February 2003 |
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Canadian Theatrical Premiere: Jon Moritsugu's
Scumrock
"Part melodrama, part
comic book, part art-damage assemblage, Jon Moritsugu's films unfold like an
amphetamine-laced car crash... The only thing more brutal and abject than the
films of Jon Moritsugu is real life." (Raygun)
I'm saying 'fuck you' to the digital revolution, digital is just another way for The
Man to keep the brothers and sisters down." Jon Moritsugu
We are pleased to present this latest lurid, low-budget feature by Jon Moritsugu (Fame Whore,
Terminal USA, Mod Fuck Explosion) and his first shot on Hi8 video. Made
with his trademark irreverent aesthetic, Moritsugu exploits video for what it
is: an electronic signal rather than a photographic image. A lo-fi satire about the lives of struggling artists in San
Francisco, Scumrock chronicles the
intertwining stories of a group of Bay area hipsters struggling to be creative
on their own terms. Miles is a struggling filmmaker and record collecting geek
in his late-twenties, freaking out that he's too old. He is about to shoot his
first independent feature film Death, sorta based on the fact that both his
parents were recently killed in a freak car accident. Miles' know-it-all friend
Jelly agrees to produce the flick. She's a student at San Francisco State and
hating every minute of it. Meanwhile on the other side of town, Roxxy and her
punk rock band rehearse for their upcoming comeback gig. Aside from the
pressures of breaking in a new bass player, Roxxy must also contend with the
fact that she can't drive and must rely on her snotty kid brother for rides,
she's 27 and still lives with her folks, and worst of all her real name is the
very uncool Amy. Scumrock features the filmmaker's
usual stock company of players, including leading lady Amy Davis (as Roxxy), the exquisitely
named Victor of Aquitaine, along
with cameos from Bay area filmmaking legends Danny Plotnick, Valerie Soe, and Craig Baldwin.
(80 mins 2002)
Saturday, February 1 at 8:30pm
Sunday, February 2 at 8:30pm |
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Best of ResFest
Don't miss this stellar collection of 16 hand-picked short films from the archives of
RESFEST, a preeminent event that travels the world showcasing outstanding
works from emerging digital media artists in the areas of filmmaking, broadcast design and
music video. Highlights include Snack and Drink, now a part of the permanent
collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Mike Mill's Deformer,
a portrait of legendary skateboarder and artists Ed Templeton, Tongues and Taxis,
Michael Overbeck's award-winning hand-drawn animation tour-de-force, and Vancouver's own Stephen
X Arthur's Vision Point, a dizzying rhythm of mountains and horizon,
relentlessly moving forward but never quite reaching it. (80 min 2002)
Tuesday, February 4 at 8:30pm
Wednesday, February 5 at 8:30pm |
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"Doc In the House"
Mother Dao the Turtle Like
With Colin Browne
More than 260,000 meters of 35mm
documentary nitrate film footage from the Dutch film archives served as the
source material for this documentary. In a span of ninety minutes the film aims
to show how the Netherlands administered its colony as a colonial enterprise and
what the relations were like at the time. The usual commentary has been omitted
and in its place poems and songs in Bahasa Indonesia have been included in a
digital sound composition. In Mother Dao the Turtlelike, the
viewer sees how the colonial machinery in the 1920s was implanted in a world so
different from Western Europe. He or she will witness various phenomena and
aspects of that colonial enterprise - then at its peak - which, thanks to
cinematography, were recorded. The shoots for the more than one thousand 35mm
nitrate documentary films took place in the Dutch West Indies between 1912 and
about 1933. All belong to the collections of the two Dutch film archives, and in
the meantime the main corpus has been preserved. The film has screened at
forty-eight international film festivals and has received eighteen awards and
prizes. The film was proclaimed the best Dutch film of 1995. Introducing the
film will be local documentary filmmaker and SFU Communications Department
teacher Colin Browne. (90 mins
1995)
(DOC IN THE HOUSE is a monthly series sponsored by the Canadian
Independent Film Caucus, curated and hosted by Clancy Dennehy)
Thursday, February 6 at 8:30pm |
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Vancouver Premiere: Ileana Pietrobruno's
Girl King
Music by Amon Tobin
Starring Michael-Ann Connor, Crystal Donbraith and Victoria Deschanel.
Don't miss the local premiere of this sexy, gender-bending pirate adventure. Naïve baby Butch
is taken prisoner by lusty pirate Captain Candy, and enlisted on a hunt to
reclaim the Queen's stolen treasure. In this playful and rollicking
swashbuckler, drag king pirates take to the high seas on a quest to restore
stolen treasures. The gender-skewed adventures begin when Butch, a handsome but
naive baby butch, is compelled by the Queen to seek out and bring back her
purloined koilos - the source of all pleasures and the very key to order and
harmony on her island. As an additional inducement, however, the Queen holds out
to Butch the promised return of the hostaged Claudia, a beautiful and feisty
femme whose not about to sit idly by awaiting rescue. Under the Queen's wrathful
gaze, tops are bottomed, tranny sailors seduce pirate captains, kings are
mothers and cross-dressing femmes pack a wallop. Decidedly tongue-in-cheek, this
clever tale uses a stylish pastiche of pirated images and themes to lead us
into the uncharted oceans of dyke desire and queer identity. With the added
bonus of an amazing soundtrack by electronic music whiz Amon Tobin
, GIRL KING is a uniquely erotic tale
that is both sexy and thoughtful. (80 mins 2002)
Friday, February 7 at 8:30pm
Saturday, February 8 at 8:30pm
Sunday, February 9 at 8:30pm |
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S. Siobhan McCarthy's
SPIRALING WITHIN
SPIRALING WITHIN is an odyssey into the mind of a young woman. Kayla pops her pills of
choice and trips through bus rides, raves and psych wards… Written by S. Siobhan McCarthy
and Directed by Mercede Baines, SPIRALING WITHIN is a bold, innovative multi-media one-woman
show that combines statistics, dance, movement and darkly humoured scenes to explore mental
illness and examine the system from the inside out. The play explores the issues that surround
Depression, Obsessions, Anxiety, Bi-Polar Disorder and the ways in which these are dealt with
by society, families and individuals. Adapted from the enormously successful, Who Are You
Calling Crazy!?!, SPIRALING WITHIN guarantees to stimulate, educate and entertain both youth
and adults alike.
