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CHICAGOLAND SHORTS VOL. 4
CHICAGOLAND SHORTS: VOLUME FOUR
Various Artists, 2014-2017
Dir. Various, 81 mins.
SATURDAY, JULY 4 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 12 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JULY 16 – 10 PM (WITH Q and A!)
THURSDAY, JULY 26 – 10 PM (WITH Q and A!)
Chicagoland Shorts corrals the best of narrative, experimental, documentary, and observational short filmmaking on the Third Coast into a traveling anthology show that centers the work of gender non-conforming filmmakers and filmmakers of color. Now in its fourth iteration, this year’s program features an exciting array of subjects and styles, from sine waves to skates, songbirds to burgeoning Sapphic love. The filmmakers included here have screened at such august festivals as Rotterdam, Berlin, Sundance, and Tribeca – and we, at Spectacle, are honored to screen their work in collaboration with Full Spectrum Features for the fourth year in a row!
Distributed by Full Spectrum Features, Chicagoland Shorts: Volume Four is programmed by Raul Benitez, with curatorial work by Lori Felker, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, and Sarah Rubin.
Solar Pulse
Dir. Dena Springer, 2014
Experimental, 3 mins.
Solar Pulse is an experimental film that abstracts images from real life with modular synthesizers.
4 Things to Remember
Dir. Hannah Kim, 2016
Narrative, 9 mins.
An unreliable voice(s) travels through association and uncertainty, struggling to remember details of their childhood and events unfolding around them.
The Lingerie Show
Dir. Laura Harrison, 2015
Animation, 8 mins.
Drug-addict Lorraine and her boyfriend Caesar are having a nightmarish 24 hours until Lorraine calls up her sister, CiCi, for help.
The Magic Hedge
Dir. Frederic Moffet, 2016
Documentary, 9 mins.
The Magic Hedge explores a bird sanctuary located on a former Cold War Nike missile site on the north side of Chicago.
Veracity
Dir. Seith Mann, 2015
Narrative, 19 mins.
A popular African American student, Olivia, is outed by her friends after she acts on feelings for a new girl at her high school.
On the Rink
Dir. Benjamin Buxton, 2017
Documentary, 8 mins.
There’s nothing like a good skate.
And You The Bell
Dir. Elisabeth Hogeman, 2017
Observational, 9 mins.
A woman carries out elements of a daily routine, moving back and forth between habit, memory, and hallucination.
Every Ghost Has An Orchestra
Dir. Shayna Connelly, 2017
Documentary, 7 mins.
Paranormal researcher and experimental composer Michael Esposito straddles the line between spiritual and material, asking the audience to reflect on our purpose, legacy and what our actions say about who we are.
Something to Move In
Dir. Latham Zearfoss, 2017
Experimental, 4 mins.
This musical manifesto remixes late 1960s political dialogue with modern dance to resuscitate a bygone revolutionary thrust.
EBONY IVORY AND JADE
EBONY, IVORY & JADE
(aka SHE-DEVILS IN CHAINS)
(aka AMERICAN BEAUTY HOSTAGES)
(aka FOXFIRE)
(aka FOXFORCE)
dir. Cirio Santiago, 1976
Philippines. 80 mins.
SATURDAY, JULY 7 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 13 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 21 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, JULY 27 – MIDNIGHT
“I can’t believe I made eye contact with someone in the process of renting this movie.” – sllaw_hguorht, IMDB
Bundled from disparate threads of history (specifically the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre and the Patty Hearst kidnapping) EBONY, IVORY & JADE is a thoroughly offensive work by 2018 standards – a brutal and yet, aside from its murky nightclub scenes, mercilessly watchable kung-fu blaxploitation combo from drive-in trash journeyman Cirio H. Santiago (T.N.T. JACKSON, the original EXPENDABLES, BLOODFIST 2050). It follows a team of Olympic gymnasts from the States who are kidnapped and sold into slavery by drug runners, as well as an intrepid and fed-up black detective who, with CIA supervision, flies out to Hong Kong in search of them. Beyond Manila’s resolute failure to stand in for Hong Kong, what’s intriguing is the film’s incipient anti-Americanism: Black Power gets multiple boosts from the porkrub-salty screenplay, and it’s later revealed the kidnapping was arranged by one of the athletes’ evil-ass WASP stepfathers.The action sequences are bone-crunching, while Santiago’s occasional lapse into arthouse formalism (against a backdrop of martial artists in formation, one routine exchange between characters becomes a single-take epiphany) keeps you on your toes – as do the endless backdrplugs for Milo, a popular European malt beverage who either put up some of the cash for EBONY, IVORY & JADE, or ..
