This February, Spectacle continues with our Palestine fundraising series, spotlighting films from across the Arab world with two programs of documentaries made within the context of Palestine-solidarity filmmaking in the tumultuous decades of the 1970s and ‘80s. Each of these films were directed by Arab women, and with the exception of Jocelyne Saab’s BEIRUT, MY CITY, were all made in collaboration with, or with support from, the Palestine Cinema Institute (PCI) in Lebanon and the General Union of Palestinian Women.

Films from Khadijeh Habashneh, founder of the General Union of Palestinian Women, and Jocelyne Saab describe the situation for the women and orphans of Palestine, while films from Lebanon by Jocelyne Saab and Randa Chahal Sabbag document that nation’s sprawling and drawn-out civil war and its intersections with contemporaneous events in Palestine.

All proceeds raised will benefit relief efforts. Special thanks is given to Samirah Alkassim for her assistance in assembling this program.

Content warning: These programs contains explicit images of war and death.

PROGRAM 1: TWO FILMS BY JOCELYNE SAAB

Jocelyne Saab began her career as a documentarian at the outset of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. She would spend the next decade and a half documenting the many splintering conflicts of the war and its effects across her homeland. Following her experience working as second unit director on Volker Schlöndorff’s Circle of Deceit (1981), Saab began to work in fiction and would only rarely return to documentary, stating in a 1982 interview that, “This documentary phase wasn’t only linked to my personal history; it was determined by my country’s political situation and Lebanon’s cinema history. My trajectory is a bit like that of other Lebanese filmmakers. If I decided to move to fiction it’s because, after speaking in a ‘militant’ manner, I now want the image to speak as much as possible.”

Spectacle is proud to present two of Saab’s early documentaries: the French television-commissioned Palestinian Women (1973) and the second installment of her masterful Beirut Trilogy, Beirut, My City (1983).

PALESTINIAN WOMEN
(LES FEMMES PALESTINIENNES)
Dir. Jocelyne Saab, 1974.
France, State of Palestine. 15 mins.
In Arabic and French with English subtitles.

This early work by Saab finds her interviewing Palestinian women (students and soldiers, mothers and children), giving these often unheard voices a chance to speak to their conditions and experiences of the occupation. This early work by Saab was commissioned by French television, but was never aired and long thought lost. In it, one can see the stirrings of her investigations into the twin themes of liberty and memory that she would follow for the rest of her career.

screening with
BEIRUT, MY CITY
(بيروت مدينتي)
Dir. Jocelyne Saab, 1983.
Lebanon, France. 38 min.
In Arabic and French with English subtitles.

Near the start of the film, Saab and her co-writer, Lebanese playwright Roger Assaf, consider their ambivalence towards their native Beirut before the war; “A supermarket of fishy business and betrayal, that’s what Beirut was.” But the affection for the city evident in Saab’s images – of its architecture and its coastline, to say nothing of its people – betray these feelings. Later, Assaf’s gentle voiceover describes Beirut as a utopia, and because of what Saab has shown us, it is easy to believe him. 

These conflicting feelings over a place and its history are what Saab and Assaf pry at in this short but profoundly moving masterwork. Assaf considers the corruptibility of memory, lamenting that, “Man always believes what he sees, and what he sees ends up cheating him.” Saab’s footage is intercut with news coverage of the war – occupying soldiers, bombings, entire families of corpses. Yet Saab’s own scenes of life in Beirut assert the power of the image to correct memory. If memory is produced by bearing witness, Saab entreats us to look with her, and to consider which images we choose to remember.

TICKETS HERE
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 5PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – 5PM

PROGRAM 2: CHILDREN, NEVERTHELESS & STEP BY STEP…

Paired together, Khadijeh Habashneh’s Children, Nevertheless and Randa Chahal Sabbag’s Step by Step provide a micro and macro view on neighboring Lebanon and Palestine’s history of solidarity and discord, both motivated by the Arab Nationalist movement.

CHILDREN, NEVERTHELESS
(أطفال …ولكن)
Dir. Khadijeh Habashneh, 1979.
State of Palestine. 22 mins.
In Arabic with English subtitles.

In 1976, the Tel al-Zatar refugee camp came under siege from right-wing militias looking to expel Palestinians from Lebanon. The violence peaked with a massacre in which hundreds of children died and 15,000 residents were forced to flee — half of them children, some of them too small to be able to say their own names. Produced by the PCI and the GUPW, Children Nevertheless (also known as Children Without Childhood) shows the lives of the orphans of those killed in the massacre now living in Bait El-Somoud, a housing facility which was established for them by the GUPW. Habashneh’s film discusses the contradictions between the International Declaration of Child Rights and the reality of the living conditions of Palestinian children suffering in diaspora camps and under the Israeli occupation.

screening with
STEP BY STEP…
(Pas á pas…)
Dir. Randa Chahal Sabbag, 1979.
Lebanon, France. 80 mins.
In Arabic and French with English subtitles.

