Author: Spectacle

SHADOWS PASS AWAY: THREE REMASTERED FILMS BY SCOTT BARLEY

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Intended to be witnessed in complete darkness, Spectacle is pleased to dim the lights extra low for a sampling of recently remastered works from acclaimed slow cinema practitioner Scott Barley, whose immersive and dread-inducing nocturnal landscape films have found international recognition despite relative underappreciation in New York City. Throughout August, Barley’s seminal shot-on-iPhone feature debut SLEEP HAS HER HOUSE will be preceded by two other dense doses of ecological and cosmic terror: HINTERLANDS and WOMB.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 – 5PM with Scott Barley for remote Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – 10 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

SLEEP HAS HER HOUSE
dir. Scott Barley, 2017; 2021 remaster
United Kingdom. 90 mins.

Structured as if it were the final inhale and exhale of Mother Nature from her deathbed, the carefully assembled long takes and immersive soundscapes that make up Barley’s masterful debut feature transmute shadow-blanketed trees, waterfalls and sparse signs of wildlife into haunting alien figures. With one last breath, a decaying post-human world collapses into eternal abstraction. Shot on iPhone 6 Plus.

screening with

HINTERLANDS
2016; 2019 remaster. United Kingdom.
7 mins.

Something seems to be coming from the sky, but we are pulled into its grasp before we can comprehend what awaits. Initially inspired by a repetitive nightmare and the first-person viewpoint of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s canceled video game project SILENT HILLS, Barley ended up repurposing 5 minutes of footage shot from a car passenger seat to create this descent into blunt-forced formalist horror.

WOMB
2017; 2019 remaster. United Kingdom.
17 mins.

Though some of Barley’s earlier films feature human beings on camera, WOMB marks a decisive development in his aesthetic treatment of darkness, death and rebirth. Within a pitch-dark maw that opens between the stars, writhing bodies suspended in the void become as immense and uncanny as any of Barley’s wilderness tableaus.

SCOTT BARLEY is an artist-filmmaker, drone musician, writer and lecturer working between Scotland and Wales whose films (much of which are generously accessible through his website) have been exhibited over the last decade at venues such as BFI Southbank, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Venice Biennale and Telluride Film Festival. In 2018, Barley co-founded the filmmaking collective Obscuritads, and in 2021, EYE Filmmuseum permanently inducted SLEEP HAS HER HOUSE into its archive. Since 2017, Barley has been making his ambitious second feature film, THE SEA BEHIND HER HEAD, with support from the BFI and DocSociety, along with two new shorts titled THE FLESH and WITHIN WITHOUT HORIZON.

Total runtime: 114 min. These films contain intense strobing sequences that may not be safe for those sensitive to light.

ALI IN WONDERLAND

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ALI IN WONDERLAND
(علي في بلاد العجائب)
dirs. Djouhra Abouda and Alain Bonnamy, 1976
59 mins. Algeria/France.
In French and Arabic with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 – 10 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 22 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27 – 5 PM

4K RESTORATION – NYC PREMIERE

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Miraculously blending styles of militant polemical and experimental essay filmmaking, ALI IN WONDERLAND speaks to the struggle of Maghrebi workers in Paris in the 1970s. Djouhra Abouda and Alain Bonnamy made the film in their twenties, as participants of the Centre Universitaire de Vincennes – a leftist cinema collective formed in the aftermath of the May 1968 uprisings. Fully living up to their stated intention to imbue images “like blows of the fist” upon the film’s viewers, Abouda and Bonnamy paint a visceral and unforgettable portrait of migrant exploitation as it manifests (whether in history or today) in western urban capitals – essential viewing alongside Spectacle favorites like Sidney Sokhona’s NATIONALITE: IMMIGRE and Madubuko Diakite’s THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE.

Formally playful yet ferociously political, ALI IN WONDERLAND is among the most important Francophone films of the (increasingly so-called) postcolonial era, yet has been unavailable to see for decades. Following streaming engagements organized by our friends at Another Gaze and ArteEast in 2021, Spectacle is thrilled to host the New York City premiere of ALI IN WONDERLAND’s new 4K restoration, based on original negatives and a 16mm exhibition copy, supervised by Léa Morin at Image Retrouvée in collaboration with the filmmakers.

