape.

STRAY CAT ROCK: BEAT ‘71
Toshiya Fujita, 1971.
Japan, 87 minutes.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1 — 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 4 — 10 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 18 — MIDNIGHT

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After getting framed for a murder her boyfriend Ryumei committed, Furiko finds herself incarcerated in the Women’s Remand Center. Two months later, she and her chosen sister Ayako escape. While Ayako heads to Shinjuku to rally Furiko’s crew, Furiko returns to her hometown to find Ryumei and confront him. Things get complicated when Furiko and her gang learn Ryumei is poised to inherit his family’s business empire, while his father (who framed Furiko for the murder) is running for mayor: his campaign would be wrecked by a murder scandal, so he kidnaps Furiko and holds her hostage in his mansion. As Furiko’s freewheeling crew schemes to rescue her, they become entangled in a web of political intrigue and corrupt cops. Much lighter fare than the rest of the STRAY CAT ROCK series, BEAT ’71 builds to an explosive climax at an abandoned mine transformed into a fake Western film set just outside of town where hippies, a biker gang, and chimpanzees face off amidst gunfights and dynamite.

ZAPPA
Dir. Bille August, 1983.
Denmark. 102 min.
In Danish with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7 — 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12 — 10 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 — 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 — 7:30 PM

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Danish director Billie August’s (Academy Award and Palme D’or winning director of PELLE THE CONQUEROR) coming-of-age dramas, ZAPPA (1983) and TWIST AND SHOUT (1984), offer a tender yet unflinching vision of adolescent passion, cruelty, and discovery set to the sounds of early rock ‘n’ roll. Overlooked for decades, these gorgeously photographed and dramatically nuanced films—breathtaking in their candor and heartbreaking in their sincerity–are here for rediscovery in stunning new transfers, along with newly produced bonus features, that help bring August’s powerful films to audiences anew.

Three young boys, Bjørn (Adam Tønsberg), Steen (Peter Reichhardt), and Mulle (Morton Hoff), navigate the transition from boyhood to adolescence in Bille August’s stunning, period drama. Steen and Bjørn have formed their own small gang, and invite Mulle to join, but humiliation, cruelty, and violence follow as Steen leads Bjørn further into his loveless, frustrated, and, ultimately, sadistic world. Gentle, funny, honest, and fearlessly dark, ZAPPA is a richly textured and unforgettable, novelesque film.

TWIST AND SHOUT
Dir. Bille August, 1984.
Denmark. 108 min.
In Danish with English subtitles.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2 — 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7 — 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 — 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 — 5 PM 

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Denmark’s biggest indigenous hit at the time of its release, TWIST AND SHOUT once again follows Bjørn (Adam Tønsbrerg). During the explosion of Beatlemania in Europe, Bjørn plays drums in a rock ‘n’ roll band while Erik (Lars Simonsen) must care for his mentally ill mother. Amid the excitement of music, romance, and sex, the young men must confront the harsh realities of the adult world in director Bille August’s stark and beautiful film.

Special thanks to Altered Innocence.