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THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET

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

THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET
Dir. György Szomjas, 1976.
Hungary. 95 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JUNE 7 – 10:00 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 20 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 23 – 10:00 PM

György Szomjas brings exquisite style and pacing to this elegiac gallows western about a betyár — a brand of 19th century highwayman popular in contemporary Hungarian balladry — set amid the Great Hungarian Plain in 1937. It follows the path of a brooding, aging outlaw newly escaped from prison whose personal revenge quest dovetails with the interests of the landless herdsman who oppose the state’s building a canal through the fields on which they work their trade. He becomes an unlikely hero to unwashed vagabond workers while facing down a mutually-admiring adversary in the form of a forthright squire who had captured him before. Meanwhile, an opportunistic youngster attempts to work both sides to his benefit. As ditches are dug for canals and corpses alike, the state puts increasing pressure on the wistful squire, who realizes the social order is changing and his fortunes are in decline; and yet he remains dutifully attached to his mission.

Along with Szomjas’s follow-up ROSSZEMBEREK, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is probably the only example of a “Goulash Western.” Though carefully paced and supposedly based on historical documents, it aims squarely for populist appeal. The autumnal palette, period imagery, and sudden outbursts of hysterical grotesquery recall Andrzej Żuławski’s THE DEVILS. Yet most of all it brings to mind the unlikely grouping of Woody Guthrie, Miklós Jancsó, and Akira Kuroswawa — or maybe Béla Tarr meets Sergio Leone. Whatever the comparisons, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is a stirring, forgotten gem in classic Spectacle tradition and not to be missed.

KINETIC CINEMA: SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST

Posted on May 29, 2013July 23, 2015 by spectacletheater

KINETIC CINEMA: SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST
Dir: David Fishel
Approx. 90 min. USA.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19TH – 8PM
ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

With the cinema industry currently in a state of turmoil over funding and over-dependence on CGI, there exists a strong desire to reject modern expectations and to reach toward methodologies of the past. In his program for Kinetic Cinema cinema, filmmaker David Fishel questions current expectations in cinema technology, and whether we are making an unfair trade off in our quest for ever more pristine HD clarity:

“I am routinely asking myself: How does one make work that remains contemporary and embraces the tools of tomorrow without forgetting the techniques and wisdom of the past? Likewise, in a present when access to high-end gear is more common place, is the spectacle of beauty lost? Can one be heard amongst the cacophony of content?”

David Fishel is a NYC based filmmaker/ video-artist who dabbles as an absurdist poet, animated storyteller, experimental sound artist, and obnoxious performance artist. Mr. Fishel is a graduate of University of Iowa where he focused his studies in Cinema and Comparative Literature and Intermedia / Performance Art. Fishel has worked and collaborated with Hans Breder, Phil Niblock, Thinkdance, Luke Murphy, Jason Batemen, John Kolvenbach, and The Hatch-Billops Collection.

THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY

Posted on May 29, 2013December 19, 2019 by spectacletheater

This summer, Spectacle presents three incredibly savage, incredibly savory kung fu films that launched the career of martial arts star Sonny Chiba and became landmarks of Japanese exploitation cinema – THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY!

Following the crossover success of Bruce Lee (who died the previous year), the mighty Japanese film company Toei decided to gamble on a considerably darker, more nasty brand of martial arts action with an unknown actor as the star. The result was The Street Fighter– a hard-boiled, gore-drenched exploitation classic that spawned an entire franchise of sequels and spinoffs.

Praised by fans as some of the best kung fu films of the era and worshipped by Tarantino for decades, don’t miss this chance to experience grindhouse exploitation at its finest!

Presented UNCUT and in their ORIGINAL JAPANESE LANGUAGE!

And as a special bonus, we’ll have three female-centered kung fu films in our summer midnights programs for an extra dosage of ass-kicking!

*NOTE: The entire STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY will screen as a marathon on SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST!

THE STREET FIGHTER – 5PM
RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER – 7:30PM
THE STREET FIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE – 10PM

THE STREET FIGHTER
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa, 1974.
87 min. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8TH – 10PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH – 10PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 29TH – 10PM
*SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST – 5PM (part of THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY marathon!)

