AUGUST 2001

Tuesday & Wednesday July 31/August 1 8:30pm
Back by request: Rhonda Collins'
WE DON'T LIVE UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS
"A fascinating, unsettling film...brings edge and insight to the subject. It powerfully suggests that the medical establishment wields mood-changing drugs at the expense of human diversity." -San Francisco Chronicle We are pleased to present a return engagement of Rhonda Collins' insightful and challenging documentary addressing a Prozac-addled culture bent on Band-Aid solutions. Today's epidemic sweep of clinical depression is generally blamed on genetics or on imbalances of brain chemistry - and treated with drugs. Prozac is the second highest selling medication in America, bringing its maker a billion and a half dollars in sales each year. But what if the causes of depression are not only biological? This impassioned new documentary looks at depression and mental illness as a societal problem, rather than merely individual pathology. It challenges both psychiatric orthodoxy and the pharmaceutical industry, and demands that we focus, as well, on underlying social conditions. Six powerful personalities - five women and one man - share with each other and with the viewer their experiences of isolation, oppression, institutionalization, and attempts at self-annihilation. Their three-day marathon exchange is at times tearful, at times heated, but riveting to the end. Using an intriguing array of stylistic innovations, the film places their discussion in a broader context of research and economic analysis, to raise complex issues about how our culture deals with mental "disorder." Fundamentally about empowerment and the resilience of the human spirit, this production will challenge viewers' assumptions, and may even change the way they think about what is normal. (75 min. 2000 video) "I didn't think I'd ever enjoy a 75-minute documentary about depression, but I did, without pills or popcorn." -The Oakland Tribune

Thursday August 2 8:30pm
BYO8
Tonight we feature your films and videos - be they home movies, found footage, forgotten school experiments, a fresh roll of Super 8 or your favorite commercial, bring it on down, we'll screen 'em all! We can screen VHS, 16mm, Regular and Super 8, and are happy to sync it up with a CD or audio tape you supply if necessary. It is only $3 to get it if you bring a film*, first come first serve! See it on the big screen with a bag of popcorn.... (*$3 annual membership required and available at the door).

Friday & Saturday August 3/4 8:30pm
THE NINTH ANNUAL SHORT ATTENTION SPAN FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL
As always, SASFVF presents a non-stop program of two-minute-or-shorter films and videos from around the world including animation, drama, comedy, sci-fi, short documentary and even poetry. This year 60 movies from more than 300 entries worldwide are presented. We promise: you won't be bored - not even for a second!! This year's show features Michael Moore's TESTIFY— a political statement on the 2000 elections— in collaboration with the band Rage Against the Machine; Canadian DAVID WEIR's collaboration with DOUGLAS COUPLAND (author of "Generation X"), NIGHTSHIFT; some crazy animation from Tokyo including a flying, spinach-eating, ultra-modern woman in LADY-GO!, the mixed up antics of a cartoon character gone sinister in BUTCHU-KAN and weird things that a penguin does for fun in SOUTH POLE; SASFVF alums Mike Constable and SF filmmakers Paul Clipson and Lev Yilmaz make their ninth-or-so contributions this year, too! Plus — don't miss South By Southwest Film Festival short film award winner, Ari Gold's CULTURE, his hilarious take on the dogma school of filmmaking. You'll also want to see ultrashort documentaries like Laura Levine's PEEKABOO SUNDAY, a story about raising miniature horses or Eva Sollberger's EXOTIC WORLD, an inside look at some of America's first burlesque performers. You'll see some poetry this year too, including photographer Mark Steinmetz's take on CATS and artist Jay Rosenblatt's story about a strange kind of rain in WORM. NOTE: same show Friday and Saturday. (90 min. 2000-2001 video)

Sunday August 5 8:30pm
EATING, SLEEPING, WAITING AND PLAYING: AIR ON TOUR: + AIR VIDEOS!
Hot on the heels of AIR's recent Vancouver appearance, we are pleased to remount this stunning document of AIR's 1998 North American and European tour. Director MIKE MILLS is probably best known as the brilliant graphic designer behind work for BEASTIE BOYS, SONIC YOUTH, CIBBO MATTO and others. In the short time since they first started work on their debut album "Moon Safari", French duo AIR have gone from strength to strength, garnering massive critical acclaim as well as commercial success. Not only will AIR fans get a chance to go behind the scenes and check out strange and comical interviews with the band and other fans from the U.S. and Europe, but the evening will also feature the three highly acclaimed video clips from "Moon Safari" collected together: "Sexy Boy", "Kelly Watch The Stars" and "All I Need". NOTE the audio track on the video clip for "Kelly Watch the Stars" is not the version from "Moon Safari" and has never been available commercially in the U.S. or Canada. Don't miss this screening, arranged with thanks to EMI Canada and Astralwerks. (100 minutes 2000 video)

Tuesday & Wednesday August 7/8 8:30pm
THE VERITE CLASSIC by the Maysles Brothers:
SALESMAN
"...four door-to-door Bible salesmen move horizontally through the capitalist dream. It's such a fine, pure picture of a small section of American life that I can't imagine its ever seeming irrelevant, either as a social document or as one of the best examples of what's called cinema verite or direct cinema... fascinating, very funny, unforgettable." (Vincent Canby, New York Times) A rare chance to see this brilliant classic for two nights only! Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDewitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker, and Raymond "The Bull" Martos are so nicknamed for their particular selling styles on their rounds to sell the Bible door-to-door as they walk the line between hype and despair. First making calls in and around Boston where the company is based, then in Chicago at a sales conference, and finally in the promising new "territory" of Miami and vicinity. Their mission is simple: to convince people to buy what one of them calls "still the best seller in the world." But although their customers are mostly middle- and worker-class Catholics recommended by the local church, the Bible is a hard sell. In action, the salesmen rely on trusty catch phrases: "Could you say if this would help the family? Could you see where this would be of value in the home? A gain to you?" Talking, pushing, cajoling, telling jokes and stories, throwing out compliments, the salesmen make their "pitches" to a wide range of customers — lonely widows, married couples, Cuban immigrants, bored housewives — from those who clearly cannot afford the $50 book to those who, in the end, are convinced by the salesman's somewhat too-cheerful patter. (90 min. 1969 16mm)

Thursday August 9 8:30pm
LO-FI SCI-FI: THE TIME TRAVELLERS
The largely unheralded and obscure '60s B-movie THE TIME TRAVELLERS is a cautionary '60s sci-fi tale in which scientists discover a "porthole" leading to a post-apocalyptic future, encountering both mutants and a band of survivors working to escape the now destitute planet. Encouraged to join these future earthlings, they make desperate efforts to return to their present. Some great visual effects (humanoid robot building in a secret underground laboratory) and near tongue-in-cheek performances by an "A" list of "B" actors make this little known sci-fi treasure a pleasure. Starring Preston Foster, Merry Anders, Phil Carrey and Joan Woodbury (86 min. Dir: Ib Melchoir, 1964 16mm)

Friday August 10 8:30pm
BLINDING LIGHT 3rd ANNIVERSARY PARTY!
Come on down to celebrate three solid years of underground, experimental and obscure film, video and multi-media. We are North America's only full-time Underground Cinema with thousands of films and videos under its belt (to say nothing of popcorn consumption), so let's celebrate. The evening will feature a non-stop retrospective of films and videos from the past 36 months as well as plenty of eating, drinking and being merry. Indulge in the many visual splendours which await! Also featured will be the VIDEO CONFESSIONAL BOOTH, an opportunity for you to spill your guts, apologize or otherwise vent to the camera about anything that comes to mind or has been making your sleep fitful. As these epiphanies unfold, others may observe their simultaneous broadcast elsewhere onsite... (NOTE: These will be edited into an actual screening to be shown this SUNDAY August 12). NOTE that this evening is FREE with your $3 membership - what better time to renew? TONS OF GREAT RAFFLE PRIZES TOO!!

