Uncategorized – Spectacle Theater

OCEANS, BORDERS, DECADES: ABDELLAH TAIA

Posted on June 2, 2025June 9, 2025 by smacfarlane

Every month is Pride month at Spectacle, but in June 2025 we are nonetheless honored to screen two films by novelist and director Abdellah Taïa, the first openly gay filmmaker from Morocco. This series includes a limited engagement of Taïa’s (as of yet undistributed) new feature CABO NEGRO, plus screenings of his notorious – and still underappreciated – autobiographical drama SALVATION ARMY, made a decade earlier. Taïa will join us for remote Q+As on June 8 (SALVATION ARMY) and June 13 (CABO NEGRO).

“My neuroses are, at some level, what we might call my creativity. But what I produce artistically does not help me in any way in my real life. Nothing is resolved. Everything is complex, complicated. I sincerely believe that there is only love to heal and soothe troubled souls… To me, (books and films) have the same source: the wonderful Egyptian films that I discovered with my family on Moroccan television during my childhood. Everything comes from images. For years, my brain has been structured from images of films I thought and rethought, in a manner at once naïve and serious. I will continue to write books inspired by images — and by my neuroses, of course.” – Abdellah Taïa, The New York Times

SALVATION ARMY
(L’ARMEE DE SALUT)
dir. Abdellah Taïa, 2014
France/Morocco. 80 min.
In French and Arabic with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, JUNE 2 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 8 – 5 PM followed by Q+A with Abdellah Taïa
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – 5 PM

TICKETS / Q+A TICKETS

Abdellah is a young gay man navigating the sexual, racial and political climate of Morocco. Growing up in a large family in a working-class neighborhood, Abdellah is caught between a distant father, an authoritarian mother, an older brother whom he adores and a handful of predatory older men, in a society that denies his homosexuality. As a college student, Abdellah moves to Geneva and while faced with the new possibilities of freedom, he grapples with the loss of his homeland.

Adapted directly from Taïa’s eponymous 2009 novel, SALVATION ARMY is a quietly confrontational debut that draws explicitly from the novelist-filmmaker’s experience as trauma survivor and closeted gay man in Morocco. Shot by legendary cinematographer Agnès Godard (with whom Taïa determined to collaborate after seeing her work on Claire Denis’ NENETTE AND BONI), it also measures the consequences of abuse – whether from family or from once-trusted elder role model figures – with a surprisingly restrained style. Taïa’s refusal to sentimentalize or sensationalize makes SALVATION ARMY all the more searing in its muted depiction of a young man’s forbidden coming of age.

“When I was a teenager, any signs of a well-accepted homosexuality were absent from real life and from Arab movies… Homosexuality was constantly associated with mental illness, social shame, a sin. To survive I had to make up my own cultural codes. I had to convince myself I had that right. The exclusion and the solitude were not always easy to bear. Much later, at the age of twenty, I discovered secondary characters who bore some signs of homosexuality in movies by Youssef Chahine, Salah Abou Seif or Yousry Nassrallah. But they were not totally in the light. Something was missing… In the collective Arab mind, there is no homosexual hero.” – Abdellah Taïa

CABO NEGRO
dir. Abdellah Taïa, 2024
France/Morocco. 74 min.
In French and Arabic with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 13 – 5 PM followed by Q+A with Abdellah Taïa
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – 5 PM

TICKETS / Q+A TICKETS

Ten years and several novels after SALVATION ARMY, Taïa stepped behind the camera again to create a slow-burning drama that similarly engages spectatorship and desire, this time vis-a-vis the tourism industry of the filmmaker’s home country of Morocco. Two queer friends seek refuge at a villa rented by an American academic named Jonathan. After he fails to arrive, the young Moroccans must figure out how to survive without returning home, and Taïa’s sophomore feature enters uneasy thriller territory (while continuing to display the unique combination of tenderness and asceticism that made SALVATION ARMY so startling.) Indeed, Taïa introduced a festival screening of the film by saying “Queer people in Morocco living (or trying to live) a ‘normal’ life is revolutionary, with their food, their cities, and their rituals.”

“The body in Taïa’s work is there to be bartered, but it also has a knack for finding affection even in the most pragmatic, or abusive, of transactions. A sequence in SALVATION ARMY of the child protagonist embracing his so-called abuser, desperate for emotional reciprocity, finds its correlative in CABO NEGRO when Jafaar caresses his client’s salt-and-pepper hair, post-coitus, not unlike one would rub a lamp in order to make a farfetched wish. The encounter is meant to simply guarantee the maintenance of Jaffar and Soundouss’s getaway, but Taïa captures the yearning of the sexual aftermath as an inevitable, and inevitably futile, queer wish for continuity, reciprocity, or recognition.” – Diego Semerene, Slant

“This film was inspired by two young gay Moroccans I follow on Instagram. They carry within them the powerful signs of a new, vibrant generation, who live each moment—at all costs—with crazy, inspiring intensity. Incendiary. From the stories they told me, I wrote the script for CABO NEGRO so I might capture that energy, that fire. That urgency. Soundouss and Jaâfar are heroes who no longer wait for change to come; instead, they live life to the fullest and create strong bonds of solidarity between themselves, outside the rules. The film will show these bonds and reveal the mechanisms of the social and political violence that is in process around them. Despite the end of innocence they experience in Cabo Negro, they will be able to rebel. Despite the extreme violence of the world, they will manage to live a love like a river that overflows.” – Abdellah Taïa

Special thanks to Marcus Hu and Andrea Picard.

GREEN GOTHIC: THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST CINEMA OF DEVOR AND MUDEDE

Posted on June 2, 2025June 3, 2025 by smacfarlane

This June, Spectacle proudly hosts a trinity of films from polymath filmmakers Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede, both based in the Pacific Northwest. While Devor broke onto the indie scene with his gloriously scrappy 1999 adaptation of pulp novelist Charles Willeford’s THE WOMAN CHASER starring Patrick Warburton, Mudede has chiseled a mountain of idiosyncratic culture criticism (on subjects including but by no means limited to film) alongside hyperlocal reportage with an unapologetic Frankfurt School bent, much of it for Seattle’s iconic alternative weekly The Stranger. If you grew up in Seattle these last 25 years, you’ve probably read Mudede, but opportunities to see his and Devor’s films can be elusive. In advance of the duo’s new documentary SUBURBAN FURY – about Sarah Jane Moore’s 1975 attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford – we are honored to revisit their first two collaborations, POLICE BEAT and ZOO. The films are wildly different despite the fact each riffs directly on real-life events in the Puget Sound area, collapsing the easy remove of dramatic reenactment or durable genre tropes; the series is rounded out by a limited engagement of Mudede’s 2020 directorial debut THIN SKIN. The filmmakers will join us for select Q+As after each film.

