The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Robert Wiene, 1920, USA, 74 mins
At a carnival in Germany, Francis (Friedrich Feher) and his friend Alan (Rudolf Lettinger) encounter the crazed Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss). The men see Caligari showing off his somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), a hypnotized man who the doctor claims can see into the future. Shockingly, Cesare then predicts Alan’s death, and by morning his chilling prophecy has come true — making Cesare the prime suspect. However, is Cesare guilty, or is the doctor controlling him?
Considered by many to be the first true horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) not only holds that title, but exists as the quintessential definitive piece of German expressionist cinema.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George Romero, 1968, USA, 96 mins
A man and his sister visit a graveyard to pay their respects, when a crazed man appears and attacks them. The sister escapes to an isolated house nearby and finds out the horrible truth: that the dead are walking, and are hungry.
House
Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977, Japan, 88 min
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet.
The Tingler + Halloween Party
Be sure to come to the Spacy Halloween party for some special surprises!
Movie: 8pm
Party: 10pm-12am
William Castle, 1959, USA, 82 mins
A pathologist experiments with a deaf-mute woman who is unable to scream to prove that humans die of fright due to an organism he names The Tingler that lives within each person on the spinal cord and is suppressed only when people scream when scared.
Werewolf Movie Club Presents: An American Werewolf in London
John Landis, 1981, United Kingdom/United States, 97 mins
Fresh off of sleeper hits Animal House and The Blues Brothers, writer-director John Landis made it a trifecta with this instinct cult classic, a creature feature leavened with countercultural coolness. When backpacking American college students David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) become lost in the foggy Welsh moors, they’re suddenly attacked by an unidentified killer animal. David awakens weeks later to discover that Jack is dead, and then begins to experience disturbing changes to his mind and body. The film that put Dunne on the Hollywood map, An American Werewolf in London proves to be an ideal showcase for his transfixing deadpan and undeniable intellect, powers that remain in full effect even beyond the grave.
From Here/From There (De Aquí/De Allá)
Director Marlene “Mo” Morris will be in attendance for a post-discussion Q&A! $6 admission.
Marlene Morris, 2024, USA, 64 mins
When the Trump administration abruptly threatens to deport 700,000 fellow Dreamers – the charismatic attorney and DACA recipient Luis Cortes Romero fights back, co-piloting an A-Team of lawyers who takes their case all the way to the Supreme Court, making the Luis the first undocumented immigrant to argue before the nation’s highest court.
Two By: The Battle of Algiers
FREE SCREENING!
Gillo Pontecorvo Italy, 1966, 121 mins
One of the most influential political films in history, The Battle of Algiers, by Gillo Pontecorvo, vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. Shot on the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. Pontecorvo’s tour de force has astonishing relevance today.
Creep (2014)
Patrick Brice, 2014, USA, 82 mins
Looking for work, Aaron comes across a cryptic online ad: “$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated.” Low on cash and full of naiveté, he decides to go for it. He drives to a cabin in a remote mountain town where he meets Josef, his cinematic subject for the day. Josef is sincere and the project seems heartfelt, so Aaron begins to film. But as the day goes on, it becomes clear that Josef is not who he says, and his intentions are not at all pure.
Bye Bye Love
Isao Fujisawa, 1974, Japan, 85min
Lost and nihilistic drifter Utamaro chances upon Giko, a female-presenting shoplifter who immediately catches his eye. One thing leads to another: the couple soon find themselves on the lam for murder. This provides for a delightful pretext to explore notions of societal malaise, free love and gender fluidity in a rapidly evolving 1970s Japan, as both Utamaro and Giko begin to know each other on the road by way of a variety of encounters, alternating between surrealistic, psychedelic and sexual.
The sole feature film directed by Isao Fujisawa, who learned his craft as an assistant director to Hiroshi Teshigahara on New Wave classics such as Woman in the Dunes and The Face of Another, Bye Bye Love is a deeply personal reckoning with sexual identity. Bridging the distance between Pierrot le fou, Bonnie and Clyde and Funeral Parade of Roses with an impeccable sense of style, splashes of Godardian color as well as strong anti-imperialist and existentialist themes, this iconic jishu eiga (self-produced film) was long thought lost until recently shepherded towards restoration by director and programmer Akihiro Suzuki. A new landmark of Japanese queer cinema, it is now distributed in North America for the very first time in 50 years.
City Wide Fever
Josh Heaps, United States, 2025, 73 mins
Sam, a young film student, discovers a USB detailing the life and career of forgotten Italian horror director Saturnino Barresi. As she begins to investigate his mysterious disappearance, Sam finds herself pulled into a violent conspiracy eerily similar to those of the films she adores.
The Gold Rush (100th Anniversary)
$5 Screening!
Charles Chaplin, 1925, USA, 95 mins
Cementing the iconic status of Chaplin and his Little Tramp character, The Gold Rush was shot partly on location in the Sierra Nevada, with such timeless gags as the dance of the dinner rolls and the meal of boiled shoe leather. Featuring epic scenes with hundreds of extras and a real bear filmed in the Californian mountains, The Gold Rush showcases Chaplin’s grand vision for spectacle.