“Shaky and stirring, ALI IN WONDERLAND shows an increasingly devastating conflict between the actions of workers and those of the society that employs them without ever seeing or considering them. Luxury shops and boutiques selling haute couture contrast brutally with the living conditions and work undertaken by the Algerians. Images of narrow walkways between tower blocks, slums, substandard apartments, respond figuratively to society’s repressive order of police violence and racism, as well as France’s colonial legacy (the filmmakers include archival images of the Algerian War of Independence, the Sétif massacre, and photographs taken by journalist Élie Kagan on the night of the Paris Massacre of 1961). Abouda and Bonnamy make use of the full audio-visual arsenal of experimental cinema at the time: superimposition and flicker; mosaic images and split screen; fast and slow motion; the integration of still images and animation; jump cuts and shots where the cut is almost imperceptible; and glitching and distortion, either done in-camera or in the edit. Each aesthetic choice is justified by a politics that is precise and easy to decipher – following in the footsteps of the soviet tradition of “ciné-poing” / “cine-fist” (Eisenstein) and even the “ciné-œil” / “cine-eye” (after Esther Choub and Dziga Vertov) and avant-garde documentary of the twenties and thirties (Alberto Cavalcanti, Hans Richter, Jean Vigo).

The montage brings together musical and vocal refrains with visual motifs and the repetition of certain sounds and images takes the viewer into an almost ‘fantastical’ dimension (as noted by the writer Tahar Ben Jelloun in Le Monde in 1978), making the city feel even more oppressive, presented like a great biopolitical and disciplinary laboratory. This ensemble of themes (work, city, lodging, women, children, men, sex work) is contained within a circular construct that echoes the “City Symphonies” genre of the twenties, beginning and ending at night with a shot of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, having taken the viewer through all the stages in a day in the life of an Algerian worker.” – Federico Rossin, Cahiers du Cinema (via Another Gaze)

screening with

ALGERIE COLOURS
dirs. Djouhra Abouda and Alain Bonnamy, 1972
16 mins. France.
In French with English subtitles.

CINE-CITE
dirs. Djouhra Abouda and Alain Bonnamy, 1974
15 mins. France.
In French with English subtitles.

Via Association TALITHA Films. Special thanks to Peter Limbrick and Lea Morin.

(poster by Benjamin Tuttle)

DOOMED

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DOOMED
dir. Allen Riley, 2021
58 mins. United States.
In English.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 – 7 PM with filmmaker Allen Riley in person for Q+A!
(This event is $10.)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 – 5 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 22 – 10 PM

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DOOMED is a grunge fantasy narrative made with point-and-shoot cameras. The film was made by a group of friends in the hills and swamps surrounding Stroudsburg, PA during the course of three years. With a backpack, a couple of small cameras, a digital audio recorder and a thrift store tripod that had missing feet, the cast created a lo-fi parable about the creative process told through 90’s alternative rock iconography.

According to Riley (the director), the production crept into a realm of immersive fiction with the cast/crew living collectively for weeks and even sleeping overnight in the abandoned chicken coop where the interior scenes were filmed.

The centerpiece of DOOMED is a fantastical tree creature named Glofin constructed using burlap, latex, alpaca wool, and glass taxidermy eyes. At one point, production was halted when Glofin was destroyed by wild animals which marked the end of the film’s production, but years later, a complete narrative within the footage was about to be salvaged and constructed. As a grunge opera, the musical score was physically processed using analog cassette tapes recorded by Riley, who practiced guitar as a teenager in the 90s. The resulting film is charged with spontaneous energy and moments of heavy reverb.

TWO FILMS BY GABRIEL BARTALOS

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This August, join us for two feature films (and a few odds and end short surprises!) from Gabriel Bartalos, the practical effects mad man behind most of the LEPRECHAUN series, as well as a resume that spans from DAWN OF THE DEAD and FRANKENHOOKER to TIM AND ERIC’S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE. There’s something for everyone (?) in these two singular ‘horror’ flicks from a living effects master.

