In the early 70s, a group of academics, documentarians and free-speech enthusiasts dragged the chairman of the FCC into the desert and threw soft, dusty pillows at him until he ceded a few bands of the commercial broadcast system for local use. They swore there and then that not all public-access would be coverage of town fairs and talent shows, but that hilarious and oddly beautiful things would be broadcast to audiences of tens, maybe even hundreds. This September, Spectacle brings you five public-access greats: David Liebe Hart, Job Matusow from Utah, Damon Zex from Columbus, Splendid Recipes out of Pittsburgh, and NYC’s very own Concrete TV.

THE DIABOLICAL DAMON ZEX / CHECKMATE
dir. Damon Zex, 1992-2004
84 mins. Ohio.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – MIDNIGHT

Special thanks to Damon Zex and Greg Smalley.

“Damon Zex wears his badge of Artistic Elitism as a warning to the bourgeoisie… a kindred spirit to innovators such as Georges Melies, Kenneth Anger and Ernie Kovacs.” – Alfred Eaker, 366weirdmovies

Although he was making films as early as 1984 and even had a few appearances on Toronto’s Much Music, Damon Zex found his home as the Patron Saint of Public Access in the sleepy little hamlet of Columbus, Ohio in 1992. Zex’s show aptly titled “Zextalk” crashed like a bolt of lightning amidst shows like “Bee B The Clown” and it wasn’t long until folks took notice. Assaulted by the likes of City Council and CNN alike, Zex weaved and dodged through the wagging fingers defending his ability to bring surrealism to the masses eventually landing spots on Geraldo, Jerry Springer, and more.

Zex’s love for silent film and German expressionism pours onto the screen while episodes featured himself and a few guests participating in things the suburbs simply couldn’t stomach. If you happened to land on Zextalk while channel surfing (or made it a point to leave a function to catch the show like some folks) it was possible to see a vampire eating used tampons, a chessboard made of drugs, a televangelist who claims God loves to watch you fuck, and more. In fact if you ask just about anyone who lived in Columbus at the time it’s safe to say they have at least one Damon Zex story. When the channel finally closed in 2004 Zex was thankfully able to get out with his collection of U-Matic tapes of his episodes.

A long time coming, this program features a sort of “Best Of” complied by Damon Zex and Greg Smalley from the original tapes and is paired with CHECKMATE.

FUCK FOR DRUGS.

JOB MATUSOW’S MAGIC MOUSE MAGAZINE
dir. Harvey Matusow, 199X
70 mins. Utah.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 – 10 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 10:00 PM

Harvey Matusow had a pretty storied life—he was a fink during the House of Un-American Activities hearings, ratting out his comrades at People’s Song and leading to Pete Seeger’s unceremonious blacklisting. He later recanted his testimony, leading to a perjury conviction that landed him in Lewisberg (he was cellmates with Wilhelm Reich).

It turns out there are second acts in American lives, because after his sentence he ended up relocating to London and becoming a fixture in the experimental arts scene—he was briefly married to composer Annea Lockwood—most notably organizing a 7-day festival called ICES ’72 that brought together John Cage, AMM, Cornelius Cardew, and Gee Vaucher of Crass. It’s said that Matusow helped introduce John Lennon to Yoko Ono.

He relocated back to the US in 1974 and after some time flirting with the Elwood Babbitt commune in western Massachusetts, he settled west, first in Arizona then Utah, developing a clown character named Cockyboo and a set of children’s stories called Magic Mouse Magazine. In the ’80s he became active in the Church of Latter Day Saints, changed his name to Job, and established Utah’s first public access television station, bringing his Magic Mouse concept with him.

DAVID LIEBE HART’S JUNIOR CHRISTIAN TEACHING BIBLE LESSON PROGRAM
dir. David Leibe Hart, 1994-2008
70 mins. Los Angeles.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 – 10 PM

Well before his memorable segments in Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show Good Job, David Liebe Hart was a showman in his own right, arriving in Hollywood in 1976 and soon after appearing with Robin Williams and working as an intern on Chuck Barris’ The Gong Show, among other stints.

JUNIOR CHRISTIAN TEACHING BIBLE LESSON PROGRAM was a Los Angeles public access program that ran for nearly 20 years, featuring biblical explications illustrated by puppet sketches, hosted by Hart, a life-long member of the Christian Science faith.

