BOLDER THAN A WITCH’S TIT: CINEMA OF DAME DARCY


TUESDAY, JUNE 6 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 13 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 19 – 10 PM

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Though best known for neo-Victorian comic series Meat Cake (RIP), Dame Darcy is a multitalented jane-of-all-trades carving a niche in the realms of music, cabaret, witchcraft, and film, as well as the world of fine art. Her path to the silver screen began while studying at the San Francisco Art Institute in the early 90’s under the late George Kuchar, where Darcy began acting and creating films of her own. As the years progressed, Darcy swept up friends left and right cranking out shorts, serials, and even a variety show that aired on New York Public Access from 1996-1999. Frequent collaborators included Lisa Hammer, Rachel Amodeo, Lisa Barnstone, and Joel Shlemowitz.

Spectacle is pleased to present a collection motley as the Dame herself, featuring REST IN PEACE, APPLE BLOSSOMS, selections from TURN OF THE CENTURY, various odds, a few ends (and beginnings). Join us as we host this roving gang of friends and family throughout the month of June, and be sure to join us on the 19th when this program coincides and collides with Darcy’s birthday celebration!

 

REST IN PEACE
Dir. Rachel Amodeo, 1991
USA, 13 min.

APPLE BLOSSOMS
Dir. Lisa Barnstone, 2001
USA, 2 min.

TURN OF THE CENTURY (SELECTIONS)
Dir. Lisa Hammer, 1996-1999, USA.

DAME DARCY: A FILM PORTRAIT
Dir. Joel Schlemowitz, 2007, USA, 5 min.

RISQUE REVELRY
Dir. E. Steven Fried, 1996
USA, 3 min.

EXCERPT(S) FROM “78RPM”
Dir. Joel Schlemowitz, 2015
USA, 10 min.

DARK SKY FILMS PART TWO: JUNE

DEATHGASM
dir. Jason Lei Howden, 2015
86 min, New Zealand

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 12 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 18 – 7:30 PM

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High School is Hell! Metal-thrashing Brodie is an outcast in a sea of jocks and cheerleaders until he meets a kindred spirit in fellow metalhead Zakk. After starting their own band, Brodie and Zakk’s resentment of the suburban wasteland leads them to a mysterious piece of sheet music said to grant Ultimate Power to whoever plays it. But the music also summons an ancient evil entity known as Aeloth The Blind One, who threatens to tear apart existence itself. Their classmates and family become inhabited by demonic forces, tearing out their own eyes and turning into psychotic murderers… and this is only the beginning!

It’s up to Brodie, Zakk and their group of friends to stop a force of pure evil from devouring all of mankind. A blood-soaked and hilarious horror comedy, DEATHGASM features an amazing original soundtrack of fist-banging metal and practical effects to satisfy metalheads and splatter fans alike. DEATHGASM will gush bodily fluids, rain limbs and tickle your funny bone, before tearing it out and giving you a stiff beating with it.



WE ARE STILL HERE
dir. Ted Geoghegan, 2015
84 Min, USA


SUNDAY, JUNE 4 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 9 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 22 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 26 – 7:30 PM

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After their teenage son is killed in a car crash, Paul (Andrew Sensenig) and Anne (Barbara Crampton) move to the quiet New England countryside to try to start a new life for themselves. But the grieving couple unknowingly becomes the prey of a family of vengeful spirits that reside in their new home, and before long they discover that the seemingly peaceful town they’ve moved into is hiding a terrifyingly dark secret. Now they must find a way to overcome their sorrow and fight back against both the living and dead as the malicious ghosts threaten to pull their souls – and the soul of their lost son – into hell with them. Co-starring Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie, writer-director Ted Geoghegan’s WE ARE STILL HERE is a tense, frightening, and thoroughly haunting modern ghost story.



STARRY EYES
dir. Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer, 2014
98 Min, USA

THURSDAY, JUNE 8 – 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 12 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 18 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 – 10 PM

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Determined to make it as an actress in Hollywood, Sarah Walker spends her days working a dead-end job, enduring petty friendships and going on countless casting calls in hopes of catching her big break.