SKINNED DEEP
dir. Gabriel Bartalos, 2004
97 mins. United States.
In English.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7 – 5 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 8 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 – 9:30 PM with Q&A with Gabriel Bartalos
(This event is $10.)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27 – MIDNIGHT

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A family’s flat tire on a barren stretch of road, with only a diner dotting the landscape, leads them to Granny, the seemingly nice old woman who runs the establishment.

Released in 2004, SKINNED DEEP plays like a surreal riff on THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE from an alternate dimension. It follows a family on a cross country road trip who stumbes into a hellish diner run by ‘the Surgeon General’ and his nightmare family, including ‘Brian’ (who has a massive cranium) and ‘Plates’ – a maniac who throws….plates – played by Warwick Davis.

Clearly crafted with a lot of love and care, SKINNED DEEP is mandatory midnight viewing for slasher fans.

SAINT BERNARD
dir. Gabriel Bartalos, 2019
97 mins. United States.
In English.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26 – 9:30 PM – with Q&A with Gabriel Bartalos
(This event is $10.)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30 – 7:30 PM

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A classical musical conductor unravels into the abyss of insanity.

Gabriel’s second feature manages to outdo its predecessor in terms of both scope and tone – SAINT BERNARD has far more in common with experimental classics like ERASERHEAD than the bizarro 70s/80s slasher fare of SKINNED DEEP.

Those expecting a linear narrative (or the WTF slasher antics of SKINNED DEEP) will have their expectations twisted like a Bartalos clay sculpture, and if you allow yourself to get on the movie’s wavelength, there is a lot to love – a sincere, surreal exploration of obsession and addiction, full of chaos and mind blowing practical effects.

ARMY OF LOVE + OCEANO DE AMOR

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ARMY OF LOVE
dirs. Ingo Niermann and Alexa Karolinski, 2016
40 mins. Germany.
In German with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 17 – 5:30 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 21 – 7:30 PM


OCEANO DE AMOR
dirs. Ingo Niermann and Alexa Karolinski, 2020
90 mins. Germany.
In German with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6 – 8:30 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 8 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 17 – 6:30 PM

Originally created for the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, ARMY OF LOVE is a short film created by Ingo Niermann and Alexa Karolinski that premiered at The KW Institute (Germany) in 2016. Ingo Niermann is a German author and artist, and Alexa Karolinski is a German filmmaker, known for her work on the television series Unorthodox. OCEANO DE AMOR is a follow-up set on the beaches of Cuba. Both films explore the impact of alienation and how to solve it. We, the audience, are asked: what do we need beyond the redistribution of money? According to Niermann and Karolinski, it is the redistribution of love, which the films present as a remedy for loneliness. An all-encompassing, deep, and profound sense of love – that does not exist in a marketplace.

You might ask, who gets this “love?” Those who need it the most; those who society deems unlovable, due to their appearances, health status, or age. Ultimately, the directors seek to highlight the struggle between the mind and the body (i.e., how we want love but the way our body looks prevents it in society) and how such dynamics play out in contemporary economic systems and in our interpersonal relationships.

DEATH OF A BUSINESS JERRY

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DEATH OF A BUSINESS JERRY
dir. Jeremy Finch, 2019
90 mins. United States.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 16 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 21 – 9:30 PM with special musical introduction courtesy The Timewolf Order
(This event is $10.)
FRIDAY, JULY 22 – 7 PM with filmmaker Jeremy Finch for Q+A! 
(This event is $10.)
SUNDAY, JULY 24 – 5 PM

Business Jerry is done with the business of life. Working at a cafe and music venue in Brooklyn feels like spiritual death. Each night Jerry returns home to confide in his dog Linda. As Jerry tries to keep his band together, PRIIVLEGE, a menacing media start-up wants to appropriate all the New York venues, and life itself, into it’s brand. The only hope for Jerry and Linda is the natural world. Can Jerry and Linda escape the grip that PRIIVLEGE now has on New York City, or will Jerry sign away their lives altogether? Shot on miniDV mostly in Ridgewood and Bushwick, DEATH OF A BUSINESS JERRY features a large community of artists including Juan Wauters, Sophia Lamar, Masma Dream World, Bobby Puleo, Trouble Troupe, Timewolf Deluxe, Mysterease, Sage Sovereign, Champdope, Yairms and more.