Who Are You Calling Crazy!?! is proof that live theatre lacks no courage when tackling tough
issues -Peter Birnie,
The Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, February 11 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 12 at 8:00pm
Thursday, February 13 at 8:00pm
Friday, February 14 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 15 at 8:00pm
Sunday, February 16 at 2:00pm |
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Westcoast Premiere: James Motluck's
Life Under Mike
Rarely are Canadians permitted a tough, unforgiving look at some of the skeletons stacked in
their own closets. (The Globe & Mail) Motluk's gritty digital video documentary shot in 18
months but edited over a period of roughly two years traces the not-so-slow dissolution of
the low-income Ontarian's basic standard of living under Mike Harris empty food banks, broken
strikes and a terrifying montage of street-level survival tactics that begins with sales of
Outreach and soup from the back of a truck, then sinks inexorably through cardboard-box houses
and garbage-bag tents to the autopsy room at the local morgue. (Eye Weekly)
LIFE UNDER MIKE is a political documentary crammed with wit and biting social commentary.
A powerful, gripping expose of the neo conservative common sense revolution in Ontario, this
film gives a much needed voice to those citizens displaced and marginalized by the corporate
agenda. Telling a story that reverberates around the industrialized world, LIFE UNDER MIKE
offers a caustic and critical challenge to the status quo view that free trade, small government
and enormous corporate dollars benefit society. Funded by a host of private contributors, among
them, the Canadian Auto Workers, United Steel Workers of America and filmmaker MICHAEL MOORE, the
film includes interviews with economist John Kenneth Galbraith, a music score by Tad Winklarz and
the songs Man of Peace by Bob Dylan and The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen, and was
honoured at the Canadian Media Human Rights Awards in 2001. Preceded by a surprise short from
the vault.
Tuesday, February 18 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 19 at 8:00pm |
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BYO8: Bring Your Own Film
This is the night you take over and show us exactly what you want to preferably something of the
moving image variety…home movie, found footage, how-to, and works in progress we accept VHS, DVD,
Super 8, 16mm, and please keep it under 10 minutes. Remember, its always cheaper to get in if you
are carrying, so go make that movie.
Thursday, February 20 at 8:00pm |
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Harry Smith:
American Magus
Perhaps now best known for his Anthology of American Folk Music, HARRY SMITH was also a brilliant
filmmaker, anthropologist and occultist. Paola Igliori was fortunate to spend the last months of
Smith's life with this genius, and her documentary AMERICAN MAGUS sketches a fascinating portrait
of this influential figure. Featured are interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frank, Jonas Mekas
stills from his astounding film works and countless collections, diagrams and rare archive material,
all sketching a fascinating portrait of the man who influenced artists from Gregory Corso to DJ
Spooky. Born May 29 1923 in Portland, Harry Smith - a child prodigy - compiled a dictionary of
Puget Sound native dialects and as a teenager began to make field recordings of native and folk
song. Decades later he would win an Honorary Grammy for his 1952 multi-volume Anthology of American
Folk Music and Bob Dylan would say Without Harry Smith I wouldn't have existed. Moving to Berkeley
after WWII, Harry turned to jazz paintings and hanging out with poets Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer.
In the mid-50s, he moved to New York and began exhibiting his unsurpassed hand-painted films. An
intellectual wizard of the Beat scene, he cross-fertilized his vast knowledge of anthropology,
linguistics, the occult, folk music and design patterns with his painstaking genius as a visual
and cinema artist. His influence on the 60s and everything that followed that cultural revolution
is incalculable. (VIFF)
To me he was the multimedia guy. He's like an improvisational archivist. Someone who gives shape
and meaning to memory.-DJ Spooky
He was a genius, the only person I met who transcended everything. He always gave an answer that
was the end of the line; you didn't have to go through all the shit.-Robert Frank
Friday, February 21 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 22 at 8:00pm
Sunday, February 23 at 8:00pm |
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Taylor Meade in
Curious White Boy
Taylor Mead was one of the first ever underground film stars, starting out in North Beach in
San Francisco in the fifties in Ron Rice's 'The Flower Thief' and Vern Zimmerman's 'Lemon
Hearts', which Andy Warhol had seen at the Film-Makers Co-op. He later starred in many of
Warhol's film classics including Tarzan and Jane Regained…Sort of. One of the few Superstars
who didn't overdose or disappear completely, Mead has never wavered from his strange ways.