Special thanks to Charles Mudede, Robinson Devor and Bayview Entertainment.

POLICE BEAT
dir. Robinson Devor, 2005
United States. 90 min.
In English, and Wolof with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – 3 PM followed by Q+A with Charles Mudede and Robinson Devor
MONDAY, JUNE 16 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – MIDNIGHT

TICKETS / Q+A TICKETS

Adapted from Mudede’s eponymous police blotter column in The Stranger, Devor’s second feature follows the misadventures of a West African immigrant-turned-bike cop named Z (played by professional footballer Pape Sidy Niang) in Y2K-era Seattle. After his white girlfriend leaves town on a camping trip with another man, Z experiences a bigger detachment from his alleged calling, hollowing out the high-minded principles of law and order he nevertheless espouses in a voiceover monologue across the film (crucially delivered in his native language of Wolof). The banality of his work leads to an unvarnished, Kafkaesque meditation on Seattle that is starkly beautiful yet also gives face to its bourgeois indifference. This is a major switch-up from the customary Hollywood depiction of the city as a liberated technopolis, and also rebuffs Seattle’s self-image as a progressive melting pot; POLICE BEAT’s fearless depiction of Z’s alienation anticipates what we call inceldom today, as well as the overall atomization of culture that would ramp up in the 2010s and 2020s.

“POLICE BEAT is an object so gorgeously odd, and so completely at peace with its own oddness, it’s hard to compare it to anything else. One could say a kinder, gentler David Lynch, but that skews the emphasis a little too much toward the shock of the otherworldly. Devor steps into Lynchian Americana, but chooses to keep one foot in the real. The result is a deceptively quiet, and completely genuine, thing of beauty.” – Chris Chang, Film Comment

“It’s enough of a feat to find genuinely new ways of rendering heartbreak and longing, but POLICE BEAT manages that and more. Gorgeously photographed and startlingly addictive, mesmerizing and mysterious, Robinson Devor’s unlikely-sounding triumph is a sensual immersion into the consciousness of a lovelorn Senegalese-American cop in Seattle.” – Nicolas Rapold, New York Sun

ZOO
dir. Robinson Devor, 2007
United States. 80 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, JUNE 9 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 17 – 7:30 PM followed by Q+A with Charles Mudede and Robinson Devor
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – 10 PM

TICKETS / Q+A TICKETS

In 2005, Kenneth Pinyan, a Boeing engineer in Enumclaw, WA died after suffering injuries from – yes – being penetrated by a horse. After his body was dropped off anonymously at the nearby hospital, the authorities retraced his network of connections to uncover a group (some would even say a community) of Seattle-area men who used the Internet to organize meetups involving farm animals; they called themselves “zoos”, short for zoophiles. The eyebrow-raising story led Washington lawmakers to make bestiality a felony; nobody followed it closer than The Stranger contributor Mudede, who kept on the case throughout 2006 (and beyond), resulting in his groundbreaking journalistic essay The Animal In You.

In telling the movie version of this story, Mudede and Devor sought to meet the subject matter with requisite seriousness. Their attempts to engage Pinyan’s real-life zoophile community were mostly unsuccessful, but three audio interviews with zoos identified only by their online monikers (Pinyan’s was “Mr. Hands”, which is the only way he is referred to in ZOO) form the backbone for the film’s impressionistic reenactment sequences. The filmmakers’ disinterest in true-crime salaciousness is obvious; ZOO demonstrates their shared refusal to sacrifice aesthetic style for ripped-from-the-headlines urgency. As years go by, it’s not hard to understand why ZOO was hotly discussed after its premiere at the 2007 Sundance International Film Festival, nor why it has been largely on the margins since. ZOO is a docufiction hybrid (from before the term became a total cliche) that refuses to compromise: Devor and Mudede take things way beyond the facile punchline of the film’s inciting news story, opting instead to receive their interviewees as human beings, warts and all, resulting in a haunting (and gnarly!) viewing experience.

‘”This topic is not something people want to think about,” Mr. Devor said in an interview at Sundance, summing up both the challenge of marketing the film and the reason he and his writing partner, Charles Mudede, were compelled to make it. Speaking at the premiere Mr. Mudede called ZOO a “thought experiment.” He added, “If someone can go there physically, I can go there mentally… It was fascinating that there was a community of close friends, that there were basic human interactions happening alongside things that seemed completely alien,” Mr. Mudede said.

ZOO minimizes its freak show aspect by emphasizing the coexistence of the mundane and the bizarre, a strategy it shares with the pair’s 2005 Sundance entry, POLICE BEAT, an enigmatic reverie inspired by Mr. Mudede’s crime-blotter column. What emerges here is a sad, even tender portrait of a group of men who met from time to time at a farm, where they would drink slushy cocktails, watch some television and repair to the barn to have sex with horses. The film’s nonzoophile perspective is provided by Jenny Edwards, the founder of a local rescue organization called Hope for Horses, who helped investigate potential animal abuse in the Enumclaw case. “I don’t yet quite know how I feel about that,” she says in the film, referring to the intense feelings that zoophiles claim to have for animals, “but I’m right at the edge of being able to understand it.” ZOO invites the viewer out onto that ledge of near comprehension.’ – Dennis Lim, The New York Times

THIN SKIN
dir. Charles Mudede, 2020
United States. 90 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – 7:30 PM followed by Q+A with Charles Mudede

TICKETS / Q+A TICKETS

Charles Mudede’s first solo outing as director stars Ahamefule Joe Oluo and their sister Ijeoma Oluo (author of So You Want To Talk About Race) as fictionalized versions of themselves, grappling with the legacy of their long-absent father Nigerian father alongside the interminable fallout from Aham’s recent divorce. Given the drudgery of Aham’s concentration-cubicle office job, it seems his only respite comes from playing trumpet at a small nightclub in South Seattle; THIN SKIN introduces itself as a droll slice-of-life dramedy (ably assisted by Oluo’s friends, the comedians Hari Kondabolu and Dwayne Kennedy) before permutating into something far weirder, closer to a horror film about the real-world consequences of unprocessed family trauma. Writing to Stranger critic Jas Kiemig, Mudede said “A key feature of my film THIN SKIN is that no attempt was made to make it familiar to a person who has not spent some time in, first, Seattle, and, second, the Pacific Northwest. This is the lonely region of America I really love… Its story about Ahamefule Oluo and the ghost of his Nigerian father is also, visually, a story about experiencing this part of the world, which used to not have so many hot days.”