After a series of strange auditions, Sarah lands the leading role in a new film from a mysterious production company. But with this opportunity comes bizarre ramifications that will transform her both mentally and physically into something beautiful… and altogether terrifying.

From the producer of Cheap Thrills and Jodorowsky’s Dune, Dennis Widmyer & Kevin Kolsch’s STARRY EYES is an occult tale of ambition, possession, and the true cost of fame.

“If David Lynch and David Cronenberg came together to craft a gory, psychological mindbender, it might be Starry Eyes.” – Time

 

JUNE MIDNIGHTS

At the Goth Bodega, MIDNIGHT is a state of mind.


MUTANT WAR (aka: MUTANT MEN WANT PRETTY WOMEN)
dir. Bret Piper, 1988
92 min, USA

FRIDAY, JUNE 9 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, JUNE 16 – MIDNIGHT

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Harry Trent (Matt Mitler) returns in the sequel to GALAXY DESTROYER that we threatened you with last month. After his defeat of the Pigmen (spoiler alert) the Earths remaining humans have accidentally rendered it a treacherous wasteland. Harry and his team rove the dangerous terrain doing “hero stuff” and eventually set out to free a cavalcade of enslaved humans from (if you can believe it) evil mutants. Midnight movie stalwart Cameron Mitchell (RAW FORCE, FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND, HOLLYWOOD COP) joins the cast this time around as Reinhart Rex. More melting heads, stop motion spacecraft, and tripped out visuals than you can shake a stick at. (No sticks allowed in the theater.)

Once again Pipers love of practical effects shines through in a film that could have potentially gone on to influence such snarky superhero fare as GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and the Fallout game series. Hard to say. One thing’s for certain, you don’t wanna miss this one.



PHANTASMAGORIA
Dir. Cosmotropia de Xam, 2017
70 min, Germany/Poland/USA (in English and German with English Subtitles)


SATURDAY, JUNE 10 – 10PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 17 – 7:30 PM (If your bedtime is 9, this is the MIDNIGHT for you!)
FRIDAY, JUNE 30 – MIDNIGHT

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US Radio KRAK reporter Diane Cooper travels to Europe to investigate strange occurrences with people becoming delusional in a small town. After mysterious encounters with a local girl, dreams and reality begin to melt into one.

From Cosmotropia de Xam, the enigmatic and brilliant creative force behind Mater Suspiria Vision and Phantasma Disques, comes Phantasmagoria, a gory, psychedelic tribute to 70s Euro-Horror, Underground and Art films, filmed at the original locations of David Lynch’s Inland Empire in Lodz, Poland.



ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN
aka SCREAMERS
aka SOMETHING WAITS IN THE DARK
aka L’ISOLA DEGLI UOMINI PESCE
dir. Sergio Martino, 1975
98 minutes. Italy.
In English.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23 – MIDNIGHT

“BE WARNED: You will see a man turned inside-out!”

We are thrilled to invite beloved Italian filmmaker Sergio Martino (of YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, and HANDS OF STEEL) to Spectacle for a summertime screening of ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN (also known as SOMETHING WAITS IN THE DARK, and reedited/rereleased in the States as SCREAMERS): a tale-of-terror period piece concerning a shipful of swarthy convicts who break free and attempt to colonize a remote tropical island. Little do they realize, the atoll is overrun with the horrifying/nominal fishmen, victims of experimentation at the hands of a plummy Dr. Moreau type played by Joseph “CITIZEN KANE” Cotten. What ensues is a Lovecraftian sike-out as gnarly and ludicrous as it is astonishing to witness, chock with lush Atlantan locales, an impeccable ensemble of hang-wrung performances and dotted in an ensemble of rubbery aquatic murderers kept just out of frame until Martino’s shattering final 40 or so minutes. You already don’t want to miss this one!

TAMAGO NO FUKKATSU: A DREAM WHERE EGGS ARE SEEN

TENSHI NO TAMAGO (ANGEL’S EGG)
Dir. Mamoru Oshii
Japan, 1985. 71 min.

SATURDAY JUNE 3 – 7:30 PM AND 10 PM
ONE. NIGHT. ONLY. 

