Page 140 – Spectacle Theater

STRONGMAN w/ Director Zachary Levy!

Posted on September 29, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

STRONGMAN
Dir. Zachary Levy, 2011.
USA. 113 min.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 8:00 PM
One night only! Director Zachary Levy in attendance!

Strongman tells the story of Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, “The Strongest Man in the World at Bending Steel and Metal”. A man who can lift dump trucks and bend US pennies with his fingers, but struggles daily to transcend his chaotic New Jersey home life. Aging parents, an alcoholic brother, a timid beauty of a girlfriend, show-biz agents and strength rivals; pressure mounts on Stan as he feels time slipping away. However, what starts as a portrait of an eccentric outsider soon becomes a deeply universal story about trying to find a better life in the scraps of modern times.

This screening is in conjunction with the October 15th release of Strongman on DVD, available here.

“an outsider tale of lilting poignancy” New York Times

“I watched with quiet fascination” – Roger Ebert

“A strange and strangely beautiful movie” John Anderson, Variety

HABIT with Larry Fessenden in attendance!

Posted on September 29, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

HABIT
Dir. Larry Fessenden, 1995.
USA. 113 min.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 8:00 PM

One night only! Director/star Larry Fessenden in attendance!

Spectacle is pleased to welcome acclaimed horror filmmaker Larry Fessenden for a special screening of HABIT, his breakout 1995 independent vampire film.

Breaking up has never quite sucked like this: shortly after splitting with his girlfriend, Sam (Fessenden) heads to a party, where a mysterious woman, Anna, catches his attention. After losing each other, the pair reconnects, and Sam quickly finds himself bewitched. While Sam continues to cope with the recent death of his father, breakup of his relationship, and struggles with drinking, he increasingly finds himself lost in his relationship with the seemingly omnipresent Anna, even as their relationship moves beyond the usual kink.

Haunting, funny, and insightful, HABIT brilliantly mixes metaphors for relationships, vampirism, co-dependency, and addiction, all wrapped in a vital independent filmmaking ethos. Seen today, it not only represents the best of a certain kind of New York filmmaking, but is one of the great unheralded portraits of the city. Recognizably shot on location in and around the East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, NoLIta, and Battery Park, it’s location provides a crucial layer within rich contemporary urban horror story. HABIT is a must-see.

WORLDS WITHOUT NUMBER: THE FILMS OF STEPHEN GROO

Posted on September 28, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

WORLDS WITHOUT NUMBER: THE FILMS OF STEPHEN GROO
A Shoot the Lobster event
Organized by Jason Metcalf (will be in attendance!)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 7:30 PM & 10:00 PM

Spectacle Theater and Shoot the Lobster are pleased to present a selection of music videos, shorts, and a feature film by the Utah based filmmaker STEPHEN GROO. Many of the selected works will be screened publicly for the first time.

Creating his work as Utah Wolf Productions for over fourteen years in the city of Provo Utah, Stephen Groo has been described by the filmmaker and artist Chris Coy as “an enigma—a highly prolific filmmaker with a body of work that speaks to his force of will and creative vision while exposing the limitations of the backyard blockbuster. His 125+ short films, music videos, feature films, and training videos have it all: mermaids, vampires, elves, angels, sailors, schoolgirls, devils, damsels, zombies, soldiers, she-hulks, and real-life action heroes. These figures populate worlds without number, a pastiche of popular culture collaged from Michael Bay movie posters and Saturday morning cartoons.

As a viewer, it’s natural to laugh at the limitations of a film by Stephen Groo. We laugh as we recognize the obvious imperfections in his homespun narrative fabrics. We laugh at the production gap between Hollywood and Utah County. We laugh because Fantasy is uglier than casting agents have led us to believe. We laugh (nervously) at the possibility of our own inclusion as actors in a Utah Wolf Production. We laugh, immensely pleased with our advantaged position as passive spectators. Like the royals in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we laugh as Bottom’s amateurish theatre troupe faithfully performs “a most lamentable comedy.” But if we succumb to laughter only, we miss what’s crucial: the implicit belief that art can save the world. That imagination is real.

