Page 162 – Spectacle Theater

MERCANO EL MARCIANO

Posted on June 3, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

MERCANO EL MARCIANO
(aka Mercano the Martian)
Dir: Juan Antin, 2002.
73 min. Argentina.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JUNE 7TH – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 9TH – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 20TH – 10:00PM

In this often rude, adult-oriented, breathlessly-paced animated film, after a space-probe from Earth squashes his “dog,” angry alien Mercano flies his saucer to Earth—only to find a place so dysfunctional and illogical that it would give Mr. Spock a nervous breakdown!

The film is a twist on the “fish out of water” and “Martian Invasion” tropes, and uses the spaceman’s naiveté of our greedy and malevolent ways to drive the humor. Stranded in Buenos Aires, the sad and lonely Martian (who looks like a cross between a skinny Charlie Brown and a pickle) wanders through a city that has been devastated by poverty, violence and uncertainty, all the while chased by trigger-happy cops.

In an attempt to “phone home,” the extraterrestrial steals a laptop computer, but instead winds up befriending a Star Trek-obsessed teenager he meets on-line. Meanwhile, the kid’s yuppie-executive father is plotting total global consumer enslavement—and he intends to use Mercano’s outer space technology to get it.

The first independent Argentine full-length animated film in 30 years, MERCANO EL MARCIANO was originally created as a series of shorts for Argentina’s MTV. The film is certainly in a similar vein as South Park and Beavis & Butthead—but not just because of the outrageous gross-out humor, deliberately crude animation and propensity for musical numbers, but as a barbed and absurdist take on contemporary society.

Created while Argentina’s economy was melting down, the film has even greater resonance today with a global recession and nightmarish austerity measures forced down people’s throats ruining social services. “Now after ten years, the whole world started to collapsed and I am not surprised at all,” said director Juan Antin recently.

Featured in multiple international film festivals, MERCANO EL MARCIANO was the winner of the Audience Award at Spain’s Catalonian International Film Festival in 2002, as well as the Special Jury Mention at the Festival du Film d’Animation Annecy 2002 in France.

BETTER THAN JAWS WEEKEND

Posted on June 3, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

Sometimes the success of a film can spawn a whole sub-genre. In the case of Jaws, for all its evil impact it did have one very positive effect:JAWS RIP-OFFS! And this weekend at Spectacle we have the best and most notorious of the bunch.

BETTER THAN JAWS WEEKEND! ONLY AT MIDNIGHT! ONLY AT SPECTACLE!

GRIZZLY
Dir: William Girdler, 1976.
90 min. USA.

FRIDAY, JUNE 7TH – MIDNIGHT
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

The film’s title star will be in attendance for Q&A with William Girdler expert Jon Dieringer of Screen Slate.

In 1975, Universal Pictures released a movie called Jaws. Okay, that’s pretty cool if you’re into the beach, I guess.

BUT in 1976 something really amazing happened. William Girdler (The Manitou, Day of the Animals), a filmmaker with the uncanny knack of improving upon the efforts of others created the masterpiece of BEAR-sploitation: GRIZZLY.

So, basically plot-wise we have … well, have you ever seen Jaws? Well, this is Jaws with a GRIZZLY BEAR — JAWS WITH CLAWS!

Tourists are out in record numbers to enjoy some camping and hiking in a National Park, but deforestation, pollution, and other terrible things that humans do when they go camping have caused this bear to lose its damn mind, and now this 7-foot mother is tearing the arms and legs off nature lovers faster than you can say “pic-a-nic basket.” Now, it’s up to Christopher George (City of the Living Dead, Graduation Day) to convince the greedy park supervisor to evacuate the park and get the grizzly before he saunters up to the human buffet for another helping.

But why is Grizzly better than Jaws? Why do we love the rip-offs more than the originals? Let’s just say William Girdler is our Pierre Menard but his Quixote has more BLOOD, FLYING LIMBS, and ROCKET LAUNCHERS.

In short, GRIZZLY kicks ass.

GRIZZLY is slick, fun, warm, and filled with familiar faces of the ’70s, including Andrew Prine and Richard Jaeckel. Don’t let the gloss fool you, though. This bear has claws, and Girdler’s got the goods when it comes to what we want from a good Jaws rip off: scenes of male bonding and plenty of vicious animal attacks!