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Mamoru Oshii’s opaque, allegorical masterpiece ANGEL’S EGG comes to Spectacle for one night only. This film will be showed in its entirety with a live score by Brooklyn drone outfit TELAH, whose Heaven’s Gate namesake points to another pocket of ill-fated religiosity.

A co-production by two anime legends given near-complete creative freedom, this languid, abyssal meditation on belief and doubt is their most personal work. Oshii (Ghost In The Shell, Urusei Yatsura) contemplated seminary school before focusing on writing; shortly before ANGEL’S EGG went into production, he lost his faith. Though he claims not to know what the film is about, its mournful tone and heavy use of Christian imagery reflect his personal crisis. Slowly unspooling with long takes and sparse dialogue, the film is carried by, and perfectly suits, the gorgeous imagery of co-writer Yoshitaka Amano (Vampire Hunter D, Final Fantasy series). His rich, florid work was flattened in other productions due to budget constraints, but here, amid blotchy watercolor skies and inked backgrounds, his hand is directly seen.

The story takes place in perpetual twilight. A man watches a mechanical sun descend onto a blasted landscape. A pale young girl leaves her observatory shelter, carefully guarding a large egg. Amid decaying baroque architecture crusted with Lovecraftian amphibians, the two meet. The man, possibly a soldier, wonders about the egg’s contents; she believes the egg contains something precious, he points out the egg will have to break for them to find out. They become uneasy companions wandering the shadowy city. Each might be a facet of the other, an unstable duality doomed to clash. In a rare burst of dialogue, the man tells a story of Noah’s dove that never returned to the ark. The uncertainty of the bird’s fate haunts him, and seems to haunt the entire city, as ghostly men attempt to catch enormous fish phantoms in the streets. The man’s curiosity and girl’s conviction about the egg increase, as both ask, and obliquely seek their answer to – ‘who are you?’

TELAH is a drone noise group consisting of musicians Matt Ortega, Jeff Widner, and Evan Gill Smith. Their music privileges tone and texture; it’s not quite science fiction, but not quite prayer either. More like staring at a thing you assume is a shrub in a place you assume is an ashram on a planet you assume isn’t the same planet you’ve always been on.

I take in the egg at a single glance. I immediately perceive that I cannot be seeing an egg.
To see an egg never remains in the present. No sooner do I see an egg than I have seen an egg
for the last three thousand years. The very instant an egg is seen, it is the memory of an egg
—the only person to see the egg is someone who has already seen it.—Upon seeing the egg,
it is already too late: an egg seen is an egg lost.—To see the egg
is the promise of being able to see the egg
one day.—A brief glance which cannot be divided; if there is any thought, there is no thought; there is the egg.
Looking is the necessary instrument which, once used, I shall put aside. I shall remain with the egg.
—The egg has no itself. Individually, it does not exist.

[Clarice Lispector, “The Egg and the Chicken”]

MATCH CUTS PRESENTS: CHARLES ATLAS & DOUGLAS DUNN

TUESDAY JUNE 6TH – 7:30 PM

ONE NIGHT ONLY

ATLAS AND DUNN IN PERSON

SOLD OUT

MATCH CUTS and Spectacle Theater present two works from the long-running collaboration between artist Charles Atlas and choreographer Douglas Dunn.

(photo of Douglas Dunn by Shelia O’Neal)

THE MYTH OF THE MODERN DANCE

dir. Charles Atlas, 1990.
USA, 26 min.

Collaborating with choreographer Douglas Dunn, Atlas uses anthropological text, satirical movement, and vividly colored chroma-keyed backgrounds in an episodic, often humorous look at the evolution of modern dance.

SECRET OF THE WATERFALL
dir. Charles Atlas, 1983.
USA, 29 min.

The confluence of words and movement propels this multi-layered collaboration by Atlas, choreographer Douglas Dunn, and poets Anne Waldman and Reed Bye. Dunn’s athletic choreography is performed to the rhythms, cadences, and associative meanings of the poets’ “cascade of words,” which function as music. Atlas introduces narrative references, ironically staging the dance in unexpected locations, including domestic interiors and vehicles. In a self-referential deconstruction that punctures the theatrical illusion, the poets are seen reading their texts and interacting as self-conscious performers within the dance. Atlas and his collaborators intersect the language of words with the language of the body.