Art is, in fact, saving the world for Stephen Groo. It’s saving the world for his players, too. It’s saving all of our worlds—circumscribing them inside a shared universe that desperately needs Fantasy to fight back the Dark Lords of Reality. Like Bottom, Groo freely cavorts with the humans and the fairies, modeling the transformative potential of art and the euphoric freedom of abandonment to the wildness of make-believe.

From “Groo and His Players” Chris Coy, Utah Biennial Catalogue, 2013. Utah Biennial: Mondo Utah curated by Aaron Moulton at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 7:30 PM

SELECTIONS FROM MUSIC VIDEOS, VOLUME ONE
Dir. Stephen Groo, 2010
USA. 15 min.

From clones to European Men in Black, this selection from Utah Wolf Productions’ Music Videos Volume 1 features some of the earliest works of Stephen Groo. The special effects and 3D animations are out of this world. Sit back and enjoy the ride!

RUBI
Dir. Stephen Groo, 2012
USA. 75 min.

The most recent Stephen Groo film, Rubi is the story of a young woman who has everything taken from her that she holds dear by the evil criminal Richard Lions (Dallin Haws). After mourning the loss of her family, and under the guidance of the skilled mercenary Henry (Stephen Groo), Rubi (Hailey Nebeker) trains to destroy her nemesis, ultimately preparing for the battle of her life. Utah Wolf Productions has announced that Rubi will their “last full length feature”.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 10:00 PM

MUSIC VIDEOS, VOLUME 2
Dir. Stephen Groo, 2010
USA. 28 min.

Music Videos, Volume 2 features some of the best music videos of Stephen Groo. In Tribute to Utah, (publicly broadcasted on a local Utah television news station) Groo travels with his wife and children to a significant number of towns in the Beehive State in order to stand in front of welcome signs that bear the name of each municipality, all in sync with his lyrical adaptation to the Beach Boys’ Kokomo. Other music videos from Volume 2 feature Groo and company dancing and singing to popular songs as sailors, boy bands, fairies, and frogs.

LION BEAR WHALE?
Dir. Stephen Groo, 2008
USA. 4 min.

Lion Bear Whale? was Utah Wolf Productions’ first commercial project, commissioned by the Provo Utah based band, Mathematics Etcetera. The video literally interprets Mathematics’ song by casting the band members as a lion, a bear, and a whale as they sing lyrics that coincide with their costumes. Lion Bear Whale? is one of Utah Wolf Productions’ only works that does not feature Stephen Groo.

TALE OF MERMAIDS
Dir. Stephen Groo, 2006
USA. 4 min.

In Tale of Mermaids, a New York City reporter Will (Aaron Parker) is sent to Ireland to catch the story a lifetime. While investigating the legend of mermaids, fantasy and reality meet as he falls in love with a mysterious woman who isn’t what she seems. Will must decide what matters most, his heart or his career.

SHIKITO
Dir. Stephen Groo, 2007
USA. 10 min.

Anime realms come to life in this classic Stephen Groo film pitch trailer. While mourning and forgiving himself for the loss of his wife, Shikito must face his evil rival Drachen with the aid of his friends Connor and Tenki. Filmed in the snowy alpine mountains of Utah, Shikito is filled with action-packed samurai sword fighting, suspenseful confrontations and powerful energy balls.

EDITH CARLMAR: The Comedies

Posted on September 27, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

A singularly witty and dexterous auteur, Norway’s pioneering female filmmaker Edith Carlmar is ripe for a reappraisal in world cinema. Carlmar and her husband Otto co-managed their own production company, Carlmar Film A/S, with which they collaborated with a diverse community of technicians, artists and performers – including the then-teenage Liv Ullman, whose debut lead at 21 was Edith’s final film as director, The Wayward Girl. Making ten movies in as many years, the Carlmars built an astonishing resume in the 1950s before abandoning filmmaking forever when they were at the top of their game.

Today Edith’s legacy suggests a nearly clear split between flinty, ice-cold film noirs – often evincing a rare female perspective – and romantic comedies that’ll make your jaw drop even today with their sexual candor. She was in particular a master of eroticized close-ups and devastating quiet moments, never flinching from emotions (pleasurable or painful) most American directors wouldn’t touch with a fork.

