SCREWED
Dir. Alexander Crawford, 1996
USA, 85 min.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 13 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – 10 PM [Featuring Q&A with former editors of SCREW!]

On December 19th, 2013, New York City said goodbye to a cultural institution. Well, some said “goodbye;” others said “good riddance.”

Al Goldstein—pornographer, cable access host, free speech activist and unapologetic scumbag—was never afraid to offend, and treated bad taste like something of a birthright. As the publisher of SCREW Magazine and the host of the television show MIDNIGHT BLUE, Al Goldstein had two particularly prominent platforms at his disposal… and plenty of bile to spew from both of them.

The 1996 film documentary SCREWED, directed by Alexander Crawford and produced by Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland (“Hated,” “Frat House,” “The Hangover Movies”), follows Goldstein as he eats pussy, hits on transsexuals, strolls through his unrecognizable, pre-gentrification Williamsburg birthplace and flips bird after bird at target after target. Though Goldstein spent the last years of his life in poverty, SCREWED captures the man at the height of his powers, sitting fat and satisfied atop a multimillion-dollar porn empire. (How many million, you ask? “Fuck you for wanting to know,” intones the film’s subject.) The film also features interviews with Al’s fans, as well as his enemies (including Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa) as they navigate a pre-Giuliani New York City in its final years of seediness. In the New York City of 1996, Time Square is still a hotbed of depravity, peepshows and porn stores are common, and hookers can be picked up easily right off the street (and occasionally interviewed on camera).

Featuring a killer soundtrack by Amphetamine Reptile Records (including all-original tracks by Melvins, Mudhoney, Boss Hog, Cows, and more), SCREWED is a filthy, fascinating portrait of sweaty, pink-faced, 400-pound god in a universe of his own making.

Poster by Preston Spurlock.