Sonny Chiba IS Tokuma Tsurugi: a high-priced, high-voltage assassin hired by the Yakuza to kidnap the heiress of a deceased billionaire. When his demands are too high, all-out chaos ensues. Shortly thereafter, the body count starts to grow…

A significant shift away from the classic, technical martial arts, THE STREET FIGHTER features numerous sequence of raw, shockingly graphic brawls and battles that garnered the film the first ever X rating solely for violence. Chiba is pure brute force, an anti-hero that acts not out of honor, but for self-satisfaction. But even for a character with zero morals, Chiba’s magnetic personality shines through, lending his mercenary killer a sparkly, devilish demeanor.

A prime cut of juicy 70s kung-fu topped with an X-ray blast to the skull, THE STREET FIGHTER is unadulterated escapism of the bloodiest order.

*WARNING: THE FILM CONTAINS GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE*

RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa, 1974.
79 min. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 10TH – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 18TH – 10:00 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 20TH – 7:30 PM
*SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST – 7:30PM (part of THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY marathon!)

THE STREET FIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa, 1974.
80 min. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14TH – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23RD – 7:30PM
*SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST – 10PM (part of THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY marathon!)

We conclude with Sonny Chiba channeling James Bond!

The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge takes a turn towards spy film and finds Tsurugi using a fistful of gadgets and masks to battle a sombrero-donned, laser-wielding Mexican bandito!

Featuring pinku legend Ike Reiko!

YOU CAN’T KEEP ME QUIET!: FILMS BY SARAH JACOBSON

Posted on May 28, 2013June 9, 2013 by spectacletheater

YOU CAN’T KEEP ME QUIET!: FILMS BY SARAH JACOBSON

FRIDAY, JUNE 14TH – 8PM (w/ special guest Sam Green!)
SUNDAY, JUNE 30TH – 8PM (w/ special guest Mikki Halpin!)

“I consider myself a feminist filmmaker, definitely. The whole reason I got into film was because I never saw cool girls in films that I liked. I have no fear of the word ‘feminist.’ I know that that has certain negative connotations to some people, but then why should I let other people’s stupidity bully what I want to do, right? To me, feminism means that I should have an equal opportunity to do what I want to do as a woman. I don’t want to be better than men, I don’t want to shut men up. It’s like, look, you’ve got your little thing over here, you’ve got your B-movie aesthetic, and I’ve got my interpretation of it that girls can enjoy, too, so you don’t always have to watch the bimbo get raped or slashed or stalked or whatever.” –Sarah Jacobson

ROAD MOVIE (OR WHAT I LEARNED IN A BUICK STATION WAGON)
Dir: Sarah Jacobson, 1991.
10 min. USA.

I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER
Dir: Sarah Jacobson, 1993.
27 min. USA.

MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE
Dir: Sarah Jacobson, 1998.
98 min. USA.

Sarah Jacobson (1971-2004) was an independent filmmaker who led a DIY filmmaking movement in the 90s. She wrote and directed several short films, documentaries, music videos and a feature film. She formed Station Wagon Productions with her mother and producer Ruth Jacobson and with her help, Sarah self-promoted and distributed her films all over the country. Originally from New Jersey and Minneapolis, Jacobson studied briefly at Bard College and then at the San Francisco Art Institute with George Kuchar.

She directed I Was a Teenage Serial Killer in 1993, which she described as the story of “a 19-year-old girl who has a series of run-ins with various condescending men.” Jacobson’s slap-in-the-face feminist interpretation of “sexy”/violent B movies found a cult following. Jacobson went on to make her feature Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore a few years later.

Too in your face to be an after-school special, Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore is a movie about sex from a girl’s point of view. After a gross and unceremonious “first time,” Jane learns about the joys of pleasing herself and asking for what she wants from her punky co-workers at a Midwestern movie theater (with Jello Biafra and Davey Havok cameos). the film debuted at the Chicago Underground Film Festival in 1997 and sold out at Sundance and SXSW; Jacobson promoted the film the year previous at the Independent Film Market with homemade “Not a Virgin” stickers that her and her mom made at Kinko’s.

