“Odie, let’s talk effort versus return here. You know, you can still lead a pointless life without all that running around.”

This November we’re teaming up with Pet Cinematary to bring you a series tribute to America’s favorite lasagna-loving feline (name withheld to avoid potential lawsuits). So ubiquitous it’s the ‘World’s Most Syndicated Comic’, yet so void of significance he* exists more as iconography than body of work, this obese, coffee-loving cat has imprinted deeply on the country’s psyche, yet by design slips off the brain fast enough to avoid the loathing usually accompanying such popularity. Truly: does anyone hate the diet-averse feline?

The films herein include grabs for cat-related family-friendliness so hard they faceplant into the bizarre, meditations on the claustrophobically small world of Davis’ creation, and loving tributes using the strip’s blandness as launching pad for actual absurdity. Disturbing, strange, and often featuring indifferent cats and/or goofy humans, these films echo and explore Jim Davis’ weirdly inoffensive world of sassy mice, awkward dates, dumb dogs, and nary a trace of politics to be found. To quote the bard, “If you are patient…and wait long enough…Nothing will happen!”

*After a short, heated debate, it was determined G*rf*eld is canonically male.

LAO MAO
Dir. Ngai Choi Lam, 1992.
Hong Kong, 89 min.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11 – 5 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – 7:30 PM

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From director Lam Ngai Kai (RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY), comes LAO MAO (THE CAT), a film with a magical mix of science fiction, horror, comedy and action. Wisely, the Indiana Jones of Hong Kong, discovers three aliens (one of which is a cat) whose mission on Earth is to destroy the ‘star-killer’, a gelatinous blob who has the ability to reanimate its human victims. Will the old man, his young companion, and her cat get enough ‘octagons’ to destroy their enemy, and return to their former glitter selves? A combination of HAUSU, THE THING, and THE BLOB, this film is full of crazy. Crazy plot, crazy special effects, crazy action, crazy sound effects that might make you gag, crazy exploding people and monsters, and a crazy dog/cat fight that is the end all in the battle of cat vs. dog.

AN EVENING WITH LASAGNA CAT aka ‘100 DAYS OF G*RF*ELD’
Dir. FatalFarm, 2008-2017
USA. 63 min.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26 – 7:30 PM

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“One man lives with the burden of making the entire world laugh every day…it’s time we showed him just how much we care.”

LASAGNA CAT was born when Zach Johnson and Jeffrey Max, the folks behind FatalFarm, found a “really gnarly looking Garf**ld costume” at a shop in Compton pre-2008. Quickly realizing their original plan to churn out a video a day was madness, and that straightforward live-action Garfield reenactments only prolonged the banality, they began using the comic strips as springboards for associative tributes. The resulting shorts are perfectly awkward, so ‘funny’ they actually become funny. Combining Dadaist rejection of capitalism via appropriation of its iconography with the dogged persistence of bored 13-year-olds with a video camera, the duo’s sizeable output nearly matches Davis at his own game. The shorts hold up an unblinking mirror to their source’s grotesque inoffensiveness, matching it with affection and beautifully executed gross-out effects. The series went strong through 2008 before going on extended hiatus, relaunching just this year with a sweetly invasive social experiment-turned-4-hour-knock-knock joke. Join us for an evening of meditation on a form as we watch Jim Davis’ deformed children pay loving tribute.

TIME PASSES
Dir. Wendy Mays, 2017.
USA. [X] min.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25 – 10 PM

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What do we really know about Jon Arbuckle? Well, he’s a single man on the cusp of 30, trying to figure out his place in the world. His best friends are an orange cat and a yellow dog. But what if those two creatures had never come into his life? What would Jon’s daily existence be like? A video take on ‘Garfield Minus Garfield’, ‘Time Passes’ is a series of vignettes that show Jon alone within the world of Garfield. Come watch the daily life of a lone man living in generic America. He dates, he diets, he struggles with existential crisis.