Text courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix.

MATCH CUTS is a weekly podcast centered on video, film and the moving image. Match Cuts Presents is dedicated to presenting de-colonialized cinema, LGBTQI films, Marxist diatribes, video art, dance films, sex films, and activist documentaries with a rotating cast of presenters from all spectrums of the performing and plastic arts and surrounding humanities. Match Cuts is hosted by Nick Faust and Kachine Moore.

CHARLES ATLAS is one of the premier interpreters of dance, theater and performance on video. Working in film, video, installation, theater and performance for four decades, he has created works for screen, stage, gallery, and television. A pioneer in the development of media-dance, he transforms this genre into a provocative and ironic collusion of narrative and fictional modes with performance documentary. He has collaborated with international performers and choreographers, including Merce Cunningham, Michael Clark, Leigh Bowery, John Kelly, Karole Armitage and Bill Irwin.

DOUGLAS DUNN is an American postmodernist dancer and choreographer. He is considered a highly eclectic and minimalist postmodern choreographer, who uses humor, props, and text in his dances. In New York, Dunn began working with Yvonne Rainer and was a dancer with her company from 1968-1970. After completion of his studies with the Merce Cunningham studio, he was accepted into their professional company as a dancer from 1969-1973. In 1970 he became a member of the avant-garde improvisational group the The Grand Union until 1976. Dunn premiered his professional company, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, in 1976, where he served as artistic director. He was commissioned by various companies to choreograph works including the Paris Opera Ballet, Groupe de Recherche Choréographique de l’Opéra de Paris, Grande Ballet de Bordeaux, New Dance Ensemble of Minneapolis, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Repertory Dance Theater (Salt Lake City), Ballet Théâtre Francais de Nancy, Institute for Contemporary Art (Boston), Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (Australia), and Portland State University (Oregon).

INDIE BEAT: SOME BEASTS

 

SOME BEASTS
dir. Bruce Cameron Nelson, 2016
82 minutes. USA.

THURSDAY, MAY 18 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY! FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!

The Playlist‘s Indie Beat podcast returns to Spectacle for a one-time screening of Bruce Cameron Nelson’s SOME BEASTS, with Nelson in person for a Q&A.

Sal (Frank Mosley) has left modern society, his past and his girlfriend to live off the land in remote Appalachia as a caretaker and gardener. But is this remote living freedom, or its own kind of prison? Sal struggles with the isolation of his new job, with the death of a neighbor and a long-distance relationship, and with the discovery of an abandoned child as he wonders where, if anywhere, he truly belongs. Beautifully shot and performed, SOME BEASTS tells its story of loneliness and self-reliance with an uncommon grace.

“This being Nelson’s debut, one hopes that he will continue down this path; regional films with this sort of depth and artistry are always a welcome addition to the canon of American independent cinema, and in a culture where everything is in danger of being co-opted, sorely needed.” – Michael McWay, Hammer To Nail

“A bittersweet tale occupying the margins of the in between, in between the dusk of unrealized, cast off dreams and the threshold of promise and new beginnings.” – Kevin Rakestraw, Film Pulse

THE SEVENTH ART STAND: AGAINST THE MUSLIM BAN

The Seventh Art Stand is a nationwide screening and discussion series, an act of cinematic solidarity against Islamophobia. In May 2017, participating movie theaters and community centers across the U.S. will show films from the countries affected by Islamophobia and the proposed travel ban. The Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS) joins U.S. theaters in this coalitional effort to elevate the cinemas and stories of our friends and fellow filmmakers abroad. We believe it is crucial to build a tradition of sharing more stories, voices, and faces on our screens.

While our friends at Anthology Film Archives are screening one title from each of the countries targeted by the Tr*mp Administration’s unconstitutional proposed travel ban, Spectacle has chosen to highlight three major works from countries continually affected by U.S. foreign policy (or lack thereof) in irrevocable and disparate ways: Iraq, Syria and Iran.

