Spectacle Theater’s accompaniment to Roxy Cinema’s MONKEY OR MAN? film series continues to probe the relationship between man and primate by taking a close look at the phenomenon of humans de-evolving into apes. Having previously explored the missing links between both species, now we will focus on the contested territory between the “end of ape” and the “origin of man.”

William Beaudine’s THE APE MAN (1943) concerns a mad scientist who accidentally transforms himself into an ape; in turn, becoming a social pariah because of his new hairy look. René Cardona’s DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963) also involves a mad scientist, but he’s got more nefarious plans in mind. With his sidekick Gomar, the eponymous doctor terrorizes a small Mexican town while trying to create a new race of ape men. Cardona’s second take on the ape-man narrative is NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969), a gruesome film about a young man who transforms into a sex-crazed murderous ape, instilling fear among Mexico City’s citizens. All of this, and a special undisclosed shocker will be on view during this month of MONKEY MAY-HEM.

THE APE MAN
dir. William Beaudine, 1943
United States. 64 min.
In English.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 10 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 24 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29 – 7:30 PM

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Dr. James Brewster (Bela Lugosi) accidentally transforms himself into a half-ape-half-human hybrid in this production by the B-movie stalwart William Beaudine. The only way he can remedy his condition is with a special serum that he must extract from human spinal cords, which inevitably leads him on a killing spree with his sidekick gorilla. Covered in hair and relegated to the shadows, Lugosi’s Dr. Brewster inhabits a crippling sense of shame; in turn, reflecting human society’s denigration of our most animalistic instincts.

THE APE MAN flirts with multiple horror tropes, invoking ghosts and scientific mishaps within the same narrative. Dr. Brewster’s sister, Agatha (Minerva Urecal), is a seer and her supernatural powers are constantly pinned to her brother’s growing malice. Questions about the limits of human experience are central to the film, as ghosts’ afterlives and primate former-lives are deemed freakish throughout. Despite being a Poverty Row cheapie, THE APE MAN is riddled with insights about the distinction between man and ape—propriety and transgression.

LAS LUCHADORAS CONTRA EL MÉDICO ASESINO
(DOCTOR OF DOOM)
dir. René Cardona, 1963
Mexico. 80 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, MAY 3 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 17 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29 – 10 PM

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The luchador (wrestler) films are cornerstones of Mexican cinema, with such stars as El Santo and Blue Demon. But in this female wrestling horror film by veteran B-Movie director René Cardona (SANTA CLAUS, THE BAT WOMAN, SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA), a small town is threatened by a mysterious serial killer who might just be part-Ape. The local police department’s attempts to uncover who is behind the crimes reveals a sinister conspiracy led by a mad scientist hellbent on creating the perfect human specimen.

The origins of primatology are deeply tied to studies in eugenics; DOCTOR OF DOOM’s mad scientist and his quest to improve the human race by reconfiguring the primate body evokes this dark chapter in scientific research. Early primatologists were never as blatantly sinister about their experiments as this film’s eponymous scientist, yet DOCTOR OF DOOM’s allegorical dimension is still ripe with examples about how the general populace imagined such scientists. Working in cahoots with the mafia from a series of nondescript industrial locales, Dr. Doom’s modus operandi is indicative of the perception surrounding the secretive ways in which scientists modeled human problems and human order in primatological studies.

LA HORRIPILANTE BESTIA HUMANA
(NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES)
dir. René Cardona, 1969
Mexico. 81 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, MAY 4 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, MAY 10 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, MAY 28 – 10 PM

This film includes scenes of sexual violence.

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“It’s as if H.G. Lewis made ALTERED STATES, but also RE-ANIMATOR and in Mexico.”
—Caroline Kopko

A surgeon, Dr. Krallman (José Elias Moreno), unleashes a monster on Mexico City after he transplants a gorilla’s heart into his son’s body in a last-ditch attempt to save him from Leukemia. Although it is a shame there is only one ape-man in NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES, Cardona makes up for it by offering a grizzlier take on the premise that he had previously sketched out in DOCTOR OF DOOM. NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES is a mean morality play, in which science and ethics are exploded to maximum dramatic effect.

Hungarian filmmaker Ibolya Fekete began making documentaries in the late’80s in an attempt to capture the radical changes happening around her. In the wake of the collapsing Soviet communist regime, the whole of Eastern Europe was left scrambling as processes of democratization, nation building, economic upheaval, and violent conflict coincided. Though the nonfiction films she completed during this time are vital archival records, the difficulty in “authentically” representing this politically tangled and ideologically confused period spurred Fekete to infuse its people, places, and events into scripted narratives.

