SATURDAY, JULY 12 – NOON

DAY PASSES

Co-presented by Severin Films and Oscarbate Film Collective

Over the course of his sixty-year career, Spanish writer/director/actor/trumpeter Jesús Franco made nearly 200 unique feature films. Working across just about every genre conceivable—from slashers to spy films; gothic horror to hardcore porn, and beyond—Franco channeled his lifelong obsessions with pulp storytelling, jazz, and sex into a filmography that’s as dense as it is singularly idiosyncratic. This July, Oscarbate Film Collective returns to Spectacle for a sequel to last year’s Franco mystery marathon with four more films drawn from the various depths and crevices of his sizable filmography. Whether you’ve seen one or a hundred of his films, why not take a chance to fall under his spell?

Severin Films Pop-Up Shop before and after the marathon!

Day passes are available online for $20. Single film tickets will be available at the door for $5 on a first-come, first-serve basis.

EUGENIE DE SADE
Dir. Jesús Franco, 1970
Liechtenstein. 91 mins.
In English.

Jess Franco’s second (loose) adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s story Eugénie de Franval is every bit as magnificent as his earlier Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1970). With a captivating central performance by Soledad Miranda (Vampyros Lesbos), Eugenie de Sade is one of Franco’s best—yet surprisingly more underseen—films.

NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND DESIRES
Dir. Jesús Franco, 1983
Spain. 93 mins.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

Jess Franco’s longtime muse and partner Lina Romay stars in one of his many, many films about mind control and murder that’s a potent example of the sort of hypnotic dream logic that only he could conjure.

BLACK BOOTS, LEATHER WHIP
dir. Jesús Franco, 1982
Spain. 89 mins.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

One of Jess Franco’s many—and best—films centered around the hardboiled detective Al Pereira, Black Boots, Leather Whip contains some of the most beautiful images he ever committed to celluloid.

LAS CHUPONAS
Dir. Jesús Franco, 1985
Spain. 69 mins.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

A true rarity in Jess Franco’s seemingly never-ending filmography: a never-screened, not commercially available hardcore feature that has been shrouded in mystery for decades. Franco scholar (and Murderous Passions and Flowers of Perversion author) Stephen Thrower calls it one of his very best adult films — high praise.

THURSDAY, JULY 24 – 7:30 PM & 10 PM

TICKETS FOR PROGRAM 1
TICKETS FOR PROGRAM 2

Drawing from spiritual systems spanning from Buddhism to alchemy to Kabbalah, Jordan Belson’s films posit sensuous dances of light and color as windows into a wider vision of awareness. From the 1940’s until his passing in 2011, Belson was a trailblazer in the San Francisco art scene and a pioneer in ‘Non-Objectivism,’ which he described as, “[constructing] real events in an unreal world.”

Spectacle is proud to present an evening of rarely seen Belson films. We will be projecting new 16 mm prints made from Belson’s original internegatives. We have invited Bradley Eros to curate a program responding to these works. Belson has been a foundational influence in Eros’s work since he was first introduced to the films as a student of Ron Eppel’s at the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana. Eros’s first published essay was a 1972 essay on Belson’s films for legendary film zine The MacGuffin.

Works by Bradley Eros (Mediamystics and Vampÿrates) will be interwoven with Belson’s, making use of celluloid and multi-screen projection to transform the theater into a conduit for the numinous.

LIGHT
Dir. Jordan Belson, 1973.
United States. 8 min.
16mm.

CYCLES
Dirs. Jordan Belson & Steve Beck. 1975.
United States. 10 min.
16mm.

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
Dir. Jordan Belson. 1977.
United States. 10 min.
16mm.

INFINITY
Dir. Jordan Belson. 1979.
United States. 8 min.
16mm.

Specially curated films, projections, video, slides, texts & graphics by Bradley Eros

7:30pm – Belson x Mediamystics: Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta

DERVISH MACHINE
Dirs. Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta. 1992.
United States. 10 min.
Super-8 to 16mm.

OPEN SESAME
Dirs. Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta. 1989.
United States. 7 min.

AERODYNAMICS OF THE BLACK SUN
Dirs. Bradley Eros & Lili Chin. 2006.
6 min.

OBSERVANDO EL CIELO
Dir. Jeanne Liotta. 2007.
17 min.
16mm.

ECLIPSE
Dir. Jeanne Liotta. 2005.
3 min.
16mm.