JEREMY FINCH is a seasoned food service worker. He has seen many faces consuming various food items. In 2018, Mr. Finch was struck by some ominous recurring situations around the neighborhood. He decided to write a movie, and with the help of many friends it was made. That movie, DEATH OF A BUSINESS JERRY, cultivated a beautiful community and inspired Finch to make more films. His next LA BUFADORA is due out soon.

DEATH GAME

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DEATH GAME
dir. Peter S. Traynor, 1977
87 mins. United States.

SATURDAY, JULY 2 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, JULY 8 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 16 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, JULY 22 – MIDNIGHT

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On a dark and stormy night, while his family are away, two strangers ring George Manning’s doorbell. He probably shouldn’t have answered it, he really shouldn’t have invited them in, and he definitely shouldn’t have slept with them. Now George must fight for his life and escape their DEATH GAME…

Staring academy award-nominated actors Sondra Locke and Seymour Cassel, DEATH GAME is a home invasion fever dream about a man’s poor decision-making.

Off-screen tension between neophyte director Peter Traynor and actors Locke and Cassel added organic chaos to the scripted mania. Producer Larry Spiegel agreed, saying that “the onscreen madness of DEATH GAME was fueled by the behind-the-scenes volatility.” Traynor’s inexperience as a director frustrated the cast, with Locke writing, “whenever the director didn’t know exactly what he was doing, which was all the time, he would suggest that either Colleen or I eat something or break something.” This sentiment was likely shared with actor, Seymour Cassel, who refused to loop his lines in post-production after filming a particularly brutal food-based scene. Cinematographer David Worth ultimately lent his voice to the film by painstakingly dubbing all of Cassel’s lines himself.

Eli Roth later remade the film, KNOCK KNOCK (2015), which was executive produced by DEATH GAME director Peter Traynor and lead actors Sondra Lock and Colleen Camp.

Special thanks to Grindhouse Releasing.

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF MIDNIGHT FLICKS?

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This July, come to Spectacle for a double heaping of early-90s straight-to-video android-midnight-madness from Japan.

MIKADROID: ROBOKILL BENEATH DISCO CLUB LAYLA
(ミカドロイド)
dirs. Tomoo Haraguchi, Satoo Haraguchi, 1991
73 mins. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, JULY 2 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 9 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 23 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 29 – 10 PM

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During World War II, the Japanese military established a secret underground laboratory in Tokyo. Three Olympic-level athletes were selected to undergo a process that would turn them into Jinra-go, superhuman armored soldiers. By March 1945, one of the soldiers had been completely transformed into the half man/half machine ultimate soldier called MIKADROID.

But American B-29’s firebomb the city and, while the two super soldiers manage to escape, Mikadroid and the lab are apparently destroyed. 45 years pass, Tokyo is rebuilt, and old secrets are forgotten. The site is now home to a complex that includes the Discoclub Layla. The disco’s patrons dance late into the night, unaware that a faulty basement generator has reactivated Mikadroid and the cyborg now prowls the basement levels, killing anyone in its path…

Part of a low-budget line of Toho movies shot on 16mm and released directly to video, MIKADROID was originally conceived as a zombie film (MIKADO ZOMBIE) before being retooled as a killer android – supposedly because shortly before production, a serial killer was arrested and found to have a massive horror-movie collection, causing a brief public backlash.

Moodier than your average DTV fare, the film makes great use of its meager budget + locations to create a palpable sense of uncanny dread between bursts of insanity, including a memorable parking garage sequence involving a skateboarding disco club attendee. Also features a performance by a young Kiyoshi Kurosawa – not to be missed!