Described by its makers as “a music-infused drama about keeping it together when you’re falling apart”, THIN SKIN’s screenplay credit is shared by Ijeoma, Mudede, and Lindy West, creator of Shrill and one of Mudede’s longtime collaborators at The Stranger. The film as developed off of Oluo’s 2014 experimental opera “Now, I’m Fine” which, itself, went on to perform at theater festivals (including Under the Radar in New York) and was also adapted into the This American Life episode “The Wedding Crasher”. Shot in 2018, THIN SKIN’s intended 2020 release was severely hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, a setback Mudede et al met with characteristic resourcefulness. We are honored to give it this limited engagement at Spectacle.

“THIN SKIN moves in directions you couldn’t imagine and leaves you contemplating the connections between family, responsibility, and doing what you love… The film was fully shot in South Seattle and features beautiful shots of the city throughout. In one scene, Oluo sits on a bus, as the camera pans outside to a fog-filled South Jackson Street. But this is not an artistic portrait of Seattle; this is a portrait of an artist in Seattle. The city itself isn’t overly romanticized. It feels like an authentic view through the eyes of an artist struggling to balance passion for the arts with the reality of an unfulfilling corporate job.” – Mike Davis and Sarah Leibovitz, KUOW

CHARLES TONDERAI MUDEDE is a Zimbabwean-born cultural critic, filmmaker, college lecturer, and writer. He is the Senior Staff writer of the Stranger, a lecturer at Cornish College of the Arts, and has collaborated with the director Robinson Devor on three films, two of which (POLICE BEAT and ZOO) premiered at Sundance, one of which (ZOO) screened at Cannes, and the most recent of which, SUBURBAN FURY, premiered at New York Film Festival. (POLICE BEAT is now part of MOMA’s permanent collection.) Mudede’s essays regularly appear in e-Flux and Tank Magazine.

ROBINSON DEVOR‘s newest feature documentary SUBURBAN FURY debuted at the 2024 New York Film Festival and has gone on to win the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival. The film achieved a 100% percent Rotten Tomatoes score, with Variety calling it “a rapt documentary thriller.” Devor’s 2018 feature documentary POW WOW: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE INDIAN WELLS COUNTRY CLUB debuted at Locarno and then at Lincoln Center/Art of the Real; the film was hailed by New Yorker film critic Richard Brody as “one of the best films of this or any year”, while Slate called the multi-character film “ambitious, surreal and intoxicating”. Named one of Variety’s “10 Directors To Watch” for his directorial debut, Devor premiered THE WOMAN CHASER at The New York Film Festival and then at Sundance. His first short documentary ANGELYNE was a half hour, black and white 16mm film capturing a day in the life of the eponymous LA billboard queen. The Village Voice called it “a visual knockout”.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I AM!: TWO OFFBEAT SPORTS DOCS

Posted on May 23, 2025May 23, 2025 by Dan Scanlon

With the weather getting warmer, most New Yorkers begin having olympian delusions of grandeur. Here at Spectacle, we want to celebrate the sprint to Summer by… staying inside and living vicariously through the real life stories of athletes outside the mainstream broadcasts. As our prestigious professional leagues become increasingly enraptured in gambling promotions, these quaint looks into the Professional Bowlers Association or even more micro, a Vermont farmer’s dream to become a dog musher feel like a pep rally against the monetized current state of sports, pushing instead for a pure love of the game.

A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN
dir. Christopher Browne, 2004
United States. 93 min.
In English.

TUESDAY, JUNE 3 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 12 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25 – 10 PM

GET TICKETS

Premiering at the SXSW Film Festival in 2004, A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN is a sincere exploration of PBA or Professional Bowlers Association and the league’s resurgence in the 21st Century. Chronicling the full 2002-03 PBA Tour Season, the film follows an eccentric bunch of real world characters including the unhinged, unique Pete Weber as he strives to take the MVP title from PBA’s “Deadeye” and most awarded player, Walter Ray Williams Jr. A LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN uses every trick in the book to showcase bowling as a game that transcends mere birthday parties and work happy hours.

“After a few flourishes of Errol Morris-like editing, first-timer Browne settles into a tone resembling the ESPN telecasts so crucial to the PBA’s revenue stream, thriving on the intrinsic drama of competition and the league’s emerging star system.”
— Joshua Land, Village Voice

Special Thanks to Christopher Browne, Mary Lugo, Neal Block and Magnolia Films.

UNDERDOG
dir. Tommy Hyde, 2021
United States. 82 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 10 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 19 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25 – 7:30 PM

GET TICKETS

The Curiously Optimistic Tale of Doug Butler

An official selection at Slamdance and Camden International Film Festival — UNDERDOG is a loving salute to Doug Butler, a dairy farmer from Vermont willing to do whatever it takes to get up to Alaska to compete in the world famous sled dog race, the Open North American Championships. While the picture boasts plenty of action shots, UNDERDOG makes sure to present Butler as person first, athlete second — come for the dogs racing in snow, stay for the rugged, down to earth character portrait of New England’s fading working class. “You gotta go through Hell to get to Heaven” Featuring One Night Only Q&A with producer Aaron Woolf!

“UNDERDOG succeeds on the empathetic depiction of its subject. Butler’s charmingly garrulous demeanor in the face of dire circumstances is enough to win over one of his creditors, who deems a conference over un-paid bills ‘a great fun call.’ Viewers will likely find that Butler wins them over, too.”
— Hank Nooney, Tallahassee Democrat

Special Thanks to Tommy Hyde and Nice Marmot Films.

BOB MORGAN’S JUST GOING TO TELL SOME STORIES

Posted on May 23, 2025May 23, 2025 by Dan Scanlon

BOB MORGAN’S JUST GOING TO TELL SOME STORIES
Dirs. Grayson Tyler Johnson & Tom Marksbury, 2024
United States. 86 min.
In English.

