Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSLa Práctica.The New York Film Festival has announced its Main Slate. Alongside a good showing of Cannes prizewinners, the festival will present new films from Radu Jude, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Haigh, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Hong Sang-soo (x2 this year), Raven Jackson, Martín Rejtman, and the feature debut from playwright Annie Baker.In an interview with Indiewire, Ira Sachs shared that he and Ben Whishaw are preparing a new film about the photographer Peter Hujar, titled Peter Hujar’s Day (and presumably inspired by Linda Rosenkrantz’s book of the same name).Recommended VIEWINGIn memory of William Friedkin, who died this week at the age of 87, revisit Christopher Small and James Corning’s video essay about his films’ deftly constructed endings. “Over the course of Friedkin's films,” they write in their introduction, “our perspective...
- 8/9/2023
- MUBI
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Basket Case"
Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Kanopy, Screambox, Arrow
The Pitch: Backed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a group of scattered New York artists gathered in a room sometime in 1974 to talk. Their goal was to assemble a loosely organized art collective that would remain in artistic control of its own exhibitions and its own cable TV station. The resulting collective was called Collaborative Projects, or Colab for short. Colab proceeded to put on public variety performances with names like "Income and Wealth Show," "The Batman Show," and "Just Another A**hole Show." The Colab also sponsored a series of feature films that came to be known as the No Wave movement.
The Movie: "Basket Case"
Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Kanopy, Screambox, Arrow
The Pitch: Backed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a group of scattered New York artists gathered in a room sometime in 1974 to talk. Their goal was to assemble a loosely organized art collective that would remain in artistic control of its own exhibitions and its own cable TV station. The resulting collective was called Collaborative Projects, or Colab for short. Colab proceeded to put on public variety performances with names like "Income and Wealth Show," "The Batman Show," and "Just Another A**hole Show." The Colab also sponsored a series of feature films that came to be known as the No Wave movement.
- 2/25/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSShadow of the Vampire.Willem Dafoe will join Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu film, news that comes 23 years after he played a fictitious version of Murnau's lead actor, Max Schreck, in Shadow of the Vampire. Dafoe’s supporting role is currently “unknown,” according to Deadline, though Eggers's vampire will be Bill Skarsgard.Sight & Sound continues their rollout of the Greatest Films of All Time, now unveiling the critics’ top 250.The great cinematographer Caroline Champetier will be honored with the Berlinale Camera award at this year’s festival, marking a career of beautifully lensed films for Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, Jean-Luc Godard, Margarethe von Trotta, Claude Lanzmann, and Leos Carax, among many others.Following Sundance’s closing awards ceremony, we’ve compiled the full list of winners here on Notebook.
- 2/1/2023
- MUBI
Kim’s Video was a grungy movie rental empire and cinephile paradise in downtown Manhattan that grouped its tapes and DVDs by director. Started in 1987 out of a dry-cleaning business by Yongman Kim, who was a little-seen and mysterious figure to even his employees, Kim’s Video eventually expanded to five stores and became a way of life for both the customers and the people who worked there.
(I worked at the Kim’s farthest west on Bleecker Street one summer and we all gorged ourselves on movie classics, cult films, outsider art, bootlegs of rarities, and shelves and shelves of unclassifiable ephemera.)
Video stores started to close by 2008 when the near-mythical Mr. Kim offered his collection of 55,000 movies to any institution that would keep it intact. The town of Salemi, Sicily, acquired the archive, and in 2012 there was an article in The Village Voice by Karina Longworth that attempted...
(I worked at the Kim’s farthest west on Bleecker Street one summer and we all gorged ourselves on movie classics, cult films, outsider art, bootlegs of rarities, and shelves and shelves of unclassifiable ephemera.)
Video stores started to close by 2008 when the near-mythical Mr. Kim offered his collection of 55,000 movies to any institution that would keep it intact. The town of Salemi, Sicily, acquired the archive, and in 2012 there was an article in The Village Voice by Karina Longworth that attempted...
- 1/20/2023
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
Canada’s weirdest filmmaker, Guy Maddin has crafted a body of work since the 1980s that first comes off as classical-cinema homage but, looked at deeper, is rather a decades-long interrogation of one man’s troubled psyche.
On the occasion of his debut feature Tales From the Gimli Hospital being given a new 4K remaster and opening at New York’s IFC Center, Maddin joined me over Zoom to discuss his early work. Deliberately archaic and fantastical, the film embeds multiple narratives in one—drawing on death, childhood, Icelandic history, and things even more beguiling. Maddin, in his typically verbose and upbeat manner, was happy to look back at the circumstances surrounding his film’s protracted, demanding production.
The Film Stage: On the occasion of this film being restored, are you the kind of director who can really go back and watch their old films? Because it seems like there...
On the occasion of his debut feature Tales From the Gimli Hospital being given a new 4K remaster and opening at New York’s IFC Center, Maddin joined me over Zoom to discuss his early work. Deliberately archaic and fantastical, the film embeds multiple narratives in one—drawing on death, childhood, Icelandic history, and things even more beguiling. Maddin, in his typically verbose and upbeat manner, was happy to look back at the circumstances surrounding his film’s protracted, demanding production.
The Film Stage: On the occasion of this film being restored, are you the kind of director who can really go back and watch their old films? Because it seems like there...
- 10/13/2022
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
Crafted as a love letter to underground comics and the pursuit of art-making, Owen Kline’s Funny Pages is a fantastically fucked-up coming-of-age story about Robert, a young cartoonist who will go to any lengths to reach success. Ever the dark comedy, Funny Pages was produced by Josh and Benny Safdie, esteemed masters of gonzo discomfort. It should be noted, however, that for all of the laugh-out-loud shocks the film delivers, Kline has created a story that still manages to be genuinely touching and earnest at its core. Infusing central New Jersey with Robert Crumb’s strange overtones, Funny Pages is ultimately about finding one’s artistic voice—and what it takes to be true to that voice. While this is his debut feature, Owen Kline is no stranger to show business. The son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates, he broke out as the younger brother in Noah Baumbach...