Special thanks to Courtney Sheehan (Northwest Film Forum) and Jonathan Hertzberg (Kino-Lorber). 

STILL LIFE
dir. Sohrab Shahid Saless, 1974
89 min, Iran
In Farsi with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 13 – 5 PM

Winner of numerous prizes (including the Silver Bear for Best Director) at the 1974 Berlin Film Festival, STILL LIFE examines the lot of an elderly rail worker and his carpetmaking wife at the moment he’s asked to retire, and the night of a visit from their son – on leave from military duty. Shaheed Saless’ film concerns laborers (and their expendability) during a time of rapid industrialization in Iran; arguably, STILL LIFE introduced the now-standard minimal dialogue and (at times excruciatingly) slow camera movement that would become the hallmark of almost every other internationally popular Iranian director in subsequent years. Nevertheless, Saless is rarely mentioned in official histories about Iranian (or even German) cinema – despite having gone on to make a number of acclaimed and award-winning films in Germany.

STARS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
dir. Oussama Muhammad, 1988
Syria, 105 mins.
In Arabic with English subtitles.

MONDAY, MAY 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 19 – 10 PM

Oussama Muhammad’s STARS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT is a brutal satire of life under the Baathist dictatorship of Hafez al-Assad (father of Bashar, ruler of Syria for the better part of three decades) as well as a sweeping, immaculately detailed study of family disenchantment – with gallows humor to boot. Beatings, dressing-downs and compulsory military service are regular facets of the day-to-day depicted in Muhammad’s feature debut, which was made with state funds – an uneasy collaboration with the country’s then-budding National Film Organization – but has never been screened in its home country as the filmmaker intended. Each member of the onscreen family lorded over by the father figure played by Abdullatif Abdulhamid (cast for his likeness to the elder Assad) struggles to locate their own individual identity; while Muhammad would later explain a need, in making STARS, to “make love with the fear” to New Yorker journalist Lawrence Wright, the film is an uneasy guessing game that takes a bleak view of anybody’s chances of escaping toxic patriarchy – with glimpses of warmth and relief along the way that make it all the more devastating.

HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO
dir. Abbas Fahdel, 2016
334 minutes (in two parts), Iraq
In Arabic with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24 – 5:30 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 28 – 2 PM

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In February 2002 – about a year before the U.S. invasion – Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel traveled home from France to capture everyday life as his country prepared for war. He concentrated on family and friends, including his 12-year-old nephew, Haider, as they went about their daily lives, which had come to include planning for shortages of food, water and power. No strangers to war, the Iraqis thought they understood what was coming, and could even manage to be grimly humorous about what they felt would likely be a major and lengthy inconvenience. And then, the war began.

When Fahdel resumed filming in 2003, two weeks after the invasion, daily activities have come to a near standstill, the city is overrun with foreign soldiers, and many areas of Baghdad had been closed off to ordinary citizens. Iraqis endure, seemingly as unwitting as Americans themselves about what further tragedy awaits. Fahdel’s epic yet intimate film paints a compelling portrait of people struggling to survive while their civilization, dating back to ancient times, is destroyed around them.

 

 

 

KINET PROGRAMS 01-05: SELECTIONS

FRIDAY, MAY 19 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY MAY 25 – 10 PM

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kinet.media is an online publishing platform catered to the dissemination of new and boundary pushing avant-garde cinema.  Aiming to expand the potential of the internet as a space for cinematic exchange, the site provides a localized space wherein works exhibiting a wide range of emerging formal tendencies can come together in dialogue.

Since Kinet’s inception in July 2016, five unique film programs have been published for free viewing. Pursuant this selection films from past programs, Spectacle will host the premiere screenings of future Kinet programs prior to their online release.

For the inaugural screening the following works have been selected:

RÉPUBLIQUE
dir. Alexandre Galmard, France
2016. 12 mins.

This movie was mostly made in Paris in the span of a year, from the attacks of November 2015, the refugee crisis to the protests of early 2016 against several reform projects.

This movie was set in motion by a collaborative neighborhood art project (with Angelina Battais and Victoria Linhares) which was followed by the occupation of Place de la République referred to as “Nuit Debout” that started the night of March 31st, after hours of protest under the rain.

