spectacletheater – Page 82 – Spectacle Theater

IMPACT

Posted on August 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

IMPACT
Dir. Arthur Lubin, 1949
USA, 111 min

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 – 10:00 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 10:00 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 7:30 PM

“Hell hath no fury like a [man] scorned.”

Noir-staple Brian Donlevy stars in Arthur Lubin’s subtle, melodramatic 1949 sleeper IMPACT. Typically relegated to tough-guy supporting roles more suited to his threatening scowl, Donlevy plays very successfully against type as love-struck automotive mogul Walter Williams, a sensitive man who unfortunately puts far too much faith in the wrong sort of gal.

Anything but a strict urban film-noir, Lubin’s sunny, meandering picture progresses from tense romantic thriller to on-the-road action flick, moving through thick swamps of melodrama before landing in courtroom theatrics, ultimately proving to be surprisingly cohesive and affecting.

Despite its B-grade production and modest return, Impact also features an unusual number of on-screen brand/product placements for an era in which the practice remained very uncommon. Pioneering trade journal Harrison’s Reports –a rag that focused on independent theaters long before the independent film movement (and was also notable for an ahead-of-its-time criticism of film advertising)– notes upon its release that in Impact there are “advertising plugs worked in for such products as Blue Ribbon beer, Raleigh cigarettes, Coca Cola, Mission Orange soda pop, Mobiloil gasoline, oil and tires, Gruen watches, and the trade name, Rexall.” Curiously overlooking a Bekins moving van that plays an integral role in one key scene, the review provides evidence that brand exposure was just as offensive to contemporary audiences in its early-stages 65 years ago as it is (to some) in today’s Hollywood™. Interestingly, this aspect of Impact merely enhances the film; more than half-a-century’s distance lends the practice a paradoxical value, illuminating an authentic aspect of late-1940s America not usually seen on the silver screen.

Finally, keep an eye out for a key location also used prominently in a little film called Vertigo…

THE EAST IS RED – A SONG AND DANCE EPIC

Posted on August 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

THE EAST IS RED
Dir. Wang Ping, 1965.
PRC. 117 min.
Mandarin.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 10:00 PM

What can we say? We’re damn surprised this hasn’t yet screened in the peeling walls of Spectacle, everyone’s favorite “lost and forgotten” community screening space; our cozy creaking frame around the questionable and curious. Is it low-hanging fruit? Maybe just a bit back and to the left? Is it a glorious paean romanticizing radical resistance role-play amongst ravenous refurbishing and reselling of riverside residency? Here’s an “r” word – RED.

Sisters and brothers, presenting the biggest, loudest, most glorious Mao-sical ever – THE EAST IS RED: A SONG AND DANCE EPIC. Produced and released by the real BIG RED MACHINE on the eve of the mid-60’s Cultural Revolution, THE EAST IS RED trumpets the trials and tribulations of the Communist Party in China – from its birth in proletarian imperialist resistance, through the final boWW of the Japanese, all the way to the last steps of the Kuomin-tango. The massive cast is studded with beautiful voices and movement, clad in costumes of a time long crushed. Think of Diane Warren if Michael Bay was Chairperson. Been jonesing for a bit of that 2008 Summer Olympics ceremony jazz, minus the Budweiser food trucks and brown M&Ms with the UPS logo? Throw out your Adidas, put this on your social list and invite your comrades to take a proper gander at this propaganda.

BANDIDO’S GOLD: Unearthed Spaghetti Western Treasures

Posted on August 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

This quartet of lesser known, yet truly great spaghetti westerns is chocked full of gripping action, relentless violence, and brooding intensity with gritty style to spare.

BANDIDOS
Dir. Massimo Dallamano 1967.
Italy. 91 min.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – 10:00 PM

Outlaw Billy Kane holds up a train only to find his former mentor-of-arms, renowned gunman Richard Martin, is one of the passengers. Kane shoots Martin’s hands before letting him escape. Years later Martin meets Ricky Shot (!), an escaped convict who was falsely accused for the robbery. He takes Shot under his wing and together they head on the trail of vengeance.

This standout spaghetti western was the directorial debut of A Fistful of Dollars cinematographer Massimo Dallamano. It was also his last western, though he went on to make other excellent films, including the infamous giallo What Have they Done to Solange? and the poliziotteschi Colt .38 Special Squad. Though uncredited, it is reported that Dallamano also shot Bandidos, which would explain its incredibly accomplished and distinct look, featuring brilliant panoramas and deep focus. A tight, compelling, highly revered, and ESSENTIAL spaghetti western.