After cancer ended Sarah Jacobson’s life in 2004, her mother Ruth and Sam Green established the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant to support young women “whose work embodies some of the things Sarah stood for: a fierce DIY approach to filmmaking, a radical social critique, and thoroughly underground sensibility.” Find out more about the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant here.

Filmmaker Sam Green will be at Spectacle on June 14th for a Q&A, and writer Mikki Halpin, who now runs the SJ Film Grant, will be at the June 30th screening. Jacobson’s DVDs will be on sale to benefit the film grant fund!

Spectacle’s program will also include an early autobiographical short called Road Movie (or What I Learned in a Buick Station Wagon) (1991) which is the story of a college filmmaker who leaves Minneapolis for NYC after her professors and classmates make fun of her film (with an Adolfas Mekas cameo).

POSTMODERNISM: WHO CARES? THE COMPLETE JON MORITSUGU

Posted on May 28, 2013August 6, 2018 by spectacletheater

Combining the tropes of 60s art-house cinema with the primitive punk aesthetics of the Cinema of Transgression, Jon Moritsugu has been making movies far outside the mainstream for over twenty-five years. While his work has screened at venues as high profile as the Sundance, Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals and even public television, he continually shirks convention and classification. After making his name with a series of hand-made 16mm features, he’s recently embraced video with a fervor and a freeness to which every young filmmaker should be paying attention. Moritsugu’s world is overflowing with eye-popping production design, eardrum-destroying rock ‘n’ roll, gross-outs aplenty and deadpan one-liners you’ll be quoting for weeks.

We’re proud to present the first complete retrospective of Jon’s work, including every feature and short he’s produced to date, along with the New York premiere of his newest movie, PIG DEATH MACHINE. Also in the line-up are his impossible-to-find shorts like DER ELVIS, SLEAZY RIDER and LITTLE DEBBIE, SNACK WHORE OF NEW YORK CITY! Plus two uber-rare 16mm screenings of his masterpiece, MOD FUCK EXPLOSION!

Like all true artists, Jon Moritsugu thrives under the limits of his budgets- producing an oeuvre of punk classics and establishing him as DIY icon.

SATURDAY JUNE 1ST
7:30PM: PIG DEATH MACHINE
10PM: MOD FUCK EXPLOSION (on 16mm)

SUNDAY JUNE 2ND
7:30PM: MY DEGENERATION
10PM: HIPPY PORN

MONDAY JUNE 3RD
7:30PM: TERMINAL USA (release version)
10PM: FAME WHORE

TUESDAY JUNE 4TH
7:30PM: SCUMROCK
10PM: PIG DEATH MACHINE

WEDNESDAY JUNE 5TH
7:30PM: MOD FUCK EXPLOSION (on 16mm)
10PM: TERMINAL USA (rough cut version)

THURSDAY JUNE 6TH
7:30PM: PIG DEATH MACHINE
10PM: SCUMROCK

MY DEGENERATION
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1990.
70 min. USA.

SUNDAY, JUNE 2ND – 7:30PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Preceded by the shorts DER ELVIS and LITTLE DEBBIE SNACK WHORE OF NEW YORK CITY

In the tradition of Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, Moritsugu’s very first feature is the story of a female rock trio – sponsored by a sinister meat corporation. Our narrator is the bass player, who falls in love with a real pig’s head that thinks out loud. See why Roger Ebert walked out after 7 minutes!

“Spikey satire on modern pop culture and ‘star is born’ movies.” – Los Angeles Times

HIPPY PORN
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1993.
97 min. USA.

SUNDAY, JUNE 2ND – 10PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

This simultaneous homage-to and takedown-of the French New Wave, follows the perpetual ennui of a small group of art school students. While indulging his usual stylistic subversions, Moritsugu crafts a film whose closest cousin might be Jean Eustache’s iconic The Mother and The Whore.