République does not cover all the converging struggles associated with living in Saint-Ouen and in the proximity of such procedures but works through the fragmented forms that were drawn from it. His aim is not to recollect and sum up all of the activities undertaken this year but stands as a remainder for future formalizations.

UNTITLED (CAMERA ROLL)
dir. 
Douglas Dixon Barker, United Kingdom
2017. 2 mins.

Archiving iPhone images to 35mm film. digital and analogue distortions. In this case the colour blue.

OCEAN FALLS
dir. Ryan Ermacora & Jessica Johnson, Canada
2015. 13 mins.

A lyrical study of the nearly abandoned company town west of Bella Coola that all but withered and died once its existence no longer made financial sense. Ryan Ermacora and Jessica Johnson invite us to marvel at the stark contrast between the vibrant coastal forests and the manmade structures that have fallen into ruin. An almost spectral presence is on hand to impart tales of a rebellious past and we’re left to consider the grim fates that sometimes befall grand schemes.

_______
dir. Karissa Hahn, US
2016. 4 mins.

a piece of my cinematic tension series, one leaning toward release

making a pot of tea, listening to the radio,
a sculpture of pose, a gesture incomplete
– no relief
a tea kettle boiling to silence is a petrified thought
air mattresses are the worst to fold up

TALES
dir. Saskia Gruyaert, Raya Martin & Antoine Thirion, France
2010. 20 mins.

After the death of her boyfriend, a young woman leaves for the countryside in the south of France, seeking nature, spirits and the forest.

VIGIL, SPLIT
dir. Isaac Goes, US
2017. 3 mins.

A shot-for-shot in-camera recreation of an iPhone movie. Filmed over the course of 1 day from sunup to sundown.

Constraint:
Each individual shot in the iPhone cut (filmed and edited one month prior) was timed and each location mapped. Because the film was edited sequentially in-camera, physical movement through space was required in mimicking the cuts of the digital version – an unfolding of montage in real environments. The iPhone movie was constructed so as to form a map, the 16mm film is the traversing of the points plotted. Periodic shots of empty skies mark the passage of time through color.

The film’s digital counterpart has been deleted.

GOODBYE PHILIPPINES
dir. Miguel Mantecon, US/Philippines
2016. 25 mins.

If to obtain a legacy one must diminish their self, then life, the embodiment of living, must evaporate only to be spread about, felt elsewhere by others, often unknowingly. But not known, is a legacy contested? Goodbye Philippines surveys an undead landscape, textured by phantoms. It is as if this feeling of a legacy regards tradition and cultural custom as memories repossessed by the setting. Here a family less acts and instead sets the scene for departure, in preparation for some entrance, whether it is into a room or a different realm. But is entering here where even the most banal tasks are elucidated and no longer customary, rather made a part of mythology.

Jessica Johnson is an experimental filmmaker living in Vancouver, B.C. She works predominantly with 16mm film making short experimental works that intend to shift perspectives on landscape. Her films have played at Canadian festivals such as VIFF, DOXA, Festival du Nouveau Cinema and WNDX.

Ryan Ermacora (1991) is an award-winning artist and filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. His work investigates the visible and invisible ways in which humans have engraved themselves into natural spaces and is informed by an interest in avant-garde depictions of landscape. His style is defined through a self-reflexive and structural approach to cinema. His work has been chosen for screenings at DOXA Documentary Film Festival, WNDX, The Vancouver International Film Festival and international festivals.

Born in Paris with both French and Canadian nationalities, Alexander Galmard is a 24 years old moviemaker (aka Aleph Cinema) and electronic music composer (aka Kanthor, aka Jeune Galois), co-founder of QTY (with Isiah Medina) and co-founder of Hisolat Records (with Angelina Battais, aka Abhr).

Karissa Hahn is a visual artist based in Los Angeles.