Saturday August 11 early show >> 7pm
UNDER THE VOLCANO PRESENTS
POLITICAL PRISONERS AND RESISTANCE NIGHT
In honour of prison justice day Under The Volcano is pleased to present this evening of documentaries. MUMIA: A CASE FOR REASONABLE DOUBT is a UK-produced documentary on the case of America's cause celebre of political prisoners - African American journalist and social activist Mumia Abu Jamal, 20 years behind bars on death row. The film sweeps from the Philadelphia Black Panthers to the revolutionary MOVE organization, through the bungled legal points of a "cop-killer" prosecution and interviews with Abu Jamal. Special guest speaker NOELLE HANRAHAN - director of Prison Radio (SF), editor and producer of Mumia's book and spoken word album "All Things Censored" - will talk about the abolition of the death penalty and the new cultural activism. On the resistance side is the Premiere Screening of IGNITING THE REVOLUTION: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT. "The only thing worth fearing is the outcome of another generation living out the American Dream" say the "elves" of ELF. Considered the most dangerous terrorist organization in America today by the FBI, the ELFers are the advance wing of the anti-corporate globalization movement, the conscientious objectors of today's war against the planet. ALSO: This year marks the 25th anniversary of the illegitimate incarceration of Lakota warrior Leonard Peltier. INCIDENT AT OGLALA (produced by Robert Redford) is a passionate look at Peltier's 1976 deportation from Vancouver, the American Indian Movement, and the 1975 FBI shootout that led to the scapegoating of Peltier - who remains behind bars today. A short music video with "Little Stevie" Van Zandt will precede the feature film. Speakers from FREE LEONARD PELTIER CAMPAIGN and PRISONERS JUSTICE DAY COMMITTEE will be present.

Sunday August 12 8:30pm
I CONFESS!
Inspired in part by conceptual artist Allen Bridge's APOLOGY MAGAZINE and phone line, this evening will feature a risky and revelatory compilation of contrition acquired through our Confessionals Booth during the BL!!C 3rd Anniversary Party two nights prior. Featuring obscured faces and exhibitionism, tragic tales and unbridled rants, don't miss this one-of-a-kind evening of personal outpourings and apologies. (On August 11, 1995 - almost exactly seven years ago today by sheer coincidence - Allen Bridge lost his life in a diving accident off Long Island, NY. He was 50. Bridge was a painter before beginning the Apology Line, a free telephone confessional service, and publishing the accompanying Apology magazine. Bridge started his Apology Line in 1980 with posters and advertisements urging wrongdoers to "get your misdeed off your chest," people could place anonymous calls to the apology number where their words were recorded. The confessions were then played in art museums and galleries as well as accessible by calling the line. At the time of his death, the line was receiving some 100 calls a day from across the nation. Mr. Bridge also started Apology Magazine, a collection of the best confessions, and gave lectures as "Mr. Apology." His work is sorely missed - pick up back issues of Apology magazine if you can find them!)

Tuesday & Wednesday August 14/15 8:30pm
PRANKS! (Part One)
WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE, THE PIE'S THE LIMIT and more!
Featured over the next two weeks are two collections of films and videos that take pranksterism to new personal and political heights. Combining the prank with exercises in culture jamming and media manipulation, these works are a testament to the use of humour and smarty-pants subversions in the face of oppression by large and impersonal social systems, as well as a celebration of the publicity stunt as site of political act. First up: WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE, the classic from filmmaker Les Blank in which the eccentric German film director fulfills a vow to eat his shoe if Errol Morris managed to actually complete his first film (Gates of Heaven). Blank reveals an obsessive, self-destructive, almost superhuman dimension to Herzog. His comments on the value of cinema and the need for a "new grammar of images" confirms that it's Herzog's belief that people must have the guts to attempt what they dream of, and what they say they will do. THE PIE'S THE LIMIT chronicles the global pastry uprising of the Biotic Baking Brigade, starring San Francisco mayor Willie Brown and the CEOs of Chevron and Monsanto. Featuring a cornucopia of political pie-throwings in San Francisco and beyond as well as a brief history of consumable comedy and behind the scenes interviews with *real* underground pie tossers... PLUS: Three classic prank flicks from King of Media Pranksterism ERIC SAKS: FAX ATTACK resolves the struggle against unwanted faxes, COPPER CONNECTION demonstrates nefarious uses for a single penny coin and DON FROM LAKEWOOD is the hilarious and unrelenting PXL film co-directed with Patrick Tierney in which an innocent sofa salesman is repeatedly harassed on the phone by a difficult customer (the filmmakers). (80 min. 16mm & video)

Thursday August 16 8:30pm
LO-FI-SCI-FI:
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME
Starring: Lyle Waggner, Gigi Perreau, Scott Brady and Anthony Eisley and introducing Poupee Gamin as "Vina"
A cult classic from 1967, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME features a group of scientists from the Stanton Corporation traveling in time with Mr. Stanton, Jr. - a jerk who wants to kill their project. Forever attempting to explain time travel and lasers to a bull-headed CEO, a surprise lab mishap sends this group of scientists hurtling 5,000 years into the future, only to find the earth on the brink of alien takeover....worth it for the performance by Poupee Gamin alone!"I'm really really confused. Some of the ideas are intriguing, such as coming back out-of-sync. But I'm pretty sure this movie doesn't make any sense." Michael Delahoyde (78 min. 1967 16mm)

Friday, Saturday & Sunday August 17/18/19 8:30pm
Back by popular demand
PLASTER CASTER: A COCKUMENTARY
"The hottest sex I've seen between a man, a woman, and a bucket of plaster" -Chip Rowe, The Playboy Advisor Plaster Caster is Jessica Villines' utterly entertaining documentary and intimate portrait of Cynthia Plaster Caster, of world renown for plaster-casting the penises of rock and roll's finest, including, most notoriously, Jimi Hendrix. In addition to providing a history of Cynthia's pursuits, the film documents the castings of two musicians, one shy, the other extroverted; as well as the preparations for her first gallery show in New York City. "You'll marvel at Cynthia's unique, professional terminology she's developed over the years (like referring to her casts as 'babies'), her collection of penis tchotkes, and her extensive lore on rock god genitalia. This lady knows dick." (NYUFF). Featuring candid interviews from rock stars, most of whom she has cast over the years (Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy's, Eric Burdon of The Animals, Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, Jon Langford of the Mekons, and Wayne Kramer of MC-5 to name ust a few). PLASTER CASTER goes beyond the mythology and asks the penetrating question "is this really art?" Featuring the music of Noel Redding, The Aluminum Group, The Demolition Doll Rods, 5ive Style, Make Up, and Momus. (103 min. 2001 video)

Saturday, August 18 >1:30pm to 6pm
HP LOVECRAFT'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!
check out http://happybirthdaylovecraft.50megs.com/ for more info!
Darkest Of the Hillside Thickets presents some of the finest independent H. P. Lovecraft cinematic adaptations. Featured will be:
1:30 pm My Necronomicon 3 mins, The Outsider 8 mins, From Beyond 22 mins, Cool Air 50 mins, (total 93 mins - finishes at 3:05 or thereabouts) 4:00 pm The Canal 4 mins, H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep 15 mins, The Hound 22 mins, Return to Innsmouth 30 mins, Out of Mind 50 mins, (total 121 mins - finishes at 6pm or thereabouts) NOTE: TWO SEPARATE SHOWS: $5 for one show or $8 for both!

Tuesday & Wednesday August 21/22 8:30pm
PRANKS! (Part Two)
BARBIE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION and more!
Here we present the second half of our two-parter devoted to films and videos that take pranksterism to new personal and political heights. Combining the prank with exercises in culture jamming and media manipulation, these works are a testament to the use of humour and smarty-pants actions in the face of oppression by large and impersonal social systems as well as the publicity stunt as site of political conversion potential. BLO NIGHTLY NEWS is a record of the BARBIE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION's brand of subversive media terrorism. BLO operatives purchased talking Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls, both of which are programmed to speak crude cultural clichÈs. The dolls were then taken to the BLO headquarters where "corrective surgery" was performed by switching the voice boxes on the two dolls. The dolls were then placed back on the store shelves in a process of reverse shoplifting -"shopgiving." In the format of a nightly news program, the video functions as a witness to and instruction manual on Cultural Jamming at its best. ALSO: Igor Vamos' UNDENIABLE EVIDENCE, a provocative half-hour of guerrilla artists caught in the act on videotape: a public art extravaganza assembled by Vamos and a group of anonymous culture jammers. Ephemeral pieces documented include: Grupo Baja Mar/The Low Tide Group - An artists' group uses the unique geologic and architectural features of Spain's San Sebastian's beaches to create a giant public billboard that wipes itself clean each day with the incoming tide. Human Target Flag Responding To Operation Desert Storm - A Portland OR group hangs an enormous U.S. flag, composed of human silhouette targets, off a bridge directly in front of US Navy ships during war homecoming celebrations. Reverse Peristalsis Painting - Outside then-Vice-President Quayle's fundraising brunch for Bob Packwood, an organized group of 24 people in ill-fitting suits engage in the event by vomiting the colors of the American flag. Malcom X Street - At a time when the city of Portland is considering stripping Martin Luther King Jr.'s name off a local street, a covert organization calling itself Group X changes the name of another downtown street to Malcolm X Street in a clandestine overnight action. Canine Edible Sculpture - After overcoming their initial fear, 15 dogs consume a sculpture made of 480 pounds of grisly beef bones and dry dog food on a football field.