That said, Carlmar Film A/S was an unabashedly commercial enterprise, at a time of deeply felt prudishness in Norway. The Carlmars made hits for a popular audience, and proudly paid all their grants back to the government. Never betraying her blue-collar roots, Edith left the distribution rights to her entire catalog to FILMVETERANENE, a union of Norwegian industry veterans. Alongside them, Spectacle is thrilled to team up with the Norwegian Film Institute to blow the dust off these classics of Scandinavian cinema this autumn.

( Series poster by Adria Mercuri )

LEND ME YOUR WIFE
(Lån meg din kone)
dir. Edith Carlmar, 1958
83 mins. Norway.
In Norwegian with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 7:30pm
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 10pm

Bjorn, a clueless and coiffeured young executive in Norway’s most prestigious company for all things baby – toys, diapers, pacifiers – is angling for a promotion. There’s just one little problem: his company trades on an especially conservative imprimateur, and no young executive can advance himself without proving beyond a shadow of a doubt his own family-man status. For poor Bjorn, this means going out and finding a fake “wife” whom he can bring to company functions. Anita, the wife of Bjorn’s woebegotten best friend, is more than game – but her addition to the seedy society of top-brass cocktail parties proves too much for both her husbands (fake and otherwise) to bear. As the young businessman falls deeper and deeper into his “innocent” white lie, his “wife” becomes the toast of the company for the widowed, horndog CEO – while his daughter falls head over heels for Bjorn, in a classic “complication comedy”.

Carlmar’s final comedy approaches male-female relations with a razor-sharp skepticism, immediately sniffing out both the perverse (the boss’ obsession with his young, hotshot executive’s sexpot wife) and profound (Bjorn’s longing for a sweet, innocent girl) in equal measure. The filmmaker pulls no punches in her depiction of a backwards society that calls on men to be fake-macho and women to be fake-whorish in order to achieve higher career aspirations, the only relief doled out to the audience who are (rather generously) in on all the jokes. Lend Me Your Wife is a bruising, scintillating comedy in the tradition of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges, sure to resonate with anyone ducking for cover in the eternal war between men and women.

FJOLS TIL FJELLS
(Morons in the Mountains)
Dir. Edith Carlmar, 1957
90 mins. Norway.
In Norwegian with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8th – 10pm
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13th – 7:30pm

“You are a disgrace to the Norwegian hotel trade.”

Fjols til Fjells concerns an overworked concierge named Poppe (Leif Juster) at the swankiest ski lodge in the country, who takes on a bellboy to mitigate his stresses. Unbeknownst to Poppe, young “Rudolf” is actually Ruth, the bored socialite daughter of the lodge’s owner, out to prove herself to her skeptical parents and get a taste of the working stiff’s life. At the same time, renowned actor and playboy Teddy Winter checks in – ostensibly for some fresh mountain air, but in fact to prey on his legions of adoring female fans on skiing holiday.

A dour ornithologist checks in as well – only wrinkle is, Poppe can’t tell him and the movie star apart (both characters are played by the same actor.) Hijinks, highballs and even a little romance ensue. Warm-hearted yet remarkably saucy, Fjols Til Fjells was one of the most biggest box office successes in Norwegian cinema and has endured as a cherished TV staple every Easter.

BETTER THAN THEIR REPUTATION
(Bedre enn sitt rykyte)
Dir. Edith Carlmar, 1955
87 mins. Norway.
In Norwegian with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2nd – 7:30pm
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20th – 7:30pm

A high school story every bit akin to Dazed and Confused or Can’t Hardly Wait, Better Than Their Reputationfollows a sweet-natured French student named Dag in love with his 20-something teacher Tone. But Dag’s love is complicated by his hard-charging overachiever ex, Karin – and her ongoing liaison with Roald, Dag’s best friend. Dag’s classmates are quick to tease, but the film explores the ins and outs of the concept that their skepticism might have more to do with jealousy.

The screenplay (written by Carlmar and her husband Otto) doesn’t miss a step, giving every character just enough gravity to make every class period and Friday night get-together loaded with the potential for an emotional – or comedic – blowout. Encircling the exam-obsessed final month of senior year, Carlmar paints a tender portrait of solidarity among friends nevertheless subject to change. Her teenagers are neither monsters nor squeaky-clean; just, the boys are boorish, and the girls are bored.