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – 7:30 PM (w/Q&A)
THURSDAY, JUNE 26 – 7:30 PM

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS (6/20)

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

Bob Morgan’s Just Going to Tell Some Stories… about art and garbage, sex and drugs, aids grief, cultural subversion and being an outsider turned community icon.

Meet Bob Morgan, hoarder, collector, assemblage artist, candid photographer, local legend, friend to Lexington icons Henry Faulkner and Sweet Evening Breeze, raconteur, archivist, activist, historian, a builder and chronicler of queer Kentucky, and the most interesting man you’ll meet on the silver screen this June.

In this fascinating documentary profile and winner of the Research Award (given by the jury to a film exhibiting a strong engagement with research) at the 2025 Athens International Film + Video Festival, Bob Morgan invites you into his home to give you his story, and the stories of those lost and found on the way.

Join us at Spectacle for a special screening of the film on June 20th, followed by a Q&A with the film’s co-director Grayson Tyler Johnson.

ROACH SUMMER: COSMIC COCKROACH INVASION

Posted on May 22, 2025June 5, 2025 by Dan Scanlon

From the sickos who brought you RAT SUMMER— comes another deranged creature feature collection at your favorite goth bodega microtheater. This time around, we’re spotlighting the city’s least favorite insect– the cockroach. Scaly, grotesquely persistent and has a long-held mythology around their survivability, Spectacle is proud to screen two classic cockroach horror joints (THE NEST and BUG) and house the New York City premiere of analog thriller 3D short ROACH™

ROACH™
Dir. schnüdlbug, 2022
Canada. 31 min.
In English.

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 7 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, JUNE 16 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – 7 PM (w/Q&A)

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS (6/27)

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

“FOLLOW THE SUN” A whole new kind of space odyssey– a nameless pilot (voiced by Sydney Thorne) is adrift alone in space until they encounter a massive, well, ROACH. Screening for the first time in the New York metro area with the eye-popping 3D cut, ROACH™ bears the outer aesthetics of a trendy analog horror short but unfolds into something far more singular. Sensory overload for a lost universe, ROACH™ is one of the more unique shorts of this modern hyper-digital age.

“A truly unique synthesis of video game nomenclature and cinematic form. A minimalist yet vast audiovisual odyssey wholly imbued with atmosphere. I fell under its spell.”
— Scott Barley, director of SLEEP HAS HER HOUSE

Every screening will precede THE NEST, with a virtual director Q&A with schnüdlbug on Friday, June 27th.

NOTE: ROACH WAS CREATED FOR ALL AUDIENCES. HOWEVER, IT CONTAINS PROLONGED SEQUENCES OF FLASHING LIGHTS WHICH MAY AFFECT PHOTOSENSITIVE INDIVIDUALS.

Screens with:

THE NEST
Dir. Terence H. Winkless, 1987
United States. 89 min.
In English.

Produced by Julie Corman under the Corman couples’ genre movie distributor Concorde Pictures, THE NEST remains one of the decade’s nastiest monster movies. Deceptively shot in California depicting a sleepy New England town overrun by mutant cockroaches, the picture’s gonzo production period was marked by an ironic in-studio infestation of over 2000 flying roaches. A carnage heavy sci-fi horror hybrid leading up to a phantasmagorical SFX laden finale, THE NEST is a certified crowd-pleaser for those in pursuit of gory genre camp.

BUG
Dir. Jeannot Szwarc, 1975
United States. 99 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 17 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – MIDNIGHT

GET TICKETS

The final project behind b-movie hype-man William Castle as well as one of the few he’s given screenwriting credit, BUG is a gnarly under-the-radar entry in the natural horror canon. Bradford Dillman plays a level-headed professor whose logical world is set ablaze by a new species of cockroaches with pyrotechnic abilities, building to a showdown between rational science and the cosmic unknown. Firmly shot in Panavision and accentuated by a surreal space-synth score from award winning composer Charles Fox, BUG is one creepy crawly psychological trip and a singular movie-going experience from twilight era of Hollywood produced weird genre flicks.

Special thanks to Tiffany Greenwood and SWANK.

$PECTACLE $ELLS OUT! (BROADWAY EDITION)

Posted on May 21, 2025May 23, 2025 by Dan Scanlon

“I’ve stood on bread lines with the best,
Watched while the headlines did the rest,
In the Depression, was I depressed?
Nowhere near.

I met a big financier,
And I’m here.”

Well it turns out last year’s program of global superhero oddities didn’t exactly net us the mainstream recognition and billion-dollar box office gross we were hoping for, so this year Spectacle is turning the limelight on another quintessentially American art form: musical theater.

With Tony Awards season in full swing and some of Hollywood’s best and brightest back treading the boards up and down Broadway, we figured now is as good a time as any to appeal to New York’s illustrious theater elite to fill the coffers of our humble little black box theater. So this month, we’re bringing stage to screen with five cinematic gems spotlighting the shows, songs, and stars of the Great White Way, all in the hopes of raking in some of that sweet, sweet green.

But fear not, lowly moviegoers, because even though The Legitimate Stage is the theme behind this installment of $pectacle $ells Out!, these are far from mere proshots or taped rehearsals. On the contrary, each work presented here has its own unique cinematic flair rendering them specific to the medium. Because Spectacle is still, after all— or at least until we’re able to get in good with the Shubert Organization— a movie theater.

So, curtain up!
Light the lights!
We’ve got nothing to hit but the… “play” button in VLC…

This June, everything’s coming up $$$pectacle for me and for you~

“Can’t Hum the Tunes”: Songwriting Legends at Work

This program features two short documentary works showcasing the work and creative processes of a few of the most renowned songwriting talents in Broadway history.

MONDAY, JUNE 2 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 26 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 30 – 10 PM

GET TICKETS

THE BROADWAY OF LERNER AND LOEWE
Dir. Norman Jewison, 1962
United States. 51 min.
In English.

First is this 1962 made-for-TV musical special celebrating the fruitful collaborations of lyricist/librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. Hosted by Maurice Chevalier, the film features a cavalcade of Broadway stars, including Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet, and Stanley Holloway, performing a selection of the duo’s work from iconic shows like MY FAIR LADY, CAMELOT, and GIGI. Each number opens with the performers, writers, and directors in dialogue before seamlessly unfolding into full-on musical productions, aided by some incredibly deft multi-camera direction courtesy of a little-known NBC segment director named Norman Jewison.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH… STEPHEN
Dirs. Bob Portway & Anthony Lee, 1990
United Kingdom. 50 min.
In English.