Thursday to Sunday August 23-26 8:30pm
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT 15th ANNIVERSARY COMPENDIUM!
This 15th anniversary celebration of the original 16 minute documentary HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT was inspired by the fact it was created smack dab in the middle of '80s metal mayhem and has grown to become an underground video sensation primarily through word-of-mouth and the circulation of countless bootleg copies. The original creators Jeff Krulik and John Heyn have created an outrageous 90 minute cavalcade of short videos, including official sequels and tributes by other filmmakers. Featured is, or course, the original HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. Considered "...the greatest tribute to the age of heavy metal" (NW Filmforum), the documentary was filmed in the parking lot of the Capital Centre concert arena in suburban Maryland, and features fans of Judas Priest partying in anticipation of seeing their heavy metal heroes. As well official sequels NEIL DIAMOND PARKING LOT, HARRY POTTER PARKING LOT, and HMPL: THE LOST FOOTAGE, never before seen outtakes unearthed from John Heyn's waterlogged basement. Also featured is footage from MONSTER TRUCK PARKING LOT and a trailer for the feature film currently in development HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT: THE MOVIE. PLUS: RAVER BATHROOM a canuck effort filmed in a crowded rave bathroom, GIRL POWER PARKING LOT from Los Angeles - centred around the Spice Girls movie premiere, HEAVY METAL SIDEWALK from San Francisco - Judas Priest's '98 nightclub tour, FLAVOR OF THE WEAK, a music video by the band AMERICAN HI-FI (a shot-for-shot nod to HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT), and Vancouver's own Scott Gubbels' HEAVY METAL PLUNDER featuring a sharply edited sound montage of metal riffs and wanks pulled from the classics and obscure wonders of a metal-obsessed mind.

Tuesday August 28 8:30pm
New Chicago works
Curated by Jim Finn Chicago filmmaker and curator JIM FINN has assembled a brilliant and provocative collection of recent works from some of Chicago's most active and intelligent independent and experimental filmmakers for this exclusive West Coast screening. Among the works are three by Siebren Versteeg: FIRST CHICAGO, an '80s homage to an ATM card, LINE, a video seagull, and EXTRATERRESTRIAL, the flintlock of the world. Also, Streetlevel Media's THE BLUNT PLACE and FREEZE, YOUNG MAN!: claymation murders and some advice on basketball from a Chicago cop; Jim Finn's own EL GUERO featuring the cowboy music of the Mexican Sinatra, and his Red Army swans and snakes sing-a-long.COMMUNISTA!; RnR's MALL ENDURANCE DAY in which the RnR girls talk their way into a talent show at the Mall of America then go to a museum with brownies then Rosie's brothers jump maniacally on the bed and it all wraps up with a warped blue screen karaoke freak out. PLUS Kirsten Stoltman's PRAISE YOU; Steve Fiduccia's MEATBALL and Dean Rank's PORTRAITS.

Wednesday August 29 8:30pm
BIKESUMMER MOVIENITE
Bikesummer, the annual Bicycle love-in (following the traditions of Bikesummer San Francisco 1999 and Chicago 2000), is a month long international festival of bike culture running throughout August . It is an International Do-it-Yourself Bike Festival where independent groups organize separate but complimentary events which come together in the Bikesummer Calendar to be a Bicycle Extravaganza! Tonight we present an evening of Bike films and videos. Featuring more tight bike shorts than a Yale Town fitness club, these creative cycling films come from San Francisco, Vancouver and all over North America. Call the Bikesummer hotline 736-8194 for more info or check out www.bikesummer.org!

Thursday August 30 8:30pm
CINEWORKS PRESENTS!
This evening is one of a mostly-monthly series reserved for works organized and often created by CINEWORKS, Vancouver's only Filmmaker's Co-operative. Typically theme-based or regionally determined, this month's films are being gathered together as you read this. To find out what surprises await you - be they experimental, dramatic, comedic or unclassifiable, check out Cineworks; website at www.cineworks.ca or call them at 685-3841!

Friday August 31 8:30pm
Todd Tomorrow presents:
SIDEWALK SURFING (A RETROSPECTIVE)
Don't miss this visual journey through the rich history and contemporary world of the skateboard. The evening will feature obscure clips from such hard to find films as: THE DEVIL'S TOY, the 1966 National Film Board film shot in 1966 on MontrÈal streets before the "elongated roller skate" was banned, this film captures the exuberance of boys and girls having the time of their lives in free-wheeling downhill locomotion! Also, SKATEBOARD starring the one and only Leif Garrett - need we say more? - and featuring some incredible old-school pool carving and goofy plot devices, SKATEBOARD MADNESS, a classic for any skate enthusiast and featuring narration by Phil Hartman (!) as well as some truly great footage of California skating (the film was shot over a four year period across the state) Tomorrow's own brand new footage of longboarding will also be featured as well FREEWHEELIN' clips and other surprises!

SEPTEMBER 2001

Saturday September 1 8:30pm
FRUIT OF THE VINE
FRUIT OF THE VINE is a film that explores the sometimes dangerous but always exhilarating pursuit of skateboarding in empty swimming pools. It is not a historical documentary but a collection of stories about those who search, find and ultimately glean some use out of a part of the great American wasteland. Shot entirely on super 8 film, Fruit of the Vine is the result of several road trips taken around both the West and East coast in 2000 and features footage and interviews from Tony Alva, Lance Mountain, Steve Alba, Tony Farmer, Steve Bailey and many more. "Pool skating is not hip, Tommy Hilfiger is not using it to sell clothes, no one is getting paid to ride them. It is the element of skateboarding which is overlooked for many different reasons. It's illegal, pools are difficult to find, when they are found it takes a lot of work to empty them, they are difficult to ride and so on. For these reasons pool riding is also the most interesting element of skateboarding and you usually find the most interesting people skating them." - C. Nichols, R. Charnoski. (70 min 2000 Super 8 on video)

Sunday September 2 8:30pm
BOOKMOBILE BENEFIT: I WANT IT THAT WAY: THE BACKDOORBOYS
Tonight, to benefit the BOOKMOBILE project, we screen Catherine Pancake's hilarious and genderbending celebration of THE BACKDOOR BOYS. Entitled I WANT IT THAT WAY, the film is a pseudo-documentary about this talented and over-the-top drag-king group from NYC who take their name from that other popular boy band. The band have captured the attention and adoration of fans all over the East Coast with their spicy dance numbers and hot looks. I WANT IT THAT WAY features the BackDoorBoys in a "tell-all-tale" delving into the secrets of the "boys". With boy band mania at an all-time high, the BackDoorBoys turn the tables on gender conventions, pop culture and the lesbian post-modern. Plus other surprise shorts! Having made its debut on July 21st 2001, the BOOKMOBILE project is a traveling exhibition of artist' book works, zines, and independent publications. Traveling by way of a vintage Airstream, the bookmobile will visit community centres, schools, festivals, artist run centres, penitentiaries, and remote regions where independent publications are hard to come by. A group of coordinators will travel with the exhibition and facilitate a series of workshops, artist talks, and educational forums in an effort to bridge the worlds of hand-production and technology with a focus on printed matter. The BOOKMOBILE project is a public space of knowledge promoting forms of visual literacy. Check out http://www.studioxx.org/bookmobile/ for more info and to get involved!