CAPITALIST VAMPIRES & KINKY WITCHES: Corrado Farina’s Counterculture Horror

Posted on September 27, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

In the spirit of our annual Spectober horror film series, we present a retrospective on the Italian director Corrado Farina. Primarily known in his native Italy for his work as a novelist and a plethora of directing gigs outside of the film industry (television, news, documentary, industrial, advertising, etc), Farina also made two feature horror films in the early 70s that perfectly encapsulate the era’s counterculture headiness in surreal fashion.

Following a stint at an advertising agency as a copywriter and commercial director, Farina moved to Rome to concentrate on pitching films. THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE, his first feature, transported the Transylvanian Dracula myth to the Italian countryside for a scathing satire of ‘vampires-as-capitalists.’ His follow-up, BABA YAGA, was even more ambitious, adapting adult comic legend Guido Crepex’s surreal adventures of sexy Valentina and her be-witching compatriots to the big screen.

Farina faced difficulty in getting his third feature off the ground (the subject mater of his proposed third film- a variation on The Phantom of the Opera– eventually became his first novel, A Place In The Dark). Following his dissatisfaction, he soon returned to the world of advertising and documentary, and to this day remains active in Italy’s media landscape: in 2006, Farina and his son, Alberto, completed a documentary called “Motore!” designed to be shown in Turin’s “Museo del cinema” during the Winter Olympic Games!

His successful career notwithstanding, it’s a shame that Farina wasn’t able to secure financing for a third proper horror effort, as both THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE and BABA YAGA are unique anomalies in Italian horror. Less concerned with scares than exploring themes like anti-establishment and repressed sexuality, Farina employed the classic horror tropes of vampires and witches to channel the political, social, and sexual turmoil of early 70s Italy into two deliciously strange and subversive films.

Working with Italian distributor Videa CDE and US distributor Blue Underground, Spectacle is proud to present a two-film retrospective on a bold but neglected genre contortionist.

Special thanks to Corrado Farina, Alberto Farina, Federica Funaro, and William Lustig

THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE
(aka …Hanno Cambiato Faccia)
Dir: Corrado Farina, 1971.
91 min. Italy.
In Italian with English subtitles.

Special thanks to Videa CDE

U.S. PREMIERE!
WITH CUSTOM ENGLISH SUBTITLES CREATED BY SPECTACLE!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4TH – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20TH – 10PM

Mild-mannered Dr. Alberto Valle is a diligent but low-level employee of a car company. Out of the blue, he is summoned to the estate of Giovanni Nosferatu, the company owner, to discuss a potential large promotion. Following an encounter with a topless hippie hitchhiker, Dr. Valle arrives at the gothic mansion and exchanges pleasantries with Nosferatsu, but then the boss mysteriously disappears for large chunks of time, leaving Dr. Valle to enjoy the company of Nosferatu’s obedient, extremely pale secretary Corrina (played by Deep Red‘s Geraldine Hooper). Soon enough though, Dr. Valle discovers a casket crypt on the outskirts of the villa and a mysterious chamber with newborn children and a large book containing his own baby photo with an inscription: C.E.O.

Complimented by classic vampire film staples (endless heavy fog, superstitious villagers), Farina manages to breathe new life into the genre with a strong current of sly humor throughout the film, including an eerily foretelling running gag involving advertising slogans blasting through speakers whenever Dr Valle uses a household appliance. However, the film’s dark nature comes not from the amount of on-screen deaths, but its scathing political tone.

While infused with a devilish wit and satirical edge (including a showstopper boardroom scene that brilliantly riffs on organized religion, deceptive sloganeering, legalized drug use, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, AND Marquis de Sade), THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE unveils itself as a harsh critique of consumerism as vampirism, portraying corporate heads as bloodsucking capitalists hellbent on ensuring marketplace dominance and the eradication of individual freedom. Instead of biting necks to keep living, its to convert the free spirits to a submissive, business-minded lifestyle. Ultimately, Farina suggests the true horror is that the current system will never be defeated, but inevitably grow and accumulate more lobotomized victims.

Unreleased in America for over 40 years, Spectacle is proud to host the US premiere of a vital piece of 70s Italian horror cinema, complete with custom English subtitles created exclusively for these screenings!

BABA YAGA
(aka Kiss Me Kill Me)
Dir: Corrado Farina, 1973.
91 min. Italy.
Dubbed into English.

Special thanks to Blue Underground

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3RD – 10PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27TH – 7:30PM

Loosely based on the incredible black & white erotic fumetti comics of Guido Crepax, Farina brings to life the story of Valentina (doe eyed Isabella de Funes), a liberated fashion photographer who finds herself unwittingly thrown into a psychedelic nightmare of sapphic proportions.

On her way home from a soiree one evening, Valentina is almost struck by a vehicle while attempting to save a stray dog. It’s there she crosses paths with the peculiar Baba Yaga (legendary sex symbol Carroll Baker), a mysterious, brooding woman who soon fixates upon her. Unsettled by their encounter, Valentina begins to suffer a surreal collection of erotic and fetish-inspired dreams featuring executions, Nazi soldiers and dark holes with no bottom.

One of the most stylish and hallucinatory horror offerings of the 70s, BABA YAGA sees Farina trying out bold editing techniques (including a sex scene that incorporates Crepax’s comic strips) and interweaving Valentina’s reality with her dreams until their indistinguishable, leading to a kinky and mind-bending climax.

Awash in impeccable, zeitgeist-y costume design and a slick layer of soft core playfulness, BABA YAGA is Euro-mod-sleaze at its most entertaining and bizarre.

BEGIN AGAIN: THE FILMS OF MARNIE WEBER

Posted on September 26, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

BEGIN AGAIN: THE FILMS OF MARNIE WEBER
Dir. Marnie Weber, 1993-2010
USA, 134 min.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 7:30 PM (Pt. 1) & 9:00 PM (Pt. 2)

Director Marnie Weber in attendance for Parts 1 & 2 for an introduction and Q&A!

Los Angeles based artist Marnie Weber has been constructing an elaborate narrative through music, collage, sculpture and film since the late 1970’s. Weber cut her teeth as a musician in no wave bands such as The Party Boys and The Perfect Me before continuing solo as a performer and visual artist. From her start in music, she continued adding layers to her performance and visual art through costume and theatrics as well as narrative and character vignette.

With the addition of film to her oeuvre in the 1990’s Weber folded an entirely new dimension into her artistic universe—a universe in which the inanimate and the hominal intermix freely. In film, the tropes of personified animals, ghosts, and special powers, which have always frequented her work, mingle eerily with masks that transform live actors into puppets and sculptures into cast characters. The result is an animated and newly uncanny view through the windows of her haunted dollhouse.

Part I: EARLY FILMS AND OTHERS
(approx. 61 min.)

All Night Movies (1993)
Songs Hurt Me (1994)
Destiny and Blow Up Friends (1995)
Death Valley (1996)
I’m Not a Bunny (1996)
Lost in the Woods (1997)
The Red Nurse and the Snowman (2000)
The Forgotten (2001)
The Ghost Trees (2002)
The Night of Forevermore (2012)

Part II: FILMS OF THE SPIRIT GIRLS
(approx. 73 min.)

In the early 2000’s Weber created The Spirit Girls who are on one hand a band and on another their own artwork. They are the ghosts of five adolescent girls who were struck down in their prime and continue through musical performance and ventriloquism to attempt to communicate with the living world.

Songs that Never Die (2005)
A Western Song (2007)
Sea of Silence (2009)
The Campfire Song (2009)
The Eternal Heart at Eternity Forever Performance (2010)

EPHEMERA: SAFETY FIRST!

Posted on September 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

EPHEMERA: SAFETY FIRST!
1940s-2002
Approx. 95 min. USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 1 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 – 10:00 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 14 – 5:00 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 28 – 7:30 PM

Safety films are modern morality plays aimed at You, The Everyman! Without their stern guidance you would get your dumb self killed in short order. OSHA’s 2010 statistics list over 4,000 on-the-job fatalities and millions of productive hours lost due to accidents. Unfortunately, even when depicting very real dangers, safety films’ authoritative tone and stiff reenactments (not to mention terrible gore effects) elicit more laughter than concern.