Douglas Dixon-Barker is an experimental filmmaker from Stockton-on-Tees and currently based around London. His work covers various formats and explores how cinematic forms understand and represent space(s). He is currently working on a new film (IN YOUR ARMS), a book (Spirit Levels), and has recently released a recording of Michael Pisaro’s Add Red on Don’t Drone Alone.
Isaac Goes is a Bay Area born filmmaker and the co-founder of Kinet. He currently lives in Queens, New York and makes movies under the production company Quantity Cinema (QTY).
Miguel Mantecon is a filmmaker based in the Bay Area.

Antoine Thirion was a film critic at Cahiers du cinéma (2001-2009), then at Independencia, an online publication he has founded in 2009 and directed until 2013. He organized retrospectives in France of the works of James Benning and Lav Diaz at the Jeu de Paume, and of Hong Sang-soo and Roger Corman at FID Marseille. With Raya Martin, he conceived two performances at the Asian Arts Theatre (Gwangju, South Korea), How He Died is Controversial (2015) and UNdocumenta (2016). He’s currently writing a feature film with Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita.

Born in 1984 in the Philippines, Raya Martin has already directed several features and short films. In 2005, he participated in the berlinale talent campus. His film NOW SHOWING was screened at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2008. One year later, the feature film INDEPENDENCIA, which was supported by the Berlinale World cinema Fund, as well as the feature film MANILA were both shown at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. Martin’s latest film, BUENAS NOCHES, ESPAÑA premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2011, where he was also part of the jury for the international competition. Raya has also been a recipient of the prestigious 13 Artists Awards in the Philippines in 2009. A retrospective of his works have been featured in Paris, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Las Palmas de Gran Canarias. In 2012, Raya’s films were presented at documenta in Kassel, Germany, and a retrospective of his films was screened at the Korean Film Archive, South Korea, and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, USA.

CLODIA – FRAGMENTA


CLODIA-FRAGMENTA

Dir. Franco Brocani, 1982
Italy, 116 min.
In Italian with English subtitles.

MONDAY, MAY 8 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 27 – 7:30 PM

TUESDAY, MAY 30 – 7:30 PM

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In 1896 Marcel Schwob published Imaginary Lives, a work of what we’d now call biographical fiction which became a primary influence on Jorge Luis Borges (he used it as a model for his book A Universal History of Iniquity) and Roberto Bolaño. It’s out of print in English, which is a god damn tragedy. Among tales of Captain Kidd, Burke & Hare and Lucretius we find the story of Clodia, an “impure woman”, whom we know about primarily from the writings of Cicero (who called her the Medea of the Palantine). Clodia was many things: a poet, a philosopher, a potential murderer, and a public drunk, but more than any of this she was known for her many, many, many affairs, which led to a tawdry court case. This could easily turn into an E! True Rome Story, but Schwob (who wrote the absolutely masterful The Book of Monelle, which IS in print) brings his severe erudition and Symbolist tendencies to the fore.

Fast forward to 1982 – when experimental director Franco Brocani (NECROPOLIS) released this meditation of Schwob’s tale of Clodia’s scandal, taking cues from the films of Alain Robbe-Grillet (and maybe a little Jean Rollin?). Often consisting of an empty red screen as the narrator recounts Schwob’s tale, intercut with languid tableaux reminiscent of Peter Greenaway or Raul Ruiz, CLODIA-FRAGMENTA is ultimately a film about desire transgressing the mores of society and the rule of law. Perfectly capturing the Symbolist nature of the source material, it’s a film that requires patience but pays back that investment tenfold. Never released on VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray anywhere, it’s a film that resists plot summary. Spring is in the air at Spectacle!

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2016)

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2016)
dir. Taralyn Thomas & Jean-Luc Unger
2016, 93 min.

¡! BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND ¡!

SUNDAY, MAY 7 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 13 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, MAY 15 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, MAY 23 – 7:30 PM

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73QU13M 4 4 D734M is a ballz2thewall, no-budget, feature-length “remake” of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM; part crowd-pleasing avant-comedy, part vitriolic attack on hollywood & mainstream american “culture,” part mind-bending technical experiment in sound and image! Filmed in 3 days and edited over 2 years, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2016) is a farcical, hard-hitting drug drama and genuine DIY meltdown.

REQUIEM has previously screened at Dynasty Center and Memphis Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.