ULTIMATE ORANGE: EXAMINING GARFIELD FAN ART
Dir. Various.
USA. approx 75 min.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19 – 7:30 PM

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An evening of discussion about Garfield’s loyal fans. Come for the bad fan art and interviews with intense collectors, stay for the possibility of Garfield porn. And what about that time Jon drank dog semen?

/Ultimate Orange.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND
ONE NIGHT ONLY – 7:30PM & 10PM
PRESENTED ON 16MM WITH FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE

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“Of course, there’s no objective truth, no real-life documentaries, no accurate histories; only one person’s distortion, one person’s view. This is my own view, the way I see it.”

Perspective is a recurring theme in Macdonald’s idiosyncratic essay films, which remain deeply personal even when dealing with expansive issues like colonialism, imperialism, and prison abolition. Shot largely in his home, Macdonald deploys paper collage and letterboard text to create films that convey a palpable sense of their own handcrafting. He is never the voice of authority, but rather just one voice with a singular point of view. Disarmingly humorous at times, Macdonald’s films are empathetic and non-dogmatic. But make no mistake, Macdonald’s position is both clear and radical.

For one night only, Spectacle will present a three-film program dealing with the “documentary” form. These films address concepts of truth and authority and contribute to alternative histories of Palestine, the Vietnam War, and the Attica Prison Revolt. As Nick told us himself, some of these prints haven’t been screened in New York since the 1970s, and it’s our sincere pleasure to present this vital work for a new audience.

Special thanks to Nick Macdonald.

Program:

STILL ATTICA REMAINS
dir. Nick Macdonald, 1976
USA, 15 min.
English

Shot on September 13th, 1975 in New York City, STILL ATTICA REMAINS revisits the Attica Prison Uprising exactly four years after its violent end at the hands of state actors. Handheld footage of the city acts as a backdrop as Macdonald recounts the events of the rebellion, focusing in particular on then-governor Nelson Rockefeller’s refusal to negotiate and his role in escalating the conflict that resulted in 43 deaths.

Both a screed against political power and a memorial to those who have lost their lives because of their exclusion from our society, STILL ATTICA REMAINS is a heartfelt contribution to the prison abolition movement; as powerful today as it was in 1975.

THE LIBERAL WAR
dir. Nick Macdonald, 1972
United Communities of Anarchism, 33 min.
English

“Demonstrations are ok as long as you don’t take them too seriously…”

This quote gives a good idea of the motivations for Macdonald’s THE LIBERAL WAR, which plucks big problems out of the hegemonic ether and puts them to work in front of his camera. They take the form of newspaper cutouts, paint and paper, children’s blocks, and plastic toy soldiers. THE LIBERAL WAR re-tells the Vietnam War from a living room table covered in domestic tools, and an analysis born of careful observation. The story moves through screen in stop-motion words and objects; the approach feels free of the weight of authority.

This film avoids the self-righteous and ultra-serious tones that come out when the subject matter is war, injustice, and destruction. Perhaps because the narrator is speaking from a future society operating by anarchist principles. It is also achieved in the simple but meticulous feel of this film. The old figures of corrupt and war-driven society feel flatter and dumber, coming into the storyline through manipulated newspaper clippings and re-appropriated slogans. In this film, we are in another place, removed from the chaos and destruction distributed through mass media and audio fragments.

PALESTINE
dir. Nick Macdonald, 1971
USA. 38 min.
English

The earliest film of this series, PALESTINE presents a short history of Israel’s colonial relationship to Palestine. Developing some of the formal devices that return in THE LIBERAL WAR and STILL ATTICA REMAINS, Macdonald intercuts staged footage shot in his home, handmade collages, and intertitles to relay under-remembered historical events.

Throughout the film, he juxtaposes sound and image to create associations. When he recounts a 1967 general strike in East Jerusalem, he presents imagery of the Newark Riots that occurred the same year, creating a visual solidarity between the struggles of Palestinians and the struggles of Black Americans. Textual wordplay, and even the occasional visual gag (a literal “sweeping under the rug,” for instance) add a sense of levity without distracting from the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people.

Macdonald asserts that Israel’s moral superiority is predicated on an ahistorical viewpoint, and so he believes that the first step in taking action is to educate oneself. As he narrates in the film, “it’s up to you to assimilate these facts.”

HELLO DESTROYER
dir. Kevan Funk, 2017
112 minutes, Canada

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7 – 7:30 PM

A young junior hockey player’s life is shattered by an in-game act of violence. In an instant his life is abruptly turned upside down; torn from the fraternity of the team and the coinciding position of prominence, he is cast as a pariah and ostracized from the community.
Official Selection: Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle

Canada is amidst a renaissance of refreshing movies by a new wave of directors. Told with a bold disaffected style recalling Michael Haneke, this debut is at the forefront. Hello Destroyer is an intimate portrait of a young hockey player and an incisive reflection on institutionalized violence.

HELLO DESTROYER is currently available to stream exclusively on MUBI. Watch here.

MUBI DISCOVERIES:
A GERMAN YOUTH
Dir. Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2015.
France/Germany, 93 mins.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 – 7:30 PM

Germany, late 60s. The post-war generation revolts against their parents, disillusioned by anti-communist capitalism and a state in which they see fascist tendencies. This film follows the rise of The Red Army Faction, revolutionary terrorist group founded by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. The film is entirely produced by editing preexisting visual and sound archives.

“This densely layered documentary reveals how members of a disillusioned post-war generation gradually transformed into left-wing militants whose actions would have deadly consequences for all involved. Essential for anyone interested in cinema and politics” —Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter

A GERMAN YOUTH will be available to stream exclusively on MUBI, starting October 27th. Watch here.

Whether it’s the collision of punk rock and science-fiction in Repo Man, the war film with political agitprop in Walker or the Spaghetti Western with screwball comedy in Straight to Hell, Alex Cox has always been an inventive, engaging filmmaker about ten steps ahead of the mainstream. Since the relative commercial failure of Walker in the 80s (happy ending- it’s since been rediscovered for the masterpiece it is), Cox moved comfortably from Hollywood to making his films almost exclusively independently (and on occasion for the BBC), making projects as diverse as a sci-fi Borges adaptation, Revenger’s Tragedy, a documentary about Emmanuelle films, and a wacky, ultra-low-budget-and-proud-of-it spiritual sequel to Repo Man, called Repo Chick. His most recent, a return to his favorite genre, the western, is the crowdfunded Tombstone Rashomon, and Spectacle is proud to present it along with two of his other overlooked gems- The Searchers 2.0 and Three Businessmen. At Alex Cox’s request, 1/3 of the proceeds of all of these screenings will be donated to a homeless charity.

TOMBSTONE RASHOMON
Dir. Alex Cox, 2017
83 Minutes, USA, English

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 – 5 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 – 10 PM

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NY Debut!
“Our subject is the Gunfight at the OK Corral, as it has come to be known (though it took place closer to Third and Frémont Streets, in Tombstone). This has been made into several films, including some great ones. Most tell the story from the perspective of Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and his friend the tubercular gambler/dentist, Doc Holliday. Usually Wyatt was depicted as the sheriff, or town marshal, defending Tombstone from a deadly outlaw ring. Occasionally films and written histories went the other way, depicting Wyatt as a ruthless, ambitious killer…

…The gunfight which concludes all these films was a significant event, depicted differently in every movie. Despite the myth of the face-to-face gunfight, most shootings out west were simple ambushes: the gunman hid out and bushwhacked his opponent. But on 26 October 1881, in Tombstone, eight men faced each other after several slights and face-offs; three of them died. Two long accounts of the gunfight appeared in the Tombstone papers the next day. It was reported in the San Francisco press, and treated in entirely partisan terms: Republican journals supported the Earps, Democrat papers supported the cowboy faction.