(And if those ellipses don’t convince, check out the original quotes from the back of an old FOXFIRE VHS:)
You’re better off dead when they start blasting lead! Ebony, Ivory, and Jade! Killing is their trade! With fist, foot, and blade, they can lick any man ever made! 3 foxy mamas who’ve got what it takes and know how to use it! 3 masters with a thousand ways to kill! Jump back, Jack, fo’ yo’ skull is cracked!
Skin of bronze! Muscles of iron! Fists of steel! The ultimate gladiators in the final arena! Angels of vengeance on a massacre marathon!
Lusting bursting babes ripe with the fruits of desire! In slaughter or seduction they score!
FOXFORCE! They turned them loose! Three sisters got soul they can’t control! Back to back they face death! When their blood gets hot you’re on the spot! Skirting disaster! Flirting with fate! Dancing with death!
FOXFORCE! 3 spittin’ kittens on a roaring rampage of revenge! Whipped into a blazing frenzy of violence! A raging ride through hell! From olympic contenders to bloody defenders! From the first burst to the last blast! .38 caliber kittens spitting death as they claw their way to freedom!
Warm hands! Cold triggers! Blazing death! They’re women! They’re warm! They’re wildcats! FOXFORCE! Rapid fire frenzy erupting in a .45 caliber climax! Flashing fists of fury strike like vipers of vengeance! You haven’t a prayer when they leap through the air! Ebony, Ivory, and Jade can lick any man ever made!
WORKING GIRLS – A FILM BY LIZZIE BORDEN
SEX WORK IS WORK is an ongoing benefit series exploring sex work in film, programmed in protest of the SESTA/FOSTA law. All proceeds from this event will go to Lysistrata Mutual Care Collective and Fund.
WORKING GIRLS
Dir. by Lizzie Borden, 1986
USA, 93 min.
THURSDAY, JULY 19 – 7:30 PM
WITH Q and A!
THIS EVENT IS $10
WORKING GIRLS follows Molly (Louise Smith), through one long day working at an upscale brothel in Manhattan. She’s ambivalent about her job; she likes the flexibility it affords her, but the stigma associated with it wears her down, and she lies to her live-in girlfriend about what she does for a living. She’s also often at odds with her madam Lucy (Ellen McElduff), an uptight Southern belle who micromanages the brothel.
In preparation for the film, director Lizzie Borden (BORN IN FLAMES) spent six months interviewing sex workers about their working conditions and how they felt about their occupation. Informed by these experiences, WORKING GIRLS goes beyond the tired stereotypes of sex work in favor of a frank, nuanced, and often funny workplace drama that is relatable to anybody who’s ever had a job—even if navigating other people’s sexual quirks wasn’t part of it.
UNARIUS AT SPECTACLE
The Unarius Brotherhood were on a radical mission from the late-‘70s to the mid-‘80s: to spread their “interdimensional science of life” and the principles of reincarnation to the masses via some of most wildly inventive, waaaaay outside-the-box public access TV programming in America. Their cosmic leader, the exuberant septuagenarian Ruth Norman (aka Archangel Uriel), an advanced clairvoyant with a fondness for glittery dresses, rainbow capes and benevolent aliens, permanently altered the minds of tens of thousands across the country — from late-night stoners to seekers leaving behind their lives in order to move to El Cajon, CA, and join the cause.
As part of their outreach, the Unarians created elaborate psychodramatic “documentaries” for the purpose of spiritual healing: films of Uriel and the students channeling and re-enacting their previous lives together on Earth and other planets, no matter how debauched or outlandish — for spiritual healing. Utilizing otherworldly costumes and makeup, guerilla location-filming techniques, elaborate sets and ingenious no-budget special effects, this ambitious collective produced a legacy of some of the most mind-shattering, oddly uplifting gems of American outsider cinema. Bootlegged and coveted by collectors for decades, these films have rarely before been presented as works on the large screen.
WELCOME, SPACE BROTHERS!
THE FILMS AND PUBLIC ACCESS VIDEOS OF THE UNARIUS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.
Unarius Workshop 1: Develop Your Creative and Clairvoyant Potential
SATURDAY, JULY 14 – 5PM
Enhance your creative and psychic abilities through your participation in an inspirational art workshop! This session, led by Unariuns Kevin & Tracey Kennedy, will help you to make the connection with your higher self and will focus on: What is your higher self? Where does inspiration come from? How do I overcome blocks and unleash my creative potential?