“The French New Wave goes to hell. HIPPY PORN is about as adventuresome as feature filmmaking gets… bleakly beautiful.” – Los Angeles Times

TERMINAL USA
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1993
54 min. (Release Version) / 71 min. (Rough Cut Version)
USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 3RD – 7:30PM (Release Version)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5TH – 10PM (Rough Cut Version)

Preceded by the shorts SLEAZY RIDER and CRACK

A wholesome portrait of the perfect Japanese immigrant family – well, except for the scummy drug addict son who disappoints his parents. But who is stealing grandpa’s morphine? Who is secretly gay for skinheads? And who is being blackmailed with a sex tape?

“FATHER KNOWS BEST meets PINK FLAMINGOS… a post-punk soap opera about an Asian-American family that single-handedly shatters the clean-cut, hard-working image of the model minority.” – New York Daily News

MOD FUCK EXPLOSION
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1994.
76 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1ST – 10PM (on 16mm!)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5TH – 7:30PM (on 16mm!)

In this teen angst epic, London (Amy Davis) longs for love and leather jackets. Meanwhile, vicious Mods wage a turf war against a gang of lip-synched Asian bikers.

“A dynamic punk odyssey of a pair of innocent teens adrift in a violent urban world; Moritsugu unleashes a barrage of powerful images and hard-driving music.” – Los Angeles Times

FAME WHORE
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1997.
73 min. USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 3RD – 10PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Preceded by the short MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE’S MY BRAIN?

Three misguided social climbers scrounge for stardom! A closeted tennis star, a talentless fashion designer, an animal activist with an imaginary friend – will any of them make it?

“Luridly florid… like a porno flick with the fucking parts cut out.” – Village Voice

SCUMROCK
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 2002.
79 min. USA.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4TH – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 6TH – 10PM

Preceded by a collection of music videos by Jon Moritsugu

Moritsugu’s first foray into video continues his devotion to fast music, cheap cameras and Amy Davis. A pretentious underground filmmaker (TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone) struggles with his masterpiece while a skuzzy punkoid chick (Davis) tries to keep her band from fading into obscurity.

“SCUMROCK is as fast and energetic as it is funny. Moritsugu is a true visionary.” – Los Angeles Times

PIG DEATH MACHINE
Dir: Jon Moritsugu & Amy Davis, 2013.
84 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1ST – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 4TH – 10PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 6TH – 7:30PM

A brainless bimbo is transformed into a total genius after eating rotten meat. Meanwhile, a misanthropic punk botanist babe gains the power to talk to plants. Moritsugu’s first film in a decade is a triumphant return, complete with a hilarious film-within-a-film, and glittery bacon animation!

“Everyone who has half a brain and even a milligram of taste knows that Jon Moritsugu is a LIVING FUCKING UNDERGROUND MOVIE GOD” – 2003 New York Underground Film Festival

BASEMENT MEDIA FEST

Posted on May 27, 2013May 29, 2013 by spectacletheater

THE 3RD BASEMENT MEDIA FEST
Dir: Various
Approx. 50 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 23RD – 7:30PM

`*~FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE~*`

The BASEMENT Media Fest is a survey of contemporary artists working with lo-def, lo-tech, and lo-fi motion pix techniques. Founded in response to the commercial race for hi-res and true-to-life IMG quality, BASEMENT is a celebration of the mediated experience as an aesthetic experience. Equal parts glitchd digital vidz, fuzzy VHS, and grimy 16mm film, this year’s screening ought to plaza any connoisseur of experimental .MOVs.

///WARNING/// SUM OF THESE MOVIES FEATURE FLICKERING LIGHT AND RAPIDLY CHANGING MOTION. MAY CAUSE SEIZURES/MOTION SICKNESS. IF YOU’RE GONNA SPEW, SPEW INTO THIS.

/START PROGRAM:

WINGDINGS LOVE LETTER
Dir: Scott Fitzpatrick

noun \’wiŋ-,diŋ\ 1. A lavish or lively party or celebration. 2. A real or pretended fit or seizure; a rage. An ode to a misunderstood font is rendered by laser printing directly onto 16mm leader. Made in Microsoft Paint.

RECIPROCAL YOUTH
Dir: Jonathan Johnson

An absurd melding of home and archival videos.

CLIFFS QUARRIES BRIDGED AND DAMS
Dir: Josh Hite

Bodies under water at cliffs quarries bridges and dams.