Looking for an Angel (1999)
Akihiro Suzuki, 1999, Japan, 60 mins
Mostly seen on the gay pink circuit and recently restored by its director to its rightful place in the Japanese arthouse canon, Akihiro Suzuki's debut takes the death of a young gay porn performer named Takachi as its starting point. Looking for an Angel follows Shinpei and Reiko as they process their friend’s disappearance, their memories coalescing into a bold exploration of grief set against the backdrop of a nostalgic, blue-hued city shot in a variety of filmic formats. As the viewer begins to piece together Takachi’s story, laden with desire for another boy named Sorao, between the cities of Tokyo and Kochi (“where the boys look like angels”), a powerful free-associative beauty emerges from a unique work described by Suzuki himself as “neither straight, gay, queer, bisexual, asexual or pornographic, but [rather] anti-heterosexist” — a film completely free of dogma and convention.
Seduction: The Cruel Woman
Monika Treut & Elfi Mikesch, 1985, West Germany, 86 mins
“A ticket to a masochistic wonderland…”
Wanda (Mechthild Großmann) is a dominatrix who runs an S/M performance space in Hamburg where she stages elaborate sexual rituals for a discerning audience. Cruelty is her profession, but constructing traps for her lovers—including the lovelorn Gregor (Udo Kier), the naive and innocent Justine (Sheila McLaughlin), and the jaded Caren (Carola Regnier)—is her specialty. All know the rules of the game, but not all are willing to play their roles—but the show must go on…
Inspired by the writings of the Baron Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Monika Treut and Elfi Mikesch’s Seduction: The Cruel Woman (Verführung: Die grausame Frau) is a coolly sensual tribute to masochism and obsession in all of its forms, and a seminal work of lesbian cinema.
“Sex may just be a passing fad. The age of tenderness is over. What is being presented: the world of sadomasochistic symbols, the rhythm of suffering, the pleasure of torment.”
- Treut/Mikesch
“This is S/M by Avedon, outfits by Dior.” - Film Comment
Looking for an Angel (1999)
Akihiro Suzuki, 1999, Japan, 60 mins
Mostly seen on the gay pink circuit and recently restored by its director to its rightful place in the Japanese arthouse canon, Akihiro Suzuki's debut takes the death of a young gay porn performer named Takachi as its starting point. Looking for an Angel follows Shinpei and Reiko as they process their friend’s disappearance, their memories coalescing into a bold exploration of grief set against the backdrop of a nostalgic, blue-hued city shot in a variety of filmic formats. As the viewer begins to piece together Takachi’s story, laden with desire for another boy named Sorao, between the cities of Tokyo and Kochi (“where the boys look like angels”), a powerful free-associative beauty emerges from a unique work described by Suzuki himself as “neither straight, gay, queer, bisexual, asexual or pornographic, but [rather] anti-heterosexist” — a film completely free of dogma and convention.
Virgin Machine
Monika Treut, 1988, West Germany, 84 mins
“An unusual search for romantic love”
Dorothee Müller (Ina Blum) is a German journalist researching an article about the nature of romantic love—something she desperately needs, given her dysfunctional relationships with former lover Heinz (Gad Klein) and brother Bruno (Marcelo Uriona). In the Oz of San Francisco, Dorothee finds exactly what she was looking for—and then some—thanks to the help of lesbian strip show barker Susie Sexpert (Susie Bright), drag king Ramona (Shelly Mars), and her mysteriously kinky neighbors (Cleo Dubois and Fakir Musafar). When Dorothy surfaces like a dazzled tourist on the wilder shores of the city’s thriving lesbian community, she has discovered her true sexuality…and left some illusions behind.
Part German Expressionist satire, part sapphic travelogue, Monika Treut’s Virgin Machine (Die Jungfrauenmaschine) is a seminal—and fiercely controversial—work of lesbian cinema.
Two By: Operation Ogre
FREE SCREENING!
Gillo Pontecorvo, 1979, Italy/Spain, 101 mins
Spain, 1973. Dictator Francisco Franco has ruled the country since 1939 with an iron fist; but he is now a very old and sick man. The future of the weakened regime is in danger. Admiral Carrero Blanco is his natural successor. The Basque terrorist gang ETA decides that he must die to prevent the dictatorship from continuing.
The Razor's Edge
Jocelyne Saab, 1985, France / Lebanon, 102 mins
Set amid the Lebanese Civil War, Saab’s fiction feature debut centers the unlikely bond formed between Karim, a forty-something painter, and Samar, a teenager who grew up in war-torn Beirut.
Local Horror Night
$8 Screening!
Want to get into the spooky mood and still support local talent? Come to our first ever Local Horror Night where we’ll be playing horror short films from local filmmakers. More details TBA!
Little Shop of Horrors (featuring Local Plant Vendors)
Be sure to check out the local plants vendors and their offerings!
Roger Corman, United States, 1960, 73 mins
This staple on the midnight movie circuit in the 1970s and 1980s follows plant store owner Seymour Krelborn (Jonathan Haze) and the carnivorous plant that overtakes his life. The 1960 film matches the same story beats as the 1986 remake, minus the musical numbers and in black and white, with an early appearance from Jack Nicholson as Wilbur Force, a prospective patient of the demented dentist Dr. Farb.