Shot between February 1976 and March 1978, Step by Step compacts the chaos of the Lebanese civil war into its short run time using archival images, news broadcasts, interviews, and raw documentary footage. Sabbag’s work is sprawling, brutal, and poetic in its approach and clarity even as the span of history it attempts to communicate is long and winding. In the lead up to the civil war, Palestinian refugees spilled in increasing numbers through the Lebanese border and the PLO’s operations within Lebanon alarmed the conservative Phalangist Party. Formed in 1936 by Pierre Gemayel after visiting Germany, the Phalangists were a right-wing Maronite Christian political group that dominated the Lebanese civil war, collaborated with Israel, and fought against pro-Palestinian forces. Sabbag’s film places the Palestinian struggle for liberation in the context of this broader conflict, tracing the dismemberment of Lebanon and the shifting balance of powers in the Middle East as the United States (via Henry Kissinger) manipulated the region during this time.

TICKETS HERE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 5PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 5PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 7:30PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heavy metal and horror movies have always been a match made in hell. From the moment Black Sabbath christened themselves after a Mario Bava film, to the graphic iconography of GWAR and Cannibal Corpse in the 90s, up through whatever the hell Glenn Danzig is directing these days, the two genres have historically operated with a similar penchant for the violent, the primal, and the macabre.

It was inevitable then, that the two would repeatedly cross paths throughout the 80s and 90s with the exploding popularity of both slasher fare and radio-friendly hair and glam metal. You could line up any 80s slasher next to a document of the era’s metal scenes like HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT or DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 2, and what you’re bound to find are overlapping imagery and themes dealing with teen angst, anti-conformity, music as an antidote to suburban ennui, and of course, the occult.

This Rockuary, Spectacle presents this series celebrating the unholy union of metal and the macabre, featuring four low budget headbanging horror gems that give whole new meaning to the term “grindhouse”.

DEATH METAL ZOMBIES
dir. Todd Jason Cook, 1995
United States. 82 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – MIDNIGHT

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“They like their music loud and their victims fresh!”

Sometimes a movie is generous enough to tell you everything you need to know about it with just its title. Skater-slash-SOV horror maestro, Todd Jason Cook (aka Todd Falcon), does just that with DEATH METAL ZOMBIES: A movie featuring lots of death metal, and also lots of zombies.

The film follows a young metalhead named Brad who comes into owning a one-of-a-kind tape by legendary metal band, Living Corpse (foreshadowing!). Unbeknownst to him, the tape contains a special track titled “Zombiefied” (more foreshadowing!) which turns its listeners, including Brad and his headbanger friends, into flesh-eating zombies. As the zombies begin to multiply and attack, it’s up to Brad’s girlfriend, Angel, to find the tape and stop them before it’s too late.

ROCKTOBER BLOOD
dir. Beverly Sebastian, 1984
United States. 100 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23 – MIDNIGHT

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“He’s back from the dead with a message from hell!”

Heavy metal frontman, Billy “Eye”, is put to death after going berserk during a recording session, killing two studio engineers and attempting to murder his girlfriend, Lynn. Years later, Lynn, now the frontwoman for Billy’s former band, is about to embark on her debut tour, but finds herself stalked and terrorized by a masked man claiming to be Billy, come back from the dead for revenge.

An SOV trash-terpiece made at the height of the 80s slasher and heavy metal booms, ROCKTOBER BLOOD strikes the perfect balance between the two, serving up ludicrous kills (including an all-timer of a finale) alongside some solid headbangers courtesy of hair metal band, Sorcery.

AFTER PARTY MASSACRE
dir. Kristoff Bates & Kyle Severn, 2011
United States. 74 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23 – 5 PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – 7:30 PM

BUY TICKETS

After being attacked at a death metal show, Scarlett snaps and goes on a bloodthirsty killing spree indiscriminately targeting the Cleveland metal scene. Pretty soon everyone in her way— friends, fans, bands, and foes alike— finds out what happens when you push an already damaged mind too far.

Released in the 2010s but oozing with 80s regional SOV charm, AFTER PARTY MASSACRE is by far the most capital-M Metal of the films featured in this series. Set in and around the late, legendary Cleveland underground venue, Peabody’s, the film places the music front-and-center, featuring a sprawling soundtrack with over 25 death/grind/industrial/noise bands and live performances by Soulless and co-director/writer Kyle Severn’s own Incantation.

But make no mistake that the film more than delivers on the gore goods, featuring plenty of gnarly kills and inspired practical effects work that are sure to make even the most seasoned Blood Brunch-ers squirm.

LONE WOLF
dir. John Callas, 1988
United States. 97 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 7:30 PM

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The quiet town of Fairview, Colorado is rocked by a rash of gruesome killings that the locals blame on packs of wild dogs. Meanwhile, recent Chicago transplant and heavy metal frontman, Eddie and his fellow students learn that they must take matters into their own hands to end the madness, when the token nerd among them discovers an eerie moon-related coincidence between the killings.

Written by the late experimental horror maven, Michael Krueger (NIGHT VISION, MINDKILLER), LONE WOLF is an underseen and underrated gem among the 80s bumper crop of werewolf movies. A grisly DTV creature feature featuring some of the oldest looking “teenagers” ever put to film, and enough hair— human and lycanthrope— to flesh out at least a dozen other werewolf features.