Second is this 1990 Omnibus special featuring an intimate conversation with Stephen Sondheim as he mounts the West End premiere of his seminal 1984 musical, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Rather than just provide a behind-the-scenes look at the production, the film acts as a meditation on the same themes of creativity, commitment, emotional connection, and community explored in Sondheim’s musical through the work of pointillist painter, George Seurat. It’s no surprise that Sondheim, a titanic talent with a genius-level intellect, finds profound connections between his own work and Seurat’s, expounding on how every song, every word, every note he writes is a choice in and of itself, not unlike to how every dot Seurat laid to canvas was a “conscious decision to make it green and not blue”.

DON’T PLAY US CHEAP
Dir. Melvin van Peebles, 1973
United States. 102 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 19 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – 10 PM

GET TICKETS

Trinity (Joe Keyes Jr.) and Brother Dave (Avon Long) are a pair of devilish imps looking for a party to break up. They come across one in Harlem being thrown by Miss Maybell (Esther Rolle) in honor of her niece Earnestine’s (Rhetta Hughes) birthday. Assuming human form, they infiltrate the party and attempt to wreak havoc by drinking all the alcohol, eating all the food, and insulting the guests, only for their efforts to be met with good-natured dismissal. As Trinity begins to fall in love with Earnestine, his and Dave’s mission to break up the party turns into a race against the clock, lest midnight strike when they’ll both be turned into the thing they’ve only pretended to be: human.

Written, composed, directed, and produced by Melvin van Peebles, DON’T PLAY US CHEAP took a rather unusual path towards becoming the stuff of Broadway legend. Van Peebles originally mounted the production, a musical adaptation of his 1967 French-language novel La fête à Harlem, in San Francisco in 1970 with no real intention of a Broadway run. Instead, following the unexpected success of his independently-financed 1971 feature, SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG, van Peebles opted to adapt the musical for his next film project. Filming was completed in early 1972 however, unable to find a distributor, van Peebles decided to bring the production to Broadway anyway, debuting at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in May of that year as the “lighter” half of a stage musical diptych that also featured van Peeble’s much darker-themed AIN’T SUPPOSED TO DIE A NATURAL DEATH, which opened on the same stage just a few months later.

Van Peebles’ film— shot before the Broadway production was even conceived but released after it had already closed— received a short theatrical run in 1973 before finding new life on home video decades later. Since its revival, the work has been lauded by theater and film audiences alike for van Peebles’ unique staging of the musical numbers, often featuring solo performers backed by the full cast in arrangements that underscore their communal nature, and for its richly allegorical book and script, the subjects of which have been interpreted as metaphors for everything from the FBI’s attempts to dismantle the Black Panther Party, to free love, to class conflict, to above all, black resiliency, joy, and determination in the face of contemporary adversity.

OH! CALCUTTA!
Dirs. Jacques Levy & Guillaume Martin Aucoin, 1972
United States. 122 min.
In English.

MONDAY, JUNE 9 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 13 – MIDNIGHT

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No program of musical theater oddities would be complete without one of the most notorious productions to ever grace Broadway. Originally conceived in 1969 by British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, and with music & lyrics composed by Peter Schickele (aka PDQ Bach), Robert Dennis, and Stanley Walden, OH! CALCUTTA! consists of a series of risqué sketches about sex and sexual mores, authored by a who’s-who of theatrical heavyweights from Sam Shepard and Samuel Beckett to Edna O’Brien and Jules Feiffer to, for reasons unclear, a newly solo John Lennon.

This 1971 filmed version of the show’s original Broadway iteration keeps much of Jacques Levy’s original direction intact, with co-director Guillaume Martin Aucoin skillfully adapting its sketch format for a more elaborate and visually versatile medium. The filmed version was originally intended to be shown via closed-circuit video projection at local theaters around the country, however plans for that were scrapped when many cities and towns banned its exhibition in the wake of protests over the material. Instead, the film received a short theatrical release in 1972 as the B-movie to Ralph Bakshi’s FRITZ THE CAT before receiving new life on Broadway a few years later via a hugely successful 1976 revival run.

To say that a bawdy, sophomoric, partially-nude musical revue debuting during the Summer of Love was a product of its time would be an understatement. Yet despite the controversies surrounding nearly every one of its releases (including obscenity charges leading up to its 1970 West End debut), the show ultimately lived a long and healthy life on Broadway, running for over 7,000 combined performances between its original run and 1976 revival, briefly holding the record for longest-running show in Broadway history before being swiftly memoryholed once we reached the era of producer-driven big budget megamusicals.

IT’S A BIRD… IT’S A PLANE… IT’S SUPERMAN!
Dir. Jack Regas, 1975
United States. 92 min.
In English.

MONDAY, JUNE 2 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – MIDNIGHT

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No, this isn’t a holdover from our previous superhero installment of $pectacle $ells Out!. Believe it or not, this is an entirely original (albeit short-lived) theatrical work featuring America’s favorite Big Blue Boy Scout.

Three years before Christopher Reeve’s iconic big-screen turn as the character, audiences were treated(?) to this made-for-TV adaptation of one of Broadway’s most notorious flops. The original musical, composed by the late Charles Strouse with lyrics by Lee Adams and book by David Newman & Robert Benton (both of whom, ironically, still went on to co-author the 1978 film adaptation) opened in March of 1966, and closed just a few months later after a mere 129 performances, at the time earning the title of Broadway’s biggest box office bomb with an unprecedented $600,000 in lost revenue.

Needless to say, the producers of this 1975 TV special were a bit wary of adapting the musical in its original form and insisted on major overhauls to the production, which included significantly re-writing the book, eschewing much of the supporting cast, cutting out several musical numbers, and re-imagining others to fit a more contemporary, kid-friendly sensibility, for better and worse (mostly worse). But what this adaptation lacks in integrity, it more than makes up for in sheer camp value and unfettered silliness, replete with tap-dancing villains, a comically insecure Man of Steel, and a budget so non-existent that most of its special effects (including Superman “flying”) take place off screen. While fans of the Donner film may not appreciate it, “fans” of comic book-to-Broadway shitshows like SPIDER-MAN: TURN OF THE DARK or BARBARELLA most certainly will.