TEN S-K-I-E-S
Dir: Clint Enns

A condensed version of James Benning’s Ten Skies with all the skies removed, leaving nothing but clouds.

I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU THERE
Dir: Michael A. Morris

A meditation on morality and mediation. An elegy and a prayer for Kurt Cobain.

FALLOUT
Dir: Paul Turano

A gradual contamination of the image and increasing waves of fear give way to an irradiated bloom.

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (PROJECT 12, 8 1/2)
Dir:Dirian Lyons

Reconstructs the Hollywood film’s presidential montage, featuring statements only by Barack Obama.

THE POOL
Dir: Christine Lucy Latimer

1950’s 16mm swimmers dive unknowingly into video-infested waters.

THE EXPLODING VOICE
Dir: Allen Riley

Real-time analog sound/video synthesis using voice.

LIGHT IN EXTENSION, ABSOLUTE DOMAIN
Dir: Jon Perez

A found footage glitch piece that reverberates in and out of pure abstraction in attempt to unleash new visions for new eyes.

/END PROGRAM

GO TO BASEMENTMEDIAFEST.COM FOR MORE INFO

A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS

Posted on May 27, 2013May 28, 2013 by spectacletheater

A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS
Dir: Stephen Graves, 2012.
82 min. USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 10TH – 8PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Director Stephen Graves crafts a vivid, intimate portrait of his father Bill, a former doctor who’s barely left home since a rare medical condition led surgeons to remove his colon and parts of his intestines in 1997.

The film unsettlingly depicts the agonizing details of his condition (he must drain waste from a sac connected to his abdomen) alongside his vibrant, medicated dreams, and stories of his libertine past. Graves re-creates his family’s subjective experiences using a unique and experimental approach to editing.

As radical in style as in subject matter, A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS is a confronting, intriguing and strikingly genuine debut.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2013 CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL

Chicago Reader Interview with director Stephen Graves

& OTHER WORKS: JUSTIN LIEBERMAN

Posted on May 27, 2013June 19, 2013 by spectacletheater

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26TH – TWO SHOWS – 8PM & 10 PM
ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

JUSTIN LIEBERMAN: THE DISHWASHER’S SONG & OTHER WORKS from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

“& Other Works” is a series of screenings focusing on video and film from contemporary artists, organized by C. Spencer Yeh.

“& Other Works” seeks out artists’ efforts which invite and evoke the cinematic experience, yet are typically looped on crowded walls or locked up in online isolation. “& Other Works” screens beginning to end, in an informal but focused communal viewing experience. In other words – “film, folks, fun.”

For June, we welcome artist Justin Lieberman, who will be in attendance.

—

THE DISHWASHER’S SONG
Dir. Justin Lieberman, 2002.
17 min. USA.

THE DISHWASHER’S SONG was created over a nine month period while Lieberman worked at the Maharishi Spiritual Center of America in North Carolina. Employed as a dishwasher (surprise!), Lieberman was tasked with discarding the leftover food from the center’s meal services each night, a ritual he began documenting on video. The resulting culinary downpour conjures thrills from volatile modernist sculpture, to the inventive viscera of gonzo gore movies; an aggregated topography of consumption and meditative essay on the backside of the enlightenment machine.

To cook up the perfect kitchen radio soundtrack, Lieberman plundered via Napster (remember, it’s the early 2000s), collecting and collaging pop music instances of “yeah,” “baby,” and “no.” These three exclamations weave in and out of the fore, composing a colorful choir of cultural cacophony.

Originally presented as a multi-channel audiovisual installation, THE DISHWASHER’S SONG has been adapted into a single-channel work in collaboration with the artist especially for this screening. The mantric excretions of THE DISHWASHER’S SONG build to sustained climax from this presentation; your appetite won’t.

THE VISITOR
Dir. Justin Lieberman, 2004.
10 min. USA.

THE VISITOR casts Lieberman as a diapered brain alien crash landing straight into a backwoods summer fantasy informed by Easy Rider, El Topo, Fire in the Sky, and the Joseph Beuys joint I Like American and America Likes Me. A cameo from Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine consummates this compact fable of loving a visit, but hating the life.