Read more about BANDIDOS on the Spaghetti Western Database, whose reviewer states that “Dallamano probably comes closer to Leone than any other director of spaghetti westerns.”

$10,000 BLOOD MONEY
Dir. Romolo Guerrieri 1967.
Italy. 94 min.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 10:00 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – 10:00 PM

Rogue bounty hunter Django mockingly taunts low-life bandit Manuel, who only has a measly $3,000 price on his head. Inspired by spite, hatred and villainous pride, Manuel ups the stakes, first with murder, and then by kidnapping a land baron’s daughter, finally netting Django’s $10,000 bounty minimum. But when Manuel ruthlessly targets Django’s saloon girl lover Mijanou (Loredana Nusciak from Django), vengeance becomes the main incentive, transforming the hunt into an ornery blood feud.

The first in a pair of inspired bounty hunter films from the crafty production team of Mino Loy and the late Luciano Martino (brother of Sergio), and the pen of prolific screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. Featuring spaghetti western stalwart Gianni Garko (Sartana) as the ‘good’ and Claudio Camaso as ‘the bad.’ Its high style, surreal touches, fully loaded tropes, extreme anti-heroics, amorality and existentialism all add up to an exemplary spaghetti western. NOT TO BE MISSED!

Read more about $10,000 BLOOD MONEY on the Spaghetti Western Database, which calls it “one of the best unofficial Django films … beautiful, almost surreal” and “one of the finest Italian Westerns ever made.”

VENGEANCE IS MINE
Dir. Gianni Fago 1967.
Italy. 91 min.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 10:00 PM

Gianni Garko and Claudio Camaso breathe more life into their anti-hero and villain roles from $10,000 Blood Money, here with an added Cain-and-Abel-like classicism. This time it’s John the bounty hunter (Garko) versus army deserter-turned-outlaw Clint (Camaso), half-brothers, embittered with extreme mutual hatred. John just served time, falsely accused of his father’s murder by none other than Cint. Can John keep his promise to his mother to bring Clint in alive?

Vengeance is Mine (aka $100,000 Per Killing) further explores morality via bounty hunters and bandits strongly linked by their existential attitudes towards money, life, and death; provocative ideas thrillingly played out against a satisfyingly gritty landscape. High production values, surprising plot twists, violent set pieces, and a hint towards profundity prove both films top entries in the genre.

Read more about VENGEANCE IS MINE on the Spaghetti Western Database, whose reviewer states that it is “probably as close as an Italian genre movie from the sixties … could get to Greek and Victorian drama.”

CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES
Dir. Robert Hossein 1969.
Italy. 85 min.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – 10:00 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – 7:30 PM

CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES (Robert Hossein, 1969) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

After her husband is mercilessly hanged by a ruthless land baron, Maria implores Manuel, an old flame, to infiltrate the killer’s ranch and wreak vengeance. Manuel reluctantly leaves the ghost town where he lives to embark on the mission, but is ever haunted by his unrequited affection for Maria

Prolific French actor Robert Hossein directed and starred in this inspired homage to his friend Sergio Leone. As sharpshooter Manuel, he dons one black glove (channeling the cool of garage rock band The Music Machine?) and imbues the whole production with laconic ennui. A visually striking and brooding picture, the requisite gritty and violent tropes are delivered with an artistic fervor ahead of its time. A MUST SEE!

Read more about CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES on the Spaghetti Western Database, whose reviewers call it “not your average spaghetti,” and “a truly moving classic of the genre.”

THE FUTURE WEIRD: THE BLACK ATLANTIS

Posted on August 22, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

MONDAY, AUGUST 26 – 8:00 PM

The Future Weird is a bimonthly series exploring contemporary film from the global south – with an African bias. Our title, “the future weird”, is inspired by The State’s ongoing documentation of non-western futurisms: http://www.thestate.ae/

According to Afrofuturist legend, Drexciya is a sunken land inhabited by the children of African women who were drowned during the Middle Passage. Since they were never born, these children continued to breath underwater: first through amniotic fluid, then through lungs better suited to the new world. Join us as we go in search of the “Black Atlantis”.