Tuesday & Wednesday September 4/5 8:30pm
GAYGORE:
CANADIAN PREMIERE: SHAWN DURR's MEAT FUCKER
PLUS: CHOPSTICK BLOODY CHOPSTICK, SHITEATER and more!
"With shades of Waters, Lynch and Cronenberg this cat is someone to watch for. Campy, erotic, perverse and unrelenting MEAT FUCKER rips the ahole out of this Ozzie and Harriet PC world." Rob Leddy, Independent Film Homepage Don't miss the in-you-face hilarity of Shawn Durr's MEAT FUCKER, who recently graced us with his presence and latest feature FUCKED IN THE FACE. "Shawn Durr's Meat Fucker pairs a closeted gay man with his meat-loving roommate, the closet case is openly vegetarian but secretly jerks off in a tub full of hot dogs, while the roommate pours meat sauces all over himself and his girlfriend before fucking. The film's ending, in which the repressed man begins to passionately kiss his roommate, doubles as a campy homage to Kenneth Anger's early gay classic Fireworks." Fred Camper, Chicago Reader. Also on the bill CHOPSTICK BLOODY CHOPSTICK. Homogore slasher flick meets experimental identity tape in this collaboration between Shawn Durr and local experimentalist Wayne Yung (Field Guide to Western Wildflowers, 2000). A neurotic gay man describes his messy failed romances to his mute asian boyfriend. But what's with all the dead white guys slumped all over the place? An amusing and surreal montage of mysterious disappearances, archival chinese footage, and lots of bloody gore. PLUS: Mike Hoolboom's classic SHITEATER and more!

Thursday September 6 8:30pm
BYO8
It is that time again - your chance to show the world your goods - film and video, that is. We accept 16mm, VHS, Regular and Super 8. Only $3 to get in if you bring a film, first come first serve. Don't miss this golden opportunity! 10 minutes max please - excerpts are OK. ($3 annual membership required like always!).

Friday September 7 8:30pm
DEEP BLUE FUNK FILMS PRESENTS
RADIOHEAD VS THE MATRIX
From the folks who brought you DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW and SYNCHRO-SHORTS comes this melding of music and image in the form of RADIOHEAD and THE MATRIX. This evening's strategy is to synchronize the entire library of RADIOHEAD recordings to start together (on separate CD players) at the beginning of the thoroughly entertaining, visually engrossing and paranoia-inducing THE MATRIX. As the film plays, the music will be drawn in and out of the mix as each album unfolds simultaneously, magically blending with the images in serendipitous synchronizations. Come with an open mind and a willingness to let it all go....

Saturday September 8 8:30pm
DAYTIME OR NIGHTTIME?
PORTLAND CURATOR JASON LIVINGSTON IN PERSON
We are pleased to have recently-relocated Portland curator JASON LIVINGSTON in person to present a program of experimental film and video shorts organized around themes of childhood, memory, family and temporal distance. "Childhood is often constructed as the core of the adult self. This program explores the cracks and fissures of this construction, moving from extended families in the animal realm to pyscho-ananimation, from confrontation with parents to silent tears. Many of these cinematic investigations rely on personal nonfiction and yet none of them trades on the merely confessional. Rather, a complicated portrait of the adult child emerges as a multi-sensing, mis-understanding and ever changing creature in a big, crazy, mixed-up land of contradiction. With a commitment to conceptual form, these embodied beings sort through stories (found, borrowed, lost) to rewire cones, rods, cochlea, neurons, and perhaps best of all, going to the movies." (Jason Livingston) Work in this evening's show will include Franklin Miller's COLD COWS, Paul Divjak's LE MATIN, Sarah Price's ALPHADOG, Helen Mirra's I, BEAR, Jim Trainor's THE BAT AND THE VIRGIN, Tricia Kane's THE SHADOW IN THE ROOM, Kathy High's SHIFTING POSITIONS, Bryan Frye's LACHRYMAE and others. Jason Livingston is a media maker and sometimes programmer moving across the US after spending four years working on the experimental festival THAW. His work has shown with a number of different festivals and venues, including Antimatter, Media City, Rotterdam, Cinematexas, The Charm Bracelet, Chicago Filmmakers and the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema.

Sunday September 9 8:30pm
SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY
PLUS: A HISTORY OF BARBIE COMMERCIALS THROUGH THE AGES.
You keep asking to see it again, so here it is! This long-banned underground classic from the director of POISON, SAFE AND VELVET GOLDMINE, Todd Hayne's SUPERSTAR chronicles Karen Carpenter's rise to stardom and untimely death from a heart attack due to anorexia and bulimia. Using Barbie dolls as characters, Karen's face is sanded and puttied to portray her weight loss, while faces of family members are similarly distorted to visualize the sinister family structure playing into Karen's illness. Video footage played through television backgrounds, and brilliant collisions of documentary and fiction, lend to the layered meanings of this film. Haynes juxtaposes this American dream gone wrong with the bubble gum soundtrack of the Carpenter's pop music. While this sing-along audio resonates in the viewer's mind, it ultimately led to litigation by the Carpenter family, preventing this film from ever being released. (Hence the mediocre quality dub which you see here - an improvement over the last one we showed - viewed with a certain charm and respect rarely given to degraded video.) Using the life of a popular icon to discuss a multitude of issues (the problem of star making in the United States, the political context of artistic endeavors, the family as a structure of tyranny, and the complexity of internalization from the female who is acting out) SUPERSTAR manages to be heart wrenching, touching and funny. The film will be preceded by early commercials from the sixties and seventies for Mattel's Barbie doll - dig those styles!

Tuesday & Wednesday September 11/12 8:30pm
ACTS OF VISION AND THE RAPTURE OF SPACE
Don't miss this stunning collection of recent and classic works from some of the world's most respected and talented experimental filmmakers. These films have been chosen for their jarring beauty, unparalleled elegance and emotive power, all with an eye to spatial and temporal evocations and structuralist concerns, both metaphorical and literal. COUPLING is a recent work from icon of experimental film Stan Brakhage, a step-printed and hand-painted "organic be-seeming darkly coloured work (blood and rust reds mixed with off-greens) as if microscopic images of connective and (other) cells and/or threads of internal muscles were caught in a "dance" (Stan Brakhage). French filmmaker Rose Lowder's colour drenched LES TOURNESOLS (SUNFLOWERS) photographs a field of sunflowers, adjusting the focus with every frame resulting in an extraordinary colour field film; ATMOSPHERE is Vancouver filmmaker Chris Gallagher's real-time puzzle in which a coastal landscape at Downs Point, Hornby Island is panned back and forth to a mysterious pattern (or non-pattern) in a meditation on cinematic representation; also based in Vancouver, filmmaker David Rimmer's SURFACING ON THE THAMES shows a riverboat as it creeps past the Parliament buildings where a two second shot is stretched across several minutes. "The ultimate metaphysical movie ... one of the really great constructivist films since Wavelength." (Gene Youngblood, ArtsCanada). And finally, American heavy hitter Peter Rose's astounding THE MAN WHO COULD NOT SEE FAR ENOUGH uses literary, structural, autobiographical and performance metaphors to construct a series of tableaux that evoke the act of vision, the limits of perception and the rapture of space. Spectacular moving multiple images; a physical, almost choreographic sense of camera movement, and massive, resonant sound have inspired critics to call it "stunning" and "hallucinatory". The film ranges in subject from a solar eclipse shot off the coast of Africa to a hand-held filmed ascent of the Golden Gate Bridge, and moves, in spirit, from the deeply personal to the mythic. "...a powerful formal, analytic inquiry into the very nature of vision and cinema... painfully beautiful images of mysterious events and things, images that split, multiply, migrate and quiver with a hallucinatory vibrance... a rich fabric interlacing the metaphysical with the ironical." (Sally Banes, Village Voice)

Thursday to Sunday September 13-16 8:30pm
...AN INCREDIBLE SIMULATION
Don't miss the other side of the story in this, the other tribute band movie by Jeff Economy and Darren Hacker. Rumour has it that Russ Forster (maker of Tributaries, the tribute band doc we featured at the VUFF this past year) had a falling out with Jeff and Darren, and each party went their separate way. While there is some talk of stolen video tape and uncredited footage, all we know is that ...AN INCREDIBLE SIMULATION is worth a look for the strangely transcendent NEIL DIAMOND and ABBA tribute couple alone. Smartly edited and always tongue in cheek, ...AN INCREDIBLE SIMULATION lets the bands and their fans do the talking (they don't need our help!) "As any tribute band will tell you, a tribute band is not a cover band. A cover band merely plays hit songs by many artists. Tribute bands, however, are created in a much more obsessive act of maniacal fandom. A tribute band seeks to replicate the look and sound of one specific artist or band, working hard to nail down their heroes' intonations, body moves, make-up, and hairstyles. Occasionally, a tribute will go as far as reconstructive surgery to get that look of authenticity. Follow filmmakers Jeff Economy and Darren Hacker as they take you into the tribute band netherworld. You'll discover an entire subculture you never knew existed, inhabiting a parallel universe that looks and feels almost real. Featuring incredible simulations of Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Molly Hatchet, Adam & The Ants, the Rolling Stones - even a Gary Numan tribute band and a Guided by Voices tribute band. Plus the inimitable, truly touching artistry of tribute band lovers Lightning & Thunder as Neil Diamond & Abba." (NYUFF)