“I am the image and likeness of god, I am I am I am, I am the image and likeness of God, I am I am I am…” – Albert Hermann, first reader

“It’s the most bizarre, horrible, extraordinary piece of Christian puppeteering I think you’ll ever see.” – Andy Nyman on a episode of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe

SPLENDID RECIPES
produced by Chris Coleman, 2007ish
72 mins. Pittsburgh.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 – 10 PM

CONCRETE TV
dir. Ron Rocheleau, 19XX-20XX
70 mins. New York City.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 7:30 PM w/Concrete Ron in person for Q&A
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – 7:30 PM w/Concrete Ron in person for Q&A
(Both these events are $10.)

When Rolling Stone Magazine cited a local New York cable access program, Concrete TV, as the best thing on television across the board in 1996, everyone from MTV to NBC came knocking on creator Ron Rocheleau’s door. Network executives all wanted his keen eye and even sharper editorial chops for distilling plus remixing the pure nonsense and madness that is commercial television, Hollywood drivel, workout videos, car crash footage, professional wrestling, vintage porn, and even more car crash footage.

When it was explained that what he did could not be replicated on a corporate payroll, because the type of art that he produced has zero concern for trifling matters such as copyright and intellectual property, everyone tried their best to copycat. These pale imitations would evolve over time, and Concrete Ron’s style would ultimately be popularized over the years, albeit without the direct involvement of the creator himself. Hence why it is no exaggeration to say that the DNA of every single video collage effort over the past 20+ years can be directly traced to Concrete TV, which stands as perhaps the most influential forms of modern media to go unrecognized.

Concrete TV is still being produced today… you can catch episodes on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network every Friday night at 1:30am… and Spectacle is proud to present not only brand new, yet to air episodes, but to also have Ron Rocheleau in attendance, who will fully detail how he’s still using VCRs and nothing but VCRs in the year 2019.

TESSA HUGHES-FREELAND is a filmmaker, curator, and writer— a crucial downtown denizen by way of England, a scintillating vestige from the heady days of Danceteria and Club 57, and still one of the best we’ve got. Landing in the city in 1980 and beginning her film work with a super-8 camera gifted from David Wojnarowicz, her work spans four decades, tracing a unique arc that rubs elbows with many of the canonical figures and movements of NYC underground film culture. No Wave Cinema turns to Cinema of Transgression; expanded cinema bleeds into ‘multimedia’; the East Village descends and the underground breaks—Hughes-Freeland was there, camera in hand. Shifting in style and sensibility, ranging from 8mm scuzz to experimental documentary to elegiac film-portrait, her work in aggregate is difficult to summarize, better seen than described. Certain themes run through—sexuality, voyeurism, ritual, dream, and decay.

Spectacle is honored to host Tessa for two evenings in September screening and discussing her work. This series looks ahead to her solo exhibition at Howl! Happening titled Tessa Hughes-Freeland: Passed and Present, featuring multiple projections, an “interactive kaleidoscope,” sculptural fans, and the debut of her forthcoming, recently completed LOST MOVIE/THE BUG.

PROGRAM ONE (1981-1986)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – 7:30 PM with Tessa Hughes-Freeland in person for Q&A!
(This event is $10.)

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 – 10 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS         FACEBOOK EVENT

Comprised of shorts ranging from 1981 to 1986, these films can be seen as collectively documenting the East Village prior to its unceremonious death in 1985 (as declared by her husband Carlo McCormick in a eulogy in the East Village Eye). Contained here are dispatches from downtown culture including footage of graffiti culture, the experimental Butoh group Poppo, and a verité portrait of topless go-go dancers from Tribeca club Baby Doll Lounge. Also seen are delirious collage of found-footage, performance by Butthole Surfers, freshly signed to Touch and Go, and filmic evidence of the infamous 1985 Richmond, Virginia exhibition that featured downtown artists Wojnarowicz, Marilyn Minter, Luis Frangella, and more painting naughty murals while on acid.

BABY DOLL
1981. 3 mins.

JOKER
1983. 3 mins.

GRAFFITI HALL OF FAME
1983. 9 mins.

POPPO I 1984. 10 mins.

RHONDA GOES TO HOLLYWOOD
1985. 24 mins.

THE VIRGINIA TRIPPING FILM (Korean version)
1985. 8 mins.

BUTTHOLE SURFERS FILM
1986. 17 mins.