Water is a cleansing force through which our bodies may be reborn, but it is also a site of memory where disappeared and suppressed things resurface, wash up, or return to us as detritus. Through myths that traverse the Black diaspora we meet a beautiful and dangerous sea goddess named mama wata. Following tourists and then refugees fleeing Europe, we consider stories concerning identity, slavery and commerce, high seas adventure, and the joint appeal and terror of being visited by ancestors or haunted by an unknown past.

& OTHER WORKS: MELANIE GILLIGAN

Posted on August 16, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18TH

CRISIS IN THE CREDIT SYSTEM and SELF-CAPITAL at 8 PM
POPULAR UNREST at 10 PM

ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE
ONE NIGHT ONLY

“& Other Works” is a series of screenings focusing on film and video from contemporary artists organized by C. Spencer Yeh. “& Other Works” is an informal communal viewing experience, away from the white walls and passwords.

For September we welcome artist Melanie Gilligan, writer and director (and editor and etc). Originally deployed online in episodic form, &OW brings you these three tales of crisis, self, and unrest – uninterrupted. We’ll take care of clicking “play next” – you just sit back and enjoy. Gilligan will be present this evening and available for questions, should you have any.

In case you couldn’t tell from the titles, the primary inspiration and subject matter of these works is our contemporary capitalist economic system. Choosing to dramatize instead of document inserts subjective loops within that vast and obtuse tangle of snakes and ladders – when we receive information, we process with all our defenses and criticality; when we see stories, we can’t help but search for a niche or foothold. Gilligan borrows frames and devices from popular media to build an accessibility, but retains license to break free from the expectations binding more commercial attempts basted with similar info-sauce (neither Margin Call nor Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps depicts a floating computer graphics cube speckled with disembodied limbs).

SELF-CAPITAL
Dir. Melanie Gilligan, 2009.
UK. 24 min.
English.

No more is this evident than with Self-Capital, in which an individual named “Global Economy” undergoes extensive psychological evaluation and experimental therapy. Having recently experienced a traumatic breakdown, we follow Global Economy from her initial diagnosis, through sessions and body-actualizing exercise, to the final prognosis (for now). The same actor portrays all roles, flattening any figurative reading of casting decision and gender portrayal, not to mention a certain, uhhh, economy in filmmaking ;-).

CRISIS IN THE CREDIT SYSTEM
Dir. Melanie Gilligan, 2008.
UK. 38 min.
English.

“A major investment bank runs a brainstorming and role-playing session for its employees, asking them to come up with strategies for coping with today’s dangerous financial climate. Role-playing their way into increasingly bizarre scenarios, they find themselves drawing disturbing conclusions about the deeper significance of the crisis and its effects beyond the world of finance. Crisis is the result of extensive research and conversation with major hedge fund managers, key financial journalists, economists, bankers and debt activists.” – courtesy of the artist

You could call Crisis in the Credit System a dark comedy, except that the scenarios and lingo are expressly presented intact – there is no need to embellish or satirize to elicit the type of nervous laughter in the face of total madness. With alarming prescience, Crisis was in production during, and released shortly after the collapse of financial services firm Lehman Brothers in 2008.

POPULAR UNREST
Dir. Melanie Gilligan, 2010.
UK. 71 min.
English.

“Popular Unrest is a multi-episode drama set in a future not so different from the present, that is shaped by the convergence of capital, biopolitics and ‘big data’. The film explores a world in which the self is reduced to physical biology, directly subject to the needs of capital. Shot in London with a cast of twelve main actors, the film’s form is partly inspired by David Cronenberg’s ‘body horror’ and American television dramas CSI, Dexter and Bones, where reality is perceived through a pornographic forensics of empirical and visceral phenomena.” – courtesy of the artist

The vision of futuristic society in Popular Unrest doesn’t front as allegory or parody, as other dystopian media visions are often served; the results are intentionally literal and stifling. Detaching the caustic docudrama that drives Crisis in the Credit System, Popular Unrest foregrounds Gilligan’s own speculations on the issues and themes her work is concerned with; she carves the players and the pieces, and fixes the game played. We realize that as fantastical as the teams and rules are, they are no more unreasonable than the working myths constructed to parse the overwhelming systems of economic exchange in our actual times. On top of that,

Here’s the checkboard and pawns of Popular Unrest – “The Spirit” is the ruling belief system, the force by which people are divined. “The Spirit” is a cloud, the inevitable accumulation and deification of society’s collective material and economic aspiration. People work, and any extracurricular activity is regulated to support the ability to work. The individual has no choice but to become mercenary, as individual worth is increasingly defined in isolation. However, eco-systemic chaos despises status quo, so the see-saw is seated with two inexplicable phenomena. There’s “groupings,” in which strangers congregate and bond due to an unidentifiable urge to meet with one another. Then, as counterbalance to these mysterious love-ins, there’s a mysterious floating knife that murders people without warning or apparent reason.