TOMBSTONE RASHOMON is a unique attempt to relate these events – and what led up to them – from the different perspectives of the individuals involved. Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp each had his story, and Doc Holliday his; Sheriff Johnny Behan was present at the shootout, having tried to prevent it; Ike Clanton and Billy “the Kid” Claiborne survived the gun battle and told their tale; Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers did not; Kate Fisher, Holliday’s partner, was lodging in the adjacent building and may have been a witness, also.

They are part of our cast of characters – the town of Tombstone is a character as well. Silver-mining towns enjoyed an average “boom” of three years, and Tombstone turned three in 1881. In the three years they lived there, the Earps saw a collection of tents and shacks grow into a mini-metropolis. Now the mines were beginning to flood, and by April it was intolerably hot and dusty. In June, a barrel of bad whiskey exploded, setting four city blocks ablaze. Then the rains came.

When the gunfight between gambler lawmen and cowboys erupted, there was snow on the ground…” -Alex Cox

THE SEARCHERS 2.0
Dir. Alex Cox, 2007
90 Minutes, USA, English

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 7:30 PM

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Cox returns to his favorite genre, the western, by way of the existential road picture, and reunites with longtime collaborators Sy Richardson (Repo Man, Straight to Hell, Sid & Nancy, Walker), Del Zamora (also Repo Man, Straight to Hell, Sid & Nancy, Walker) and Ed Pansullo (yup, Repo Man, Straight to Hell, Sid & Nancy, Walker) in an equally comedic and tragic story about two washed-up Western character actors, Fred and Mel, who seek revenge against a sadistic stuntman, Fritz Forbusher, who tormented them as children on the set of a film. Features cameos by Cox, Roger Corman and Leonard Maltin.

“Every screenplay I’ve written (how many is that? 40? 50?) has had the same initial response: ‘the characters are unsympathetic.’ Perhaps this is why so few of them were made. Financiers are simple, twisted souls who like a simple story with false breasts, perfect white teeth, and a muscular, anti-intellectual action hero. Fred lifts weights while watching TV but he is otherwise unheroic: bogarting the joints and the beer, telling ridiculous and untrue stories, bitching about Al Gore and Michael Moore. Mel is, if anything, worse: a penniless deadbeat dad who gets itinerant workers fired and lies to his daughter. And Fritz Frobisher, beater of little children, is the worst of all…

…the story was about actors, and the politics were in the sub-plot (we follow a trail of sad memorials to those killed in WWII, Afghanistan and Iraq)…

At one point in SEARCHERS 2.0, Mel and Fred are mistaken for homeless people by a Mexican guy who gives them a dollar. This follows the revelation that neither of them has health insurance. Not a big deal – 40% of the people living in the US [didn’t] have any [at the time the film was made], either. But imagine Bill Murray or Cheech Marin, or any other pair of upper-middle-class, Hollywood actors, trying to say those lines. It would be impossible. Worse, it would be despicable – like Jack Nicholson and Madonna playing homeless people, in a film for Universal.” -Alex Cox

THREE BUSINESSMEN
Dir. Alex Cox, 1998
80 minutes, UK, English

MONDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 7:30 PM

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One of Alex Cox’s lesser seen films, and perhaps his funniest, in which he himself stars alongside frequent collaborator Miguel Sandoval (Repo Man, Straight to Hell) as two businessmen who cross five countries over the course of one while night looking for a good place to eat.

“It is always good to cast the director because you have to pay one salary less, one less airplane ticket, one less per diem. It’s even better if you can persuade them to edit the film as well, and to go and get coffee for the security guys.” -Tod Davies, producer

“It’s extremely exciting. Thrilling is not too strong a word. But it creeps up on you. It isn’t a rock’n’roll themed piece like REPO MAN…Yet it’s 100% subversive, and threatening to the MTV value system. It’s also very funny, but again, not like TV. And it all happens in the course of one night.” -Alex Cox