With CURIOUS WHITEBOY, Wright Thomas has created a story about a curious man (played by Taylor
Mead) whose curious life is centered in New York City. Utterly breaking with convention, the
film resembles a languorous Kuchar brothers collaboration in the crispness of an NYC autumn,
indulging in just the right ways at just the right times, while also as daring, frustrating
and indulgent as Warhol's works with Mead. In the director's words: It's delicately fractured
shards and pieces are woven from across the whole of the twentieth century into a surreal
tapestry that rides like a fleamarket flying carpet with Taylor at the wheel, lit by his own
sun and blown by eleven winds into the hazy haphazard horizon of the future… Steve Buscemi
said he couldn't believe that something so 'beat' could be made in this day and age- it would
take a lot of money to make a film look the way CWB looks naturally. And I just heard that
Nick Nolte is consoling himself every evening watching CWB since they took away his license
to drive. Taylor Mead, himself, says it's 'the most beautiful picture you'll never see' -
a statement a bit too close to the bone, I am afraid, as is the flick itself. (W. Thomas)
(120 min 2002)
Tuesday, February 25 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 26 at 8:00pm |
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Art on Film
Philip Guston: A Life Lived + Alice Neel
PHILIP GUSTON: A LIFE LIVED catches Guston at an important stage in his development as an artist;
late in his career in the 1970's, when he has returned to figurative paintings that are packed
with symbols, both political and autobiographical. That an established and respected artist like
Guston, who was considered a major figure in the New York School of the 40's and 50's, would make
such a drastic stylistic change shocked and outraged the art world. Yet, this later work is what he
is known for today, and was influential to a generation of artists known as Neo-Expressionists who
were emboldened to paint in a similar figurative style. The film takes us to his studio in Woodstock,
where he discusses his philosophy and motivations while he works on a large canvas that he ultimately
paints over the next day, feeling that it did not succeed. As his retrospective is being installed at
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the artist reflects on four decades of his work. His statements
in response to questions from critics and art historians constitute a testament.
PLUS: ALICE NEEL, A PORTRAIT Alice Neel has been acclaimed as one of the most profound portrait
painters of the modern era. In this short video, the painter is interviewed late in life discussing
her process and her work. (TRT 90 mins)
Thursday, February 27 at 8:00pm |
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Harry Nillson's The Point
With Musical Guests
Ringo Starr narrates the famed animated feature dreamt up, written and produced by the late Harry Nilsson,
based on his album of the same name and featuring the hit song Me and My Arrow. In a land where everyone
and everything has a point, the birth of a pointless child throws the kingdom into an existential crisis
that is temporarily resolved by banishing the youngster Oblio to the Pointless Forest with his pet (and
accomplice) Arrow. On their journey, Oblio and Arrow meet a bizarre stable of characters no doubt inspired
by Nilsson's many acid trips. Furthermore, they discover that just because someone or something seems to
have a point doesn't mean they do, and sometimes the most seemingly pointless things are the most integral
to human existence. A treat for Nilsson aficionados and '70's animation fans alike, THE POINT will be
preceded by a musical performance in memory of this visionary artist.
Friday, February 28 at 8:00pm |
March 2003 (top) |
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Mark Street in person with the Canadian Premiere of
At Home and Asea
AT HOME AND ASEA is MARK STREET's collage of portraits charting the disillusionment shared by a group of
Baltimore denizens. Street, whose previous work (some screened on his last visit) includes striking
abstract pieces, as well as films in which he's scratched and bleached the emulsion, here works with
digital video; this allows him to capture intimate and casual moments with his subjects, who include
three single mothers, a 23-year-old beer-drinking slacker and a man trying to understand his deceased
father's life by revisiting what the elderly man left behind. While it's never entirely clear what's
scripted and what's real, the video nevertheless gradually acquires a weighty torpor as the characters
fight the inertia wrought by the exhausting, uphill struggle to create lives that live up to expectations.
Street has always been adept at aligning invisible emotions with their physical counterparts, and here he
perfectly captures his subjects' anomie with images of Baltimore's anonymous buildings and blighted
neighborhoods. Their growing despair is perhaps best embodied, though, in shots showing boats bobbing slowly
up and down on the gray water against the evanescent, lead-colored fog. (Holly Willis)
Street's amalgam of documentary and fiction is poignant and, thanks to Guy Yarden's score, anxiety-provoking.
It's also a subtly crafted portrait of an economically blighted city, pulled between North and South and
central to neither. (Amy Taubin, Village Voice)
Saturday, March 1 at 8:00pm |
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Eye of Newt Play Live to
The Dark Crystal
THE DARK CRYSTAL is a visual feast of impressive alien landscapes and outlandish, brashly original creatures
thrust into a fantasy world of Jim Henson's imagining. The world of THE DARK CRYSTAL is inhabited by two races:
The Skekses, a race of evil and corrupt birdlike creatures who wallow in luxury and gluttony hidden away in a
dark castle where they keep the Dark Crystal and use it's awesome power to maintain their life-force over the
centuries. The Mystics, a race of gentle, soft-spoken Wisemen who live close to the earth in simple homes in a
valley. The Skekses have used their dark army of bug like soldiers to dominate the planet, wiping out lesser
races entirely. One such race, the Gelflings, is survived by only one member, Jen, who has been raised since
childhood by the Mystics. Now, as the planets begin to align, the all-knowing Mystics send Jen on an all-important
quest to seek out the shard, which alone can be used to heal the Dark Crystal and destroy the Skekses once and
for all. (94 mins, 1982)
Sunday, March 2 at 8:00pm |
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WestCoast Premiere:
Schmelvis
Nobody knew Elvis was Jewish until the influential Wall Street Journal published an article in 1998, 'All
Shook Up in the Holy Land' exposing the King's improbable lineage. Elvis was very aware of his Jewish roots,
according to Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan who told the Journal, 'It was something Elvis was aware of and
certainly was sensitive to.' SCHMELVIS is the story of a true life Montreal-based Jewish Elvis impersonator
named Dan Hartal. For years, Hartal has worked as an entertainer at Jewish senior citizens' homes in his
incarnation as Schmelvis singing his own versions of Elvis songs in a Jewish musical style. SCHMELVIS
follows Hartal on a bizarre odyssey to Elvis's Graceland home in Memphis to say Kaddish the Jewish prayer
for the dead at Elvis's grave. Stopping at roadside diners in his Winnebago down Highway 61, Schmelvis
mingles with rednecks, truckers, white trash and middle Americans. Bizarre and unpredictable reactions result
as he tries to convince his fellow travellers that Elvis was a Jew. SCHMELVIS sheds facinating light onto
contemporary idol worship and the serious quest of an Orthodox Jew in an Elvis costume. (Dir Max Wallace 80min 2002)
Tuesday, March 4 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 5 at 8:00pm |
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Docs in the House Presents Celluloid Dreams
With Director James Dunnison
A handful of filmmakers constantly push the envelope of our imagination. They speak in an exciting visual
language, and their stories and imagery charm and disturb us in ways that often defy description. CELLULOID
DREAMS takes an intimate look into the artistic processes and inspirations of the directors who transport us
beyond our dreamiest dreams. By constantly challenging the boundaries of what is conventional and familiar
in cinema, these filmmakers have a proven genius for delighting us one minute and making our hair stand on
end the next. CELLULOID DREAMS explores the films of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway), Jean-Pierre
Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children), Guy Maddin (Careful, The Heart of the World), and the Brothers Quay
(The Comb, Institute Benjamenta). Exclusive interviews with these directors illuminate the metaphors and
motivations behind their enchanting and spine-tingling visions. Director JAMES DUNNISON will be in attendance
to introduce and discuss the film.