Melanie Gilligan is an artist and writer born in Toronto in 1979. She currently lives in London and New York and works in a variety of media including video, performance, text, installation and music. Gilligan completed a BA (Hons) Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2002 and was a Fellow with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Programme in 2004/5. She has presented solo exhibitions at institutions including Chisenhale Gallery (London), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), Transmission Gallery (Glasgow), The Banff Centre, (Banff), Franco Soffiantino Gallery (Turin), Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Toronto), and VOX centre de l’image contemporaine (Montreal). In 2008, commissioned by Artangel Interaction, Gilligan released Crisis in the Credit System, a four-part fictional mini drama about the recent financial crisis. Gilligan has taught widely in Europe and North America, and has appeared in numerous group exhibitions worldwide, including Manifesta 8 (Murcia, Spain) in 2010. Her writings on art, politics and finance have appeared in magazines such as Artforum, Texte zur Kunst and Grey Room and in recent volumes such as Canvases and Careers Today(Sternberg Press) and Intangible Economies (Fillip).

SAMUEL FULLER AND THE BIG RED ONE

Posted on August 3, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

SAMUEL FULLER AND THE BIG RED ONE
Thys Ockersen, 1979.
Netherlands. 75 min. (+ 50 min. Secret Screening!)
In English.

Presented by Screen Slate and programmed by Cullen Gallagher.

Visit Screen Slate for an exclusive interview with Thys Ockersen!

MONDAY, AUGUST 12 – 8:00 PM

New York Premiere in Celebration of Samuel Fuller’s 101st Birthday! Followed by another mind-blowing Samuel Fuller rarity from 1990 (50 min.)

Originally made for Dutch television and never commercially released in the United States either theatrically or on video, Thys Ockersen’s SAMUEL FULLER AND THE BIG RED ONE (1979) will be makes its New York Premiere here at Spectacle.

Ockersen’s documentary is an invaluable record of one of cinema’s greatest figures at work on his magnum opus—a unique and deeply personal WWII epic grounded in Fuller’s own wartime experience landing on D-Day. On the beach, behind the scenes, and on the front lines, Ockersen’s film is a gritty and enlightening portrait of an artist at work at the peak of his career. As electric, charismatic, poetic, and tough as any of the characters from his films, Fuller is his own best leading man. Also featuring interviews with Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill, SAMUEL FULLER AND THE BIG RED ONE is a fond tribute to the director, and a perfect way to celebrate the memory of Fuller, who would be turning 101 this August 12th.

Afterwards, we’ll screen one of Samuel Fuller’s final works — an insane rarity you won’t want to miss.

Special thanks to Thys Ockersen.

THE BIG REVEAL

Posted on July 31, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

MONDAY, AUGUST 5 – 8:00 PM

Unveiling The Sparrow‘s music video for new single “Something Deep In Me Screams for You,” featuring:

Composing genius Masaya Ozaki
Filmmaking visionary Martin Noboa
Burgeoning screen stars Natalie Zitter and Alex Erikson

And, of course,
The Sparrow’s big raw heart

PARTLY ART: A NIGHT OF ORPHANED MEDIA

Posted on July 30, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13TH – 8:00 PM – ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Co-presented by 3Ton Cinema & SPCL NTRST.

Join us for a two-tiered, multi-format immersion into a cornucopia of found media… manipulated, archived, re-contextualized, collected and always deeply-loved.

This night celebrates two milestones in one: a kick-off of 3TON Cinema’s 16mm digitization campaign ‘20,000 ft. Dash’ as well as the premiere screening of SPCL NTRST’s first full-length album ‘Category: Health.’