Fekete’s interest in “fiction, with a documentary attitude” culminated in two dense metahistorical feature-length works, BOLSHE VITA and CHICO. This May, Spectacle is pleased to present both in a rare program. Following a select screening of each, the filmmaker will join us for a remote Q&A. The discussion following the May 24th screening of CHICO will be moderated by author and New York University Associate Professor, Michael B. Gillespie.

BOLSHE VITA
dir. Ibolya Fekete, 1995
Hungary. 95 min.
In Russian, English, and Hungarian with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, MAY 10 – 7:30 PM with filmmaker Q&A (This event is $10.)
TUESDAY, MAY 14 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 31 – 5 PM

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS (5/10)

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

Fekete’s first feature is a little-seen gem of ‘90s independent cinema. Set in post-89’ Hungary after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the film follows an eclectic troupe of émigrés, exiles, and sojourners from East and West as they converge in the eponymous Budapest rock club, Bolse Vita. During this fleeting period of open borders, the transcultural space offers a utopic vision of bohemia and optimism, but also looming dread over the ephemeral nature of it all. Musicians Yura and Vadim revel in their newfound freedom to busk while falling victim to extortion, anti-Russian violence, and the encroachment of capitalism. They find shelter with Maggie and Susan, who enjoy a much more carefree existence as Western vagabonds. Meanwhile, Sergei, a Russian mechanical engineer, struggles to find work and is forced to sell wares in Budapest’s Soviet black markets. Caught between the “short, but memorable period when East Europe was happy” and the increasingly grim reality of post-communism, BOLSHE VITA provides an invaluable contextualization of a vibrant, tumultuous, and overlooked history.

The film establishes Fekete’s key concerns with transience, displacement, historiography, and identity as well as her signature blurring of documentary and fiction. In interspersed montage sequences, the film inserts archival material from her earlier documentaries, BERLIN AND BACK (1990) and CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1992). Images of revolutionary triumph and border crossing intermingle with unsettling acts of violence to offer a less totalizing version of Eastern Europe’s geopolitical past. Utilizing a cast of nonprofessional actors, the film also offers the first glimpse of Eduardo Rósza Flores through his brief appearance as a Chechen mafioso. Flores’ incredulous backstory would inspire Fekete to adapt his life to screen in her follow-up feature, CHICO.

CHICO
dir. Ibolya Fekete, 2001
Hungary. 112 min.
In English, Serbian, Hungarian, Spanish, and Croatian with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 24 – 7 PM with filmmaker Q&A (This event is $10.)
TUESDAY, MAY 28 – 7:30 PM

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS (5/24)

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

“This film contains fictional and real elements. The characters and events portrayed are therefore all fictional.”
—Ibolya Fekete

With CHICO, Ibolya Fekete’s follow-up to BOLSHE VITA, the Hungarian luminary further dissolves lines between fiction and fact through an amalgam of archival footage, documentary-style interviews, and the dramatic restaging of one man’s larger-than-life true story. A Hungarian-Bolivian, Catholic-Jewish communist, spy, journalist, soldier, and amateur actor, Eduardo Rósza Flores, nicknamed “Chico,” spends a lifetime navigating his competing identities as they increasingly implicate him in major moments of both Latin American and Eastern European history. In the film, he appears as a child of Che Guevara and Salvador Allende’s revolutionary politics, a leftist exile fleeing Pinochet’s coup d’état in Chile, a translator for international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, a journalist during the Yugoslav Wars, and a commander in the Croatian War. If that wasn’t enough to juggle, in CHICO Flores plays himself, delivering a dynamic performance filled with black humor, unbridled charisma, and general confoundment at the baffling situations he continually finds himself in.

Winner of Best Director Prize at Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2001 and the Grand Prix from Hungarian Film Week in Budapest, Fekete’s “ideological adventure” is an ambitious feat that mobilizes one man’s search for meaning into a model for understanding the convoluted and contradictory nature of history. Seldom screened since its initial release over two decades ago, Spectacle is thrilled to shed light on CHICO.

Special thanks to Ágnes Iski, Ibolya Fekete, and Michael B. Gillespie.

This May, Spectacle is thrilled to present this program of three late-career masterpieces by one of the most prolific filmmakers in the history of Chinese-language cinema, Chang Cheh.

Chang Cheh was a fixture of Shaw Bros. Studios throughout the 1960s and 70s, helming more than 70 films for the studio in the span of just 17 years and becoming synonymous with the Shaw “house style” that effectively informed an entire genre of filmmaking. Yet despite a string of late-period successes featuring a loose troupe of performers known as the “Venom Mob”— mainly comprised of Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Phillip Kwok, Sun Chien, Lo Meng, and Wai Pak; the name derived from Chang’s 1978 classic THE FIVE VENOMS— Chang and his performers felt increasingly stifled by the studio’s lengthy contract terms and grueling production schedules.