Come enjoy this Exploitation-sploitation masterpiece by the master of high-class rip-offs that deliver!

THE LAST SHARK
Dir: Enzo G. Castellari, 1981.
88 min. Italy.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8TH – MIDNIGHT
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

From hard hitting Italian genre genius Enzo G. Castellari comes the most uncanny of all Jaws clones, THE LAST SHARK (L’ultimo squalo). This one swam so close to the original that Universal Pictures slapped a big fat lawsuit on the distributor and pulled the movie from American screens shortly after its release. Universal cried plagiarism, but we all know the real reason- they were scared!

Why?

Two reasons: this shark is really, really scary and VIC MORROW. That’s right, trash movie martyr Vic Morrow brings his intense presence to the aquatic proceedings as a grizzled shark whisperer. Is he Irish, is he Scottish? Who knows, but he’s got a brogue and he hates sharks. Sound familiar? Well, the similarities don’t end there, trust me.

You know the story, but it’s the style that makes this one shine. Castellari’s impeccable penchant for slow motion, gorgeous photography, and perfectly realized action all add up to a slick, ultra Italian entry into the “hey, this is pretty much Jaws” sub-genre.

And forget John Williams, Castellari’s frequent collaborators, the brilliant De Angelis brothers, provide their signature funky sounds to this baby, including the KILLER theme.

Unavailable on video in the U.S. for years, The Spectacle plucks THE LAST SHARK out of import laserdisc limbo and puts it back on the screen! Kick the summer off right and say “GO TO HELL BIG MOVIE STUDIOS!” The originals may be owned by the majors, but the rip-offs belong to the people!

MR. NO LEGS

Posted on June 1, 2013July 23, 2015 by spectacletheater

MR. NO LEGS
(aka The Amazing Mr. No Legs)
Dir: Ricou Browning, 1979.
86 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1ST – MIDNIGHT
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Set in the ugliest Tampa imaginable, MR. NO LEGS follows two self-righteous police detectives (one with the obligatory porn-stache) tracking dope dealers and corrupt fellow cops, while trying to stay out of the clutches of unstoppable mob enforcer. Mr. No Legs, a martial arts master with many a violent trick hidden up his sleeves—and wheelchair, including shotguns, switchblades and ninja stars!

Meanwhile, racists start a rumble in a bar involving midgets and drag queens, whores get into broken bottle fights, and everyone double-crosses everyone else. Mayhem galore!

Featuring a shameless cast of B- and C-listers, including Richard Jaeckel, Lloyd Bochner, John Agar, Rance (Ron’s dad!) Howard, and real-life double amputee Ted Vollrath as the snarling No Legs.

It’s a convoluted, ultraviolent, tasteless, trashy B-movie actioner that was directed by the Creature from the Black Lagoon! That’s right, director Ricou Browning was the former Olympian who found fame in Hollywood playing the Gill Man for Universal Studios, and later supervised the underwater sequences on the TV show Flipper.

Mean-spirited and vicious, Mr. No Legs is the finest sort of exploitation cinema.

THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET

Posted on May 30, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET
Dir. György Szomjas, 1976.
Hungary. 95 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JUNE 7 – 10:00 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 20 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 23 – 10:00 PM

György Szomjas brings exquisite style and pacing to this elegiac gallows western about a betyár — a brand of 19th century highwayman popular in contemporary Hungarian balladry — set amid the Great Hungarian Plain in 1937. It follows the path of a brooding, aging outlaw newly escaped from prison whose personal revenge quest dovetails with the interests of the landless herdsman who oppose the state’s building a canal through the fields on which they work their trade. He becomes an unlikely hero to unwashed vagabond workers while facing down a mutually-admiring adversary in the form of a forthright squire who had captured him before. Meanwhile, an opportunistic youngster attempts to work both sides to his benefit. As ditches are dug for canals and corpses alike, the state puts increasing pressure on the wistful squire, who realizes the social order is changing and his fortunes are in decline; and yet he remains dutifully attached to his mission.

Along with Szomjas’s follow-up ROSSZEMBEREK, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is probably the only example of a “Goulash Western.” Though carefully paced and supposedly based on historical documents, it aims squarely for populist appeal. The autumnal palette, period imagery, and sudden outbursts of hysterical grotesquery recall Andrzej Żuławski’s THE DEVILS. Yet most of all it brings to mind the unlikely grouping of Woody Guthrie, Miklós Jancsó, and Akira Kuroswawa — or maybe Béla Tarr meets Sergio Leone. Whatever the comparisons, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is a stirring, forgotten gem in classic Spectacle tradition and not to be missed.

KINETIC CINEMA: SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST

Posted on May 29, 2013July 23, 2015 by spectacletheater

KINETIC CINEMA: SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST
Dir: David Fishel
Approx. 90 min. USA.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19TH – 8PM
ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

With the cinema industry currently in a state of turmoil over funding and over-dependence on CGI, there exists a strong desire to reject modern expectations and to reach toward methodologies of the past. In his program for Kinetic Cinema cinema, filmmaker David Fishel questions current expectations in cinema technology, and whether we are making an unfair trade off in our quest for ever more pristine HD clarity:

“I am routinely asking myself: How does one make work that remains contemporary and embraces the tools of tomorrow without forgetting the techniques and wisdom of the past? Likewise, in a present when access to high-end gear is more common place, is the spectacle of beauty lost? Can one be heard amongst the cacophony of content?”

David Fishel is a NYC based filmmaker/ video-artist who dabbles as an absurdist poet, animated storyteller, experimental sound artist, and obnoxious performance artist. Mr. Fishel is a graduate of University of Iowa where he focused his studies in Cinema and Comparative Literature and Intermedia / Performance Art. Fishel has worked and collaborated with Hans Breder, Phil Niblock, Thinkdance, Luke Murphy, Jason Batemen, John Kolvenbach, and The Hatch-Billops Collection.

THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY

Posted on May 29, 2013December 19, 2019 by spectacletheater

This summer, Spectacle presents three incredibly savage, incredibly savory kung fu films that launched the career of martial arts star Sonny Chiba and became landmarks of Japanese exploitation cinema – THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY!

Following the crossover success of Bruce Lee (who died the previous year), the mighty Japanese film company Toei decided to gamble on a considerably darker, more nasty brand of martial arts action with an unknown actor as the star. The result was The Street Fighter– a hard-boiled, gore-drenched exploitation classic that spawned an entire franchise of sequels and spinoffs.

Praised by fans as some of the best kung fu films of the era and worshipped by Tarantino for decades, don’t miss this chance to experience grindhouse exploitation at its finest!

Presented UNCUT and in their ORIGINAL JAPANESE LANGUAGE!

And as a special bonus, we’ll have three female-centered kung fu films in our summer midnights programs for an extra dosage of ass-kicking!

*NOTE: The entire STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY will screen as a marathon on SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST!

THE STREET FIGHTER – 5PM
RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER – 7:30PM
THE STREET FIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE – 10PM

THE STREET FIGHTER
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa, 1974.
87 min. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8TH – 10PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH – 10PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 29TH – 10PM
*SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST – 5PM (part of THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY marathon!)

Sonny Chiba IS Tokuma Tsurugi: a high-priced, high-voltage assassin hired by the Yakuza to kidnap the heiress of a deceased billionaire. When his demands are too high, all-out chaos ensues. Shortly thereafter, the body count starts to grow…

A significant shift away from the classic, technical martial arts, THE STREET FIGHTER features numerous sequence of raw, shockingly graphic brawls and battles that garnered the film the first ever X rating solely for violence. Chiba is pure brute force, an anti-hero that acts not out of honor, but for self-satisfaction. But even for a character with zero morals, Chiba’s magnetic personality shines through, lending his mercenary killer a sparkly, devilish demeanor.

A prime cut of juicy 70s kung-fu topped with an X-ray blast to the skull, THE STREET FIGHTER is unadulterated escapism of the bloodiest order.

*WARNING: THE FILM CONTAINS GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE*

RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa, 1974.
79 min. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 10TH – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 18TH – 10:00 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 20TH – 7:30 PM
*SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST – 7:30PM (part of THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY marathon!)

THE STREET FIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE
Dir: Shigehiro Ozawa, 1974.
80 min. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14TH – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23RD – 7:30PM
*SATURDAY, AUGUST 31ST – 10PM (part of THE STREET FIGHTER TRILOGY marathon!)

We conclude with Sonny Chiba channeling James Bond!

The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge takes a turn towards spy film and finds Tsurugi using a fistful of gadgets and masks to battle a sombrero-donned, laser-wielding Mexican bandito!