Thursday, March 6 at 8:00pm |
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Sistahood 2003: Reel Sista's
The Sista'Hood Celebration is a collaborative production from Burning Will Creative and
Velocity Media Arts Services Society that celebrates International Women's Day and raises
money for the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. From March 7-9th 2003 SISTA'HOOD will
include a Film festival, workshops and a live Hip Hop event at Sonar. Friday March 7th
2003 will feature the Reel Sista's film festival that will include independent films and
productions by women from around the world. Tickets are $5 per film. Check www.sistahoodcelebration.com
for details.
Friday, March 7 at 8:00pm |
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Canadian Premiere: Andrew Bujalski's
Funny Ha-Ha
Named INDIEWIRE's BEST UNDISTRIBUTED film of the year
FUNNY HA HA is the most refreshing and exciting debut feature from an American
independent filmmaker to come along in years.
-Olympia Film Festival
FUNNY HA HA is a wonderful film! It is light and fragile as life, it's
unpredictability is so painful to accept and follow. It has strange power,
innocence, charm and brainless wisdom, a most difficult thing to accomplish.
I am still under its grip! Bravo maestro!...Vulnerability turned into a sword!
-Dusan Makavejev (WR: Mysteries of the Organism, Montenegro, Sweet Movie)
Unfussy and bracingly direct in its visuals, nuanced and comically detailed in
its performances, the film finds a careful balance of sweetness and melancholy
in an understated examination of romantic flailing. —Cinematexas
Marnie is a 23-year-old girl living alone in Boston and facing all of the
classic navel-gazing challenges of love, work, indulgence, etc. Maintaining
her humor and dignity to the best of her ability, she ping-pongs between
several awkward boy situations and tries to find her footing. But that is
only the beginning of what has proven to be one of the most understated,
inspired and genuinely independent films of the past year. We are thrilled to
be presenting FUNNY HA HA for its Canadian Premiere, with the hopes that director
Andrew Bujalski will find a way to be in attendance (he wants to be, he really
does!). (90 mins 16mm 2002)
Saturday, March 8 at 8:00pm
Sunday, March 9 at 8:00pm |
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Freedom Downtime
FREEDOM DOWNTIME is the story of computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, imprisoned
without bail for nearly five years. The film tries to uncover the reasons
why the authorities are so scared of Mitnick as well as define what exactly
he did. As word of a new Hollywood movie portraying Mitnick as a terrorist
becomes known, hackers begin to turn to activism to get their message out.
Through interviews with relatives, friends, lawyers, and experts in the
computer and civil liberties arena, a picture of a great injustice becomes
apparent. A cross-country journey uncovers some realities of the hacker
culture as well as the sobering reality that so many technically adept young
people seem destined for prison. Featuring an original soundtrack by Theta
Wave State. Director Emmanuel Goldstein has been publishing 2600 Magazine,
The Hacker Quarterly since 1984. He also hosts America's largest hacker radio
show on WBAI.Winner of the Audience Award for Documentaries at the New York
International Independent Film and Video Festival, 2002
(121 minutes, 2001)
Tuesday, March 11 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 12 at 8:00pm |
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Nyla Raney Presents:
This Side Up: The Slide Show
Join us for an inspired and inventive evening of slide shows with THIS SIDE UP.
Looking nothing like those long drawn out evenings at your auntie's, this
evening each of the participants have put together individual slide segments
with some adding sound design. Each presentation runs for approximately 3
minutes and each approaches the idea of the slide show in new and original
ways, from unconventional takes on the traditional family holiday style to
everything beyond. Featuring slides that are alternately hand-made, found,
altered and more, these short shows have been created by a number of artists
from across the country.
Donate a slide to the event and get a buck off admission!
Thursday, March 13 at 8:00pm |
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Norwood Cheek in person with Flicker's
Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
Join us as L.A.-based Super 8 afficionado NORWOOD CHEEK graces us with his presence for
the latest round of FLICKER mania entitled THE ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT REELS. Fifteen
filmmakers were each given a roll of Super 8 film with instructions to make a film edited
entirely in camera. Furthermore, their sound was to be designed without seeing the images
they had shot. In this massive risk-taking venture, they got one roll: one take and move
on, one chance at getting it right. Filmmakers featured include FLICKER favourites Norwood
Cheek himself, Peyton Reed, John Schultz, Erik Andersen, David Palmer and others! That's
50 feet - 3:20 to make it work - all shot on Super 8 film and presented to you when Flicker
comes to town with THE ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT REELS. Don't miss it!
NOTE: THe TIME AND DATE FOR THIS SHOW ARE CORRECT AS BELOW, THE PRINTED CALENDAR IS INCORRECT.