26 BULLETS: REVISITING 13 TZAMETI

Posted on May 15, 2025June 3, 2025 by smacfarlane

Nobody who was bopping around film festival circuits in the mid-2000s has forgotten 13 TZAMETI, the haunting and inventive noir thriller that made the young Georgian-French filmmaker Géla Babluani’s name in international cinema.

To commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary, Babluani will visit Spectacle this June to present 13 TZAMETI alongside its ill-fated American remake starring Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Ray Winstone, Gaby Hoffman and 50 Cent (among others) which he also directed, a gauntlet Babluani now describes as “one of the worst experiences of my life.” For the first time ever, Babluani will tell the story of 13 TZAMETI’s meteoric rise and the unbelievable pressures of adapting his own work for Hollywood, from his perspective, in back-to-back Q+As on Saturday June 7th.

Special thanks to MK2, Swank Motion Pictures and Géla Babluani.

13 TZAMETI
dir. Géla Babluani, 2005
France/Georgia. 95 mins.
In French and Georgian with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 – 5PM followed by Q+A with Géla Babluani
SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 30 – 7:30 PM

TICKETS / Q+A TICKETS

13 Players. One Bullet Each. Place Your Bets.

Writer/director Géla Babluani’s brother George plays an immigrant worker in Paris named Sébastien, who steals an envelope belonging to a fellow roofer after he dies of a drug overdose. Instead of money, Sebastien finds instructions for a mysterious “job” at a chateau outside the city; following the breadcrumb trail, he finds himself caught up in the titular game of 13 TZAMETI, in which thirteen men (in varying states of ill refute) form a circle, load their revolvers and enter a game of Russian roulette en masse. The less said about what happens next, the better – but it’s not hard to understand why Babluani’s feature debut became a global sensation after winning top prizes at the 2006 Sundance and Venice Film Festivals. 13 TZAMETI is a master class in mounting tension and minimalist mood-building, shot through with unmistakable empathy for the plight of undesirables in a globalized economy, and the lucid violence of a waking nightmare.

“Black and white images of a radical beauty, a story with unrelenting mechanics, of a ruthless efficiency.” – Le Figaro

“Come the end credits, fingernails will be firmly embedded in armrests.” – BBC

“Although it’s likely too stark for everyone, 13 TZAMETI offers a mind-blowing experience for anyone willing to go along for the ride.” – The Los Angeles Times

“This original black-and-white film in the style of film noir is a remarkable testimony of people, their arrogance, malice and fear.” – Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

“Memories of my childhood keep coming back to me… The fixed images I have are like rays of light cutting through the darkness. They are always vaguely present, but when I try to re-discover their virginal quality, I no longer sense that childhood innocence.” – Géla Babluani

13
(aka THIRTEEN)
dir. Géla Babluani, 2010
United States. 91 mins.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 – 7:30 PM followed by Q+A with Géla Babluani

TICKETS

Spin. Aim. Survive.

Invited across the Atlantic to remake 13 TZAMETI for American audiences, Babluani nevertheless sought to avoid an easy 1:1 Xerox of his masterful debut. Thus, 13 was shot in crisp color instead of the original’s gritty grayscale, and the action relocated from France to Ohio; British actor Sam Riley (hot off his scorching portrayal of Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn’s CONTROL) plays the embattled lead, no longer an undocumented immigrant but rather, a Great Recession-era construction worker who needs money to pay for an expensive operation that might save his father’s life. Riley heads off a jawdropping ensemble cast which also includes Jason Statham, Michael Shannon, Ray Winston, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, David Zayas, Gaby Hoffman and Ben Gazarra (HUSBANDS.)

While this big-budget experiment doesn’t reach the heights of pupil-dilating suspense that made 13 TZAMETI so notorious, it deserves to be seen as an experiment in not leaving well enough alone. Babluani’s tango with the Hollywood foreign-language-remake-industrial complex found him caught up in a game of high stakes and unclear gains, not unlike the hero of his original 13 TZAMETI.

“I think the acting is superb, Sam Riley has done a great job transitioning from a fear stricken first round player to the seething finalist. Michael Shannon is also great as the umpire; you can sense the evil in him playing god. The wickedness can also be found among the gamblers and their complete disregard (disrespect) for human lives. Even the light bulb has some evilness in it! The director perhaps trying to relay the message that we are just pawns of fate and there is no escape in the end. It is a pretty dark movie but the mood is consistent throughout and captivating overall.” – somlaign1, IMDB

“i’m going to say nothing about this movie other than you should watch it. Oh and theres an original apparently, i have to see this.” – Naomi, Letterboxd

“This is definitely not a film for the fainthearted. That such a gruesome gambling scheme could exist is terrifying. But the production and the acting and the grisly atmosphere is well worth the moviegoer’s attention. Grady Harp” – gradyharp, IMDB

“And intense deep dive into the hopefully competent fictional underground world of Russian roulette. 13 is an example of early Jason Statham before he was relegated to action star. This is an entertainingly dark and twisted ensemble that is layered with a foreshadowing touch that adds greatly to the story as a whole. “ – Zak, Letterboxd

“What a crazy movie! I started watching it on a premium channel, and could not stop watching it. Not an award winner film, but a very dark and intense film that kept me watching from beginning to end.” – JayPatton88, IMDB

MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (2025) (1929 VERSION)

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by David Williams

MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (2025) (1929 VERSION)
Dirs. Tanner D. Masseth, Blake Robbins, Jay Villalobos, Jose Perez, Hank Allen, Breeding Castle, Melissa Cha, Crisis Acting, Dana Dawud, Kayla Drzewicki, Gavin DuBois, Andrea Florens, Janelle Howerton, Levels of Nuance, Emma Murray, Progga, Abbey Pusz, Redacted Cut, Max Rooney, Paranoia State, Twee Whistler, Elijah Valter, Brian Wiebe, Esteban Alarcón, Dziga Vertov. 2025.
United States/Soviet Union/Canada/Palestine/Australia/Argentina/Scotland/Bangladesh. 68 min.
No Dialogue.

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 – 7:30 PM w/Q&A (this event is $10)
SUNDAY, JUNE 1 – 10 PM w/Q&A (this event is $10)

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS

In the 1920s, a movement of like-minded filmmakers known as The Kinoks sought to distance film from its stagebound origins and to completely remake the language of cinema, an art form still in its infancy. Basing their methods in Documentary film, the collective pioneered and invented numerous techniques we take for granted today including the double exposure, the dutch angle, stop motion, split cuts, and the extreme close-up. Helmed by director and theorist Dziga Vertov, The effort of The Kinoks would culminate in the experimental masterpiece MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA; now known worldwide as one of the most important pieces of film in cinema history.