Featuring pinku legend Ike Reiko!

YOU CAN’T KEEP ME QUIET!: FILMS BY SARAH JACOBSON

Posted on May 28, 2013June 9, 2013 by spectacletheater

YOU CAN’T KEEP ME QUIET!: FILMS BY SARAH JACOBSON

FRIDAY, JUNE 14TH – 8PM (w/ special guest Sam Green!)
SUNDAY, JUNE 30TH – 8PM (w/ special guest Mikki Halpin!)

“I consider myself a feminist filmmaker, definitely. The whole reason I got into film was because I never saw cool girls in films that I liked. I have no fear of the word ‘feminist.’ I know that that has certain negative connotations to some people, but then why should I let other people’s stupidity bully what I want to do, right? To me, feminism means that I should have an equal opportunity to do what I want to do as a woman. I don’t want to be better than men, I don’t want to shut men up. It’s like, look, you’ve got your little thing over here, you’ve got your B-movie aesthetic, and I’ve got my interpretation of it that girls can enjoy, too, so you don’t always have to watch the bimbo get raped or slashed or stalked or whatever.” –Sarah Jacobson

ROAD MOVIE (OR WHAT I LEARNED IN A BUICK STATION WAGON)
Dir: Sarah Jacobson, 1991.
10 min. USA.

I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER
Dir: Sarah Jacobson, 1993.
27 min. USA.

MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE
Dir: Sarah Jacobson, 1998.
98 min. USA.

Sarah Jacobson (1971-2004) was an independent filmmaker who led a DIY filmmaking movement in the 90s. She wrote and directed several short films, documentaries, music videos and a feature film. She formed Station Wagon Productions with her mother and producer Ruth Jacobson and with her help, Sarah self-promoted and distributed her films all over the country. Originally from New Jersey and Minneapolis, Jacobson studied briefly at Bard College and then at the San Francisco Art Institute with George Kuchar.

She directed I Was a Teenage Serial Killer in 1993, which she described as the story of “a 19-year-old girl who has a series of run-ins with various condescending men.” Jacobson’s slap-in-the-face feminist interpretation of “sexy”/violent B movies found a cult following. Jacobson went on to make her feature Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore a few years later.

Too in your face to be an after-school special, Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore is a movie about sex from a girl’s point of view. After a gross and unceremonious “first time,” Jane learns about the joys of pleasing herself and asking for what she wants from her punky co-workers at a Midwestern movie theater (with Jello Biafra and Davey Havok cameos). the film debuted at the Chicago Underground Film Festival in 1997 and sold out at Sundance and SXSW; Jacobson promoted the film the year previous at the Independent Film Market with homemade “Not a Virgin” stickers that her and her mom made at Kinko’s.

After cancer ended Sarah Jacobson’s life in 2004, her mother Ruth and Sam Green established the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant to support young women “whose work embodies some of the things Sarah stood for: a fierce DIY approach to filmmaking, a radical social critique, and thoroughly underground sensibility.” Find out more about the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant here.

Filmmaker Sam Green will be at Spectacle on June 14th for a Q&A, and writer Mikki Halpin, who now runs the SJ Film Grant, will be at the June 30th screening. Jacobson’s DVDs will be on sale to benefit the film grant fund!

Spectacle’s program will also include an early autobiographical short called Road Movie (or What I Learned in a Buick Station Wagon) (1991) which is the story of a college filmmaker who leaves Minneapolis for NYC after her professors and classmates make fun of her film (with an Adolfas Mekas cameo).

POSTMODERNISM: WHO CARES? THE COMPLETE JON MORITSUGU

Posted on May 28, 2013August 6, 2018 by spectacletheater

Combining the tropes of 60s art-house cinema with the primitive punk aesthetics of the Cinema of Transgression, Jon Moritsugu has been making movies far outside the mainstream for over twenty-five years. While his work has screened at venues as high profile as the Sundance, Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals and even public television, he continually shirks convention and classification. After making his name with a series of hand-made 16mm features, he’s recently embraced video with a fervor and a freeness to which every young filmmaker should be paying attention. Moritsugu’s world is overflowing with eye-popping production design, eardrum-destroying rock ‘n’ roll, gross-outs aplenty and deadpan one-liners you’ll be quoting for weeks.