By the early-1980s, with the Brothers having ceded most of their box office dominance to the more modern, diverse offerings being put out by rival studio Golden Harvest, Chang opted to break from the studio once and for all, relocating to Taiwan and forming a new production company, Chang He Motion Picture Co., alongside Venom collaborators Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng.

Chang’s independent releases for Chang He felt like the work of a revitalized filmmaker. What they may have lacked in the budget or sophistication of his Shaw productions, they made up for in their narrative ambition and visual flair. Where Shaw’s kung fu and wuxia productions tended to be more uniform in style, tone, and subject matter, Chang’s independent output saw him embracing changing attitudes and cinematic appetites sweeping Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the mainland. The company’s initial string of releases that included ATTACK OF THE JOYFUL GODDESS (1983), THE NINE DEMONS (1984), and SHANGHAI 13 (1984), leaned heavily into the operatic, horror, experimental, and political qualities that colored his later Shaw work, while keeping intact the mind-blowing choreography and themes of brotherhood and staunch masculinity (yanggang) for which his films were best known.

SHANGHAI 13
(上海灘十三太保)
dir. Chang Cheh, 1984
Hong Kong/Taiwan. 87 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, MAY 2 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 11 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, MAY 14 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 26 – 5 PM

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In the wake of the occupation of Nanking, a young junior minister, Mr. Gao, uncovers a traitorous plot by the local puppet government to hand over control of China to the Japanese without a fight. After stealing a document naming the defectors, Gao seeks the help of an local honorable crime boss to deliver the document to Hong Kong and expose the conspirators, putting him at odds with gangsters and government officials alike. Gao’s protection is entrusted to the “13 Rascals”, a mysterious cabal of warriors whose personal allegiances may not be entirely what they seem.

The closest thing that exists to a Chang Cheh Reunion Special. An action-packed, deliriously-paced series of setpieces featuring a Murderers’ Row of Chang collaborators from throughout his career: From Jimmy Wang Yu, star of Chang’s earliest Shaw productions, including their mutual breakout ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN (1967)… to Chang’s 70s “Iron Triangle” proteges Ti Lung and David Chiang… to veteran Shaw performers Danny Lee, Wang Chung, and Chan Sing… up through Venom Mob-sters Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, and newcomer Ricky Cheng. Each pops in for just a scene or two as Gao is ushered from location-to-location and rascal-to-rascal, yet each makes an absolute meal out of their allotted screentime, showcasing some of the most hard-hitting and inventive fight sequences in a career full of them.

THE NINE DEMONS
(九子天魔)
dir. Chang Cheh, 1984
Hong Kong/Taiwan. 99 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, MAY 7 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 11 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 17 – MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, MAY 26 – 7:30 PM

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A young martial artist journeys to the underworld where he sells his soul to the devil for supernatural powers, in the form of a chain of skulls containing nine ravenous demons willed to do his bidding. He vows to use these powers to avenge the death of his father and see his house restored to order, but soon learns that with this great power comes an insatiable thirst for blood.

A criminally underseen masterpiece and the most ambitious of Chang’s independent features. The film is a loose adaptation of the tale of Faust adopting characteristics of traditional Chinese folk horror and jiangshi fiction, filtered through the aesthetics of Peking opera, and teeming with brutal, bloody action. The horror and opera elements that began took shape in his later Shaw releases like HEAVEN AND HELL (1980), THE SWORD STAINED WITH ROYAL BLOOD (1981), and FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS (1982), arrive here fully formed, giving the distinct impression of a filmmaker taking full advantage of his newfound creative freedom. Combined with the superb practical effects and stellar fight choreography— once again courtesy of the trio of Lu, Chaing, and Cheng— the film a must watch for fans of kung fu, horror, opera, and everything in between.

ATTACK OF THE JOYFUL GODDESS
(撞鬼)
dir. Chang Cheh, 1983
Hong Kong/Taiwan. 88 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, MAY 3 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, MAY 7 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 12 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 24 – MIDNIGHT

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A troupe of traveling opera performers stops over in a small town where their lead actress catches the attention of a local military commander. Betrothed to another member of the troupe, she rebuffs his advances, putting the rest of the group in the precarious position of having to decide whether their collaborator’s life is worth the price of the military’s ire. All the while, the troupe is unaware that supernatural forces at hand have other designs on the group.

The first film released under the newly founded Chang He Film Co., JOYFUL GODDESS remains one of the best translations of traditional Chinese opera forms and themes to film. Ironically, the fact that the film was shot on a fraction of the budget of one of Chang’s Shaw releases works largely to the film’s benefit, with the minimal set design, live lighting cues, and use of simple theatrical effects recalling the experience of viewing an actual stage production. But even if traditional Chinese opera isn’t your thing (which it probably isn’t), you can rest assured knowing the film also boasts some incredible fight choreography courtesy of Lu and Chiang (also credited as the film’s co-directors), plus a finale so insanely out-of-pocket that it can only rightly be described as HAUSU by way of Cirque du Soleil.