These ephemeral films fill a social (and sometimes legal) need to educate the public on what it means to be ‘safe’. When society is confronted with new technology or changing environments, it is up to the safety film to show the proper path to tread. They want to save you from yourself – your wild emotions, lazy shortcuts, rule-bending and other human foibles all lead straight to your gory, violent death. Safety films want you to watch out, and whether by gentle caution or gruesome reenactment, they WILL get their message across.

So join us for an evening of well-intended threats, frights, falls and severed limbs! Bonus: a US Postal Safety Rap featuring young Justin Timberlake!

LIVE AND LEARN (1951)
TIME OUT FOR TROUBLE (1961)
ON EVERY HAND (1969)
COOKING – KITCHEN SAFETY (1949)
ONE GOT FAT (1963)
WHY TAKE CHANCES? (1952)
RANGE SAFETY (1990)
DANGER IS YOUR COMPANION (1940s)
OFFICE SAFETY (1970)
SAFETY IN OFFICES (1944)
CHRISTMAS TREE HARVEST (2002)
SHAKE HANDS WITH DANGER (1970s)
HAZARDS AROUND BINS AND HOPPERS (1978)
DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE (1976)
STAIRWELL SAFETY (2001)
GUNS ARE DIFFERENT
HALLOWEEN SAFETY (1985)
POST OFFICE SAFETY RAP (1990s)
HAZARDS IN MOTION (2001)
SAFETY: IT’S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY (1982)
WILL YOU BE HERE TOMORROW? (1998ish)
SAFETY: IN DANGER OUT OF DOORS (1970s)
A SAFE DAY (early 1940s)
HOSPITAL SAFETY (1979)

Special thanks to the Internet Archive, Rick Prelinger and everyone at the Prelinger Archive.

Rick Prelinger began collecting “ephemeral films”—all those educational, industrial, amateur, advertising, or otherwise sponsored—in 1982, amassing over 60,000 (all on physical film) before his Prelinger Archive was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002. Since then, the collection has grown and diversified: now it exists in library form in San Francisco and is also gradually being ported online to the Internet Archive (archive.org), where 5,336 of its films are currently hosted (as of this writing).

Of course, the content of the Prelinger Archive’s films varies in accord with the variety of mankind. Historic newsreels, mid-century automobile infomercials, psychological experiments, medical procedurals, big oil advertisements, military recruitment videos, political propagandas, personal home videos, celebrity exposes, amateur narratives, scientific studies, war bulletins, instructional films, special interest op-eds, safety lessons, hobby guides, travel destination profiles and private industry productions all sit comfortably together in one marginalized category.

& OTHER WORKS: TOM THAYER

Posted on September 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23RD

TWO SCREENINGS – 8 AND 10 PM – ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE

MORE DETAILS TBA!

“& Other Works” is a series of screenings focusing on film and video from contemporary artists organized by C. Spencer Yeh. “& Other Works” is an informal communal viewing experience, away from the white walls and passwords.

Maybe you don’t know the particular shadow that the October moon casts for us here at the Spectacle, but in its quaint darkness we like to call it Spec3ber – the numerical affectation being that it’s the third in our fledgling history. Nothing is ever easily defined or agreed upon with us, except that Halloween is a month-long event. And since & Other Works is even younger, we like to learn by watching and following along with our guardian – stealing make-up, smoking pretzel sticks, and pretending our shoe is an iPhone. So, it’s with great pleasure that this Spec3ber we have the fantastical works of the inimitable Tom Thayer.

Let’s start off by saying that really in order to get the whole picture, you may need to attend one of Thayer’s fully three-dimensional performances or installations. However, in keeping with the &OW ethos, we’ll be focusing on JTV – Just The Video. Nothing will be lacking however, as all the unsettled lanky angles and smeared colors of his paintings, sculptures, music and his etcetera and ephemera are fully in effect and incorporated. In fact, as &OW hopes, being served by the flat faceful will put you even further in the zone.

The program will survey Thayer’s video works from his earliest animation “Phantasmagoria” on through music videos for both his own music as well others (e.g. NYC’s finest No Neck Blues Band), and on to later works regularly incorporated into aboveplugged performances and installations. We’re pretty excited to give them the proper &OW “microcinematic” attention and reception.