10:00pm – Belson x Vampÿrates: Bradley Eros & Richard Sylvarnes (2020 – 2025?, or centuries before?) Expanded Cinema with Slides, film, video & digital layers, original & found (stolen) materials

TRANSTRANS (TRANSFORMERS TRANSFORMED)
Dirs. Bradley Eros & Tim Geraghty. 2009.
12 min.

PYROTECHNICS
Dirs. Aline Mare / Erotic Psyche (Eros & Aline Mare). 1985.
11 min.

Bradley Eros is an artist-catalyst actively involved in diverse aspects of the New York underground, working with myriad media: experimental film & video, collage, photography, poetry, performance, sound, text, installation, expanded & contracted cinema, plus a curator, designer, researcher, composer & investigator. Concepts include: Mediamystics, Optipus, ephemeral cinema, Erotic Psyche, subterranean science, Vampÿrates, Mushroom Archive, Ocula, cinema povera, metaBody, poetic accidents, fragmentstein, musique plastique, Oysters of the Id, Narcolepsy Cinema, Artaud-Butoh, The Owl of Minerva, Velvet Hermetic System, Imageless Film, Eros c’est Lamour, kinoSonik & Black Hole Cinema.

Jeanne Liotta makes films, moving image installations, projector performances and other primarily lens-based works. Her cosmic cinema is a lively mix of art, science and natural philosophy, produced by photographing celestial events, researching the sci vis archive and performing experientially with time, light and motion.
She has been making work for over 3 decades, which includes her early collaborations with Bradley Eros, her signature 16mm film of the night skies, Observando El Cielo (2007), which received the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, as well as Eclipse (2005) which was featured in the Whitney Biennial.
Liotta is the author of a monograph about the Joseph Cornell Collection at Anthology Film Archives, “Joseph Cornell: Films” published by San Francisco Cinematheque and “Enter Germs, Enter the World: Hand processing artists films in the AIDS era” for Millennium Film Journal. She is Professor Emerita at University of Colorado Boulder and Associate Chair of Moving Image in the Bard MFA Program . Her films are distributed by Lightcone, Paris and her artwork is represented by Microscope Gallery, New York.

Richard Sylvarnes is a visual artist, music maker and professional photographer. He has exhibited and performed at a multitude of spaces, venues, clubs and galleries: Anthology Film Archives, The Film-makers’ Coop, Microscope Gallery, Synesthesia, Spectacle, St. Marks Church, Sunview Luncheonette, Chaos Computer, Secret Project Robot, Lincoln Center, Le Petit Versailles, Mono No Aware, Tank Space, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Nancy Driscoll Gallery, Eyebeam, Secret Project Robot, Scott Alan Gallery, Theatre 80 St. Marks, Phyllis Harriman Gallery, Neikrug Gallery, the Kitchen among others in New York City; Emerson Gallery (Berlin), Galerie Du Jour (Paris), The Ragged School (London), the Horse Hospital (London), Galerie Tristesse (Berlin), Subliminal Projects (Los Angeles), Gallery Blütenweiss (Berlin), OK LA (Montreal). In 2009 he received a Creative Capital Grant to work with the four-time Bessie Award winning choreographer David Neumann on a work titled “Big Eater” which premiered at the Kitchen in 2010. Also, in 2008, he was nominated for a Rockefeller Renew Media Fellowship.

SUNDAY JULY 13 – 5 PM – ONE NIGHT ONLY! LIVE SCORE BY JAKE PEPPER AND ZACH KOEBER – PLAYED BACK TO BACK WITH A 15-MINUTE INTERMISSION

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS (7/13)

Following their debut as a duo in May, improv music virtuosos Jack Pepper and Zach Koeber return to score two Spectacle silent classics from Russian visionary Yevgeni Bauer

AFTER DEATH
dir. Yevgeni Bauer, 1915
Russia, 46 min.
Silent with Russian intertitles and English Subtitles

Based on a novella by Ivan Turgenev, AFTER DEATH is arguably cinema’s first foray into gothic romance. The pitifully alienated Andrei (Vitold Polonsky) becomes infatuated with enigmatic actress Zoia (Vera Karalli), and then her sudden passing sends him into a pit of obsessive despair. Presented initially as a melodrama before distinctly veering into the supernatural and psychological, AFTER DEATH is an early testament to the ways film illustrates the complex feelings around loss and dwelling on what could have been.