Fast forward a century and a new international group of artists and filmmakers in the same spirit of Vertov and The Kinoks seek to reassert the question for the brain rot generation: “Do you understand me?”

Utilizing a special multi-channel display reminiscent of the splitscreen sensory overload of current short-form consumable entertainment, MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (2025) combines a series of new visual documentary languages in order to explore their unexpected beauty and cinematic potential, including: anime fetish content, AI porn slop, Getty stock images, Instagram hyperfilters, screenlife, surveillance feeds, unboxing videos, Temu garbage, doom scrolling, Google Street View, Black Friday stampedes, Wikileaks, software renders, lifestyle vlogs, ancient emoticons, Times Square GoPro stunts, sexdoll matrimony, VR ecstasy, stolen Xiaohongshu memetics, political rioting, 3D printed pollution, Minecraft Letsplays, Crypto pump and dumps, endless streaming libraries, manned drones, seedy Russian gambling sites, 4chan, mukbang, homemade cybernetics, and Telegram war leaks. A new type of film for the Family Guy Funny Moments world.

Join us at Spectacle on June 1st, 7:30 PM for the New York City premiere of this one-in-a-lifetime cinematic experience – including the debut of a special 4-panel presentation featuring the original 1929 documentary. A film within a film within a film within a film.

Followed by an in-person Q&A with contributing filmmakers Tanner Masseth, Blake Robbins, Janelle Howerton, Progga, Breeding Castle, Melissa Cha, Hank Allen, Emma Murray, Max Rooney, Jake Calvin, John Calvin, and Kayla Drzewicki.

Soundtrack by Snakehouse + Silk Screen + Mooncloud (Massive Scrolls).

FROM THE FILES OF DANCE INTERNATIONAL

Posted on May 1, 2025May 12, 2025 by smacfarlane

After Stuart S. Shapiro (creator and producer of the iconic 1980s art-variety show Night Flight and now Night Flight Plus) finished production on the releases of MONDO NEW YORK and COMEDY’S DIRTIEST DOZEN, he embarked on creating a series of VHS “video music magazines” each highlighting core music segments: Metal Head, Slammin Rap, Country Music, and Dance International. These VHS video magazines are “all time zone jewels” that captured music trends and pop culture for a brief window of time in the early 1990s.

DANCE INTERNATIONAL in particular focused on the emerging trends in electronic, hiphop, soul and R&B music – really, anything that wasn’t rock, country or jazz – and sourced content from the US and UK music scene. The series combined fresh interviews, music video premieres, fashion dossiers, original documentary featurettes and head-banging footage from concerts and dance floors around the world, anchored by groundbreaking proto-vaporwave (or “webcore”) interstitials with a punky attitude. While many of the faces and names in these tapes remain in the global pop pantheon, even more have been relegated to the margins of history – making DANCE INTERNATIONAL an invaluable time capsule of the clubs, the parties and the music industry at a moment of profound technological and sociological change.

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of DANCE INTERNATIONAL’s groundbreaking experiment in documenting youth culture – as well as that time of the year when temperatures rise, skin starts to show and people start packing in clubs – Spectacle is pleased to present all five surviving volumes, with Stuart S. Shapiro joining for in-person Q+As on May 20 and May 21.

DANCE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 1
prod. Stuart S. Shapiro and Adrian Workman, 1990
Worldwide. 59 mins.
In English.

FRIDAY, MAY 9 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, MAY 20 – 7:30 PM followed by Q+A with Stuart Shapiro
THURSDAY, MAY 29 – 10 PM

GET TICKETS
GET Q&A TICKETS

The inaugural edition of DANCE INTERNATIONAL kicks off with a heavy dose of primary-source footage of Italo Disco legends Black Box performing live at London Docklands Arena, joined by 808 State, Guru Josh, Daisy Dee, MC Tunes and others – personally shot on 3/4″ tape by Stuart S. Shapiro. Volume 1 also includes an interview with electronic legends Tommy Musto & Frankie Bones, mini-portraits of UK chanteuse Lisa Stansfield and Moses P. of Logic Records, and a mindblowing zoom-in on the overlap between hot rod racing and house music in the streets of Brooklyn, featuring drum-and-bass maestro Kraze (born Richard Jean Laurent) expounding in a dubious British accent.

“It’s really important to keep close to the basics. We are producing for the dance floor, to give the producers the chance to really DJ, and the really important part is that we can test our product before the release, in the club: see the reaction on the dance floor, could change the mix, and that’s really necessary for us. We have to handle artists, you have to time for that, so we can see what the future really is.” – Mattias Martinson, Co-Owner of Logic Records

DANCE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 2
prod. Stuart S. Shapiro and Adrian Workman, 1990
Worldwide. 58 mins.
In English.

SATURDAY, MAY 10 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 – 7:30 PM followed by Q+A with Stuart Shapiro
FRIDAY, MAY 30 – 10 PM

GET TICKETS
GET Q&A TICKETS

DANCE INTERNATIONAL’s kaleidoscopic approach is on further display in the second installment, which initially focuses on the fusion of rap, funk and house (featuring Mike G from the Jungle Brothers, Afrika Bambataa and UK producer “Dancin’” Danny D) before refracting outwards to depict something called “Hyperstyle for the 1990s” in a cyberpunk montage of web 1.0 interfaces, gyrating young bodies and a depiction of emergent Virtual Reality worthy of Barry Levinson’s classic Seattle erotic thriller DISCLOSURE (or the Aerosmith video for “Amazing”.) The centerpiece of the tape is a look at the notorious Outlaws parties founded by Vito Bruno, infamous for paying off NYPD officers, supplying musicians with drugs and, in 2020, unsuccessfully running for New York State Senate as a “law and order” Republican. Along the way there’s a 10th birthday party for i-D magazine, a deep dive into the escalation of dancehall reggae culture, an interview with acid house legend Baby Ford and an impassioned screed from Boy George against mainstream pop like Kylie Minogue (“we’re in need of another revolution, like punk”) and bemoaning record labels for liking Black music yet rarely signing Black musicians.