Tuesday-Sunday September 18-23 various times
FEVER FEST
We are thrilled to have Stephen Kent Jusick returns to the Blinding Light!! For the third time. Based out of NYC, Jusick's FEVER FILMS has gradually developed into an umbrella for a variety of exhibition, distribution and production projects. The first half of 2000 saw the inauguration of Fever's NY-based CineSalon, free weekly screenings of underappreciated film presented in a casual atmosphere with plenty of food and drink, and the occasional whiff of sexual tension. June saw a four-program series of 8mm film presented in collaboration with the SF Cinematheque and Frameline. But this festival is the first to fly the Fever flag so boldly. Some of the films have never been shown before. Others are "famous," yet still hopelessly unseen or unknown. Many are in active distribution from Fever, and this festival was originally conceived to call attention to that body of work, but as the fest developed, it became clear that many friends of Fever would be included too. We hope you will feel delirious with the films you come to see here - that's part of the fever - to get audiences to feel the enthusiasm that Jusick and the makers feel about the work. So even when it seems to be ratcheting up the pretension factor (and let's face it, Genet, Warhol and Sonbert don't exactly seem like a barrel of laughs) don't think FEVER has forgotten its sense of humor or sense of marginal place. It's a pretty good vantage point, these interstices. If you have an obscure favorite film (perhaps one you've made yourself!) bring it to Stephen's attention and maybe it will show in a future fever dream!

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18 8:30pm
100 YEARS OF CINEMA/100 YEARS OF SODOMY
These films remain unique examples of homosexual expression. The Dickson Sound Film (William K.L. Dickson/Thomas Edison, 1895) is, of course, the first depiction of homosociality, if not homosexuality. Lot in Sodom (es Sibley Watson/Melville Webber, 1930) is arguably the first positive presentation of homosexual desire, albeit in an ambivalent context. Un Chant d'amour (Jean Genet, 1950) stands alone in its unapologetic assertion of homosexual desire, not only in its characters but in its viewers as well. The Geography of the Body (Willard Maas, 1943, USA) does not even show any overt signs of homosexuality, yet [its] stance toward the body and physical pleasure clearly demonstrates that [its] makers stood outside mainstream 40s and 50s American sexuality. (Willard Maas and Marie Menken's marriage was legendary, but "everybody knew what Willard was up to.") Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947) unabashedly portrays homosexual desire, although within the relative safety of a dream. -Jim Hubbard, founder, MIX: New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival. PLUS: Jerry Tartaglia's Ecce Homo interweaves images from Jean Genet's masterpiece with images from gay male sex films, forcing the viewer to question the point of view in looking at "pornographic" images.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 7:30pm
HOT TOPIC
These are some of the films and videos on our minds, in our projectors and VCRs. In many ways a work in progress, this line-up is always changing. But it's what we're thinking about now: untitled (thirteen years) (Scott Berry & Ethan Eunson-Conn, 2001, S8 double projection) is "the second part of a trilogy about my mother, cancer, radiation, loss, treatment. A combination of images from a 1940s training film on radiotherapy is juxtaposed with actual medical records from her surgery, with a sound collage including letters from specialists, audio from the training film and circular beats".-SB PLUS: Transitional Objects (Jennifer Montgomery, 2000, USA). Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (Souheil Bachar/Walid Ra'ad, 2001),a problematization of the captivity video that explores race and masculinity among hostages in Beirut. Reflex (Glen Fogel, 2000, Super-8mm) Hand-processed Super8 images of body fragments and shadows and layers of colored emulsion reveal a subuniverse of narcissistic desire, alienation, and solarized skin, blurring the internal and the external, the intimate and the invasive. More Intimacy (Chun-Hui (Tony) Wu, 1999) Using Man Ray's photogram technique, Regular- and Super8mm amd 16mm are contact-printed onto Super8 in a dark room, resulting in different gauges having intimate contact. The film's elements present an illusion (pornography) that the original filmmakers created on film. Slap Drag Ons (Steve Grandell, 1997, USA) Based on the performance D is for Drag, this piece explores perceptions and misperceptions of drag and transgendered people by society as a whole, through the witty editing of a figure spinning - and transforming - around the camera as a gravitational center. Plus Ultra-rare Super8 footage of a famous drag persona making her way to theaters this season! Take that wig down off the shelf, as well as more hot work from Aaron Scott, Jennifer Fieber and others!

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19 9:30pm
ANIMANIA
A furious collection of toys, dolls, cels and moving lines. More than we can mention here, but the titles will include but not be limited to: Pony Glass (Lewis Klahr, 1997, USA) An impressive, important work that trips up all the adolescent power fantasies of Klhar's source material. Pretty Boy (Joe Gibbons, 1994) Joe and Ken face off as Joe is threatened by Ken's plasticine good looks. But Ken's tougher than he appears in this pixelvision exposÈ of masculine anxiety. Assplay (Steve Reinke, 1995) A Freudian analysis of Disney's Pinocchio. Friendly (Texas Tomboy, 1994) A very sexy homage to Jimmy Dean. Queen Nelora and the Fantastic Courting Yard (Tara Mateik, 1997) Tired of the gay protagonists always dying off and inspired by a history of queers, it was time to bring this fairy tale to life. Boldly stating homoerotic themes, Queen Nelora suggests an affair between two prominent women in history - Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt. Rebel Fux: The Movie! (Kate Huh, 2000) Cut-out animation from the maker of the Rebel Fux zine! Revenge of the Kinematograph Cameraman (Ladislas Starevitch, 1912) Stunning early puppet animation fable about an insect couple's infidelity. Not to be missed! Flip Film (Ellen Ugelstad & Alfonso Alvarez,1999) A flip book film composed of photos on a San Francisco bus.

THURSDAY Sept 20 7:30pm
WARREN SONDBERT REMEMBERED AND REVISITED
Warren Sonbert (1947-1995), an independent filmmaker renowned for his avant-garde, diarist style, began producing films in 1966. Originally inspired by American artists in Andy Warhol's circle, he eventually perfected a unique brand of montage informed by art and industry, news reportage and other contemporary issues. Tonight we screen three of his finest works: Amphetamine (1966) A booted boy is seen in methodical detail shooting up, and he and another boy passionately make out. The film makes no reference to the outside world, and its cozy insularity is reinforced by the drone of "Where Did Our Love Go?" endlessly repeated on a scratchy LP. The sense of transgressive pleasure is intense but also ephemeral. Like Sonbert's short life, it's a diversion that will end as surely— and quickly — as the secret pleasures it celebrates. Carriage Trade (1973) "A six year compilation of travels, home movies, documents. Not strictly involved with plot or morality but rather the language of film as regards time, composition, cutting, light, distance, tension of backgrounds to foregrounds, what you see and what you don't, a jig-saw puzzle of postcards to produce varied displaced effects. Contrapuntal textures in using 8 or so different stocks of film - colour and b&w, negative and dyed shots. Film as music without music and each shot a cluster of notes striking a reaction in the viewer"—W.S. Sonbert journeys from Broadway to Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Egypt, and other locales. Arab camel riders in the desert follow pastoral views of flowers. Radio City's Rockettes pass by quickly as does an English wedding scene, bathers in the Ganges and gondolas on the Grand Canal in Venice. Friendly Witness (1989) Sonbert's first sound film in 20 years, composed of footage collected by the peripatetic filmmaker in his travels from Manhattan and the Middle East and Asia, provides a meditative montage of the exotic and ordinary, the joyous and the sombre. The first half of the film, scored to popular songs of the sixties, offers a pop culture lexicon of love and recreation—a hippie outdoor wedding, amusement park rides, ice skaters. Belying the lively but anxious lyrics of the tunes, the tone shifts markedly in the film's second half to sober elegiac reflection and is accompanied by a melancholy Gluck overture. Mirroring the soundtrack, accompanying visuals include soldiers, hearses and religious icons.