THE DYING SWAN
dir. Yevgeni Bauer, 1917
Russia, 49 min.
Silent with Russian intertitles and English Subtitles

A few years later, Bauer, Polonsky, and Karalli reunited for another morbid tale of obsession and fame. Written by Russian actress Zoya Barantsevich, THE DYING SWAN follows the tragic trajectory of mute ballet dancer Gizella (Karalli) as she encounters heartbreak, breakthroughs in fame, and admirers with pernicious motives. Released in the twilight of Bauer’s career, THE DYING SWAN is also considered his most noteworthy achievement for its gaze into the darker side of inspiration and desire.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Jake Pepper and Zach Koeber make up half of Ace Bandage, the jam-heavy rock band based in Brooklyn. Their fondness of improvisation and vast knowledge of timbral music allows them to shift seamlessly through varied sonic palettes. Pepper also performed in Brooklyn synth punk outfit Future Punx, while Koeber got his start in the local scene as one-third of Archie Pelago, and he currently collaborates with deep house producer Max in the World. Both Jake and Zach have also guest DJ’d on the prestigious independent station The Lot Radio.

Special thanks to George Schmalz and Kino Lorber.

The Suns of Easter Island
Dir. Pierre Kast, 1972.
France, 90 min.
In French, Spanish and Portuguese.

TUESDAY, JULY 1 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 13 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 25 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30 – 7:30 PM

GET TICKETS

A group of 7 scientists, researchers, and spiritual leaders from around the globe receive disturbing visions and wake up with mysterious markings on their palms. They all seem to know one thing for certain; the answer to their questions lie on Easter Island. They also happen to have impeccable 1970s drip.

The Suns of Easter Island is preceded by the animated film, The Heat of a Thousand Suns, both directed by Peter Kast. Thousand Suns is sparsely animated but visually rich, composed of still paintings by Spanish surrealist Eduardo Luiz. Kast directs these two science fiction tales in a methodical manner, slowly revealing the humanity behind their mysteries. Come and see two unforgettable metaphysical films this July at Spectacle!

Screenings Will Be Preceded By:

The Heat of a Thousand Suns
Dir. Pierre Kast, 1965.
France. 25 min.
In French.

This July, Spectacle invites you to experience two films from Valeri Rubinchik in all their gothic glory. A Belarusian director from the twilight years of the USSR, Rubinchik was an exemplar of the more lyrical Soviet counterargument to Hollywood blockbuster films. This is likely the reason that his films have until recently gone largely unseen since their initial release. The two films presented, THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STAKH and THE APOSTATE, showcase Rubinchik’s mastery over atmosphere and the psyche. Weaving together massive tableaus, complex camera work, and nonlinear editing, Rubinchik’s two films offer a fresh look at horror and sci-fi from behind the iron curtain.

THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STAKH
Dir. Valeri Rubinchik, 1980
Belarus. 134 min.

SUNDAY, JULY 6 – 5 PM 
MONDAY, JULY 14 – 7:30 PM 
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 31 – 7:30 PM

BUY TICKETS

This is a horrible, damned house.

Welcome to Marsh Firs, the gothic mansion at the center of a bloody folktale that a young ethnographer has come to collect. Shortly after his arrival, the erudite skeptic finds himself an unwitting witness to the Wild Hunt, a trope common in Eastern European folklore, lead by the ghost of a vengeful nobleman killed at the mansion while there as a guest hundreds of years prior. But the Wild Hunt may be the least of his worries during his stay with the estate’s unstable mistress who unveils more about her family’s past and the menagerie of ghosts that haunt them.

A rare contribution to the horror genre from Soviet cinema, THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STAKH was recently restored by Deaf Crocodile in 2023. Leave your jump-scares at home and settle in for the horrors of paranoia and psychological torture.

THE APOSTATE
Dir. Valeri Rubinchik, 1987
Belarus. 163 min.

SUNDAY, JULY 6 – 7:00 PM 
THURSDAY, JULY 17 – 7:00 PM 
MONDAY, JULY 21 – 7:00 PM

BUY TICKETS

A scientist develops a method to clone living material. Before long, the government steps in to weaponize this discovery for their own gain. Five genetically identical presidents later, the implications of such technology have already spiraled out of control. Arguing with yourself, facing your own mortality, and questioning who you are have rarely been more literal.

It’s easy to see THE APOSTATE as a commentary on a country at odds with itself, a fracturing of identity, in the wake of the recent relaxations from perestroika two years prior. Rubinchik’s vision of the future isn’t exactly optimistic. A sense of doom, a mood suffused throughout Rubinchik’s late works, hangs over the film as earthquakes shake interiors, sea levels rise, and horse and carriages ride past imposing brutalist architecture.