Film Program 1
Intro by Jodi Wille (Dir. The Source Family) and Q&A with Unariuns Kevin & Tracey Kennedy, Celeste and Jack Appel
SATURDAY, JULY 14 – 8 PM
* Documentary short “We Are Not Alone” (dir. Jodi Wille, 2016, 11 min)
* A mixtape of super-rare peak moments from the golden age of Unarius psychodramas. (edited by Tom Fitzgerald/EXP, 30 min)
* A new digital transfer of the Unarius 16mm masterwork THE ARRIVAL (dir. The Unariun Brotherhood and Prince Uriel, 1980, 50 min)
This first-of-its-kind film was made by Unarius in the late 1970s, with a very a low budget but achieving astonishing special effects involving the cosmos, spaceships, and interplanetary beings—long before CGI. THE ARRIVAL is a true story of the first contact with another world, reenacted by individuals reliving their past lives on the continent of Lemuria,162,000 years ago.
Unarius Workshop 2: Healing Through Psychodrama
SUNDAY, JULY 15 – 5PM
Learn the spiritual techniques of the Unariuns to heal your past-life traumas by creating and filming your own psychodramas. Have you lived before? How can you break through creative blocks? How do you remember your past lives? These and other questions will be answered during this intense and liberating workshop. Led by Unariuns Celeste and Jack Appel, Kevin and Tracey Kennedy.
Film Program 2
Intro by Thalia Mavros from The Front and Q&A with Unariuns Kevin & Tracey Kennedy, Celeste and Jack Appel
SUNDAY, JULY 15 – 8PM
* Documentary short “We Are Not Alone” (dir. Jodi Wille, 2016, 11 min)
* A collection of rare and unreleased TV appearances and public access performances (30 min)
* A VISIT TO THE UNDERGROUND CITIES OF MARS (dir. The Unarian Brotherhood, 1977, 40 min)
Take a psychic voyage and see for yourself the underground cities of Mars! Our neighbors on Mars have developed a peaceful lifestyle that is technologically and spiritually far in advance of our own. This amazing film, completed before the Viking lander’s photographs revealed what appear to be the remains of an ancient civilization on the surface of Mars, portrays beautiful underground cities. Discover how the Martians learned to live in peace and harmony!
PROOF OF EXISTENCE: THE FILMS OF ELIO PETRI
One of the better Oscar-acceptances was by Elio Petri, who said he was too busy working on another film and sent Leslie Caron to accept it with no prepared statement. Meanwhile, he was in the middle of THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN, with Gian Maria Volonté on set, complaining that the script went against the Communist Party and getting into fist fights with students. The film itself would go on to piss off the radical Italian left and tie for the Grand Prize at Cannes.
Petri studied with the neo-realists, but his films do not dwell on portraits: instead, they show how individual psychologies conflict with their social and political world. The contents of an individual are in high contrast: what contains a person is constantly trying to burst out and inflict some damage on the social and economic strictures. What makes a character is not that they play out a minor drama or undergo a personal change, but that they rip at the contradictions in their physical world, and in doing so, truly exist. Petri called these “dialectical films” – those that showed the tension and contradictions of life rather than mere representations. They are not only intense, but also cunning, desperate, funny, and strange.
L’ASSASSINO (THE LADY KILLER OF ROME, or THE ASSASSIN)
Dir. Elio Petri, 1961
Italy, 95 min.
In Italian with English subtitles
SUNDAY, JULY 1 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 6 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 9 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, JULY 17 – 10 PM
This is Petri’s feature film debut, starring real-life lady killer Marcello Mastroianni as Alfredo Martelli, the key suspect in the murder of a wealthy older woman. He is subsequently sequestered and endlessly questioned by an inspector, who not only probes Martelli’s relationship to the dead woman but also his general moral turpitude. Censors had many issues with how the film portrayed police authority (including a scene where policemen did not wipe their feet before entering a home), but Petri is equally taking shots at the young men of new wave cinema. The loud jazz soundtrack plays like a joke, and Martelli’s lack of integrity and passion is a critique of a generation. Petri comes from a different perspective, and this film defines how his films will stand apart from the art of his time.
PROPERTY IS NO LONGER A THEFT (LA PROPRIETÀ NON È PIÙ UN FURTO)
Dir. Elio Petri, 1973
Italy, 126 min.
In Italian with English subtitles
THURSDAY, JULY 5 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 13 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JULY 17 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JULY 30 – 7:30 PM
This is a stark and theatrical film that circles around two opposing characters: The Butcher, a rapacious capitalist, and Total, a self-proclaimed “Mandrakin Marxist”. Flavio Bucci is Total, a low-level accountant with the look of a hangdog-Stallone and a physical allergy to paper money. Ugo Tognazzi is The Butcher (recognizable from LA GRAND BOUFFE), a spokesperson for the potency of wealth and the wisdom of fully insuring your property. Total claims to steal only what he needs, but he has a psychological need to infuriate The Butcher with petty theft.