We’re proud to present the first complete retrospective of Jon’s work, including every feature and short he’s produced to date, along with the New York premiere of his newest movie, PIG DEATH MACHINE. Also in the line-up are his impossible-to-find shorts like DER ELVIS, SLEAZY RIDER and LITTLE DEBBIE, SNACK WHORE OF NEW YORK CITY! Plus two uber-rare 16mm screenings of his masterpiece, MOD FUCK EXPLOSION!

Like all true artists, Jon Moritsugu thrives under the limits of his budgets- producing an oeuvre of punk classics and establishing him as DIY icon.

SATURDAY JUNE 1ST
7:30PM: PIG DEATH MACHINE
10PM: MOD FUCK EXPLOSION (on 16mm)

SUNDAY JUNE 2ND
7:30PM: MY DEGENERATION
10PM: HIPPY PORN

MONDAY JUNE 3RD
7:30PM: TERMINAL USA (release version)
10PM: FAME WHORE

TUESDAY JUNE 4TH
7:30PM: SCUMROCK
10PM: PIG DEATH MACHINE

WEDNESDAY JUNE 5TH
7:30PM: MOD FUCK EXPLOSION (on 16mm)
10PM: TERMINAL USA (rough cut version)

THURSDAY JUNE 6TH
7:30PM: PIG DEATH MACHINE
10PM: SCUMROCK

MY DEGENERATION
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1990.
70 min. USA.

SUNDAY, JUNE 2ND – 7:30PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Preceded by the shorts DER ELVIS and LITTLE DEBBIE SNACK WHORE OF NEW YORK CITY

In the tradition of Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, Moritsugu’s very first feature is the story of a female rock trio – sponsored by a sinister meat corporation. Our narrator is the bass player, who falls in love with a real pig’s head that thinks out loud. See why Roger Ebert walked out after 7 minutes!

“Spikey satire on modern pop culture and ‘star is born’ movies.” – Los Angeles Times

HIPPY PORN
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1993.
97 min. USA.

SUNDAY, JUNE 2ND – 10PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

This simultaneous homage-to and takedown-of the French New Wave, follows the perpetual ennui of a small group of art school students. While indulging his usual stylistic subversions, Moritsugu crafts a film whose closest cousin might be Jean Eustache’s iconic The Mother and The Whore.

“The French New Wave goes to hell. HIPPY PORN is about as adventuresome as feature filmmaking gets… bleakly beautiful.” – Los Angeles Times

TERMINAL USA
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1993
54 min. (Release Version) / 71 min. (Rough Cut Version)
USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 3RD – 7:30PM (Release Version)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5TH – 10PM (Rough Cut Version)

Preceded by the shorts SLEAZY RIDER and CRACK

A wholesome portrait of the perfect Japanese immigrant family – well, except for the scummy drug addict son who disappoints his parents. But who is stealing grandpa’s morphine? Who is secretly gay for skinheads? And who is being blackmailed with a sex tape?

“FATHER KNOWS BEST meets PINK FLAMINGOS… a post-punk soap opera about an Asian-American family that single-handedly shatters the clean-cut, hard-working image of the model minority.” – New York Daily News

MOD FUCK EXPLOSION
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1994.
76 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1ST – 10PM (on 16mm!)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5TH – 7:30PM (on 16mm!)

In this teen angst epic, London (Amy Davis) longs for love and leather jackets. Meanwhile, vicious Mods wage a turf war against a gang of lip-synched Asian bikers.

“A dynamic punk odyssey of a pair of innocent teens adrift in a violent urban world; Moritsugu unleashes a barrage of powerful images and hard-driving music.” – Los Angeles Times

FAME WHORE
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 1997.
73 min. USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 3RD – 10PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Preceded by the short MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE’S MY BRAIN?

Three misguided social climbers scrounge for stardom! A closeted tennis star, a talentless fashion designer, an animal activist with an imaginary friend – will any of them make it?

“Luridly florid… like a porno flick with the fucking parts cut out.” – Village Voice

SCUMROCK
Dir: Jon Moritsugu, 2002.
79 min. USA.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4TH – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 6TH – 10PM

Preceded by a collection of music videos by Jon Moritsugu

Moritsugu’s first foray into video continues his devotion to fast music, cheap cameras and Amy Davis. A pretentious underground filmmaker (TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone) struggles with his masterpiece while a skuzzy punkoid chick (Davis) tries to keep her band from fading into obscurity.