Total runtime: 74 mins


PROGRAM TWO (1987-2013)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 7:30 PM with Tessa Hughes-Freeland in person for Q&A!
(This event is $10.)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

Spanning 1986 to 2013, these heterogeneous shorts include a scandalous and indelible duo with Tommy Turner, featuring dead rats as metaphor for dope; a kaleidoscopic collaboration with downtown rock art-bruts the Workdogs; a Bataille adaptation with Annabel Lee; a tongue-in-cheek mythological parable with Holly Adams; and break-beat driven sojourns through appropriated and found footage, with nods to the verve of the live multiple projections of yore. It’s fitting that the most recent piece, HIPPIE HOME MOVIE, made for an exhibition on the Catskills, takes up as one of its themes the spectre of hippies and the counterculture—a loaded note to end on, for sure!

RAT TRAP
dirs. Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Tommy Turner
1986. 12 mins.

JANE GONE
1987. 7 mins.

DIRTY
dirs. Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Annabel Lee
1993. 16 mins.

NYMPHOMANIA
dirs. Tessa Hughes-Freeland and Holly Adams
1994. 10 mins.

WATCH OUT!
2007. 3 mins.

GIFT
2010. 6 mins.

INSTINCT
2010. 12 mins.

KIND
2013. 1 min.

HIPPIE HOME MOVIE
2013. 3 mins.

Total runtime: 70 mins

Tredici Bacci, New York’s premier 15-piece soundtrack-pop orchestra, draws a great deal of inspiration from the grand tradition of Italian film, specifically the luxe, mondo B-movies made circa 1960-80. The Tredici Bacci Film Fest—curated by the group’s bandleader and composer, Simon Hanes—will celebrate this incredible era by showing some of the epoch’s greatest (if lesser known) films. Supplementing these screenings, the group will supply intermittent musical performance plus delicious Italian food and beverage.

$10 gets you a “day pass”, i.e. a three-course meal of delicious Italo schlock. Tickets for individual screenings will be sold as capacity permits for $5.

DAY 1 – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH

ONLINE TICKETS $10 for all day!!

5:00PM:

ANTENNA TO GOD
dir. Carlos Gonzalez, 2019.
United States. 105 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY w/filmmaker Carlos Gonzalez in person for Q&A!
(This event is $10.)

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

ANTENNA TO GOD is a shot-on-video psycho-drama/mystery/comedy concerning a young hotshot journalist who gets involved with a strange local chiropractor, while researching her next piece. As her personality begins to shift more and more in resemblance to a deceased night club singer, her editor tries to unravel the real story behind the cracks. As he probes various characters associated within the fragmented story he finds himself pulled ever deeper into a thickening narrative stew that may overtake him completely.

CARLOS GONZELZ lives and works in Providence, RI. He is a comic book artist with several publications (Test Tube, Scab County, Gates of Plasma) released through Floating World Comics. He makes underground music as Russian Tsarlag, as well as crude, story-driven analog home videos. His last feature length video (FORGOTTEN WORLD) was released by Pleasure Editions in 2017 on VHS and digital.

Puerto Rico is the oldest colony in the world, a territorial possession ceded to the United States after it invaded the islands in 1898 during the Spanish American War, or in the words of Rita Indiana: ‘a social experiment full of contradictions’. In 1917, Puerto Ricans were imposed US citizenship; by 1970, New York City’s Puerto Rican population reached its zenith, making Puerto Ricans the city’s largest ‘minority’ population during that decade. Puerto Rican contributions to the city of New York are far and varied, from bodegas to salsa, from the Young Lords to Spanish being taught in elementary schools, from Pedro Pietri’s poetry and the Nuyorican movement to Hip-Hop, from Puerto Ricans involvement in Communist and Socialist parties to their contributions to the city via co-op buildings and social clubs forming close social webs. La Bodega Sold Dreams seeks to uncover the cultural legacy of Puerto Ricans in the city by presenting a body of films that captured the sentiment, makeup and preoccupations of displaced Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. metropolis. This series dabbles with the constructions edified by both outsiders and insiders of the Puerto Rican diaspora, during two decades where Puerto Ricans were demonized for anything including being unclassifiable, minding your business, and bombing the Defense Department in Madison Avenue in support for Puerto Rican Independence.

Programmed in collaboration with Caroline Gil. Special thanks to Larry Revene, Carlos de Jesus, Robert B. Young, Diego Echeverria, XFR Collective and David E. Wilt.

