ONE NIGHT ONLY!

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3 – 5 PM
TICKETS HERE

Join us as we take a deep dive into the darkest recesses of the internet. Together with film theorist Andrea Avidad, as well as filmmakers Gabrielle Stemmer and Gala Hernández, Spectacle Theater presents a one-night only investigation of despair and delusion on the internet.

Many films in recent years have tried to make a spectacle of outré online communities by emphasizing their idiosyncrasies. Such projects like FEELS GOOD MAN (2020) and QANON: THE SEARCH FOR Q (2022) have resulted in harmful portraitures of social outcasts, simultaneously catering to viewers’ fantasies about othered demographics and producing distinctly alien, rather than nuanced, representations of incels and similarly radicalized online users. Gabrielle Stemmer’s CLEAN WITH ME (AFTER DARK) and Gala Hernández’s THE MECHANICS OF FLUIDS both employ different means of characterizing the different online communities they choose to depict. Their approach balances structural analysis with compassion, producing a complex picture of the cultural catalysts and systemic pathways that allow these micro-cultures to form.

Our screening of these films will be preceded by a lecture courtesy of Film-Philosophy Award Recipient Andrea Avidad and followed by a remote Q&A with filmmakers Stemmer and Hernández.

CLEAN WITH ME (AFTER DARK)
dir. Gabrielle Stemmer, 2019
France. 21 min.
In English.

In recent years, women across America have recorded themselves cleaning their homes. Their videos have gained popularity online. Intrigued by this phenomenon, Gabrielle Stemmer investigates what inspires these women to document their domestic work in CLEAN WITH ME (AFTER DARK). Her desktop documentary about the viral videos slowly morphs into something unexpected over the course of its short runtime, untangling the many ways in which online customs disregard the plight of content producers.

LA MÉCANIQUE DES FLUIDES (THE MECHANICS OF FLUIDS)
dir. Gala Hernández López, 2022
France. 39 min.
In English.

THE MECHANICS OF FLUIDS charts its inquiry into incel culture around an elusive Reddit poet called AnathemicAnarchist. As the narrator scours the internet in search of AnathemicAnarchist following his sudden disappearance, she learns more about his online community and how it influenced his outlook on life. Using YouTube videos and computer-graphics, Hernández’s film embodies the look-and-feel of the field it explores. Her essayistic venture into the world of incel culture is both troubling and insightful; it reflects the mindset of a filmmaker fully consumed by their subject matter.

 

Special thanks to Andrea Avidad, Gala Hernández, Gabrielle Stemmer, and Emmanuel Precourt Senecal at La Fémis.