Friday, March 14 at 8:00pm |
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Sol Nagler in person with: The Centre's Crooked
Manifestations of Manitoba Mania
From the vaults of the infamous Winnipeg Film Group and Video Pool come a collection
of short films and videos stretching over three decades of works featuring numerous
manifestations of acute mania. Included in the program are JON KROCKER'S maddened
dance routines in 38 JANSKY UNITS, WENDY GELLER's sarcastically improvised one woman
sketch routines in SEVEN, GORD WILDING's perverted pedophillic classic RAPTURE, and
CLIVE HOLDEN's haunting exploration of poetic suburban spaces in NEIGHBORS WALK SOFTLY.
Also featured: Royal Art Lodge Members MICHAEL DUMONTIER & DRUE LANGLOIS' THERE'S A WHOLE
WORLD OF SURPRISES, JEFFREY ERBACH's MONDAY WITH THE MARTINS, RUSS DYCK's JOE 90, and more.
Bring your own Ritalin, this collection will take you on the emotional roller-coaster that
we call Angst in the Flatlands! (Curated by Sol Nagler, 95 mins)
NOTE: THE TIME AND DATE FOR THIS SHOW ARE CORRECT AS BELOW, THE PRINTED CALENDAR IS INCORRECT.
Saturday, March 15 at 8:00pm |
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Neil Young's Cult Classic
Human Highway
Working under the nom de plume Bernard Shakey, Young conceived, starred in, and
directed this gleefully incomprehensible mess of a feature film the
make-it-up-as-we-go-along script has something to do with a diner, a nuclear power
plant, and a geeky mechanic (Young) who dreams of being a rock star. The exquisite
B-movie cast - Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Sally Kirkland, and Russ (Twin Peaks)
Tamblyn - seems to be enjoying itself immensely, especially musical troublemakers
Devo, who pop up throughout as a sort of radioactive Greek chorus, and whose
10-minute version of Hey Hey, My My has to be heard - and seen - to be believed.
A must for fans of Young in particular and defiantly bad movies in general. (John
Sakamoto) Though the visual style has been compared to Coppola's One From the Heart,
it might be more aptly described as The Wizard of Oz on acid. Cameos by Young's wife
Pegi (as a motorcyle mama) and folksinger David Blue (as a milkman)! (83 mins 1982)
Sunday, March 16 at 8:00pm |
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Paul Richmond in person with:
Canadian Premiere: Urban Warrior
Within recent years, the formerly bright line separating U.S. military operations from
domestic police work has become increasingly blurred. From Waco, to the WTO protests,
tactics once reserved for wartime combat are being used in domestic law enforcement
operations with increasing frequency. During the 1980s and 90s, the Pentagon began
supplying both military training and surplus military hardware to domestic law enforcement
agencies. Paramilitary SWAT teams, utilizing urban combat tactics, sub-machine guns, and
armored personnel carriers, now exist in 90% of American cities with a population of
50,000 or more. URBAN WARRIOR investigates the history of this trend as it has evolved
over the last three decades, and examines case studies of militarized policing ranging
from the Seattle WTO protests, to the Elian Gonzalez raid, to the SWAT team shooting of
Miami resident Richard Brown. Our guest over these two nights, PAUL RICHMOND, is a
Seattle attorney and longtime activist. He established the National Lawyers Guild legal
observer program prior to the WTO protests, and helped found the original Independent
Media Center. Paul authored the National Lawyer's Guild report on the WTO, and also acted
as an advisor for the documentary URBAN WARRIOR.
Tuesday, March 18 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 19 at 8:00pm |
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BYO8: Bring Your Own Film
Bring it on down and let's have a look-see it is that time once again, an opportunity for you to show
us your goods we accept VHS, DVD, 16mm and Super 8. And we need you to keep it under 10 minutes so we
can squeeze everyone in. All styles, genres and obsessions accepted!
Thursday, March 20 at 8:00pm |
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Canadian Premiere: Filmgruppe Chaos'
Faites Vos Jeux
FAITES VOS JEUX is the latest collaborative effort from the German Super 8 collective
FILMGRUPPE CHAOS (who last brought us the astounding MALDOROR) and A.K.A.S. in loose
cooperation with the Copyright Violation Squad. A project made without using a camera,
the film is a collection of pirated images/'samples' from home movies, adverts, art-videos,
TV news, documentaries, game shows and feature films from Hollywood to Bollywood. Assembled
using old video-mixers and PC's running on cracked/ freeware programs, the final video-mix-mash
was transferred to film stock where the negative was further abused and transformed via healthy
doses of sandpaper, acid, felt-pens, 'Letraset', sharp blades and other devices. To top it off,
the soundtrack was created by 18 artists from Germany, Japan, Australia, Poland, UK, Lithuania,
France, the US and Turkey. What results is a a wholly engaging and entirely radical story that
travels through time. Beginning with the image of a baby born around 1970 and then on to
events/experiences such as his first day at school, the film follows him to the very end of his
life. Along the way the film melds in the parallel universe of political events, music, and media
styles along the way. We witness the events surrounding the deaths of Germany's Red Army Faction
(Baader-Meinhof Group) in a high-security prison, the rise of the punk movement and early eighties
new wave culture, and eventually move on to the Gulf War, the WTO-riot in Genoa and ultimately
to a 'mega-media-mix' showdown of the events of 9/11 and the war against terror featuring beloved
heroes John W. Wayne and George Rambo. Radical in form and aggressive in politics, FAITES VOS JEUX
is an assault on the senses that breathes firey energy.