“I have the old promoters, the new promoters, people who don’t even speak to each other working together, I have the Black promoters, the white promoters, the gay promoters, the rock promoters, the disco promoters… Tonight this sleazy little loading dock is gonna be the focal point of the entire music industry, of the entire world. It has that New York, decadent, horrible, rough, raw, raunchy feel to it and that’s what it’s supposed to be. All the fabulous people will be here.” – Vito Bruno

DANCE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 3
prod. Stuart S. Shapiro and Adrian Workman, 1990
Worldwide. 57 mins.
In English.

THURSDAY, MAY 15 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 23 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 30 – MIDNIGHT

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Volume 3 testifies to the series’ interest in music’s influence on other cultures worldwide: A profile of Tam Tam Records (featuring A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funki Dredd) diagnoses the synthesis of “hardcore techno elements” with “hardcore guitar stabs” and rap, effectively X-raying the different styles dominating the charts in the UK at the time. In a piece about the loosening of restrictions on music in former Soviet bloc countries, British DJ Norman Jay ventures to Bratislava to guest-host an episode of the weekly radio show Soul Seduction. Six months after its opening, there’s a profile of the Black Market coffee shop/record store in Vienna – “the only place in town that exclusively features Black music, because there has been no place in Vienna to react on the spot to what’s happening all over the world.” (This also occasions a quick interview with Austria’s only rap group, the Bureaus.) There’s a fascinating interview with legendary fashion designer Michiko Koshino that focuses on the DJs who pick songs for her runway shows and her atelier (although the segment is scored to seminal porn/art group Enigma.)

“I really do think dance music, house music, club music, whatever you wanna call it, is gonna take the States by storm because a lot of kids that were into rap are now into dance music. As far as me being a very internationally known artist in Europe and not as big in America, it really doesn’t phase me that much because I know my time is coming. The first time I went over to Europe, the response to my performances were very good: people enjoyed me, people were receptive, I had a great time, and they just know how to party.” – Adeva

DANCE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 4
prod. Stuart S. Shapiro and Adrian Workman, 1991
Worldwide. 59 mins.
In English.

FRIDAY, MAY 16 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 23 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, MAY 31 – 10 PM

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If you weren’t feeling ensconced in the Nineties already, DANCE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 4 features an in-depth profile of the short-lived Long Island rap posse ‘Young Black Teenagers” who enjoyed the support of Public Enemy producer (and Sound of Urban Listeners, or SOUL Records mastermind) Hank Shocklee – despite none of the members actually being Black. Ralph Tresvant gets an extensive interview about his first steps as a solo artist (and the wider misconceptions that hindered New Edition, with no shortage of veiled criticisms of their record label.) Also featured is an extended video for the 12” version of Gwen Guthrie’s “Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on but the Rent” and a short documentary wherein a group of singers tagged as the “Motown of the 90s” (Ceybil, Dee Dee Brave, D’borah) break down the renaissance in New Jersey soul.

“What is it in the nature of Man that makes us hate? And cheat? And steal? And kill? Why do people get off on bigotry, intolerance and racial intolerance? There’s something wrong with human nature! They put their hands in their pockets. It relieves their conscience. There’s something wrong with human nature! What is it that makes a man gaze down from his penthouse suite, watching those young children sleeping rough on the streets? All over the world, there’s something wrong with human nature…!” – Gary Clail

DANCE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 5
prod. Stuart S. Shapiro and Adrian Workman, 1991
Worldwide. 58 mins.
In English.

SATURDAY, MAY 17 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 24 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, MAY 31 – MIDNIGHT

GET TICKETS

Like its predecessors, the final DANCE INTERNATIONAL tape gestures towards a more liberated world, where people are able to enjoy music across genres, unburdened by the strictures of race, class and geography. There’s a fascinating study of Crystal Waters that digs into her encouragement by the Basement Boys, for whom she specifically wrote “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless) as well as her advocacy for queer pride and the destigmatization of AIDS. George Clinton gets a deep-dive interview in which he discusses a Mothership Connection feature film to be directed by HOUSE PARTY’s Reginald Hudlin – shelved, but in preproduction at the time. The final DANCE INTERNATIONAL segment is a black-and-white music video for a still-unreleased Massive Attack song called “Just a Matter of Time”, in which Robert del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Shara Nelson (who famously contributed vocals for “Unfinished Sympathy” and “Lately”) go searching for prodigal member Tricky – perhaps shelved because he left the group after Blue Lines.

“My theory in the studio is, do everything that other producers told you not to do. Everything they told you you can’t put on the record – put it on the record… But I’m preoccupied with extraterrestrial things. If something doesn’t happen pretty soon, we’re all gonna bore ourselves to death.” – George Clinton

BASEBALL IS CINEMA: AN EVENING WITH JOHN DEMARSICO

Posted on April 29, 2025May 16, 2025 by Ben Harris

BASEBALL IS CINEMA: AN EVENING WITH JOHN DEMARSICO
dir. John DeMarisco, 2025.
United States, 20-30ish mins.

**Third show added!!!**

THURSDAY, MAY 22 – 5 PM – Moderated by Bradford William Davis, writer, cultural critic, and Fort Worth Telegram columnist.
THURSDAY, MAY 22 – 7:30 PM – Moderated by Bradford William Davis, writer, cultural critic, and Fort Worth Telegram columnist.
THURSDAY, MAY 22 – 10 PM – Moderated by Caroline Golum, filmmaker, writer, programmer, and masochistic Mets fan.

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Much like cinema itself, America’s pastime has endured across three centuries: from the scrappy days of the Lumiere Bros’ actualities and the amateur club ball of the late 19th century, through Hollywood and baseball’s dominating heyday in the middle-20th, to the shared uncertainties of the 21st-century’s hyper-capitalist technocracy. Played in a “wide shot” and packed with nine innings’ worth of narrative, baseball is arguably our most cinematic sport – and few broadcasters in the game understand this magic quite like Sports New York director John DeMarsico.

Since 2019, DeMarsico has brought his filmmaking background and cinephile bona fides to the New York Mets’ broadcasts, sweetening regular season games with Sergio Leone-inspired showdowns, kinetic camera moves, and an array of spicy graphics. His work on Sports New York has screened throughout the city, and touted in the pages of MUBI Notebook, Baseball Prospectus, and the New York Times. Thanks to the Mets’ increasing prevalence on national broadcasts, DeMarsico has graciously offered to join us on a night off for a survey of his most exciting work. For movie buffs and baseball fans alike, this one-night-only event is not to be missed (and yes, you can check the score during the screening)!