Ennio Morricone’s subtle score is accompanied by groans and conjugations of the verbs “to be” and “to have”, to an effect that is not as existential as it is surreal. Total summarizes the point: “I would like to be and to have, which is impossible. Property is longer a theft… it’s a disease.”
Poster and typeface by Benjamin Tuttle
THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN (LA CLASSE OPERAIA VA IN PARADISO)
Dir. Elio Petri, 1971.
Italy, 125 min.
In Italian with English subtitles
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 7 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 8 – 5 PM
MONDAY JULY 16 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JULY 31 – 7:30 PM *Q AND A WITH NICOLA GUARNERI*
In some ways, this is an inverted reprise of Petri’s INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION, the Oscar-winner from 1970. Gian Maria Volonté returns as the main character, this time a wound-up factory worker rather than high strung police detective. Morricone creates another essential score, sometimes drowned out by relentless yelling and clanging of factory machines. The factory was in no way staged: many of the workers in the film are not actors but employees.
Lulu Massa (Volonté) proves to be more of a hot-head than a working-class hero. Petri’s depiction of factory organizing is brutally honest: the factory gates are plagued with megaphone-toting students who bark slogans and annoy the workers. But a transformation occurs when Lulu loses a finger in a cutting machine and channels his new anger into support for a factory-wide strike. The “Italian miracle” was only achievable when workers did 15 hours worth of work in 8, and did so as a point of pride. When this ethos breaks, its power and determination seeks a different outlet.
Poster by Luke Alexander Atkinson
THE 10TH VICTIM (LA DECIMA VITTIMA)
Dir. Elio Petri, 1965
Italy, 93 min.
SATURDAY JULY 28th – 10 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!
“The rules of the big hunt are quite easy. Rule #1: Each member is obliged to undertake ten hunts, five as the hunter, five as the victim. Rule #2: The hunter shall know all about his victim – name, address, habits too. Rule #3: The victim shall not be told who his hunter is: he must find out – and kill him.”
Don’t be mislead by the pronouns in those rules: Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) is a skilled killer and needs to kill one more person to finish the game. She wants to do it in grand style and needs to get it on camera to fulfill a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Ming Tea Company. All in all it is a truly mod affair: bold colors, mod concept, mod clothes, and furniture that is enviably mid-century mod. This is an unusual entry in the Petri canon – it’s some super-hip sci-fi within a critical social concept, and it’s great.
ELIO PETRI: NOTES ON A FILMMAKER (ELIO PETRI: APPUNTI SU UN AUTORE)
dir. Federico Bach, Nicola Guarneri, et al.
2005, 90 min.
In various languages, English subtitles
SUNDAY, JULY 8 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JULY 31 – 10 PM *Q & A WITH DIRECTOR NICOLA GUARNERI*
“–What am I then? I come from a working class family, poor, if not abjectly poor. I instinctively chose to side with the workers. Circumstances led me to become a filmmaker. Which circumstances? The hundreds and thousands of films I saw and loved. The fact that the poor become boxers, or popular musicians, or filmmakers. The fact that film was, in those days, a popular art form.” – Elio Petri
This straightforward documentary winds through Petri’s career, guided by interviews with actors, directors, critics, and collaborators – including his widow Paola. It’s an excellent introduction to Petri’s films as well as their intersections with financial supporters, the public, and the broader political context. Ennio Morricone tells a story of Petri putting the wrong score to a film as a prank, which even in the retelling is deeply emotional.
MUBI PRESENTS: CASA ROSHELL
MUBI SPECIAL DISCOVERIES: CASA ROSHELL
dir. Camila José Donoso, 2017
71 minutes, Mexico/Chile
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 – 7:30pm
SCREENING ADDED: TUESDAY, JUNE 26 – 7:30pm
Music plays, drinks are served and the last boundaries are suspended: those between man and woman, gay, straight and bi, past and present, reality and fiction…
Official Selection: Berlin, Queer Lisboa, Rio de Janeiro, Art of the Real
“Tucked away, rejecting the norms of the outside world, lies the mesmerizing Casa Roshell, a place where gender rules do not apply, and men can transform into women without being judged or discriminated against. Director Camila José Donoso’s eye-opening documentary tells their story…a candid, inspiring and insightful exploration of how different things could be if the outside world looked at masculinity and femininity in a new light.” —The Upcoming
MUBI is a curated online cinema, streaming hand-picked award-winning, classic, and cult films from around the globe. Every day, MUBI’s film experts present a new film and you have 30 days to watch it. Whether it’s an acclaimed masterpiece, a gem fresh from the world’s greatest film festivals, or a beloved classic, there are always 30 beautiful hand-picked films to discover.