Friday, March 21 at 8:00pm
Saturday, March 22 at 8:00pm |
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The "Work Sucks" Tour
With Marc Moscato and Dave Roche
Eugene, Oregan's Marc Moscato and Portland's Dave Roche team up to hit the road, bringing
their collection of labor-related films and zines on their WORK SUCKS TOUR. Roche's zine
ON SUBBING documents his three-year stint as a substitute teacher in the Portland school
system. Roche hilariously retells stories of his experience at his job, including being
regularly mistaken for a student and getting beat up in school. Roche's readings are well
known for their unpredictability and audience involvement, such as when he read his zine
while doing push ups and sit ups, or at the Portland Zine Symposium, when Roche read
riding on a tricycle. Marc Moscato will be presenting his THE BEST OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING
VIDEOS, a half-hour montage the weirdest, funniest and most disturbing moments from the
annals of management propaganda. Rapping hamburgers, stripping scientists, layabouts and
brown-nosers, horny bosses and herbal boob enhancers, this entirely unlicensed collage
comes to us courtesy of the mysterious GGC Corporation. Compiled by solicitations for
people to steal training videos from their place of employment for the project, the final
product interweaves these training tapes with a narrative of an employee's first week at
a new job, leaving the viewer in a manic state between the humor of its absurdity and the
creepiness of its reality. Also screening is COMPLIANCE CULTURE, a look at an organizational
consultant whose fascist rhetoric is likely to make your skin crawl. Lecturing an audience
of managers, the speaker proselytizes on how to beat that pesky free will out of employees,
comparing them to untrained puppies! Moscato has been involved with non-commercial
independent culture for many years, self-publishing numerous zines and making videos on a
shoestring budget. Moscato recently co-founded My House (www.notmyhouse.com), a microcinema
based in Eugene, Oregon. Moscato is currently a graduate student at the University of Oregon
and teaches several classes, including Art, Human Values and Zines and Do It Yourself
Democracy.
Sunday, March 23 at 8:00pm |
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The Maysles Brothers' Classic
Grey Gardens
A stunner. Half humorous, half horrific and 100% mesmerizing. - The New York Post
Haunting. - The New York Times
GREY GARDENS is the unbelievable but true story of Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter
Edie, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Mother and daughter live in a
world of their own behind the towering privets that surround their decaying 28-room East
Hampton mansion known as Grey Gardens, a place so far gone that the local authorities once
threatened to evict them for violating building and sanitation codes. The incident made
national headlines American royalty, living in squalor! Little Edie was an aspiring actress
of striking beauty who put her New York life on hold to care for her mother - and never left
her side again. Together they descended into a until the Maysles arrived with their camera and
tape recorder. The Beales were ready for their close-ups. Little Edie a still-attractive woman
at 56 parades about coquettishly in her trademark improvised turbans (her wildly original
ensembles inspired a 9-page fashion spread in a 1998 issue of Harper's Bazaar and a 1999 issue
of Italian Vogue), reminisces about her brilliant past, still hoping that her Big Chance and
Big Romance are just around the corner. Big Edie, trained soprano in her bohemian days, trills
romantic songs of yesteryear in a slightly wobbly, but still rich voice. The women bicker,
prattle, and flirt like characters out of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill. The film is a
bittersweet love story, a record of the powerful and complex relationship between mother and
daughter. (Dir David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke, 94
min 1976)
Tuesday, March 25 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 26 at 8:00pm |
|
Eye of Newt Play Live to
The Seventh Seal
Join the EYE OF NEWT with their live accompaniment to classic Bergman. The film that gained
Ingmar Bergman an international reputation, THE SEVENTH SEAL is an all-out religious allegory
addressing that most-contemplated question, Does God exist? The film's imagery is among the
most memorable ever put on screen—the image of Death wandering the countryside remains
unforgettable. (96 mins 1957)
Thursday, March 27 at 8:00pm |
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The Return of
The Precious Fathers
Join us for an evening of quiet, thoughtful and inspired live music as Vancouver's favourite
instrumentalists grace us once again with their beautiful sounds and subtle presence. Expect
their trademark visuals for added flare and retinal focus
Friday, March 28 at 8:00pm |
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The Criminal Cinema Presents the Canadian Premiere of:
Candy Von Dewd & the Girls From Latexsploitia
In the 22nd century,
mankind faces extinction: radioactive waste, ozone depletion, genetic engineering,
tight polyester pants, and other forms of bio-plunder have wrecked the genome and
abolished scores of nature's laws, and worldwide fertility rates are dropping.
Scientists fear that at the present rate procreative feasibility will not last into
the 23rd century. 174 'Rocket Leroy' expeditions now search the galaxy. Their
mission: to locate seedable life forms and a possible solution to Humankind's
fertility problem. Because of their extreme potency entropy each mission is armed
with an experimental new drug. The drug is Vakuta-16. Join us for the Canadian
Premiere of this unabashedly bad latex-jammed Barbarella-style opus of sci-fi punk
and Amazonian erectronica. CANDY VON DEWD AND THE GIRLS FROM LATEXPLOITIA carries
influences from science fiction films of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Equal parts
Barbarella, 2001, and Forbidden Planet, the film was, appropriately enough, shot
through the facilities of The Werepad, San Francisco's cult/exploitation cinema
lounge. (70 mins DVD 2002)
Saturday, March 29 at 8:00pm
Sunday, March 30 at 8:00pm |
April 2003 (top) |
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Beat Films!
Fried Shoes, Cooked Diamonds, PLUS ALfred Leslie and Robert Frank's Pull My Daisy
A serious and spontaneous account of conversations, teachings and home scenes of
myself and the poets...including singing, nakedness, meditation and readings. (Allen
Ginsberg) FRIED SHOES, COOKED DIAMONDS is a look at the survivors of America's Beat
Movement who spend summers as guests and faculty members at the controversial Jack
Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
As Allen Ginsberg narrates, performances emerge from Gregory Corso, Timothy Leary,
William Burroughs, Peter Orlvosky, Meredith Monk, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Miguel
Pinero and Ginsberg himself. This rare film also includes footage of the nuclear
protest at Rocky Flats, with Ginsberg reading Plutonium Ode and Corso reading Bomb.