- 9/1/2022
- MUBI
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.In 1878, Eadward Muybridge stood atop Nob Hill in San Francisco and took a panoramic picture of the city. It was the same year that he captured a horse in motion, but this was a different type of temporal photograph. He’d developed a new method that mimicked the experience of the human eye rotating 360 degrees, creating a seamless panorama of the city, a still moving picture. This is one place to start a primer on San Francisco on film, at the very beginning. Two decades before the Lumières premiered their first actualities, Muybridge was capturing a portrait of San Francisco in time. As I began researching this primer, Muybridge seemed like a key precedent for many 20th century Bay Area filmmakers. He was an innovator that developed a new technology parallel...
- 1/20/2021
- MUBI
Devo’s Gerald Casale joins us for a discussion of the movies that made Devo!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Akran (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Village Of The Damned (1960)
Children Of The Damned (1964)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Rocky (1976)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
No Time For Sergeants (1958)
Network (1976)
JFK (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Gremlins (1984)
I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Other Notable Items
Paul McCartney
Slash
Willie Nelson
Devo
Elliot Roberts
Lorne Michaels
Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )
Michael O’Donoghue
The Muppets
Neil Young
Walter Williams
Mr. Bill
Richard Myers
George Kuchar
Mike Kuchar
John F.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Akran (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Village Of The Damned (1960)
Children Of The Damned (1964)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Rocky (1976)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
No Time For Sergeants (1958)
Network (1976)
JFK (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Gremlins (1984)
I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Other Notable Items
Paul McCartney
Slash
Willie Nelson
Devo
Elliot Roberts
Lorne Michaels
Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )
Michael O’Donoghue
The Muppets
Neil Young
Walter Williams
Mr. Bill
Richard Myers
George Kuchar
Mike Kuchar
John F.
- 12/22/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Back in the days when I used to distribute avant-garde cinema on home video, I asked my friend George Kuchar about releasing Hold Me While I’m Naked and a few other of his classic films on DVD. “I can’t let you do that, Noel!” he explained. “You see, my films are legendary because nobody can see them. If someone could just go out and rent one, they’d find out they stink. I’ve got to maintain the legend!” George was sort of joking. But there was a kernel of truth in his statement. Kuchar might have been wrong that his films […]...
- 6/15/2020
- by Noel Lawrence
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Back in the days when I used to distribute avant-garde cinema on home video, I asked my friend George Kuchar about releasing Hold Me While I’m Naked and a few other of his classic films on DVD. “I can’t let you do that, Noel!” he explained. “You see, my films are legendary because nobody can see them. If someone could just go out and rent one, they’d find out they stink. I’ve got to maintain the legend!” George was sort of joking. But there was a kernel of truth in his statement. Kuchar might have been wrong that his films […]...
- 6/15/2020
- by Noel Lawrence
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Mike Kuchar, Manuel DeLanda And Carolee Schneemann At Redcat | 631 W 2nd St.
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
Mike Kuchar, Manuel DeLanda And Carolee Schneemann At Redcat | 631 W 2nd St.
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
In 1997, the Chicago Underground Film Festival held its fourth annual edition on August 13-17 at the Theatre Building at 1225 W. Belmont Avenue. One way the festival promoted itself that year was it published a four-page pull-out section in the Chicago-based political magazine Lumpen, vol. 6 no. 4.
These pages included the entire festival schedule, which the Underground Film Journal has re-created below. In addition, scans of the original Lumpen pages appear at the bottom of this article. This program schedule did not include director names for the most part, but the Journal has included names that we could find through research.
In the Theatre Building, Cuff screened on two screens simultaneously. One theater screened films shot exclusively on film; while the other theater screened films shot exclusively on video. In addition, a Closing Night event of director John Waters‘ live performance piece “Shock Value” took place in the film theater and was simulcast into the video theater.
These pages included the entire festival schedule, which the Underground Film Journal has re-created below. In addition, scans of the original Lumpen pages appear at the bottom of this article. This program schedule did not include director names for the most part, but the Journal has included names that we could find through research.
In the Theatre Building, Cuff screened on two screens simultaneously. One theater screened films shot exclusively on film; while the other theater screened films shot exclusively on video. In addition, a Closing Night event of director John Waters‘ live performance piece “Shock Value” took place in the film theater and was simulcast into the video theater.
- 12/10/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
On November 30, 1970, New York City’s Anthology Film Archives opened its doors as the first ever “museum of film” at its original location at 425 Lafayette Street. That was an invitation-only Opening Night event with the first public screening occurring the following night, December 1.
A previous article on the Underground Film Journal uncovered the first five nights of screenings at the Anthology, and the reaction in the NYC press to this unique movie theater.
Digging around in the digital archives of the Village Voice, the Journal has been able to piece together most of the screening lineups for the month of December. Unfortunately, these archives do not contain issues for the last week of November nor the first week of December, so we do not have screening info for December 5-9.
However, below are the screenings for December 10-30. The Anthology’s original plan was to have three screenings every night...
A previous article on the Underground Film Journal uncovered the first five nights of screenings at the Anthology, and the reaction in the NYC press to this unique movie theater.
Digging around in the digital archives of the Village Voice, the Journal has been able to piece together most of the screening lineups for the month of December. Unfortunately, these archives do not contain issues for the last week of November nor the first week of December, so we do not have screening info for December 5-9.
However, below are the screenings for December 10-30. The Anthology’s original plan was to have three screenings every night...
- 8/5/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Part One of this series is about the origin of the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema (Rbmc). Part Two covers all the screenings in 1998.
Continuing into 1999 at the Collective Unconscious theater space in NYC, the Rbmc — co-programmed by Brian L. Frye and Bradley Eros — went on hiatus for the first week of the year, but resumed on January 12. Below is a list of screenings from then until a May 18 event that celebrated the Rbmc’s first full year of existence.
The films and filmmakers selected to screen by Frye and Eros represent an interesting time in the sphere of avant-garde and experimental cinema. Up until this point, there seemed to be a distinct separation between the formal style of, say, structuralism, and the more raucous, punk rock world of the “underground.” However, in the 1990s, these two worlds appear to be colliding. The Rbmc seemed just as content screening Hollis Frampton‘s Critical Mass (Feb.
Continuing into 1999 at the Collective Unconscious theater space in NYC, the Rbmc — co-programmed by Brian L. Frye and Bradley Eros — went on hiatus for the first week of the year, but resumed on January 12. Below is a list of screenings from then until a May 18 event that celebrated the Rbmc’s first full year of existence.
The films and filmmakers selected to screen by Frye and Eros represent an interesting time in the sphere of avant-garde and experimental cinema. Up until this point, there seemed to be a distinct separation between the formal style of, say, structuralism, and the more raucous, punk rock world of the “underground.” However, in the 1990s, these two worlds appear to be colliding. The Rbmc seemed just as content screening Hollis Frampton‘s Critical Mass (Feb.
- 6/17/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In December 1966, the Canyon Cinema Cooperative in San Francisco, California published their first Catalogue of experimental and avant-garde films to rent. This was four years after the Film-Makers’ Cooperative had begun distributing underground films in New York City.
Canyon first listed films to rent in the November ’66 edition of their News newsletter, then published the catalog separately one month later. In the book Canyon Cinema, Scott MacDonald notes that the News listed just 31 filmmakers with films. Only six of them had multiple films listed; while the rest listed just a single film each.
The first standalone catalogue expanded on that first listing of filmmakers, but is still a modest publication at just sixteen pages, plus the covers. The catalogue includes 45 filmmakers — some are listed as pairs — and many more filmmakers have multiple films listed. For example, Larry Jordan has eight films listed, Robert Nelson six and Bruce Baillie four.
There...
Canyon first listed films to rent in the November ’66 edition of their News newsletter, then published the catalog separately one month later. In the book Canyon Cinema, Scott MacDonald notes that the News listed just 31 filmmakers with films. Only six of them had multiple films listed; while the rest listed just a single film each.
The first standalone catalogue expanded on that first listing of filmmakers, but is still a modest publication at just sixteen pages, plus the covers. The catalogue includes 45 filmmakers — some are listed as pairs — and many more filmmakers have multiple films listed. For example, Larry Jordan has eight films listed, Robert Nelson six and Bruce Baillie four.
There...
- 5/6/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In 1966, after six years of existence, the Canyon Cinema experimental film collective of San Francisco, California started its own cooperative distribution center, first listing films in the November ’66 issue of their News newsletter, in which they stated that they would be following in the footsteps of New York City’s Film-Makers’ Cooperative that had been distributing underground films since 1962.
This origin of the Canyon Cinema cooperative is covered in Scott MacDonald’s exhaustive history of the organization, in which he lays out the timeline of publication of the first two catalogs:
November 1966: Canyon lists films to rent in their News publication
December 1966: Canyon Cinema Cooperative Catalog, Number 1
1968: Catalog Number 2
1969: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 1
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 2
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 3
MacDonald states that the second Catalog was 128 pages long, but the Supplement Number 1 begins its numbering on its title page with Page 125. The...
This origin of the Canyon Cinema cooperative is covered in Scott MacDonald’s exhaustive history of the organization, in which he lays out the timeline of publication of the first two catalogs:
November 1966: Canyon lists films to rent in their News publication
December 1966: Canyon Cinema Cooperative Catalog, Number 1
1968: Catalog Number 2
1969: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 1
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 2
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 3
MacDonald states that the second Catalog was 128 pages long, but the Supplement Number 1 begins its numbering on its title page with Page 125. The...
- 4/15/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWith Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina in Pierrot le fou on the official poster for the 71st Cannes Film Festival, all signs point to Jean-Luc Godard's new film, Le livre d'image, premiering there this May.Isao Takahata—the master filmmaker, animator, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli—has sadly left us. Jasper Sharp has penned a thoughtful, thorough obituary for The Guardian.The Czech New Wave director Juraj Herz has also died, reports Czech Journal.Hirokazu Kore-eda's highly productive filmmaking pace continues with a new project, and The Playlist reports that Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve, and perhaps even Ethan Hawke, are aboard.Recommended VIEWINGTerry Gilliam's decades-in-the-making dream project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, is finally near. Above is the raucous first trailer led by the aptly paired duo of Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver.
- 4/11/2018
- MUBI
In 1983, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with Media Study/Buffalo, created a touring retrospective of avant-garde films, primarily feature-length ones and a few shorts, which they called “The American New Wave 1958-1967.” To accompany the tour, a hefty catalog was produced that included notes on the films, essays by film historians and critics, writings by major underground film figures and more.
The retrospective was created at a time when financially viable independent filmmaking was on the rise, such as films made by John Sayles, Wayne Wang and Susan Seidelman. According to the co-curators of the retrospective, Melinda Ward and Bruce Jenkins, the objective of the tour was to:
provide a more adequate picture than conventional history affords us of a rare period of American cinematic invention and thereby prepare a coherent critical and historical context for the reception of the new work by the current generation of independent filmmakers.
The retrospective was created at a time when financially viable independent filmmaking was on the rise, such as films made by John Sayles, Wayne Wang and Susan Seidelman. According to the co-curators of the retrospective, Melinda Ward and Bruce Jenkins, the objective of the tour was to:
provide a more adequate picture than conventional history affords us of a rare period of American cinematic invention and thereby prepare a coherent critical and historical context for the reception of the new work by the current generation of independent filmmakers.
- 11/25/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This July will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces
What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).
Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*
Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces
What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).
Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*
Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...
- 6/26/2017
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Mubi is exclusively playing Tyler Hubby's Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present (2016) from April 8 - May 8, 2017 in the United Kingdom and United States.Tyler Hubby (left) and Tony Conrad (right)I met Tony Conrad in 1994 just as he was re-emerging as a composer and musician. I was recording with my Hi-8 camera when he played one of his first public shows as a violin soloist and have been recording since.Tony was electrifying in how he could always find ways to confront establishment ideas and personal belief systems. Not only was his sabre rattling at the foundations of western culture inspiring, it was also just, and deeply resonated with my ideas of the role of art in society.Over the years as I worked as an editor on films like The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Double Take and The Great Invisible I kept shooting performances and interviews with Tony,...
- 4/8/2017
- MUBI
Chan Is Missing has long been considered a benchmark in Asian-American cinema — some would say that, unfortunately, it’s by default the benchmark — but, 34 years later, writer-director Wayne Wang mostly has other things on his mind. Speaking to him on the occasion of that film’s Metrograph run, Wang was more keen to talk about what he’d wished to do with the movie, other movies in his filmography, and what’s happening elsewhere.
The film absolutely deserves your time and attention, and Wang’s attitude is more telling of where his career has gone: many places, and, more importantly, where he’s wanted to take it. Read my discussion with him below.
The Film Stage: After so much time, has Chan Is Missing ceased to yield anything new? Or do you still discover new things?
Wayne Wang: Well, you know, everything about the Chinese-American community has changed. Filmmaking has changed.
The film absolutely deserves your time and attention, and Wang’s attitude is more telling of where his career has gone: many places, and, more importantly, where he’s wanted to take it. Read my discussion with him below.
The Film Stage: After so much time, has Chan Is Missing ceased to yield anything new? Or do you still discover new things?
Wayne Wang: Well, you know, everything about the Chinese-American community has changed. Filmmaking has changed.
- 9/9/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Photo by Sophie BeeIn the display window of a used record store, you can see covers for albums that don’t exist. They bear titles like Flaming Creatures or Heaven and Earth Magic, familiar to aficionados of experimental film, alongside lurid designs by local artist Tom Carey. This exhibit can mean only one thing: the film festival has come to Ann Arbor. Just down the block is the Michigan Theater, which has been operating since 1928. For one week every spring, its spacious main auditorium and cozy screening room host an intimidating array of avant-garde programming. The selections are eclectic in subject matter, submitted from all over the world, and interspersed with recently restored prints of older works. This practice means that no presentation is predictable. The only constant that carries across the festival is the artists’ collective push against the traditional boundaries of their medium.An example of this ethos...
- 4/8/2016
- by Alice Stoehr
- MUBI
Thundercrack!
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
USA, 1975
When one looks at the underground cult film scene of the 1960s and 1970s, the names Mike Kuchar and George Kuchar definitely come to mind. Twin-brothers who have spent the majority of their lives making short films, Mike and George utilized over-the-top titles and experimental storylines, all of the home movie variety shot on a rather “stylized” no-budget that Ed Wood would’ve been jealous of. Mike Kuchar’s work seemed to be inspired by pop genre films with a dash or two of wild fantasy: his best known film (well, best known in regards to the underground) is Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), a trippy sci-fi/fantasy whatsit, all shot in color 16mm inside various rooms with limited art direction, utilizing dubbed-in narration and on-screen dialogue represented by optical cartoon-like speech-bubbles, and cribbing some music cues of Bernard Herrmann’s...
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
USA, 1975
When one looks at the underground cult film scene of the 1960s and 1970s, the names Mike Kuchar and George Kuchar definitely come to mind. Twin-brothers who have spent the majority of their lives making short films, Mike and George utilized over-the-top titles and experimental storylines, all of the home movie variety shot on a rather “stylized” no-budget that Ed Wood would’ve been jealous of. Mike Kuchar’s work seemed to be inspired by pop genre films with a dash or two of wild fantasy: his best known film (well, best known in regards to the underground) is Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), a trippy sci-fi/fantasy whatsit, all shot in color 16mm inside various rooms with limited art direction, utilizing dubbed-in narration and on-screen dialogue represented by optical cartoon-like speech-bubbles, and cribbing some music cues of Bernard Herrmann’s...
- 1/20/2016
- by Christopher Koenig
- SoundOnSight
Curt McDowell and George Kuchar's comedy epic of oversexed sensationalists running amuck while trapped in a storm-battered house goes beyond strange. It's a legit experimental film but -- gasp! -- also 2.5 hours of hardcore porn and other forms of giddy depravity. A movie guaranteed to make conservative heads explode -- read with caution, please! Thundercrack! Blu-ray Synapse Films 1975 / B&W /1:33 flat full frame / 160 min. / Street Date December 8, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Marion Eaton, Melinda McDowell, George Kuchar, Mookie Blodgett, Ken Scudder, Bernie Boyle, Mark Ellinger, Laurie Hendricks, John Thomas. Cinematography & Film Editor Curt McDowell Makeup Mr. Dominic Original Music Mark Ellinger Written by Mark Ellinger, George Kuchar, Curt McDowell Produced by Charles Thomas, John Thomas Directed by Curt McDowell
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
*Not your usual Savant review.* As a student in the 1970s I worked as an usher at a couple of Filmex exhibitions at Grauman's Chinese. I then volunteered...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
*Not your usual Savant review.* As a student in the 1970s I worked as an usher at a couple of Filmex exhibitions at Grauman's Chinese. I then volunteered...
- 12/19/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
December 8th is a light week in terms of horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases, but for all you X-Philes out there, this Tuesday is pretty much like second Christmas, as 20th Century Fox is releasing The X-Files series in its entirety in a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray set (complete with a space for the upcoming TV event series in January).
Other notable titles being released this week include Knock Knock, Ant-Man, and the cult classics Thundercrack and Women’s Prison Massacre.
Knock Knock (Lionsgate Blu/Digital HD & DVD/Digital)
When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse. A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family...
Other notable titles being released this week include Knock Knock, Ant-Man, and the cult classics Thundercrack and Women’s Prison Massacre.
Knock Knock (Lionsgate Blu/Digital HD & DVD/Digital)
When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse. A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family...
- 12/8/2015
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Special Mention: Dressed To Kill
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Brian De Palma
1980, USA
Genre: Thriller
Brian De Palma’s films, like Tarantino’s, are a cinematic mash-up of influences from the past, and in De Palma case he borrows heavily from Alfred Hitchcock. Obsession is De Palma’s Vertigo, Blow Out his Rear Window, and with Dressed to Kill the director set its sights on Psycho. Dressed To Kill is more thriller than horror but what a stylish and twisted thriller it is! The highlight here is an amazing ten-minute chase sequence set in an art gallery and conducted entirely without dialogue. There are a number of other well-sustained set pieces including a race in the subway system and even, yes, a gratuitous shower murder sequence. Dressed To Kill features an excellent cast (Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Angie Dickinson), a superb score (courtesy of Pino Donaggio) and...
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Brian De Palma
1980, USA
Genre: Thriller
Brian De Palma’s films, like Tarantino’s, are a cinematic mash-up of influences from the past, and in De Palma case he borrows heavily from Alfred Hitchcock. Obsession is De Palma’s Vertigo, Blow Out his Rear Window, and with Dressed to Kill the director set its sights on Psycho. Dressed To Kill is more thriller than horror but what a stylish and twisted thriller it is! The highlight here is an amazing ten-minute chase sequence set in an art gallery and conducted entirely without dialogue. There are a number of other well-sustained set pieces including a race in the subway system and even, yes, a gratuitous shower murder sequence. Dressed To Kill features an excellent cast (Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Angie Dickinson), a superb score (courtesy of Pino Donaggio) and...
- 10/25/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
To commemorate her passing, free screenings of Chantal Akerman‘s Jeanne Dielman (on 35mm) and her self-portrait Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman will screen for free on Friday.
Hou Hsiao-hsien‘s The Boys from Fengkuei will play on Friday night, with Hou making an appearance.
Museum of the Moving...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
To commemorate her passing, free screenings of Chantal Akerman‘s Jeanne Dielman (on 35mm) and her self-portrait Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman will screen for free on Friday.
Hou Hsiao-hsien‘s The Boys from Fengkuei will play on Friday night, with Hou making an appearance.
Museum of the Moving...
- 10/9/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Take any standard Hollywood action thriller and strip out all convoluted backstories, remove all romantic subplots, shoot down any unnecessary exposition, eviscerate all special effects — CGI and practical — and film the whole thing with Super 8 and camcorders. Do all that and you’ve got yourself another Bob Moricz masterpiece.
In Krimi, a mysterious stranger rolls back into town searching for a missing family member and becomes embroiled in the seedy criminal underground that he’s tried so hard to escape. That’s the kind of set-up that’s fueled a zillion movie plots. Here, though, writer/director/editor Moricz has boiled that plot completely down to its absolute essentials and filmed the whole thing in his trademark surrealist lo-fi style that the end product is a trip into a nightmarish netherzone that bears absolutely no resemblance to reality.
Moricz himself stars as that mysterious stranger — the awesomely named Vic Slezak...
In Krimi, a mysterious stranger rolls back into town searching for a missing family member and becomes embroiled in the seedy criminal underground that he’s tried so hard to escape. That’s the kind of set-up that’s fueled a zillion movie plots. Here, though, writer/director/editor Moricz has boiled that plot completely down to its absolute essentials and filmed the whole thing in his trademark surrealist lo-fi style that the end product is a trip into a nightmarish netherzone that bears absolutely no resemblance to reality.
Moricz himself stars as that mysterious stranger — the awesomely named Vic Slezak...
- 8/3/2015
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Museum of Modern Art in New York has just announced "Two Evenings of Films with Yoko Ono," happening on Monday and Wednesday. More goings on: A free sneak preview of Takashi Murakami's Jellyfish Eyes, Technicolor in New York and Toronto, an evening of work by Jack Smith in Los Angeles, which sees a Frank Borzage series opening tomorrow—plus Rudolph Maté's D.O.A. (1950) and more pulpy movies every Saturday. Hardcore David Cronenberg in San Francisco. Eric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris (1984) in Chicago. And Ed Halter writes about George Kuchar's Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966), screening every day at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. » - David Hudson...
- 7/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The Museum of Modern Art in New York has just announced "Two Evenings of Films with Yoko Ono," happening on Monday and Wednesday. More goings on: A free sneak preview of Takashi Murakami's Jellyfish Eyes, Technicolor in New York and Toronto, an evening of work by Jack Smith in Los Angeles, which sees a Frank Borzage series opening tomorrow—plus Rudolph Maté's D.O.A. (1950) and more pulpy movies every Saturday. Hardcore David Cronenberg in San Francisco. Eric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris (1984) in Chicago. And Ed Halter writes about George Kuchar's Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966), screening every day at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. » - David Hudson...
- 7/9/2015
- Keyframe
A holiday roundup of new issues of Cinema Scope, Senses of Cinema, Lola, La Furia Umana and many more titles gathers interviews with the likes of Christian Petzold, Nadav Lapid, Peter Strickland, Philip Kaufman, James Benning, Mike Hoolboom and Abderrahmane Sissako as well as articles on Manny Farber, Bruno Dumont's P'tit Quinquin, Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Harun Farocki, Aleksandr Sokurov, Ernst Lubitsch, Terrence Malick, Jacques Becker, George Kuchar, Eric Rohmer, Hollis Frampton, Alex Proyas and the 25th anniversary of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. » - David Hudson...
- 12/25/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
A holiday roundup of new issues of Cinema Scope, Senses of Cinema, Lola, La Furia Umana and many more titles gathers interviews with the likes of Christian Petzold, Nadav Lapid, Peter Strickland, Philip Kaufman, James Benning, Mike Hoolboom and Abderrahmane Sissako as well as articles on Manny Farber, Bruno Dumont's P'tit Quinquin, Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Harun Farocki, Aleksandr Sokurov, Ernst Lubitsch, Terrence Malick, Jacques Becker, George Kuchar, Eric Rohmer, Hollis Frampton, Alex Proyas and the 25th anniversary of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. » - David Hudson...
- 12/25/2014
- Keyframe
In today's roundup on cinema-related books, we preview Peter Labuza's Approaching the End: Imagining Apocalypse in American Film, Jason Bailey's The Ultimate Woody Allen Companion, Frederic Lombardi’s Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, The George Kuchar Reader (edited by Andrew Lampert), Be Sand, Not Oil. The Life and Work of Amos Vogel (with a forward by Werner Herzog), David Cronenberg's Consumed, Cary Elwes's As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride and Russell Brand's Revolution. » - David Hudson...
- 10/16/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup on cinema-related books, we preview Peter Labuza's Approaching the End: Imagining Apocalypse in American Film, Jason Bailey's The Ultimate Woody Allen Companion, Frederic Lombardi’s Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, The George Kuchar Reader (edited by Andrew Lampert), Be Sand, Not Oil. The Life and Work of Amos Vogel (with a forward by Werner Herzog), David Cronenberg's Consumed, Cary Elwes's As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride and Russell Brand's Revolution. » - David Hudson...
- 10/16/2014
- Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: Chris Marker's photographs taken in North Korea, David Lynch's depiction of Los Angeles, a discussion of the work of Claire Denis, a Martin Scorsese symposium, revisiting Michael Powell's The Tales of Hoffmann, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Jean-Luc Godard's Notre musique, a collection of writing by George Kuchar, an interview with Abdellah Taïa, Christopher Hitchens on John Wayne, reviews of David Cronenberg's first novel, Tom Tykwer's plans for a television series set in Berlin in the 1920s, Joe Sarno Day at DC's and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/8/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: Chris Marker's photographs taken in North Korea, David Lynch's depiction of Los Angeles, a discussion of the work of Claire Denis, a Martin Scorsese symposium, revisiting Michael Powell's The Tales of Hoffmann, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Jean-Luc Godard's Notre musique, a collection of writing by George Kuchar, an interview with Abdellah Taïa, Christopher Hitchens on John Wayne, reviews of David Cronenberg's first novel, Tom Tykwer's plans for a television series set in Berlin in the 1920s, Joe Sarno Day at DC's and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/8/2014
- Keyframe
August 19
7:30 p.m.
Light Industry
155 Freeman Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Hosted by: Light Industry
Legendary underground filmmaker George Kuchar held an intense fascination with the paranormal that informed many of his films. Secrets of the Shadow World is his magnum opus, a two-plus hour ride into the world of all things paranormal, much of it presented through the presence of noted UFOlogist John A. Keel.
This screening is being presented in preparation for the publication of the highly anticipated George Kuchar Reader, which is edited by film preservationist and expert in all things Kuchar, Andrew Lampert; and published by Primary Information. The George Kuchar Reader will be available on September 30, 2014; but can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.
Official description of Secrets of the Shadow World written by George Kuchar for the Electronic Arts Intermix catalog:
With a new millennium almost upon us, images of space aliens invading the marketplace and sleeping habits of consumers worldwide,...
7:30 p.m.
Light Industry
155 Freeman Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Hosted by: Light Industry
Legendary underground filmmaker George Kuchar held an intense fascination with the paranormal that informed many of his films. Secrets of the Shadow World is his magnum opus, a two-plus hour ride into the world of all things paranormal, much of it presented through the presence of noted UFOlogist John A. Keel.
This screening is being presented in preparation for the publication of the highly anticipated George Kuchar Reader, which is edited by film preservationist and expert in all things Kuchar, Andrew Lampert; and published by Primary Information. The George Kuchar Reader will be available on September 30, 2014; but can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.
Official description of Secrets of the Shadow World written by George Kuchar for the Electronic Arts Intermix catalog:
With a new millennium almost upon us, images of space aliens invading the marketplace and sleeping habits of consumers worldwide,...
- 8/15/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Bob Moricz says: Here is a photo my wife Irina took of me and our two lovely cats. Auggie is on the left and Anton on the right. Anton is named for Anton Lavey for his devilish hair tufts on his ears, making him look like he has horns. He’s also pretty devilish by nature.
Underground Film Journal says: Bob Moricz is an incredibly prolific underground filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. Bob makes down and dirty pictures, runnin’ and gunnin’ in a dizzying tailspin of cinematic madness, just like his mentor George Kuchar taught him.
We first noticed him via his disturbing short film Slut Shack and have grown to love his work, which includes the controversial teen pregnancy drama Bumps, the tale of disorderly madness Felony Flats and the web series Overdose in the Hospital of Love.
Bob’s work is challenging, thought-provoking, provocative and damn good fun.
Underground Film Journal says: Bob Moricz is an incredibly prolific underground filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. Bob makes down and dirty pictures, runnin’ and gunnin’ in a dizzying tailspin of cinematic madness, just like his mentor George Kuchar taught him.
We first noticed him via his disturbing short film Slut Shack and have grown to love his work, which includes the controversial teen pregnancy drama Bumps, the tale of disorderly madness Felony Flats and the web series Overdose in the Hospital of Love.
Bob’s work is challenging, thought-provoking, provocative and damn good fun.
- 3/20/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
March 13
7:00 p.m.
Northwest Film Center
1219 Sw Park Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97205
Hosted by: Northwest Film Center
Portland-based underground filmmaker Bob Moricz will be in attendance at the Northwest Film Center to present a selection of his short films and excerpts from his features spanning his prolific career from 1991 to 2012.
Although Moricz has been making films his entire life, he kicked into high gear after participating in classes taught by the legendary George Kuchar at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Moricz brazenly employs the Kuchar aesthetic of shooting his films dirty and cheap, focusing his attention on melodramatic, sleazy and degenerate behavior. His work also embraces and celebrates his lo-fi filmmaking techniques, blurring the lines between the end product with the processes of their making.
Also, in recent years, Moricz has become an increasingly integral part of the Portland indie film scene, having taken over the Portland Underground Film Festival...
7:00 p.m.
Northwest Film Center
1219 Sw Park Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97205
Hosted by: Northwest Film Center
Portland-based underground filmmaker Bob Moricz will be in attendance at the Northwest Film Center to present a selection of his short films and excerpts from his features spanning his prolific career from 1991 to 2012.
Although Moricz has been making films his entire life, he kicked into high gear after participating in classes taught by the legendary George Kuchar at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Moricz brazenly employs the Kuchar aesthetic of shooting his films dirty and cheap, focusing his attention on melodramatic, sleazy and degenerate behavior. His work also embraces and celebrates his lo-fi filmmaking techniques, blurring the lines between the end product with the processes of their making.
Also, in recent years, Moricz has become an increasingly integral part of the Portland indie film scene, having taken over the Portland Underground Film Festival...
- 3/12/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
On November 18 at the Academy Film Archive in Hollywood, California, Jeff Lambert of the National Film Preservation Foundation presented a selection of experimental films that will be included on the upcoming DVD box set Treasures VI: Next Wave Avant-Garde.
A follow-up to the hugely popular Treasures IV box set, which was released in 2009, the new Treasures VI will focus primarily on the so-called “second wave” of avant-garde filmmakers of the ’70s and ’80s, many of whom were taught and influenced by the “first wave” of filmmakers found on Treasures IV. As such, Treasures VI will include work by lesser known and appreciated filmmakers from a typically overlooked period in underground film history.
Lambert announced at the event that Treasures VI will include 33 films by 28 filmmakers, then proceded to screen six of those films. Those six were:
A Trip to Indiana, dir. Curt McDowell and Ted Davis
Plumb Line, dir. Carolee Schneemann
Radio Adios,...
A follow-up to the hugely popular Treasures IV box set, which was released in 2009, the new Treasures VI will focus primarily on the so-called “second wave” of avant-garde filmmakers of the ’70s and ’80s, many of whom were taught and influenced by the “first wave” of filmmakers found on Treasures IV. As such, Treasures VI will include work by lesser known and appreciated filmmakers from a typically overlooked period in underground film history.
Lambert announced at the event that Treasures VI will include 33 films by 28 filmmakers, then proceded to screen six of those films. Those six were:
A Trip to Indiana, dir. Curt McDowell and Ted Davis
Plumb Line, dir. Carolee Schneemann
Radio Adios,...
- 11/19/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time for one reason: the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. Enjoy!
****
Special Mention:
Shock Corridor
Written and directed by Samuel Fuller
USA, 1963
Shock Corridor stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, an ambitious reporter who wants to expose the killer at the local insane asylum. To solve the case, he must pretend to be insane so they have him committed. Once in the asylum,...
****
Special Mention:
Shock Corridor
Written and directed by Samuel Fuller
USA, 1963
Shock Corridor stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, an ambitious reporter who wants to expose the killer at the local insane asylum. To solve the case, he must pretend to be insane so they have him committed. Once in the asylum,...
- 10/28/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Sorry for the fairly short list this week. Been kind of a nutty week for me, so I haven’t been as on top of things.
Here’s an awesome new project that I missed linking to last week: Boston Viewfinder, which helps people find off-beat screenings in the Boston area — and appears there’s a ton going on there. Every city needs a site like this. Jeff Krulik has been busy getting interviewed a lot lately. Here’s one conducted by the Maryland Moving Image Archive, which is nice to see this great filmmaker getting wonderful local recognition lately. Robert Maier reviews the documentary The Iran Job, which sheds some much needed light on progressive movements in that country. Maier rates it an absolute “Must See.” Making Light of It has an amazing photo from the first ever screening of Wavelength, featuring Ken Jacobs, Shirley Clarke, George Kuchar and...
Here’s an awesome new project that I missed linking to last week: Boston Viewfinder, which helps people find off-beat screenings in the Boston area — and appears there’s a ton going on there. Every city needs a site like this. Jeff Krulik has been busy getting interviewed a lot lately. Here’s one conducted by the Maryland Moving Image Archive, which is nice to see this great filmmaker getting wonderful local recognition lately. Robert Maier reviews the documentary The Iran Job, which sheds some much needed light on progressive movements in that country. Maier rates it an absolute “Must See.” Making Light of It has an amazing photo from the first ever screening of Wavelength, featuring Ken Jacobs, Shirley Clarke, George Kuchar and...
- 7/21/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Divine in the cult classic “Pink Flamingos”
The documentary I Am Divine made its world premiere at this year's SXSW Film Festival and as the title suggests, it documents the life and times of the iconic Divine, the mother of all drag performers. Divine worshippers and newbies will be happy to know that this movie has all the crazy and outlandish antics expected from the late great performer, but it's also surprisingly intimate, heartfelt, and a bit somber.
All of us remember our first encounter with the lovely Divine (born Harris Glenn Milstead). More than likely, you know her from John Waters' Pink Flamingos (a.k.a. The movie where she eats dog poo). It wasn't any different for Jeffrey Schwarz, director of the film. He was in his teenage years when he started worshipping at the altar of Divine.
“I had read about Pink Flamingos before actually seeing it,...
The documentary I Am Divine made its world premiere at this year's SXSW Film Festival and as the title suggests, it documents the life and times of the iconic Divine, the mother of all drag performers. Divine worshippers and newbies will be happy to know that this movie has all the crazy and outlandish antics expected from the late great performer, but it's also surprisingly intimate, heartfelt, and a bit somber.
All of us remember our first encounter with the lovely Divine (born Harris Glenn Milstead). More than likely, you know her from John Waters' Pink Flamingos (a.k.a. The movie where she eats dog poo). It wasn't any different for Jeffrey Schwarz, director of the film. He was in his teenage years when he started worshipping at the altar of Divine.
“I had read about Pink Flamingos before actually seeing it,...
- 4/9/2013
- by Dino-Ray
- The Backlot
Spanish director dies following a stroke: Best known for his nearly two hundred underground, "exploitation" films "I think I was born because my father and my mother had sex ... ." Nope, that has nothing to do with the anti-censorship lectured delivered by Oz the Great and Powerful and Interior. Leather Bar's James Franco online. The words above were uttered by another Franco, a Spaniard. No, not the foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing military ruler Francisco Franco, but multitasking filmmaker Jesús Franco, aka Jess Franco aka dozens of other aliases, including those in honor of jazz performers Clifford Brown and James P. Johnson. His oeuvre included about 200 films, among them The White Slave, The Sexual History of O, Macumba Sexual, , Emmanuelle Exposed, Vampyros Lesbos, The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll, and White Cannibal Queen. The director died today in Malaga, a city in southern Spain, after suffering a stroke. According to reports, he had never truly...
- 4/3/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Sundance Film Festival kicks off out in Park City today, bringing some of the year’s most anticipated independent films to the big screen. Following shortly after will be the Berlinale next month, and SXSW in March, which has just debuted a very promising initial line-up. And now the first big film festival on our shores, the Glasgow Film Festival, has announced its line-up, and it is absolutely exceptional.
Opening the events on Valentine’s Day next month will be Régis Roinsard’s Populaire, starring Romain Duris, Déborah François, and Bérénice Bejo, getting its UK premiere.
And closing the festival will be Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, the great writer-director’s contemporary adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play. Similarly seeing its UK premiere, the film stars an ensemble that will please all Whedon fans, led by Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, with fine support from Fran Kranz, Clark Gregg,...
Opening the events on Valentine’s Day next month will be Régis Roinsard’s Populaire, starring Romain Duris, Déborah François, and Bérénice Bejo, getting its UK premiere.
And closing the festival will be Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, the great writer-director’s contemporary adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play. Similarly seeing its UK premiere, the film stars an ensemble that will please all Whedon fans, led by Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, with fine support from Fran Kranz, Clark Gregg,...
- 1/17/2013
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.
As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.
****
50: Thundercrack!
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
1975, USA
Thunderstruck! is by far the most obscure film you will find on this list. It is without a doubt one of the true landmarks of Underground cinema. With a screenplay by veteran underground film maker George Kuchar (story and characters by Mark Ellinger) and directed Curt McDowell (than student of Kuchar),
Thundercrack! is a work of a crazed genius.
As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.
****
50: Thundercrack!
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
1975, USA
Thunderstruck! is by far the most obscure film you will find on this list. It is without a doubt one of the true landmarks of Underground cinema. With a screenplay by veteran underground film maker George Kuchar (story and characters by Mark Ellinger) and directed Curt McDowell (than student of Kuchar),
Thundercrack! is a work of a crazed genius.
- 10/27/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Dear Fern,
Where to start? The festival finally has enough balls in the air that I'm not sure what to juggle, what to toss to you, what to grab from your pile!
You suggest something running through the movies here and certainly an issue dealt with by many filmmakers of a certain age—to steal a word from the English subtitles of Nicolas Rey's remarkable, undefinable differently, Molussia (more on that to come, I hope): it's a question of legacy. Après mai (a far better title, you are right), did not work for me either; it was the first Assayas film I generally found boring, a combination of its simultaneous engagement with the conventional images and motifs of a film taking place in the aftermath of May '68 at the same time as it failing, for me, to find images of these things. (How dull a complaint of...
Where to start? The festival finally has enough balls in the air that I'm not sure what to juggle, what to toss to you, what to grab from your pile!
You suggest something running through the movies here and certainly an issue dealt with by many filmmakers of a certain age—to steal a word from the English subtitles of Nicolas Rey's remarkable, undefinable differently, Molussia (more on that to come, I hope): it's a question of legacy. Après mai (a far better title, you are right), did not work for me either; it was the first Assayas film I generally found boring, a combination of its simultaneous engagement with the conventional images and motifs of a film taking place in the aftermath of May '68 at the same time as it failing, for me, to find images of these things. (How dull a complaint of...
- 9/11/2012
- MUBI
Sept. 2, 15 & 25
7:30 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
Hosted by: Matthew Bonner
Curated by Matthew Bonner, Brooklyn’s Spectacle Theater will be screening movies by twin underground filmmaking legends, George and Mike Kuchar. The program will screen on three different nights in September with one program each devoted to each brother. (Full screening schedule is below.)
What makes this particular program stand-out from other Kuchar screenings is that Bonner — a former film student of George’s — has selected rarely screened, relatively modern work by the sibling enfant terribles. After becoming giants in the underground film world of the early 1960s, the Kuchars were the rare filmmakers who gleefully embraced using video to make their “pictures” later in their careers.
Although they began making films together as teenagers, as the brothers got older they went in separate directions and their creative tastes veered off in wildly different directions.
7:30 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
Hosted by: Matthew Bonner
Curated by Matthew Bonner, Brooklyn’s Spectacle Theater will be screening movies by twin underground filmmaking legends, George and Mike Kuchar. The program will screen on three different nights in September with one program each devoted to each brother. (Full screening schedule is below.)
What makes this particular program stand-out from other Kuchar screenings is that Bonner — a former film student of George’s — has selected rarely screened, relatively modern work by the sibling enfant terribles. After becoming giants in the underground film world of the early 1960s, the Kuchars were the rare filmmakers who gleefully embraced using video to make their “pictures” later in their careers.
Although they began making films together as teenagers, as the brothers got older they went in separate directions and their creative tastes veered off in wildly different directions.
- 8/31/2012
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
By merging the former Visions into the Wavelengths section, Cameron Bailey has essentially made a new incontournable programme. Headed by Andréa Picard, the section which at a time was populated by medium to short run times now includes some of the bigger names in innovative feature film filmmaking who have no qualms about bending the medium. This year the sections includes long, medium and short length works from the likes of Ben Rivers, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Carlos Reygadas (pic of his controversial Post Tenebras Lux above), Wang Bing, Mati Diop (actress from Claire Denis and Antonio Campos films) and our very own writer Blake Williams who makes it two for two at Tiff with Many a Swan – he previously had Coorow-Latham Road programmed last year. Here’s the complete A to Z listing and well-worth reading descriptions.
Pairings
The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, 37’ A bevy of gorgeous Gothic...
Pairings
The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, 37’ A bevy of gorgeous Gothic...
- 8/14/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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