THURSDAY Sept 20 9:30pm
PUNKS NOT BORED Queercore film returns with another edition of homopunk DIY work. From the northern lights of homocore Toronto, to Swedish skinhead punks, this is a spiky slice of edgy filmmaking. American punk has, for the most part, been commodified and eviscerated of its political edge, reduced to a fashion statement or lifestyle that is only flirted with briefly. Queer Punk demonstrates that there's more to life than collaborating with the system. Smash the system, or reinvent the scene yourself. These works, whether defiant manifesto or despondent memoir, reveal the ember of discontent and dissent that burns within. They will leave more than just lipstick traces. Titles include K8 Hardy's Super8 Ants in Her Pants, Tara Mateik's Cereal, Judith Doyle's documentation of Christy Cameron delivering a Legionella's Manifesto, the claymation angst of Christopher Chong's Crash Skid Love, the rarely screened GB Jones classic The Troublemakers, (starring Caroline Azar, Bruce LaBruce, Stevie Sinatra and Joe the Ho) and more titles to be announced!

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21 7:00pm
MEGALOPOLIS
We love our cities. But with the clean up of New York, I find more junkies on Powell Street than in Times Square. This program is a reminiscence of this wonderful urban world and what makes a city. Titles include Heiko Kalmbach's New York Is Disappearing, which stars Penny Arcade and Edgar Oliver as holdouts in the (ever?) vanishing East Village, now overrun with bourgeois arrivistes. Charles Lofton's I Like Dreaming, is a brief (yet big) tale of subway cruising. David Wilson's Magic City celebrates Moberly, Missouri, a boomtown gone bust, as the filmmaker looks for lost friends, but stumbles into the weirdness of small town subculture. Virgins, pedophiles and punks all appear in front of the camera to tell the world what's wrong and right with rural America. Frank Mouris' Coney is a pixelated view of the famous amusement park, while Jay Leyda's 1931 film A Bronx Morning concentrates on the rhythms of daily life, with views of elevated trains, tenements, shops and street life linked by visual and kinetic motifs that bridge documentary and avant-garde styles. Gary Beydler's Pasadena Freeway Stills displays a progression of hand held stills of freeway traffic. A seedy NYC is reclaimed in the pseudonymously made Sin Sity Stopless, while Zoned Out documents the city's attempt to clean up the famous red light district. More titles to be added!

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21 9:30PM
CINESONIC
Crazy combos, obsolete technologies presented and perverted. Watch and listen as Stefan Kunst projects a variety of formats and DJ Econ spins, makes beats and turns PXLVISION video images into audio before your eyes and ears. Shoot a POLAVISION instant developing Super8 film (this was the beginning of Polaroid's bankruptcy!) and play it back immediately while DJ Econ scores it for you! An aural extravaganza of cine-sonic treats!

Saturday SEPTEMBER 22 7PM
FROM HER TO ETERNITY
Fever's not a boy's club, and we want to make that clear. Here's a show that features some of our favourite grrrls, in a rough trajectory from youth to maturity. Titles include Jocelyn Taylor's 24 Hours A Day, which revels in the eroticism of everyday acts, all day long; Jennifer Montgomery's Super8 film Age 12: Love With A Little L traces the effects of a girl's clique; Michael Lucid's Dirty Girls uses footage shot in high school to examine who's in and who's out of that social scene; Knuckle Down, by K8 Hardy and Sarah Marcus, combines S8, video and found footage to beautifully probe the socialization of young women; while Lisa DeLillo's Engorge Gobble and Gulp, features a happy & hungry snatch, while the subject of Kadet Kuhne's Fuck Film finds more pleasure in celluloid than foodstuffs. More Than A Paycheck pays tribute to a Chicana construction worker's art.

Saturday SEPTEMBER 22 9:30pm
PURE PROTEIN
NYC small-gauge guru Stephen Kent Jusick descends on the BL! with an assortment of (mostly) 8mm oddities and mundanities of gay male porn films from the golden years. Back in the day, porn producers thought they were making sexually explicit art, and contributing to gay culture. So in addition to tracking down willing hunks, they would sometimes spend time on things like plot and set design or location, even camerawork! See Joe Dallesandro giving his all, Gordon Grant, Kip Noll, Al Parker and more. Bodies like you never see now (some kina scrawny, some covered with hair), doing things censored from today's sanitized video porn! And check out those fashions! Special multiple projection presentation, with live sound by DJ Econ.

SUNDAY September 23 8:30pm
STROBING SUPERSTARS
Takes on and inspirations derived from Warhol: Super Artist (Bruce Torbet, 1967) A portrait of Andy Warhol done in a free impressionistic style that satirizes his technique of filmmaking and comments on the Pop Art scene as well as the artist's personality. Andy Warhol (Marie Menken, 1965) "A long day in the life of Pop artist Andy Warhol shortened into minutes: a document." Warhol is seen in his studio and at gallery showings surrounded by his signature pieces: Brillo and Campbell soup cartons and his silkscreens of flowers and well-known personalities. Black Sheep Boy (Michael Wallin, 1995) Consciously emulating Warhol's trademark strobe cutting, Wallin creates a visually stuttered landscape of his continuing quest for the perfect boy, layered with a voice over that explored his own obsession and the philosophy of Meher Baba. "Like lyrical segments of Genet's Un chant d'amour, the scenes of guys undressing in Black Sheep Boy are refreshingly unencumbered by a plot. Instead, a man's voice serves as the guiding consciousness of the film as he describes his fetishizing of these youths, admitting that he is after a fantasy, not a reality...The beauty of this film goes beyond the visual splendour of youth. Wallin's technique preserves multiple takes of the same subject: this stuttering tempo, combined with bursts of flash and the candid quality of the posing, gives the film a rough, underground look that's very appealing and appropriate to its grunge milieu..."-Roberto Friedman, Bay Area Reporter

Tuesday September 25 8:30pm
CANADIAN PREMIERE:
ROCK OPERA
DIRECTOR BOB RAY and STAR JERRY DON CLARK IN PERSON!
"Rock Opera" takes toilet humor to new levels and provides a rather decent how-to guide for the beginning substance abuser. Drugs, rock 'n' roll and a brief nod to sex (toys). Violence, guns, foullanguage and deadbeat slacking. All take front stage. -Grant Tait, Austin 360. From Austin, "The Live Music Capital of the World" Texas comes ROCK OPERA, a hilariously raucous and seedy tale of drug fueled rock and roll debauchery. Rock Opera sets a fictional tale of double crossing drug deals in Austin's real life underground music and drug scene. Filled with great Austin bands and local scenesters, the story unfolds with Toe's half-assed attempts to fund a road trip for his band PigPoke by selling marijuana. ROCK OPERA was written and directed by local Austin filmmaker and musician BOB RAY and according to Bob is "a true story that could have happened." ROCK OPERA starts off as a rambunctious stoner comedy and turns into a tense and action packed thriller as we follow Toe's exploits through ramshackle houses, punk dives and backwater towns as he frantically scrambles to get his band on the road. A series of mishaps and dimwitted double crosses puts Toe in peril and he struggles to keep his head above bong water as chaos chases him to the frenzied climax. ROCK OPERA features live performances by Nashville Pussy, Fuckemos, PigPoke, and Witchbanger, plus the music of Butthole Surfers, Fuckemos, Ed Hall, Cherubs, Phantom Creeps, El Flaco, Honky, Tallboy, Los Pinkeys, Titz, The Crack Pipes, Antebellum, Voltage, Squat Thrust, Pong, El Insecto, and an original score by 16 Deluxe. "I like Rock Opera a lot. If every pot user out there goes to see Rock Opera, I think you'll have a hit on your hands." —Richard Linklater, director of Slacker, Dazed & Confused, Waking Life

Wednesday September 26 8:30pm
DISCLOSURES
We are pleased to have media artists Scott Russell and Kim Dawn to curate an evening of new performative-video works. They have invited artists from Halifax, New York, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to present videos which use their own bodies. Private rooms are made public and street corners made private. These diaristic & confessional sequences feature a violently funny transgendered Aunt Jemima, tongues, dancing legs, snow angels and other bodily revelations. Featured are works by MEESOO LEE, EMILY VEY DUKE & COOPER BATTERSBY, RACHEL ECHENBURG, VIDA SIMON, KIM DAWN, SCOTT RUSSELL, NAUFUS RAMIREZ-FIGUEROA, IRENE LOUGHLIN, CHRISTOF MIGONE, ANNE LOWE, MARCIA CONNOLLY and DAVID GRENIER. (80 min. 2001 video)