(Dir: Costanzo Allione, 16mm 55mins 1979) PLUS: PULL MY DAISY: The only film the
Beat writers of the 1950's actually created themselves PULL MY DAISY is at its core
a fun and largely spontaneous experiment arranged in 1959 by the well-known
photographer Robert Frank and filmmaker and painter Alfred Leslie. Enlisting the
participation of Jack Kerouac, who offered in place of an original screenplay a
stage-play he'd never finished writing, the plot is based on an incident in the
life of Neal Cassady and his wife Carolyn. Kerouac provides the voice-over as Allen
Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, artist Larry Rivers and musician David Amram act out the scenes
'A wonderful glimpse into the lives of the major Beat writers at a time when they were
still not too trapped by their legendary personas to do something silly in public,
just for the sake of doing it.' (TRT 85 mins)
Tuesday, April 1 at 8:30pm
Wednesday, April 2 at 8:30pm |
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An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcom Lowry,
With Gilles Roy
Doc in the House: Volcano
Author of one of the major novels of the 20th century, Under the Volcano,
Malcolm Lowry fought a winning battle with words, and a losing battle with
liquor. On-location shooting in four countries, archival photographs,
readings by Richard Burton from Lowry's novel, and interviews with the
people who loved and hated him give the film a terrifying immediacy. More
than a portrait, it is a reflection on the greater agony of man, and remains
to this day one of director Donald Brittain's most original contributions to
the documentary genre. (1976 - 90min.)
Gilles Roy is workshop educator at the Montreal-based CineRobotheque of the
National Film Board of Canada where he presents NFB documentary history. He
is also creative director for 26 media inc. where he is currently developing
an online course for web-based collaborative documentary.
-Free Admission-
(thanks to the NFB and 26media)
Thursday, April 3 at 8:00pm |
|
Other Cinema's
Experiments in Terror
SEE: The Monster Attack the Slumber Party!
Alfred Hitchcock's tour of Norman Bates' Mansion!
Horrific subliminals in PSYCHORAMA!
Terrifying Trailers of Future Attractions, COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU!
Courtesy of the folks down at OTHER CINEMA (Craig Baldwin's weekly microcinema in San Fran),
EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR exhibits recent work of experimental filmmakers working within and in
dialogue with the genre of the horror film. As a counterpoint in that dialogue, it also
assembles a rarely screened collection of trailers, clips, and other celluloid strangeness
from the best (and worst!) of cinematic horror. Carey Burtt explores the horrific nature of
schizophrenia in THE PSYCHOTIC ODYSSEY OF RICHARD CHASE, Martha Colburn's psycho-spazzumentaries
finally return as we feature SPIDERS IN LOVE and EVIL OF DRACULA, PLUS: Kerry Laitala's abstract
mediation on murder JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN, David Sherman's TUNING THE SLEEPING MACHINE explores
early cinema's obsession with the subconscious, J.X. Williams' terrifying, screaming plunge to the
depths of hell THE VIRGIN SACRIFICE and MORE!!
Friday, April 4 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 5 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 6 at 8:00pm |
|
Canadian Premiere of Richard Sandler's
The Gods of Times Square
-BEST DOCUMENTARY, CHICAGO UNDERGROUND—AUDIENCE AWARD, ROTTERDAM FILM FEST-
Shouting, mumbling, or merely raving, the multiple blessed, repressed, and possessed street preachers of
Times Square were as New York as the Yankees or subway muggings. Filmed from 1993-1998, Richard Sandler's
documentary captures not only a way of New York life in all its wondrous, stunning chaos, but also its slow,
strangled transformation into a Giuliani-sponsored sanitized hell of chain stores, corporate malls and
Disney parades. Wandering the streets with his hand-held camera and microphone, Sandler interviews Christian
fundamentalists, Muslim fundamentalists, militant white Jews, militant black Jews, those who preach holy war,
those who preach good orgasms, and those who just dig Lucifer's kinkiness, so let's go see some girls, man.
Homeless visionaries, panhandling philosophers, Jimi Hendrix impersonators, porno addicts, impromptu
exorcisms of the Anti-Christ, Mickey Mouse and prognostications of Jesus' eventual return with a triple
platinum grunge albumhere are all the gods anyone could want, and possibly even more. (2002 112 min)
Tuesday, April 8 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, April 9 at 8:00pm |
|
Back By request: Guy Debord's
Society of the Spectacle
Debord's incisive and unrelenting film SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE seems more relevant now than ever as it
explores the very essence of our culture's sleep-walking complicity in maintaining an ignorance of the
blood-soaked impact of commodity culture, while remaining in apolitical awe of its spectacle. 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)
Thursday, April 10 at 8:00pm |
|
West Coast Premiere: George Ratliff's
Hell House
An unsettling, hilarious and unforgettable viewing experience (VIFF) At first glance a souped-up
Halloween haunted house, Hell Houses are modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermons replete with
hundreds of actors, truck loads of lights and full audio-visual tech crews. In each room,
visitors view depictions of school massacres, AIDS deaths, fatal drunk driving crashes, and
botched abortions while demons goad the gullible sinners into doing their bidding and then cart
their souls off to hell. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, director George
Ratliff's HELL HOUSE follows the process from the first script meeting until the last of the
13,000 visitors passes through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a vérité window into the
whole outrageous process of creating this over-the-top sermon, while showing an intimate portrait
of the people who haunt this peculiar culture. (85 mins 2002)
Friday, April 11 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 12 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 13 at 8:00pm |
|
Cop Talk III
Techniques of Enforcement
Join us for our third installment of strange and rare industrials from our forbidden archive
of police training films. These films date from the late '60s and early seventies and were
meant for the exclusive use of law enforcement training come find out what they were telling
them to do to keep us in line! Featuring films about drunk driving, body identification,
weapons training, prison inmate psychology and more, this is a disturbing amalgam of materials
you won't soon forget. WARNING: Some graphic imagery of death and brutality.