BATTLE GIRL: THE LIVING DEAD IN TOKYO BAY
(バトルガール)
dir. Kazuo ‘Gaira’ Komizu, 1991
73 mins. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JULY 1 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 9 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 15 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, JULY 28 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 30 – MIDNIGHT

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A meteor lands in Japan and the fallout creates a “shield” around Tokyo, encasing the city in a foggy darkness. A state of martial law is declared. People are in a panic as violent crime and corruption spreads throughout the region and punk gangs are ruling the streets. As if things weren’t bad enough, a chemical reaction from the meteor unleashes a deadly virus and now the dead are coming back to life as flesh-eating zombies!

Okay… so this isn’t technically about an android. But it might as well be!

Far less coherent than the synopsis suggests, BATTLE GIRL: THE LIVING DEAD IN TOKYO BAY plays like a live action Saturday morning cartoon for the midnight crowd – a smattering of vibes and aesthetics cobbled together from decades of sci-fi and horror movies, lovingly shoved into a meat grinder + sprinkled with fantastic(-ally cheap) and impressive practical effects.

77 BOA DRUM

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77 BOA DRUM
dir. Jun Kawaguchi, 2010
90 min. United States.
In English.

THURSDAY, JULY 7 – 7:07 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 10 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 16 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 – 10 PM

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On July 7th, 2007 at 7:07pm, 77 drummers descended on Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn for a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Orchestrated by legendary Japanese psychedelic outfit, Boredoms (or V∞OREDOMS if you’re nasty), the concert featured a staggering collection of artists and musicians playing in perfect percussive unison, including David Grubbs (Gastr Del Sol), Lizzi Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance), Brian Chippendale (Lighting Bolt), Sara Lund (Unwound), Kid Millions (Oneida), Allison Busch (Awesome Color), and Andrew W.K. (partying, etc.)

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the event, Spectacle and Thrill Jockey are proud to present screenings of filmmaker Jun Kawaguchi’s 2010 documentary of the concert throughout the month of July.

AN EVENING WITH MARYAM TAFAKORY

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TUESDAY, JULY 5 – 7:30 PM with Maryam Tafakory in person for Q+A
(This event is $10.)
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Spectacle is thrilled to host filmmaker, archivist and multidisciplinary artist Maryam Tafakory for a very special one-night engagement that combines film/video with performance and dialogue.

IRANI BAG
(کیف ایرانی)
2021. 8 mins.

Using excerpts of films produced between 1990 and 2018, IRANI BAG is a split-screen video essay questioning the innocence of bags in post-revolution Iranian cinema.

NAZARBAZI
(نظربازی)
2022. 20 mins.

NAZARBAZI (“the play of glances”) is a film about love and desire in post-revolution Iranian cinema, where depictions of intimacy and touch between women and men are prohibited.

I HAVE SINNED A RAPTUROUS SIN
(گنه کردم)
2019. 10 mins.

What cures women of sexual promiscuity?

ABSENT WOUND
(زخم)
2018. 10 mins.

The rituals of warrior training are seen in combination with the recitations of a young girl. Whilst seemingly in separate worlds, the film draws parallels and connections between these relative situations, in the process drawing documentary and fictional threads together to reveal a shared sense of coming to terms with corporeality, its rituals, and tribulations.

MARYAM TAFAKORY is an artist filmmaker whose textual and filmic collages interweave poetry, documentary, archival, and found material. Her work has been exhibited internationally including at MoMA Doc Fortnight; IFF Rotterdam; EIFF Edinburgh; MIFF Melbourne; True/False; Pergamon Museum; M HKA; and Anthology Film Archives amongst others. She has received several awards including the Ammodo Tiger Short at 51st IFFR, Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award at 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Jury Prize at Documenta Madrid, and the Best Short Film at Festival de Cine Lima Independiente. She was awarded theFlaherty/Colgate Distinguished Global Filmmaker in Residence (NY) in 2019, and a MacDowell Fellowship in 2022.