Thursday September 27 8:30pm
Guy Debord's SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE
Withdrawn from circulation in 1984 and never before subtitled, legendary Situationist Guy Debord's long-impossible to see film, SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE (1973, 87 min.), returns by request! SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is an intense and densely packed montage assembled out of "detourned" images from feature films, pornography, commercials and news footage. "Few groups have had as profound an impact on French culture as the Situationist Internationale with its unparalleled interrogation of political and cultural relations. While the writing of leading Situationist Guy Debord has become the cornerstone of postmodernism, his paintings, artist books, and films remain unknown." (Keith Sanborn, translator/subtitles) "Debord's analysis of a society suspended inside the free space of the commodity infiltrates every frame. " (Steve Seid, PFA)

OCTOBER 2001

September 28-October 12
THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Watch for special intimate screenings, directors talks, CINEWORKS' free panel discussions, late night parties and more as we transform into an official venue for the Vancouver International Film Festival. Call the festival at 685-0260 for more information as the festival approaches, or pick up the festival guide and check out their website at http://www.viff.org/

Saturday & Sunday October 13/14 8:30pm
THE POLICE STATE OF THINGS
A QUEBEC LEGAL DEFENSE FUNDRAISER
From day to day police violence that is the norm in our communities, to the refined campaign to make global issues that directly impact our lives seem irrelevant and disconnected: this is THE POLICE STATE OF THINGS. Join us to make the relevant links over two evenings of multimedia, speakers, and discussion. Arrive early for Saturday's screenings to check out the opening exhibition of photographs, poster art and video installations by local artists. The work will document Quebec City's FTAA demonstrations and will remain in the cafÈ until the end of October. SATURDAY: An investigation into the police state of things beginning with a critical look at a Police made documentary, THROUGH A BLUE LENS. Constable Al Arsenault, along with six other policemen, began video-documenting the lives of people on their beat in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. Headlines Theatre responded by producing THROUGH A CLEAR LENS (Venus Soberanes, Adam Harrison, Eva Urrutia, and Gabrielle Martin) and taking video cameras into their own hands to document the interface between youth and police. "I strongly believe that exposing the injustice that I have observed allows - and even forces - social change, for doing so creates a larger community of witnesses of those sorts of situations that would otherwise remain hidden and unnoticed." -Venus Soberanes SUNDAY: The Police State of things continues and so does our investigation, as we update on national and international policing and "crowd control". Video excerpts from a variety of current works documenting police tactics used against our right to demonstrate. Between screenings expect stories from Quebec City political prisoners as well as speakers, spoken word discussion and a few surprises...

Tuesday October 16 8:30pm
16mm OBSCURITY:
I WONDER WHO'S KILLING HER NOW? (aka KILL MY WIFE...PLEASE!)
"...a scream; it's one of the funniest movies that I've seen in a long time. How this slipped into obscurity is beyond me, because it has all the makings of an instant cult classic." (The Unknown Movies) Recently unearthed in our dusty archive of 16mm prints, this largely unknown comedy is rumoured to have been co-written by WOODY ALLEN. One thing we know for certain is that screenwriter Mickey Rose (who later wrote the cult college classic STUDENT BODIES) did used to collaborate with Allen. Either way, the humour has all the earmarks of a an early Woody Allen film and centres around the greedy and rather sleazy Oliver (Bob Dishy), who is caught stealing a quarter million dollars from his father-in-law's company. Quickly fired, he is told that the charges will be dropped if he can repay the money within 30 days. No longer in possession of the dough, his solution is to get a life insurance policy for his wife and then have her killed (their relationship is strained to say the least). Things go from bad to worse when "Bobo" the hitman (a Gene Wilder clone if there ever was one) needs to be stopped as the insurance is invalid. The chase begins as the hit is passed on to innumerable sub-hitman and gets Oliver into strange and comedic run-ins with an East Indian symphony conductor, a doctor at a fat farm, a bricklayer, and an Italian soldier... (Dir: Stephen H Stern 85 min. 1976 16mm)

Wednesday October 17 8:30pm
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FILM NIGHT
Sponsored by TRAC and the Network for Affordable Housing
While affordable housing is recognized by the United Nations as a basic human right, it is increasingly a dream for thousands of British Columbians. In BC, more than one million people rent and about half of them pay more than 50% of their income on rent, which doesn't leave much for other life necessities. This is Affordable Housing Week - an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of affordable housing in communities across the province. Tonight we feature two film which promise to tell us a lot about how little has changed in this battle. CITY LIMITS is a forthright, critical analysis of the problems of North American cities by Jane Jacobs, authority and author of books and articles on the subject. A former New Yorker, she chose to live in Toronto because "it is a city that still has options...it hasn't made so many mistakes that it's bound to go downhill". IT'S YOUR RIGHT TO FIGHT FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING is a 45 minute documentary made in 1982 on organizing for affordable housing in Vancouver. Nettie Wild, writer and director, will be on hand to talk about the housing crisis of 1982 and the making of the film. Current housing activists will also be on hand to talk about how both of these films show us how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Call 255-3099, extension 222 for more information! The Tenants' Rights Action Coalition (TRAC) was founded in 1984 and is a coalition of groups and individuals that works to improve the rights of renters and to both preserve and expand rental housing in BC. The Lower Mainland Network for Affordable Housing is also a group that works on affordable housing and homelessness issues in and around Vancouver.

Thursday October 18 8:30pm
BYO8
The last BYO8 of the current schedule - don't miss it! Bring down your old, new, good bad and ugly films, videos and random footage and see it all unfold on the Big Screen. We accept 16mm, Regular and Super 8 and VHS - 10 minutes max (excerpts accepted). And remember, if you bring a film it is only $3 to get in (plus membership).

Friday October 19 8:30pm
THE ORIGINAL HIP-HOP MOVIE:
WILD STYLE
Recognized worldwide as the first true hip-hop film, WILD STYLE documents hip-hop's early days in the boroughs of New York; everything in it is real — the story, style, characters, and most of the actors, are drawn from the community. WILD STYLE follows the exploits of maverick tagger Zoro (real life graffitti artist Lee Quinones), whose work attracts the attention of an East Village art fancier (Patti Astor) and is commissioned to paint the stage for a giant Rapper's Convention. WILD STYLE catches many early hip-hop personalities in action before they went on to the national bigtime including FAB-5 FREDDY, who hosted Yo! MTV Raps from its inception; F5F plays the brash rap promoter Phade. Producer/director/writer Charlie Ahearn credits Freddy for the film's vision of hip-hop as a unified culture. The first film to so link graffitti, break dancing, DJing, and music as a lifestyle and capture the birth of a hip-hop nation, WILD STYLE is among the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's 10 best rock 'n' roll movies of all time, while Vibe magazine voted its soundtrack one of the all-time Top 10. Proof of the film's continuing influence, Wild Style 's music has been sampled by such contemporary stars as Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys, and Beck. NOTE: Unfortunately, director Charlie Ahearn will NOT be able to appear in person with the film due to a schedule conflict. We apologize for this. (90 min. 1982 16mm)

Saturday October 20 8:30pm
MULTIPLEX GRAND, Focal Length: 11
Back after a good long rest following the astounding and controversial MULTIPLEX GRAND FESTIVAL in July, Mplex returns for another intimate evening of experimentation and tinkering with computer wafers, instruments, film and video in this, the eleventh multiplex gathering at the Blinding Light!! Cinema. Regulars 5T-3V3, loscil and Zero Squared return to push the envelope of audio-visual experimentation. As tradition dictates, featured special guests will appear to compliment the sound and light formations. More info as the date approaches at http://members.home.com/multiplex

Sunday October 21 8:30pm
Return of THE PRECIOUS FATHERS
Don't miss this second BL appearance by Vancouver's favoured instrumentalists THE PRECIOUS FATHERS. After a sell-out show in June, the Fathers are back to entrance and mesmerize. "Oh Ye' Precious Fathers, there are questions that remain unanswered, the astounding long journey of the salmon and its shocking return to its original birth place. Tonight we reflect on the obstacles they overtook with the help of each other, the progress obstructions and pylons of pain that they hammered down into the ground and pushed onward to victory over mother nature and her merciless offence. The trophy is recognized. "I look at you salmon, and I am blind, I feel you salmon, and I am blind. Let nothing endanger your freedom". That said, please join us for some lovely musical sounds in agreeable succession". - Michelle Grunert, Josh Lindstrom, Jaret Penner and Tim Loewen.