Tuesday, April 15 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, April 16 at 8:00pm |
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BYO8: Bring Your Own Film
April showers bring May flowers, so get in out of all that rain and watch some movies.
Your movies! Tonight we feature movies by you, so bring them down VHS, DVD, 16mm, and
Super 8 are the formats we can handle, please keep it under 10 minutes so we can watch
more arrive on time or risk not seeing your tour-de-force.
Thursday, April 17 at 8:00pm |
|
David Franklin and Jason Thrasher present the
Underskatement Film Festival
Now in its second year, the underSkatement film festival is the first nationally touring forum
to exclusively showcase the undeniable creativity of skateboarder-artists both on and off their
boards. These short films and videos encompass a broad spectrum of subjects that may or may not
include skateboarding, although its influence is evident. Films in this year's selection range
from the spiritual and philosophic to skit comedy to B-movie gore to skater-related documentary,
which will undoubtedly appeal to all audiences simply because films and videos are well-made
and imaginative. If your conception of skateboarders is limited to the X-Games, or possibly the
kids pushing hurriedly past you in the street, this film festival might shed new light on a group
of people who are much more than just the next target demographic of advertising companies. Look
for Mark Gonzales' newest film collaboration. underSkatement was conceived by veteran skaters
David Franklin (SF) and Jason Thrasher (Athens, GA) with support from the creators of the Short
Attention Span Film and Video Festival.
Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 19 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 20 at 8:00pm |
|
From the Vaults III
Another round of strange and wondrous flicks from our private archive of 16mm celluloid.
We provide a list on your way in and you pick the films you want to see based on title
alone. Covering subjects like dental hygiene, psychological abnormalities, police training,
sex education and soccer techniques, there is bound to be something in there you'll want
to sink your eyes into. Each film is around 10 minutes so expect to see around 10 or so.
And hey - if it's really bad, the projectionist reserves the right to cut to the next
film! The earlier you arrive, the more likely your picks will be picked…. Free film
cores at the door while they last! (What's a film core you ask? Come and find out.)
Tuesday, April 22 at 8:00pm |
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Anne McGuire's
Strain Andromeda The
With STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE, American film and video artist Anne McGuire has created an awesome and
spellbinding film that throws everything from story structure to character motivation into question.
Put simply, McGuire has taken the entire 1971 Robert Wise-directed THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (based on
the novel by Michael Crichton) and re-edited it shot by shot precisely in reverse, so that the last
shot appears first and the first last, though nothing is actually running backwards. As the film
unfolds (or reverts?), more and more information about how our characters and their surroundings came
about is revealed to us. While initially confusing, the film quickly takes on an ominous and
mesmerizing quality that defies description. The original film plot is one filled with tension in a
race against time which only adds to this effect. It develops its own wonderfully absurd and
perplexing level of suspense. (Chicago Filmmakers) ...every action is followed by its stimulus, every
comment by its query, you find yourself in a dizzying spin, grasping desperately for causal certainty,
yet firmly held by the reversibility of suspense. (Steve Seid) STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE can only be
experienced to be understood. And if you have never seen the original film, all the better. Above all,
don't arrive late or you'll miss the...end. (102 mins 2000)
Wednesday, April 23 at 8:00pm |
|
Eye of Newt Play Live to:
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Join EYE OF NEWT as the play live to the first of the famed Charles H. Schneer-produced SINBAD movies.
THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD brings the legendary sailor into combat with a variety of creatures, all
brought to life by the stop-motion magic of special effects guru Ray Harryhausen. Seafaring
adventures, stunning stop-motion effects featuring an incredible Cyclops and more combine for a
thrilling evening of big-screen magic. (88 mins, 1958)
Thursday, April 24 at 8:00pm |
|
Ben Harper: Pleasure & Pain
Music is the last true voice of the human spirit. It can go beyond language, beyond age, beyond
color...straight to the heart and mind of all people. - Ben Harper
PLEASURE & PAIN was conceived, produced and shot by rock photographer Danny Clinch, who toured
with Harper throughout the United States and Europe last year. In addition, Clinch traveled to
Harper's childhood home in Claremont, California, and interviewed Harper's parents, grandmother
and other people he grew up with. PLEASURE & PAIN is truly a for-fans in-depth look at the life
that is lived by this contemporary roots rock icon. The documentary offers a rare glimpse into
Harper's travels, performances, songwriting, religion and life in general. Along with
behind-the-scenes perspectives on the lives that these enigmatic musicians live both on the road
and off, it incorporates concert footage, backstage clips and what goes into producing Ben
Harper's performances. Not just another self-indulgent music documentary, PLEASURE & PAIN lives
up to its name by showing the imperfect yet true humanity behind the performer on a pedestal.
(Dir Danny Clinch 92 mins. 2002)
Friday, April 25 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 26 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 27 at 8:00pm |
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DICKIN' AROUND
It's back! Movie serials and educational films from the 30s to the 50s all re-dubbed
live and sanitized for your protection by Vancouver's top improvisers. Now with
na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Batman! Join Urban Improv's IAN
BOOTHBY, RAY GURRIE, DIANA FRANCES and TOBY BERNER for some old school black and
white fun. Plus free prizes and backrubs (if the person sitting behind you is willing).
Tuesday, April 29 at 8:30pm |
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CINEWORKS PRESENTS
WORKING TV: LABOUR VIDEO
In recognition of International Workers' Day, CINEWORKS Special Exhibition Series
presents a program of labour video from around the world. Guest curated by WORKING
TV's JULIUS FISHER, the line up includes new work from Korea's Labor News Production.
Discussion to follow. For more information log on to www.cineworks.ca or www.workingtv.com
Wednesday, April 30 at 8pm |
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