Thayer has gone on record more-or-less saying his methods and materials are decidedly kept to a period of time in which he feels comfortable and connected working within. So, that’s masking tape and cardboard, crude cuts and jagged circuits; Thayer coaxes every bit and blurp of curdle and mist out of his tools. Though a particular unplaceable nostalgia may be provoked in sampling his work, Thayer is no more a retro-fetishist than you would be using your great-grandparents’ armoire, because that shit is built to last.

It’s hard to really describe the vibe without getting into some words like “haunting,” “playful” and “surreal” but those words are loaded with blanks these days. Likewise, we can get into talking about collage, stop-motion, marionettes, analog video, oscillators, and drum machines. Then there’s the thin gaunt birds, rainbow omelette mountains, and children with crushed faces only mothers with crushed faces could love. Or we can just say there’s something about how every element just lands beautifully and properly in Thayer’s hand and vision that we had no choice but to use “inimitable” earlier.

AN EVENING WITH BARRY GIFFORD

Posted on September 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

AN EVENING WITH BARRY GIFFORD
Including two episodes of the HBO television series HOTEL ROOM, written by Gifford and directed by David Lynch

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 8:00 PM (With Gifford Intro/Q&A)
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 10:00 PM (With Gifford Intro)

Both shows are SOLD OUT. There will be NO standby or standing room for the 8:00 pm show, but there will be VERY LIMITED additional admission at the 10:00 PM show. Show up early, and we will let a few people on standby in around 10:15 pm.

Co-sponsored by Vice Magazine, Book Thug Nation, and Seven Stories Press.

Join renowned author Barry Gifford for a very special evening of literary discussion paired with an exclusive screening of two rarely seen episodes from David Lynch’s HBO series HOTEL ROOM, both written by Gifford. In ‘TRICKS,’ the uneasy meeting of two men and a hooker at the Railroad Hotel has deadly repercussions. In ‘BLACKOUT,’ a power failure is the catalyst for strange revelations between a husband and his ailing wife in a New York hotel. Following the screening Gifford will discuss his career as a poet, author, and screenwriter as well as his long-running collaboration with David Lynch (WILD AT HEART, LOST HIGHWAY).

Following the screening, Gifford will sign copies of his latest book, The Roy Stories. Spanning time and space—the Southern and Midwestern United States from the 1940s through the 1980s—The Roy Stories chronicle the personal history of Gifford from Chicago to Miami in a Hemingway style Nick Adams story. Emotional, exploratory, and brimming with photographic realism, these stories capture a Beat-inspired sense of time and place and a record of the attitudes and the language of the time.

Before the show, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, Gifford will also appear at Book Thug Nation (100 North 3rd Street between Berry Street and Wythe Avenue) for a reading and reception for The Roy Stories.

Barry Gifford, called “a master of the short story” by the New York Times Book Review, is the author of more than forty published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into twenty-eight languages. Gifford’s most recent prose works include Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels, Sad Stories of the Death of Kings, and Memories from a Sinking Ship: A Novel. His first full-length novel, Landscape with Traveler, will be back in print for the first time in fifteen years this October from Seven Stories Press.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Posted on September 25, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
George A. Romero, 1968.
98 min, USA.

HALLOWEEN, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 7:30 PM
HALLOWEEN, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 10:00 PM

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is the greatest horror movie ever made, and we are pleased to present our third annual Halloween screening.

When the dead return to life, a group of strangers barricades itself inside a creaky farmhouse while fending of lumbering zombies and trying to make sense of the dense weave of media chatter on television and radio to formulate a plan of action. Rife with brilliantly-conceived social and political tensions, NOTLD is perhaps most terrifying for its layers of ambiguity and confusion, offering little in the way of rationalization. In that respect, it mirrors a frequent and very real yearning for simple answers to irreducible problems, and the urgent, fatalistic sense of impending doom associated with disaster response, triage, denial, and survival. If the response from last year’s packed audience is any indication, it remains a deeply disturbing and horrifying as ever.

NOTLD is ground zero for the modern zombie, and its transformative impact on popular culture ironically places it near the top of many’s lists as a movie often felt to be understood without actually having seen. Whether you’re checking it out for the first time or due for a revisiting, we guarantee NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD will shock you.