Tuesday October 23 8:30pm
King Anderson's MY FAVOURITE ARTIST
Tonight we feature the art-chiving of local art fanatic and committed documentarian of art openings and gallery walks KING ANDERSON. Included and back by popular demand is MY FAVOURITE ARTIST a compressed tour of over 70 studios during the 1999 Eastside Culture Crawl, revealing the source of the artists' inspirations. As Ed Varney said, "My favourite artists are my contemporaries." Also featured: CUT & PASTE, the history of collage in Vancouver in an exhibition curated by Ed Varney; OUTDOOR SCULPTURE COLLECTION AT WWU, an artwalk on the campus in Bellingham to see the international sculpture collection; LAWN ORNAMENTAL by Tom S. Thomas, an outdoor poetry installation using large text in Queen Elizabeth Park; KEVIN McKENZIE talks about "simulated blood, horse hair and plenty of chrome" at his solo art show in Deep Cove; R. PYX SUTHERLAND - a visit to see Pyx's sensuous painterly artwork at her studio on Hornby Island; SMALL WORLDS, a look at a 4 person exhibition at the Evergreen Culture Centre that explores the world of imagination through fantasy, parody, dreams and surrealism. Plus some short sharp surprises! Showtime at 8:30 but come at 8 to see the Local Art History Slide Show and remember, Ya Hafta Wanna Look Ata Lotta Art!

Wednesday October 24 8:30pm
King Anderson's ART SEEN IN THE ART SCENE
More from the video lens of gallery and art-chivist KING ANDERSON. This evening includes QUANTITY NOT QUALITY, A HUGE GROUP SHOW the opening night party at the TART Gallery with purple hair, piercings, pin-ups and low brow, comic book, graffiti/tattoo inspired artwork plus plenty of feedback from the artists. Also featured: ECIAD 2001, an edited look at another eye-poppin' thought provoking grad show by emerging BC artists; THE ARTWORK OF CATHY GIBSON, the faces in Cathy Gibson's sculptural wall pieces seem to have a life of their own; ENGLISH BAY ARTWALK, a walk along English Bay with an outdoor sculpture exhibit sponsored by the Buschlen Mowatt Gallery; A VISIT TO WAYNE NGAN'S POTTERY STUDIO ON HORNBY ISLAND; HODGE PODGE, a wacky-doodle sculpture show by Jason McLean & Scott Evans at the Moon Base Gallery; THE BELL/McLEAN WORKOUT, a surreal/dadaist visit with Marc Bell & Jason McLean as they "workout" at their gallery show on South Granville; UBC ARTWALK, a look at public art on campus and the enormous and gorgeous paintings at the Fine Arts Gallery. Plus more short sharp surprises! Showtime at 8:30 but come at 8 to see the Local Art History Slide Show and remember, Ya Hafta Wanna Look Ata Lotta Art!

Thursday October 25 8:30pm
CINEWORKS PRESENTS
REFUSE, REWIND, REPLAY
Back for a third glorious year, this program offers Canadian filmmakers a second chance at local cinematic fame and fortune. Based on the historical tradition of the "Salon des Refuses," this Cineworks presentation showcases an uncurated selection of Canadian short films and videos who were rejected this year by the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival. We invite all film and video makers whose work was refused by the Festival to send their work to US! (To be eligible for the screening, work must be under 30 minutes in length, be in 16mm or VHS screening formats, and be by Canadian media artists.) This event will be programmed by way of a lottery draw: the films and videos to be shown will be determined by a draw made up of all the submissions. We will show as many works as time allows. The deadline for submissions for this event is October 1st, 2000. Call Cineworks at 685-3841 for more info on how to submit your work!

Friday October 26 8:30pm
NERVE TV
The Nerve Magazine presents the first instalment of NERVE TV a night of music videos from some of Vancouver's well known and lesser-known bands as well as short films by local film makers featuring music by local musicians. Videos by local acts JP5, DOA, GLASSHEAD, THE DARKEST OF THE HILLSIDE THICKETS, THOR, NASTY ON, HISSY FIT, MUSCLE BITCHES and more... as well as Lindley Subryan's short THE SECRET TO NICE TIGHT SKIN featuring music by MR. PINK. Submission deadline (yes, there is still time to get your videos shown) is September 15th. Send videos (with SASE if you want it back) to NERVE TV c/o The Nerve Magazine, Box 88042, China Town PO, Vancouver B.C., V6A 4A4.

IT'S AN 8-TRACK WEEKEND!
Saturday October 27 8:30pm
SO WRONG THEY'RE RIGHT 2001
w/ Funeral Party for 8-Track Mind Magazine
RUSS FORSTER IN PERSON!
In 1990, a strange and unlikely magazine grew out of the nostalgic discontent of the end of the century. In Chicago, a few dedicated disbelievers to the gospel of digital sound technologies banded together to work on a periodical that would herald their vision of an "analog revolution" (or, more accurately, counter-revolution). That magazine became the '90s version of 8-Track Mind. Its immediate underground success spurred a feature-film documentary starring editor Russ Forster's favorite 8-track minds in 1995, So Wrong They're Right. Five years later, 8-Track Mind ended with issue #100, a 'zine and an 84-minute video "update" to Forster's well-worn film. Now he has taken his favorite moments from the film and the video and edited them into a compelling final statement on his 10-year adventure. Russ will appear in person to perform last rites for 8-Track Mind, and relate anecdotes about the late 8-track goddess Abigail Lavine, brand new 8-tracks on Nardwuar Records, the portable singing 8-Track Gorilla, and other notables from the 8-track underground.

Sunday October 28 8:30pm
SO WRONG THEY'RE RIGHT: THE MOVIE
Here is the film that changed everything! Don't miss your chance to see the only feature documentary to thoroughly explore the strange and wondrous world of 8-tracks. SO WRONG THEY'RE RIGHT is the lo-fi documentary encapsulating a 10,000-mile journey around the U.S. in search of a group of 8-track fanatics, or "trackers." The result is over 20 interviews which delve into reminiscences, rants, political diatribes, fantasies, fix-it tips, sales pitches and everything else defining the skeptical yet inquisitive mind of the '90s 8-track enthusiast. It's not a film about nostalgia, as some might suggest; it serves as a statement of outrage from a population of consumers who are tired of being told what to consume. Director Russ Forster has toured and recorded with several unknown bands, scripted and directed several short 16mm films, and published the ever-popular 8-Track Minds 'zine since 1990 (see above).

Tuesday October 30 8:30pm
SCI-FI HORROR HAM: THE SECOND COMING
The faggy kittens present a long awaited sequel to the Homophile Art Meet. BRIDE OF HAM is a DIY queer film fest where supervicious super 8 and grisly video clash - like your high school science fair, only everybody is dead, gay and horny. That's right...dirty smutty bum sex with mechanical genitals. See you there, and don't forget your tits assholes. After party to be announced at the show.

Wednesday October 31 8:30pm
EYE OF NEWT COLLECTIVE PLAY LIVE TO F.W. MURNAU'S NOSFERATU
Don't miss this intimate Halloween screening of F. W. Murnau's silent classic NOSFERATU with the stunning musical accompaniment by Vancouver's widely acclaimed and extremely talented EYE OF NEWT COLLECTIVE. NOSFERATU has been called the first genuine horror movie and the most important and influential film in the history of German cinema. By loosely adapting Bram Stoker's Dracula into a purely cinematic retelling using all the available tools of film, theatre and the expressionistic form, Murnau created a movie of unforgettable visuals and genuine creepiness...you may not feel scared watching the film itself, but you'll be surprised at how many images from the movie linger with you long after you've left the theatre. Nosferatu manages to remain one of the most significant entries of the horror genre, relying not on gore, but instead on atmosphere and unsettling imagery. Its influential look can still be felt in modern films and remains one of the most important of film's surviving early works. (Michael Jacobson)