LA TIGRESA
dir. Glauco del Mar, 1969
85 mins. United States.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

Glauco del Mar’s penultimate film LA TIGRESA is perhapsx his most accomplished, yet far less popular than his apogee, 1975’s TONO BICICLETA. It is in this bewilderingly feminist redemption narrative that we meet Patricia, a young woman living with her father, who is mercilessly ullied by her schoolmates, assaulted and raped in her home and is left with no resolve. Her alcoholic good-for-nothing father is killed during her attack. After inheriting some money and recovering her personal power, she sets off to avenge every single last person that did her wrong – making her list, and checking it twice. This classic redemption tale combines the amazing Perla Faith a legendary vedette with espiritismo, folklore, Miguel Poventud’s jangly guitar boleros, corrupt cops, and entrancing Harlem landscapes.

YE YO
dir. Tony Betancourt, 1975
79 mins. United States/Puerto Rico.
In Spanish.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

Puerto Ricans were imposed U.S. citizenship in 1917 via the Jones-Shafroth Act. Lore recounts that Puerto Ricans were given citizenship so that they could be discharged as cannon fodder for the First World War and all succeeding wars that the U.S. engaged in thereafter. Produced by Changó International Films and shot by the prolific adult film cinematographer Larry Revene, YE YO tells the story of Rogelio Sotomayor, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war with PTSD who returns to New York after the war. Upon his return he finds his wife Nydia with a lover and murders them. In an epic, days-long run-off from corrupt cops, Ye Yo relies on his community for cover in this Blaxploitation inspired drama.

YE YO is screening with English subtitles for the first time in the United States, translated by Aida Garrido and timed by Garret Linn.

SHORT EYESdir. Robert M. Young, 1977
100 mins. United States.
In English.

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

“I don’t know how much of a human being I would be if I met you on the sidewalk.”

Adapted by poet Miguel Piñero from his play of the same name, SHORT EYES is closely based on his experiences incarcerated at Sing Sing after an armed robbery charge. Robert M. Young (ALAMBRISTA!) shot the film on location in the infamous Tombs, on White Street, while the prison was fully operational; the plot follows a gang of Black and Puerto Rican inmates figuring out what to do with a bourgeois white inmate named Clark (Bruce Davidson, making his big screen debut) who has been accused of raping an underage girl. “Short Eyes” is the in-prison nickname for pederasts, and Piñero’s screenplay doesn’t hold back in dissecting the dog-eat-dog culture among the inmates – several of whom have designs on Clark, who they consider the lowest of the low. A flawlessly executed ensemble piece buttressed by a silky-yet-menacing Curtis Mayfield soundtrack, SHORT EYES is a gripping and surprisingly even-handed look at life behind bars, widely considered one of the greatest prison films ever made. Young’s compassionate realism and focus on authenticity is a perfect match for Piñero, who also acts in the film (as do Mayfield and Freddy Fender, in bit parts), and whose run-ins with law enforcement would continue during and after production.

(SHORT EYES will screen with a 17-minute clip of Miguel Piñero reading at Magic Gallery in 1984, preserved and digitized thanks to XFR Collective.)

NATAS ES SATAN
dir. Miguel Ángel Álvarez, 1977
89 mins. United States.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – MIDNIGHT

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

NATAS ES SATAN is screening with English subtitles for the first time in the United States, translated by Aida Garrido and timed by Garret Linn.

LA BODEGA SOLD DREAMS: SHORTS 1968-1980
dirs. Various
approx. 90 mins.
In English and Spanish with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 7:30 PM w/THE DEVIL IS A CONDITION filmmaker Carlos de Jesus in person for Q&A!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS       FACEBOOK EVENT

Bracketed by two short TV documentaries – PUERTO RICO: A COLONY THE AMERICAN WAY, and THE DEVIL IS A CONDITION – this program looks at depictions of both Puerto Rican and Nuyorican culture regarding the island’s de facto status as an outpost of American imperialism. The material screened will include interviews with Ruben Berrios, leader of the Independence party, Rafael Hernández Colón, governor candidate for the Popular Democratic Party, and Carlos Romero Barceló, governor of the islands, known murderer, and darling of the Pro-Statehood party, the PNP. (Today, the PNP is the same political party incriminated in the recent upheavals over the #rickygate, #rickyrenuncia, #wandarenuncia, etcetera.)