Special thanks to Far East Flix.

SKÁL
Dir. Cecilie Debell & Maria Tórgarð, 2021
Faroe Islands/Denmark, 75 mins.
In Faroese with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16 – 7 PM, accompanied by reading & discussion

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This April brings Fog Swept Islands: Faroese Culture Days, a celebration of Faroese literature and culture in New York City. The Faroe Islands, a wind-battered archipelago in the North Atlantic and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, are a harsh and breathtaking environment that have for centuries fostered self-sufficient attitudes, innovative knitwear, and a literary culture with roots in the Old Norse oral tradition, the romantic nationalism of the 19th century, and more recent concerns with the impact of globalization on small cultures and the looming threat of climate change.

In collaboration with FarLit, the Spectacle is pleased to host the Faroese poets Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs, Kim Simonsen, and Rannvá Holm Mortensen, and their translators Matthew Landrum and Randi Ward, for a reading alongside a screening of the documentary SKÁL, a look at the ardency of youth, the desire to make art, and the relationship between people and nature, via a portrait of young Faroese poet grappling with questions of individualism and social pressures.

In SKÁL, which had its World Premiere at CPH:DOX in 2021, a young poet struggles to balance her Christian faith with her curiosity about the world and appetite for self-discovery.

21-year-old Dania, who grew up religious in the Faroe Islands’ Bible belt, has recently moved to Tórshavn and, unbeknownst to her parents, begun to date Trygvi, a young fellow-poet as well as the national sensation hip-hop artist Silvurdrongur (Silver Kid). As Dania movies between her cozy, stifling home, Tórshavn nightlife, and the wide-open spaces of the Faroese countryside, working to reconcile the different sides of her personhood in a scandalous poetry collection titled SKÁL (“Cheers”), this wry and tender film becomes a microcosm for the rural and hardy Nordic nation itself, and its struggle to reconcile treasured traditions, nurtured against the wind through generations, with the twinkling promises of global urban modernity.

The screening will be accompanied by a reading and discussion with:

Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs (b. 1974) is a well-known and active voice on the Faroese literature and drama scene, and has published a wide range of works since her debut in 2000. Her youth novel Skriva í sandin, 2010 won the Nordic Children’s Book Prize and was selected for the White Raven in 2011, and her latest youth novel Sum Rótskot was nominated for the 2021 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize. Her literary double work Karmagetin ans Gentukamarið was nominated for the 2023 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Marjun is a trained nurse, holds a master’s degree in language and literature and works as a full-time writer. Her works have been translated into the various Nordic languages as well as into English, French and German.

Kim Simonsen (b. 1970) is a Faroese writer and poet. In 2014, he won the M.A. Jacobsen Literature Award for his poetry collection What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium? A translation will be published in the US in 2024 by Deep Vellum. Simonsen completed his PhD in 2012 at the University of Roskilde and has published five poetry collections as well as numerous essays and academic articles. He is also the managing editor of Forlagið Eksil, a Faroese press that has published over 20 titles.

Rannvá Holm Mortensen (b. 1950) is a Faroese poet and versatile visual artist. Her art ranges from paintings, prints, installations and text to sculptures. She studied Fine Arts in Metafora International Workshop, Barcelona in 2014. In recent years, she has also worked with textile, writing, book illustration and interior decoration. Rannvá Mortensen regularly exibits in the Faroe Islands and internationally. In 2018 Rannvá made her debut with the poetry collection Suntaste which won her the M.A. Jakobsen Literature Award 2018. Her second collection Spring Milk was published in 2022. Suntaste has been translated into English and published in the US.

Thanks to Jóhanna H. Wolles (FarLit) and Christina Alsing (Made in Copenhagen).

TICKETS
SATURDAY, APRIL 13 – 7 PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 – 7 PM

TICKETS
FRIDAY, APRIL 26 – 5:00 PM with Q&A

This April, Spectacle is pleased to host Batikh Batikh Collective’s shorts program, Gathered in Love and Rage: A Palestinian Film Showcase.

Based out of Philadelphia, Batikh Batikh is a pop-up cinema and gallery that centers the work of South-West Asian North African (SWANA) women and queer artists. Curated by Batikh Batikh’s founder, Sarah Trad, this showcase includes short works by contemporary women and LGBTQ+ Palestinian independent filmmakers. These films comment on the current moment, exploring orientalism in the media and reminding us of our justified collective rage, while featuring love stories and experimental, queer, and personal narratives that provide a cathartic grieving space for the SWANA and Palestinian community.

All proceeds will benefit GAZA MUTUAL AID COLLECTIVE

The program includes the following films: