The Blinding Light!! SHOWS
NOVEMBER
1998
 Tuesday & Wednesday November 3/4
THE
INCREDIBLY STRANGE WORLD OF FRANK MOORE
Berkeley performance artist,
zine/book author, musician and filmmaker Frank Moore was diagnosed with Cerebral
Palsy at birth - he has since taken this ailment and turned it on its head to
create unforgettably strange, funny, awkward and frank films. While never
comfortable and quite often challenging viewing, Moore's work manages to
simultaneously laugh at and insight compassion for his struggles to find love,
to have sex, to communicate... On the program:
FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE -
Frank Moore meets a girl and falls in love - his disability and her jock
boyfriend get in the way, but fantasy life mixed with a re-evaluated self-image
end in unexpected results.
CHERO COLLAGE - Footage from several shamanistic
performance pieces are combined to present a record of the trance states
achieved by Moore's performance group CHERO COMPANY.
OUT OF ISOLATION - An
excerpt from this feature length dualogue between Moore and co-star Linda Sibeo
- a surreal and erotic examination of an intimate relationship of need.
 Thursday November 5
CAPRICORN 1000: short videos and
films by Animal Charm and Matt McCormick. Filmmakers in person!
The
Chicago video duo Animal Charm (aka Jim Fetterly and Rich Bott) and Portland
abstract filmmaker Matt McCormick aim to please with this touring collection of
sure shots. Ultra-manic whiplash and soothing reminders of forgotten dreams,
AC/MM are perfect for any lowdown scenario. Loading the jukebox projector with
such hits as "Slow Gin Soul Stallion", "Ashley", and "Stain", plus a country
club bus load of brand new work, AC/MM bring it home like no one else. Don't miss the only
Canadian date on this westcoast tour!
 Friday November
6-Thursday November 12 (except Monday) and Sunday Matinee 3pm!!
The
Vancouver Theatrical Premiere of Bruce LaBruce's HUSTLER WHITE
From Bruce
LaBruce - "Blab" writer (Exclaim), gay porno afficionado, director of Super 8
1/2 and No Skin Off My Ass - comes this extreme and very funny film only ever
seen at the 1996 VIFF.
"Warning: This film includes graphic scenes of bondage, cutting,
mummification, watersports and "stumping" and is totally concerned with gay sex
and money. Take one part My Own Private Idaho, two parts Andy Warhol's Flesh,
shake and add a pinch of Sunset Boulevard, and... you have Hustler White.
Underground film diva Bruce LaBruce has teamed up with photographer Rick Castro
for a wickedly funny and surprisingly romantic ride along Santa Monica Boulevard
- in full 16mm colour! With no women, (almost) no drag queens, no drugs and no
AIDS, this deluded utopian fantasy features a bevy of queer superstars,
including NEA poster boy Ron Anthey, zine queen Vaginal Davis (in boy-drag) and
real-life porn stars Kevin Kramer and Alex Austin.
Hustler White stars fashion model Tony Ward as the accident prone, yet
streetwise hustler Monti [known for his work with Madonna], trying to make a
living and support his son. This story concerns Jurgen Anger, played by Bruce
LaBruce, a fey anthropologist who arrives in LA to research male prostitution
and immediately falls in love with Monti. Will the plot twists ever allow Jurgen
to do Monti? See for yourself... (Ken Anderlini, VIFF '96).
 Friday
November 13 - Wednesday November 18 (except monday) with Sunday Matinee at
3pm!
SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY
PLUS: A HISTORY OF BARBIE
COMMERCIALS THROUGH THE AGES.
Though we swore we'd never show it again
back in the Edison days, due to overwhelming public demand we are pleased to
present this long-banned underground classic. Todd Hayne's (Poison, Safe, Velvet
Goldmine) low-budget film 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, 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!
Thursday
November 19 - Sunday November 22
THE FIRST ANNUAL VANCOUVER
UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
 Tuesday &
Wednesday November 24/25
FACING THE EASTSIDE: Nathaniel Geary's KEYS
TO KINGDOMS + Poetry Slam featuring Bud Osborn, David Lester (Mecca Normal), The
Lonesome Monsters and open mike!
Join us for two evenings of film and
poetry with an eye on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Featured on both evenings
will be Nathaniel Geary's Keys To Kingdoms, a gritty and grim film exploring
life on the Downtown Eastside through the poetry of Bud Osborn (Winner, Best
Western Emerging Director, VIFF '98). Featuring honest and moving performances
by Martin Budny and the rest of the cast with stunning cinematography by Bob
Aschmann, KEYS TO KINGDOMS immerses itself in the day-to-day conflicts and
soul-searching of one man's desperate attempt to extract himself from despair
and violence. (The director will be in attendance).
PLUS: On WEDNESDAY, Downtown Eastside poet Bud Osborn (whose poem the
film is based on) will perform live with David Lester - best known for his role
as one half of the critically acclaimed band MECCA NORMAL.
On THURSDAY, Bud will perform with his own ensemble THE LONESOME MONSTERS
(featured on the soundtrack to the film). Both nights will also feature other
local poets and an open mike. Presented in collaboration with the Roundhouse's
photographic exhibition "Facing the Eastside" (co-sponsored by Portland Hotel
Society and running November 13 to December 6. Special thanks to Amir Alibhai
and Irwin Oostindie).
 Thursday November 26
Cineworks
presents GEEZER GENERATION
A program of short films on the elderly and
their undeniably tenuous, increasingly marginalized position in our
youth-obsessed society. These thought-provoking and unconventional portraits of
the Geezer Generation include Sally Clark's black comedy Ten Ways to Abuse an
Old Woman, a startling film about the devastating effects of Alzheimer's on one
family; Standing Still by Catherine Quinn, an affecting experimental documentary
on the extraordinary lives of four "ordinary" elderly women; Bernice by local
filmmaker Elizabeth Murray, a film about death and tap dancing, and Why? by
Carol Halstead, the 60-year-old filmmaker's very personal response to the
question, "What are you doing in art school at your age?" Bring your granny and
grandad! All seniors will be admitted free of charge!!
 Friday, Saturday
& Sunday November 27/28/29 with Sunday Matinee at 3pm!
Back by
Popular Demand: PIXEL PEEP SHOW
Only ever screened over two nights as our
inaugural screening after opening night, we are pleased to bring this collection
back after many audience requests, with a couple of new additions to the
original program to boot!
With its low-res black and white pixel format, dreamy aesthetic, and
propensity for extreme close-ups, Pixelvision seems the perfect format with
which to examine our obsession and unending fascination for all things sexual
and erotic.
PIXEL PEEP SHOW was assembled from as far off as Japan and France,
presenting some of the newest works in this format with a common bond to the
pornographic... featuring OLD PEOPLE HAVE SEX - Tim Lennox's tip of the hat to
David Greenberger's Duplex Planet, BITCH AND BUTCH - a lesbian plastic doll
fantasy by Kelly and Dawn, Danny Weisman's STUPID PENIS TRICKS, and more!!
Tuesday & Wednesday December 1/2
An exclusive preview of the
Vancouver-made
NANCY DREW AND THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED BODY
with
STRAIGHT FROM THE SUBURBS and others!
Subtitled "A Comedy about Incest,
Freud, and Recovered Memory", Marusya Bosiurkiw's highly stylized NANCY DREW AND
THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED BODY rewrites the squeaky-clean girl mystery-seeker
as an innocent and over-the-top '90s researcher by day/detective by night. With
cameo appearances and technical support by the Western Front "family" (Eric
Metcalfe, Hank Bull, Kate Craig et al.) the film is truly a locally flavoured
and tongue-in-cheek take on the controversy around recovered memory. AS THE
FILM WILL NOT BE COMPLETED IN TIME FOR SCREENING AS ORIGINALLY PLANNED, WE ARE
PLEASED TO PRESENT A SPECIAL PREVIEW OF THE FILM IN ITS PLACE, as well as other
short films to be determined....
STRAIGHT FROM THE SUBURBS - Featured at
this year's VIFF, this hilarious BC/Quebec co-production from Carol Ducharme
imagines a '50s kitch world where sexual orientation bias has reversed:
homosexuality is the status quo while being straight is considered deviant. Mary
finds she is attracted to boys - what will her mothers think? (24 minutes, 1998)
DECEMBER 1998
 Thursday December
3
One night only: An evening with THE ORGANIZATION
MAN
Featuring SPACE-DUB-ECHO-BLAST phase 2 or TOUCH ME IN MY BIKINI AREA
Using the freshest in stolen, found and original moving IMAGE and
live-mix SOUND, The Organization Man ignites a stunning cauldron of wonder,
horror and beneficence - the kind of apocalypse the whole family can enjoy. A
great way to get into that Christmas Spirit. Special thanks to THE TRUTH
CHANNEL, LSD 49, Creosote Initiatives, Charlton Heston, Princess Stephanie of
Monaco, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and the GVRD.
"A man's voice should be the voice of strength and power, of integrity
and purpose, and fearless imagination that leaps skyward with the same magic
that the morning sun ignites when it first shines upon the ocean setting even
the water aflame. Otherwise, he should shut up and listen for the laughter of
children." - Ed Martin Sr.
 Friday, Saturday
& Sunday December 4/5/6 With Sunday Matinee 3pm!
THE STAR WARS
SPINOFF SHOW
Three nights inspired by, stolen from, and fixated upon
everything STAR WARS. Given the renewed interest in STAR WARS since its
re-release a few years back we are reminded how - love it or hate it (come on,
you loved it!), STAR WARS managed to bore its way into the mass consciousness of
a generation and actually change the way they see the world (yikes). Featured in
this program:
Hardware Wars - the very goofy and classic satire of STAR
WARS, released only a year after the original film and now re-released with its
own "new digital effects and scenes"; Pewter Joe Flynn's The Odd Star Wars
Couple and The Making of...; Tatooine or Bust, Jason Wishnow's short documentary
centered around the day of the premiere of the "new" STAR WARS and featuring
interviews with its eccentric adherents. PLUS: Evan Mather's Quentin Tarantino's
Star Wars and Godzilla Versus Disco Lando, Kevin Rubio's TROOPS, where C.O.P.S.
Meets Stormtroopers in a Galaxy Far, Far Away; Bill Hardy's aka the
conversation, a re-edited conversation between Han Solo and Indiana Jones; AND a
rare and original Super 8 sound "highlights" reel from the original film!!
Tuesday & Wednesday December 8/9
The Best of the ROUGH &
RUINED FILM FESTIVAL 1998
Organized by Vancouver's own Tina Le Moine and
touring to both the U.S. and Europe, the Rough and Ruined Film Festival
specializes in strange, funny, absurd and campy films which NEVER take
themselves too seriously.
This best of show includes Two by Super 8 Queen Martha Colburn - Zig Zag
and Persecution in Paradise; the Kohn Brothers Bugfeast; Jeff Rappaport's wacky
Boobs in Toyland; Susan McNally's nightmarish Dr. Proctor; Maximilian Spohr's
winter romance On the Rocks; Brooke Johnson's Tough Cookies; Mike Hoolboom's In
My Car; Tara Spartz's Russ Meyer-inspired Balls Out!; Kevin Thomas' own Reefer
Madness; Tami Wilson's Nicole Sex Goddess, Queen of the Bits; Huck Botko's
revengeful Baked Alaska, and Deborah Stenard's marriage obsessed I Do, Don't I?
Be rough. Be ruined. Be there!
 Thursday December 10
BYO8 + Burning
Man Footage!
An open call and a chance to show your film and video wares.
We accept all shapes and sizes: 16mm, Super 8, VHS; home movie, found footage,
arty-farty, works in progress. Bring a film down and get in for $3!! (10 minutes
max please - first come, first serve!) SPECIAL TONIGHT: BRING YOUR BURNING MAN
FESTIVAL FOOTAGE AND GET IN FOR FREE!
 Friday December 11 -
Thursday December 17 (Except Monday) Plus Sunday Matinee
3pm!
Vancouver Theatrical Premiere:
Jon Moritsigu's FAME
WHORE
From the director of Der Elvis, Sleazy Rider, Terminal USA and Mod
Fuck Explosion. Director Jon Moritsugu's latest grade-Z pop cultural
extravaganza is a VALLEY OF THE DOLLS updated with '90s personality disorders.
Jody George, a foul-mouthed John McEnroe-ish tennis pro spends his days alone in
a swank hotel room bonking the maid and watching his endorsement contracts
crumble when gay rumors surface in the tabloids. Meanwhile, permanently shrill
Sophie, [played to perfection by Moritsigu's wife, well-known San Fran
zinester/artist Amy Davis] boasts twenty-seven arty occupations but only excels
at bong-toking and ordering her swishy assistant to aid her through failed photo
and video shoots. And then there's George, the lonely butt of scatological crank
calls at the puppy shelter he runs with his imaginary co-worker, a giant St.
Bernard whose business requires an extra large pooper scooper. To the tune of a
hot punky soundtrack, FAME WHORE juggles three unconnected narratives concerning
a trio of seriously deluded characters. Each is definitely the star of their own
so-called life. —G. Helfand
"A punk moral comedy for the age of Melrose Place and multi-million
dollar corporate sponsorships. What happens when we over-identify with our
careers to the point of extreme paranoia and delusion." - Pleasuredome,
Toronto
 Friday, Saturday and Sunday December 18/19/20 Plus Sunday Matinee
3pm!
The Vancouver Theatrical Premiere of Mike Hoolboom's
PANIC
BODIES
Plus Book Launch: PLAGUE YEARS- A LIFE IN UNDERGROUND
MOVIES
Mike Hoolboom - considered by many to be the most important
Canadian filmmaker of his generation - unleashes this stunning
four-years-in-the-making powerhouse experimental feature. Drawing from sources
as varied as hyped-Hollywood, obscure '20s porn, and his own treasure trove of
gorgeously shot original footage, PANIC BODIES is a complex and visually
arresting study of life, love, death, family, obsession and "being a stranger in
your own skin". "To watch PANIC BODIES is to see what it means to live and
die in the cinema." (NOW Magazine) "Drenched in longing but devoid of
nostalgia, PANIC BODIES is a rare achievement." (Scott McLeod)
In tandem with this screening we will be launching Hoolboom's latest book
PLAGUE YEARS: A LIFE IN UNDERGROUND MOVIES - a powerhouse collection of short
stories, film scripts and autobiographica, as well as photos, a comprehensive
filmography and an introduction by book editor Steve Reinke.
"Rendering on celluloid or on paper, Mike Hoolboom's daring artistic
vision just might be the most compelling of his generation. His tough,
compassionate, protean and intelligent work constitutes, against considerable
Canadian odds, an utterly unique and ferocious, defiant and tender, bravely
unflinching whorl of hope." (Tom McSorley, Canadian Film Institute)
Tuesday & Wednesday December 22/23
X-MAS ODDITIES
A
bizarre blend of seasonal celluloid to clear your sinuses and your cinematic
senses (before snoring through those dull mainstream flicks with the relatives
this Christmas). Featured tonight are SANTACON, a documentary about the ritual
annual gathering of "Santa's helpers" (you know, the Santas in the malls) and
the wicked things they get up to during their Portland "conference"; Fruitcake -
a truly gross home-made document of what happens when the filmmaker seeks
revenge on his father at Christmas; Young Turkeys, local filmmakers Ian Barbour,
Andrew White & Brian Reilly's instructional film on Turkey slaughtering; and
Crystals, local hero Peter Lipskis' study of the infinite diversity of
snowflakes. PLUS: Classic Christmas cartoons! FREE candy canes to all!
CLOSED December 24-January 6. HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HEY - STOP WORRYING ABOUT
WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO ON NEW YEARS EVE.
JANUARY 1998
 Thursday January 7
BYO8
It's open
screening time and the last chance this schedule for you to bring us your goods
- Super 8, 16mm and VHS - we'll show them all. Bring a film and get in for $3!
(10 minutes max please). Tonight we focus on (but don't limit ourselves to) HOME
MOVIES - let's see you in diapers!
 Friday, Saturday
& Sunday January 8/9/10 with Sunday Matinee at 3pm!
THE MAN OF STEEL: Superhero shorts
A collection of shorts obsessed with all things
Superhero including three local works and a wack of classic and contemporary
superhero cartoons and clips! In this program we present three new works from
BC; Todd Keller & Marcus Hutchings' BLACK NYLON, a Super 8 short based on
the comic strip by Daniel Clowes (Eightball) featuring the sorry tale of a
washed up superhero whose territory is being taken over by a new up-and-comer;
SUPERHERO, Jonathan Middleton's mock-doc featuring the whiny Brekel-Man's take
on the state of Canadian superheroes today; Erin Drew's lush Pixelvision piece
WONDERGIRL, and a slew of well known and lesser know superhero 'toons and clips
including a Super 8 Superman in "The Magnetic Telescope", MightyMouse, Rocket
Robinhood, Wonderwoman and more!
 Tuesday &
Wednesday January 12/13
The cinema of Phil Hoffman
DESTROYING ANGEL
and OPENING SERIES
Toronto filmmaker Phil Hoffman is best known for his
intensely personal and poetic films as well as his beautifully fluid camera
style and aesthetic. Working in both Super 8 and 16mm, he has built a body of
work preoccupied with searching, wandering, and the analysis of the object and
its relativity to the self.
DESTROYING ANGEL, Hoffman's truly moving and most recent work is centered
around time, memory and loss, evoking the past in lyrical reminiscences and
playing them off of his own troubled present. This experimental documentary
"relates two stories of illness, and weaves them into a filmic tapestry of
family history, memory and loss." (CFMDC) The film resonates around the death of
his longtime partner Marion McMahon (a filmmaker and curator in her own right)
and acts as a very personal confirmation of and cedeing to mortality.
Also in this program: OPENING SERIES (1992-__). In this variable-form and
ever-in-progress film, Hoffman has created an opportunity for the audience to
decide on the order of the rolls of film to be viewed. Through visual references
on the outside of the film cannisters created at the same time as the roll of
film in the cannister, the audience will collectively choose the "order" of the
show, thereby removing the "fixed" nature of typical film presentation. The
opportunities for this kind of screening are truly rare - we encourage audience
members to participate in the viewing experience.
"Hoffman's delicately enacted shaping of his own past is at once poetry,
pastiche, and proclamation, a resounding affirmation of all that is well with
independent cinema today." (Mike Hoolboom, Inside the Pleasure Dome: Fringe Film
in Canada)
 Thursday January 14
BIRDS AND BUILDINGS: THE
FILMS OF PATRICK HALM
Los Angeles filmmaker Patrick Halm has been
producing truly innovative and magical experimental film works for over ten
years. His work teems with contradiction and collision, questioning notions of
progress, the invention of history and the natural vs the invented world using
multiple superimposition, saturated colours, unexpected juxtapositions and
mysterious soundtracks. We are very pleased to have Patrick Halm in person for
this screening to introduce and discuss his work. Films to be screened include
IN THE LAND OF GIANTS, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, I THOUGHT THIS WAY -
WE COULD SEE IN STEREO, THE POISONOUS BEAR and others!
 Friday January 15 -
Thursday January 21 (except Monday) Plus Sunday Matinee 3pm!
Vancouver
Premiere of Todd Verow's
LITTLE SHOTS OF HAPPINESS
John Cassavetes
Creative Artists Award, US International Film Festival
Long Island Film
Festival's Grand Jury Prize
From the director of FRISK, this it the first
feature film in independent filmmaker Todd Verow's Addiction Trilogy exploring
one woman's escape from a life she not only hates— but more appallingly, finds
exceedingly dull. "Frances (brilliantly played by Bonnie Dickenson) is a sunny
Edie Sedgwick look-alike who by day works as a telemarketer and by night deserts
her husband to whore it up, get drunk, steal other women's boyfriends, and rob
her rich sister. She's a kind of collapsed gamin who moves to the mindless
rhythm of the industrial music that throbs relentlessly on the soundtrack. A
scene where Frances becomes the hated guest/sex object for a couple she doesn't
know comes off like a sample from Paul Morrisey's Trash, but most of Little
Shots of Happiness moves to its own disturbing, original rhythms." -Gary Morris
San Francisco WEEKLY "Todd Verow's frenetic and corrosively low-rent visions
of American verities - raw sex and shredded emotion - portray glamour as a kind
of drug-induced condition." Chuck Stephens, San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Bonnie Dickenson's performance is what legends are made of." -Detour
Magazine "...mixing Fassbinder and Warhol to a techno beat, Verow's film has
wit, raw energy, and a tremendously endearing performance by Bonnie
Dickenson." -FILMMAKER MAGAZINE "...a new Breathless." - Bruce
Benderson, author of USER
 Two weekends!
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
January 22/23/24 and 29/30/31with Sunday Matinee at 3pm!
THE
TRANSGRESSIVE CINEMA OF NICK ZEDD
As an originator of the Transgressive
cinema, filmmaker Nick Zedd has created some of the most dark and disturbing
films in the history of cinema, and has been regularly berated for his seeming
amorality and shameless use of sex, violence and taboo-breaking to get centre
stage. Here's your chance to judge for yourself as we present the latest work
from Nick Zedd, as well as a few of his older "classics". Featured in the
program will be Why Do You Exist, War is menstural envy with Annie Sprinkle,
Kembra Pfhaler, Steven Oddo, Mike Wilson; the classics Police State and Thrust
in Me, a rare viewing of Kiss Me Goodbye and The Bogus Man.
 Tuesday
& Wednesday January 26/27
Halifilms: New shorts from Halifax -
with directors in person!
Hey - there's a lot more to the East Coast than
Sloan! We are pleased to be presenting a brand new collection of the latest and
greatest in short films from Atlantic Canada featuring 12 up-and-comers along
with new works from more established filmers. Featuring dramas, documentaries
and cutting-edge animation, these shorts are sure to inspire and impress.
Featured in the program are Aberistiwith, Andrew Kaufman's door-to-door salesman
pitch; A Granellian Encounter, Colin Mackenzie's award-winning punchy record of
an encounter between master jazz drummer Jerry Granelli and rap/hip hop artist
Stinkin' Rich; Lee Ann Gillan & Marcia Connolly's memory/identity study My
Inheritance; Andrea Dorfman's award winning Swerve; Silon Daly's impressionistic
animated Lets Op Filmen (Some Things on Film); and Tom Fitzgerald's (director of
The Hanging Garden), spirited Uncut. PLUS: Andrew Kaufman's GIRLS Wear Pink,
Doug Karr & Walter Forsythe's LSD 25, Phyllis McGregor's The Opposite of
Everything is True, Marcia Connolly & Janet Hawkwood's The Skating Party,
Helen Bredin's Take The Cake, and Amy Lockhart's WASPS. Directors Lee Ann Gillan
and Colin Mackenzie will appear in person!
 Thursday January
28
Cineworks Presents: New (Cine) Works
New short films from
the members of Cineworks - Vancouver's only independent filmmakers' co-op -
including many films that premiered last fall at the 1998 Vancouver
International Film Festival. The program will include Nathaniel Geary's Keys to
Kingdoms, Lianna Walden's Always Watching, Dylan Cree's Perversions: Four Little
Deaths, Morgan Kroon and Stephen O'Connell's The Surveyor, Catherine Surridge's
Anna's Gift and Kevin Cottam's Birth, among many others. Don't miss this chance
to see what's new from some of Vancouver's most exciting indie filmmakers!
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