Come for the kills but stay for the killer original soundtrack featuring all your favorite subtly-titled hair metal classics, including “Let It Rock”, “Rock You All Night”, and “Raised on Rock n’ Roll”.

CLASSIC PARTS – R. G. STUDIOS
Dir. R. G. Miller
United States. 40 mins.
In English

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – 7 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16– MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29 – 10 PM

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In this collection of sci-fi shorts, Kansas-based filmmaker R.G. Miller taps into a dimension beyond the Twilight Zone. Working with familiar sci-fi tropes—inter-dimensional travel, scientific mishaps, monsters—on a low-budget, Miller’s films are a product of creative ambition and aesthetic limitations. Much like the subjects they entertain, short films like THE WAVE MATTER MACHINE and THE SHADOW PEOPLE assume an experimental and incendiary quality that is alternately baffling and sublime. As a whole, CLASSIC PARTS compiles the best of Miller’s action sci-fi thrillers, which star himself, friends and action figures.

R.G. Miller has been making zero-budget “Internet Art Films” of unmatched zeal out of his home in Wichita, KS for decades. 

This presentation is part of an ongoing collaboration between Spectacle and the Queens-based art publisher Random Man Editions, which specializes in broadcasting various genres of the indescribable and documenting fringe practices across analogue and digital media. More information available at randomman.net.

Special thanks to Random Man Editions, Steve Macfarlane and Steven Niedbala.

Born Ian Kerkhof in Aparteid South Africa in 1964, the Dutch writer/artist/filmmaker Aryan Kaganof has found himself associated with the most extreme names in challenging industrial and experimental art – including the likes of Merzbow, Matthew Barney, J.G. Ballard, Blixa Bargeld, Henry Rollins, Hisayasu Sato, and Peter Whitehead.

It is a wonder then that mentioning the name Aryan Kaganof in film circles often yields the same result: a concerning “Who?” Indeed, this seems to be the question all over the internet. Without a single home video release in the U.S. or film retrospective to mention, this has sent Kaganof’s work deeper into the underground than it deserves to be. We here at Spectacle aim to change that, in hope of answering the question: “Who The Hell Is Aryan Kaganof?”

WASTED!
Dir. Aryan Kaganof, 1996
Netherlands. 104 min.
In Dutch with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22 – 10 PM

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Two young lovers Jacqueline and Martijn escape to Amsterdam where their relationship is brought to the limit by the dangerous sex and drug fueled underworld. Filmed and conceived when hardcore gabber and ecstasy use in The Netherlands was at its zenith.

TOKYO ELEGY
Dir. Aryan Kaganof, 1999
Japan/Netherlands. 85 min.
In Japanese and Dutch with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1 — 10 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 — MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 — 7:30 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 — 10 PM

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This film – also known as SHABONDAMA ELEGY – details the sordid and deadly love affair between paranoid man-on-the-run Jack and his cunning porn star ex-sister-in-law Keiko. With a soundtrack by infamous noise artist MERZBOW, directed by a South African, starring Dutch actor Thom Hoffman and featuring a Japanese cast and crew, TOKYO ELEGY is truly an international affair.

BEYOND ULTRA VIOLENCE: UNEASY LISTENING BY MERZBOW
Dir. Aryan Kaganof, 1998
Japan/Netherlands. 72 min.
In Japanese and English with English subtitles.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5 — 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 — 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 — 10 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 — 7:30 PM

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An experimental and exhilarating documentary about Masami Akita, the man many harsh noise enthusiasts know simply as MERZBOW.

Screening with:

THE SEQUENCE OF PARALLEL BARS
Dir. Aryan Kaganof, 1992
USA, 8 min.

A sexy black and white silent short from Kaganof and scored by MERZBOW.

JAN TERRI: NO RULES
Dirs. Darren Hacker & Fred Hickler, 2023
United States. 102 min.
In English

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7– 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29 – 7:30 PM with Q&A (This event is $10.)

REGULAR TICKETS HERE

Q&A TICKETS HERE

Chicagoland is arguably the birthplace of the world’s best outsider artists, known and unknown: Wesley Willis, Henry Darger, David Liebe Hart, Sharkula, the Ghetto Art family, Charles Joseph Smith, and last but not least – JAN TERRI.

Born to a musical family in 1959, singing always came easy for Jan. She would perform for whoever happened to be around. During a stint as a limousine driver in the 1990s, Jan Terri began self-financing her own songcraft, recording sessions, and music videos all in hopes of achieving her dreams of stardom. This hard work and unique sound put her on the radar of various rockstars, including Marilyn Manson, who invited Jan to join him as his opening act at Chicago concerts in ‘98 and ‘99. Those same quirky VHS music video rips unknowingly ended up on early Youtube, earning the title of “Worst Music Video Ever” and accidentally making Jan one of the site’s first viral sensations.

Coming off a smashing premiere at the Chicago Underground FIlm Festival, please put your hands together for JAN TERRI: NO RULES, making its New York City debut this ROCKUARY at Spectacle.