ARANDARAMA: THE EARLY FILMS OF VICENTE ARANDA
FATA/MORGANA (Left Handed Fate)
dir. Vincente Aranda, 1966
Spain, 84 min.
In Spanish with English hardsubs
MONDAY, JUNE 4 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 12 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 24 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 28 – 10 PM
A comix/fumetti inspired film in line with Spectacle fave BABA YAGA and DEADLY SWEET, we enter a world of victims and killers and nothing besides. A strong giallo influence is pulled like taffy into a story that reaches Henry Stephen Keeler-style absurdity as Aranda, in his first film, piles on a parade of bizarre hitmen, garishly disguised spies, demented police officers and a faceless killer always waiting in the dark for our heroine Gim (Teresa Gimpera). Crackling with youthful energy, it’s a film for fans of pulpy paperbacks who want as many twists as possible.
LAS CRUELES (The Exquisite Cadaver)
dir. Vincente Aranda, 1969
108 min, Spain.
In dubbed English./h5>
TUESDAY, JUNE 5 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 18 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 24 – 7:30 PM
“You must know that I am dying under the weight of my sorrow.”
Aranda blurs the line between thriller and horror with plenty of modernist touches and a deep melancholy in LAS CRUELES, or The Exquisite Cadaver. Our protagonist, a pulp publisher straight out of a Jess Franco film, receives a package containing a human hand, a hand , beginning a descent into guilt and madness that defies a simple plot synopsis. Filled with astonishing scenes shot with a near-architectural coolness, it’s a meditation on suicide, a tightly-plotted mystery and a sullen psychedelic reflection on the endless battle of the sexes. It also contains the greatest turtle funeral scene you will ever see!
THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK (Último deseo)
Dir. Leon Klimovsky, 1976
Spain/Italy, 78 min.
In dubbed English.
SUNDAY, JUNE 3 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 9 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 28 – 7:30 PM
Vincente Aranda co-wrote the script for this post-apocalyptic take on The Castle Of The Red Death/I Am Legend, as a group of military and financial leaders spend a nuclear strike partying in an old castle. Director Leon Klimovsky (known to Spectacle midnighters from WEREWOLF SHADOW and VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES) takes over the director’s seat for this one, and it’s no shock Paul Naschy is along with him, along with familiar faces Maria Perschy, Nadiuska and Alberto de Mendoza engaging in creepy rituals and various decadence. The group has to go to town to get supplies, only to find the town is not as empty as they guessed…Aranda’s script brings a particularly strange series of shocks to the story, moving toward one of the most what the fuck endings you’ll ever see!
And Coming in July… LA NOVIA ENSANGRENTADA (The Blood Spattered Bride)
COLEMAN ZURKOWSKI’S ZERO (2017)
Z E R O
dir. Various, 2017
40 mins.
&
ICEBERG TABULAR
dir. Anthony Zakharia, 2015
40 mins.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY! ARTIST IN PERSON!
(This event is $10.)
ZERO explores the mental and physical effects of binaural/isochronic rhythms gradually slowing into silence, featuring music by Coleman Zurkowski and short films by Nick Edelberg, Kostas Chondros, Jodie Mack, Solomon Turner, Anthony Zakharia, Jimmy Schaus, Sofia Canales, Chris Wronka, and John Schmidt.
ICEBERG TABULAR is comprised of seven scenes directed by Anthony Zakharia set to seven arrangements by Zurkowski. Each scene contains a single, unbroken shot depicting the human form engaged in unexplained rituals and actions. ICEBERG TABULAR is confident in its repetitive portrayal of ceremony, but does not provide the necessary context for an audience to escape without inquiry. The visual theme of the horizon acts as a stage for Iceberg’s divorcing music, dispassionate subjects, and overall stoic disposition.
COLEMAN ZURKOWSKI is a composer and musician. He studied composition at DePaul University in Chicago, IL and continued his studies at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, CA. Zurkowski lives in New York City and composes music for film, television, and commercials, while releasing albums of his own work. In 2015, he was chosen to be the resident composer of the Khora Residency at the Syros International Film Festival.
NEXT LEVEL FUCKED UP: A NIGHT WITH VANESSA RENWICK