Alongside cartoon bits, surprises and an excerpt from a film about digestive systems, 3TON Cinema will present a potpourri of orphan material from their 16mm collection. Highlight include: DRAGONFOLD (1979, 7m), a computer-animated illustration of ‘how to fill space’ created by recently-deceased Brooklyn filmmakers Bruce and Katharine Cornwell, FREE FALL (1964, 9m), Arthur Lipsett’s “attempt to express in filmic terms an intensive flow of life [and] the transformation of a physical phenomena into psychological ones,” and A FLOWERING PLANT FROM SEED TO SEED (1980, 12m), a time-lapse film depicting the growth cycle of tomatoes.

Accompanying live experimental/electronic score to these films will be provided by Matt Wellins (http://mattwellins.com) and Qixoni:

Following this, SPCL NTRST will debut the entirety of their new ‘Category: Health’ album, which manipulates found tapes that tackle the theme of health from a variety of styles and perspectives into a roughly 30m assembly.

Since 2009, 3Ton Cinema has been making an effort to collect, exhibit and appreciate 16mm films. Inspired largely by the work of Oddball Films and Other Cinema, then spurred initially by a generous donation of films from the Prelinger Archive in San Francisco, CA, 3TON’s aim is to examine, share and re-purpose their 1000+ film collection.

More info: http://3toncinema.info

SPCL NTRST is an A/V band who fixate on analog video sources to create new ‘music videos’ out of only the audio and video material found on each individual artifact. Their currently focus is on ephemeral –educational, promotional, corporate, industrial, etc.– VHS tapes.

More info: http://spclntrst.com

WELCOME TO APPLIED FICTION: The Films of Jean Pierre Bekolo

Posted on July 29, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

“We shouldn’t just be making movies, we should be changing reality.”

Director Jean Pierre Bekolo has been making spirited, avant-garde films in and about his native Cameroon for the past twenty years. His imaginative work criticizes both his country’s dictatorship, as well as Western cinematic conventions, offering a fresh perspective of Africa, of cinema, and especially of African cinema.

This month, Spectacle is proud to present a full retrospective of Bekolo’s films, along with the North American premiere of his latest, The President.

QUARTIER MOZART
dir. Jean Pierre Bekolo, 1992
80 mins. Cameroon.
In French with English subtitles.

THURSDAY AUGUST 8th – 7:30PM
SATURDAY AUGUST 24th – 10PM

Bekolo’s rolicking debut Quartier Mozart takes on the politics and magic of gender roles in Yaounde’s working class district. The adventure begins when schoolgirl “Queen of the Hood” asks a local sorceress what it would like to be a man. Mama Thekla puts her into the body of a ladykiller to find out. Chaos ensues when he falls for the police chef’s daughter, Thekla is not far behind, and while she guides the freshly-minted “My Guy”, she’ll take the penis off any man who shakes her hand. Bekolo’s impish editing and hip-hop score give new meaning to a popular folktale.

(Winner of the 1992 Prix Afrique en Creation at the Cannes Film Festival.)

ARISTOTLE’S PLOT
dir. Jean Pierre Bekolo, 1996
72 mins. France/UK/Zimbabwe
In English, and French with English subtitles.

FRIDAY AUGUST 9th – 10PM
FRIDAY AUGUST 30th – 7:30PM

In 1996, the British Film Institute commissioned Bekolo as the African filmmaker for its series celebrating the first 100 years of film. Poor BFI, it couldn’t have been ready for Aristotle’s Plot. This is a balls-to-the-walls meditation on the meaning and purpose of “African film” with aesthetic, rather than geographic, ambition. As critic Michael Dembrow has observed, you need to listen as much as you watch to understand this movie. “Much the experience comes from the sound-track–from the lyrics to songs and, more importantly, Bekolo’s voice-over narration. As we try to put all the pieces together, the plot turns back on itself, scenes are repeated, characters prance around like the pawns and symbols that they are.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

LES SAIGNANTES
(The Blood-lettes)
dir. Jean Pierre Bekolo, 2005
Cameroon. 97 mins.
In French with English subtitles

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31st – 8PM (as part of THE FUTURE WEIRD: VISIONS OF EXCESS)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10th – 10PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23rd – 10PM

Les Saignantes is the best African sci-fi vampire political satire with homoerotic overtones you’ve ever seen. Best friends Majolie and Chouchou are two beautiful young women trying to get ahead in a near-future Cameroon. After accidentally killing a powerful politician during sex, the two come up with a plot to dispose of the body, and get into the glamorous wakes that have taken over the local nightlife.