“SCUMROCK is as fast and energetic as it is funny. Moritsugu is a true visionary.” – Los Angeles Times

PIG DEATH MACHINE
Dir: Jon Moritsugu & Amy Davis, 2013.
84 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1ST – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 4TH – 10PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 6TH – 7:30PM

A brainless bimbo is transformed into a total genius after eating rotten meat. Meanwhile, a misanthropic punk botanist babe gains the power to talk to plants. Moritsugu’s first film in a decade is a triumphant return, complete with a hilarious film-within-a-film, and glittery bacon animation!

“Everyone who has half a brain and even a milligram of taste knows that Jon Moritsugu is a LIVING FUCKING UNDERGROUND MOVIE GOD” – 2003 New York Underground Film Festival

BASEMENT MEDIA FEST

Posted on May 27, 2013May 29, 2013 by spectacletheater

THE 3RD BASEMENT MEDIA FEST
Dir: Various
Approx. 50 min. USA.

SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 23RD – 7:30PM

`*~FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE~*`

The BASEMENT Media Fest is a survey of contemporary artists working with lo-def, lo-tech, and lo-fi motion pix techniques. Founded in response to the commercial race for hi-res and true-to-life IMG quality, BASEMENT is a celebration of the mediated experience as an aesthetic experience. Equal parts glitchd digital vidz, fuzzy VHS, and grimy 16mm film, this year’s screening ought to plaza any connoisseur of experimental .MOVs.

///WARNING/// SUM OF THESE MOVIES FEATURE FLICKERING LIGHT AND RAPIDLY CHANGING MOTION. MAY CAUSE SEIZURES/MOTION SICKNESS. IF YOU’RE GONNA SPEW, SPEW INTO THIS.

/START PROGRAM:

WINGDINGS LOVE LETTER
Dir: Scott Fitzpatrick

noun \’wiŋ-,diŋ\ 1. A lavish or lively party or celebration. 2. A real or pretended fit or seizure; a rage. An ode to a misunderstood font is rendered by laser printing directly onto 16mm leader. Made in Microsoft Paint.

RECIPROCAL YOUTH
Dir: Jonathan Johnson

An absurd melding of home and archival videos.

CLIFFS QUARRIES BRIDGED AND DAMS
Dir: Josh Hite

Bodies under water at cliffs quarries bridges and dams.

TEN S-K-I-E-S
Dir: Clint Enns

A condensed version of James Benning’s Ten Skies with all the skies removed, leaving nothing but clouds.

I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU THERE
Dir: Michael A. Morris

A meditation on morality and mediation. An elegy and a prayer for Kurt Cobain.

FALLOUT
Dir: Paul Turano

A gradual contamination of the image and increasing waves of fear give way to an irradiated bloom.

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (PROJECT 12, 8 1/2)
Dir:Dirian Lyons

Reconstructs the Hollywood film’s presidential montage, featuring statements only by Barack Obama.

THE POOL
Dir: Christine Lucy Latimer

1950’s 16mm swimmers dive unknowingly into video-infested waters.

THE EXPLODING VOICE
Dir: Allen Riley

Real-time analog sound/video synthesis using voice.

LIGHT IN EXTENSION, ABSOLUTE DOMAIN
Dir: Jon Perez

A found footage glitch piece that reverberates in and out of pure abstraction in attempt to unleash new visions for new eyes.

/END PROGRAM

GO TO BASEMENTMEDIAFEST.COM FOR MORE INFO

A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS

Posted on May 27, 2013May 28, 2013 by spectacletheater

A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS
Dir: Stephen Graves, 2012.
82 min. USA.

MONDAY, JUNE 10TH – 8PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Director Stephen Graves crafts a vivid, intimate portrait of his father Bill, a former doctor who’s barely left home since a rare medical condition led surgeons to remove his colon and parts of his intestines in 1997.

The film unsettlingly depicts the agonizing details of his condition (he must drain waste from a sac connected to his abdomen) alongside his vibrant, medicated dreams, and stories of his libertine past. Graves re-creates his family’s subjective experiences using a unique and experimental approach to editing.

As radical in style as in subject matter, A BODY WITHOUT ORGANS is a confronting, intriguing and strikingly genuine debut.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2013 CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL

Chicago Reader Interview with director Stephen Graves