FIRST THOUGHT, THEN SUSTENANCE
Dir: Justin Lieberman, 2007.
11 min. USA.

FIRST THOUGHT, THEN SUSTENANCE is described by Lieberman as “something of a structuralist narrative made in collaboration with the artists Jacques Louis Vidal and Kembra Pfahler.” A homeless man in a wheelchair, an SS officer, and a performance artist (Pfahler in full Voluptuous Horror garb) take turns tossing books into a shared oil can fire, while tossing off lines plundered from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.

THE BATH 2051
Dir. Justin Lieberman, 1997.
10 min. USA.

THE BATH 2051 = Aluminum foil Tetsuo cosplay vibes waft through a Jack Smith-haunted bathroom performance document, in Lieberman’s first official video effort.

Justin Lieberman is an artist, teacher, activist, curator, and critic who has worked extensively in the US and Europe. He has held faculty positions at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Queens College, New York, and Brandeis University, Waltham. He has presented numerous solo exhibitions of his work in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, London, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Athens, and Klagenfurt, among others. His work has been reviewed in publications including Artforum, Art in America, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Triple Canopy, Frieze, Useless, Art Review, The New York Times, Bomb, Le Monde, and Le Journal, and is the subject of a monograph published by JRP Ringier.

DIRT CITY FLIXX (Never Fahgettaboudit)

Posted on May 22, 2013May 28, 2013 by spectacletheater

DIRT CITY FLIXX.
2013. Various. Animated.

SATURDAY, MAY 25TH – 7:30pm
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

In a time when the medium of animation is polarized between commercial programming and independent “Art Film,” few examples can be found that epitomize the new wave of independent filmmakers that choose to utilize the medium in ways that eschew any form of targeting; rather they are narrative forms of self-expression that convey the experience of the contemporary artist. As the necessary technology of animation has become more accessible to artists, the medium itself has transformed—much like the comic book–to convey subversive, experimental, and harsh themes and techniques with immediacy previously unavailable. The films showcased here in DIRT CITY FLIXX represent some of the most exciting, funny, violent, stupid, inventive, and dirty sexxy movies coming out of New York City and the internet at large.

DIRT CITY FLIXX contains the work of the following independent filmmakers.

Dennis Morano
Ivo Stoop
Colin Kelly
Alex Wood
Rick Manlapig
Cody Walzel
Vince Cretara
Charlie Judkins
Mike Gallant
with Lavina Yelb’s Pelina

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL – LIVE SCORE BY ANA LOLA ROMAN

Posted on May 21, 2013May 28, 2013 by spectacletheater

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL
Dir: Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929.
104 min. Germany.

LIVE SCORE BY ANA LOLA ROMAN

THURSDAY, MAY 23RD – 8PM &10PM
TWO SCREENINGS!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

On May 23rd, Ana Lola Roman will provide live electronics, synths, beats, live vocal atmospheres, and drum pads to provide a futuristic, timeless, modular, and modern soundtrack/score to G. W. Pabst’s first Louis Brooks’ film. Roman’s haunting, lush, and minimal flourishes will provide a sound-scape that teeters on suspense, sexuality, raw-eroticism, and danger. This will be a chance to see silent film’s penultimate Muse; the vivid innocence, playfulness, and primal, yet refined beauty of Louise Brooks through Roman’s modern, raw, animistic, refined lens.

Louise Brooks, the silent film star who very well could have been the first to engage in the earliest version of ‘method’ acting, stars in Pabst’s Diary of a Lost Girl. Brooks plays the main character of Thymian, who is forced to face lurid tragedies and brief encounters with scandal and lust.

The premise of the story is disturbingly modern. Diary of a Lost Girl plays on fears we could face at anytime. We see Thymian take on a variety of misfortunes all while forced into a class-system she was not born into and which is clearly beneath her. Modern viewers will first notice that this film, released in 1929, is the first of its kind to deal with problems of exploitation, prostitution, and abandonment. Even before Lolita, or before Taxi Driver, this silent film eerily depicts a new genre of film to come.

Poster by Domokos (Tit’nul) from Future Blondes