As the girls tear their way through the corrupt ruling class, using their their feminine wiles and magical powers, Bekolo drops inter-titles into the film, commenting on the difficulties of filmmaking in an oppressive political climate. With a feminist subtext and cinematography like a blacklight rave, Les Saignantes is a beautiful, disorienting, and truly original work.

LE PRESIDENT
(The President)
dir. Jean Pierre Bekolo, 2013
Cameroon. 64 mins.
In French with English subtitles

US PREMIERE!

THURSDAY AUGUST 15th – 7:30PM
THURSDAY AUGUST 22nd – 7:30PM
TUESDAY AUGUST 27th – 10PM

“Our president was betrothed to Cameroon with great love and passion, yet over the years the fire has died. He spends more time in Switzerland than in Cameroon. What is he – too good for us now?” – JEAN-PIERRE BEKOLO

The night before an important summit in the near-future, the head of state vanishes into ostensibly thin air. Potential heirs and overthrow-ers converge around the capitol, while bloggers, hangers-on and talking heads tussle with the president’s problematic legacy. Never snarling, Bekolo gestures both unmistakably towards Cameroon’s own 31-year president Paul Biya as well as the varied bigshots across the continent who have consolidated post-colonial power in the vacuum of leadership.

Bekolo’s newest film is a fake documentary that asks barbed, tough-love questions of his homeland’s catastrophic experiments with democracy. “It was through the small screen that he punctuated every moment of my life!”

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING: As Told By Raymond Pettibon

Posted on July 28, 2013December 19, 2019 by spectacletheater

Sundays this August, Spectacle presents three classic tapes by Raymond Pettibon.

Know mostly for his prolific production of profound, abrasive pen-and-ink drawings that pitch-perfectly skewer the confounding, sickening and day-to-day aspects of modern American existence, our program features Pettibon’s filmic examinations of a long-term obsession of his: the incestuous and nefarious worlds of American Subculture, its private languages, aesthetics, ideologies — and its specific and violent contradictions . These films train Pettibon’s singular black humor, his scrappy DIY approach, and his biting, incisive dialogue on three of the most notorious subcultures of recent history: The Manson Family, Patty Hearst and her Symbionese Liberation Army, and The Weather Underground. Starring, among others, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Mike Watt, Pat Smear, Dez Cadena and other legends of California’s underground scene of the 1980’s.

Special thanks to Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). Catalogue texts reprinted with permission.

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING: WEATHERMAN ’69
Dir. Raymond Pettibon, 1989
USA. 122 mins.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 4th – 7:30PM & 10PM

Featuring a cast that includes Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, Mike Watt of the legendary hardcore band Minutemen, and Pettibon himself, this deadpan narrative pays dubious homage to the 1960’s radical underground. In this crudely rendered home video of a commune of stoned revolutionaries, the cameras are hand-held, the edits in-camera, and the dialogue is wryly on-target. Pettibon’s band of outsiders reenacts a countercultural moment defined by rock music, drugs, and ideological paradox — and in so doing, captures their own late-80’s West Coast grunge milieu as well.

JUDGMENT DAY THEATER: THE BOOK OF MANSON
Dir. Raymond Pettibon, 1989
USA. 118 mins.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 11th – 7:30PM & 10PM

A day in the life of Manson and his dysfunctional family, as filtered through Pettibon’s distinctive sensibility. In this fictional verite drama, Pettibon and co-director Dave Markey envision the paranoid obsessions and violent anomie of an apocalyptic cult in the waning of the 1960s. As in all of Pettibon’s tapes, the sense of insularity (they all appear to be shot in one living room), the slacker/punk aesthetic, and the deadpan ensemble of amateur actors combine with Pettibon’s startlingly original writing to form a bleakly ironic, if often outrageous, evocation of an American subculture.

CITIZEN TANIA
dir. Raymond Pettibon, 1989
USA. 87 minutes.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25th – 7:30PM & 10PM

The 1970’s saga of heiress Patty Hearst’s abduction by the Symbionese Liberation Army — and her subsequent transformation into a gun-toting radical — is told as an absurdist drama of countercultural alienation. The tape’s raw, deliberately home-made execution provides an abject theater for the crude sexual and racial politics of the would-be revolutionaries.