Re-Wind (Celluloid Nightmares)
Hisayasu Satō, 1988, Japan, 65 mins
Recommended if you like: Pinku, Videodrome, Peeping Tom
When a grisly, point-of-view snuff videotape is found in a refrigerator, a young man becomes obsessed with tracking down its creator and finding out whether or not the brutal murder depicted on it was real. As he delves deeper into Tokyo’s underground video scene with a female reporter who calls herself Crime Hunter, his own perversions come to the fore.
Fusing gruesome gore and raw sex while wryly playing tribute to Michael Powell’s seminal Peeping Tom, Hisayasu Satō's Re-Wind (also known as Celluloid Nightmares) is one of legendary pink film director’s most powerful and impressive early works. New 2K restoration!
Love Letter in the Sand
Hisayasu Satō, 1988, Japan, 61 mins
During a month of unusually heavy rain in Tokyo, a mysterious assailant has been brutally assaulting and killing women with a metal baseball bat. When a handsome young man with amnesia is found outside an area hospital, the nurse who discovered him begins to suspect that he may in fact be the perpetrator. But her own strange erotic fixations with him—and the questionable involvement of the doctor tasked with the amnesia victim—lead them all down an increasingly twisted path of deeply-rooted trauma and violence.
An early effort from legendary pink film director Hisayasu Satō, Love Letter in the Sand is an atmospheric, noir-tinged erotic thriller filled with Satō’s trademark theme of urban alienation. New 2K restoration!
Puppet Combo's Night Shift
Benedetto Cocuzza, 2025, USA, 90 mins
Set in a 24-hour convenience store, Night Shift follows college student Debra as she reluctantly takes a graveyard clerk job after a co-worker mysteriously disappears. What starts as routine shelf-stocking quickly unravels into paranoia, dread, and blood-soaked madness as a relentless killer closes in.
Taxi zum Klo
Frank Ripploh, 1980, Germany, 96 mins
By day, Frank is a dedicated schoolteacher. By night, he embraces the sexual freedoms of the city’s underground scene—navigating a double life in public restrooms, cinemas, and cruising spots. When he meets Bernd, a sweet and steady museum worker, Frank finds himself torn between the comfort of domestic partnership and the allure of anonymous desire.
Unapologetically explicit and deeply personal, Taxi zum Klo shattered taboos upon its release and remains a landmark of queer cinema. Shot with unfiltered candor and infused with a distinctively wry humor, Ripploh’s film continues to resonate for its fearless exploration of identity, intimacy, and freedom.
House
Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977, Japan, 88 min
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet.
Evan Gordon Presents: Beyond Dream's Door
Post screening live virtual Q&A with the director Jay Woelfel!
Jay Woelfel, 1989, USA, 80 min
An All-American college student who’s been repressing his nightmares since childhood is forced to confront them once they enter his waking life.
Nature of Things Presents: 3 Women
Presented in collaboration with Nature of Things for their “3 Women” exhibit. Come early to see a preshow of Les Blank shorts!
Robert Altman, 1977, USA, 124 mins
Altman’s dreamlike study of down-and-out women existing in a liminal state between reality and fantasy in a tiny California town shows the filmmaker at the summit of his powers as both surreal image-maker and humane storyteller. After having worked with the great Shelley Duvall throughout the decade, from McCabe & Mrs. Miller to Thieves Like Us to Nashville, Altman gifted her a role of astonishing depth and pathos in Millie, a gabby, self-involved health spa worker whose life intersects with—and inexplicably refracts—that of a mysterious new coworker named Pinky, played by the brilliantly mercurial Spacek. Altman’s oneiric vision, inspired by a dream (and reminiscent of Bergman’s Personain its depiction of women’s lives doubling and taking on one another’s traits), is a singular mix of otherworldly and earthy.
![Sisters (1972) [Cancelled]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/648012b03544107026d49e12/f86a3b38-3295-40f2-a521-6e04358d4c17/Sisters.jpg)
Sisters (1972) [Cancelled]
Brian De Palma, USA, 1973, 92 mins
Margot Kidder is Danielle, a beautiful model separated from her Siamese twin, Dominique. When a hotshot reporter (Jennifer Salt) suspects Dominique of a brutal murder, she becomes dangerously ensnared in the sisters’ insidious sibling bond. A scary and stylish paean to female destructiveness, De Palma’s first foray into horror voyeurism is a stunning amalgam of split-screen effects, bloody birthday cakes, and a chilling score by frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann.
Two By: Deep Crimson
Free Screening!
Arturo Ripstein, 1996, Mexico/Spain/France, 111 mins
Driven by desire and desperate for self-love, Coral and Nicolás will abandon their past lives in a journey surrounded by murder.
LAFFD Presents: You're Missing the Point (Ahí está el detalle)
Juan Bustillo Oro, 1940, Mexico, 112 mins
Cantinflas, the boyfriend of the servant of a rich industrial man, gets into the house in order to kill a mad dog. Suddenly this man appears so the servant tells him that Cantinflas is his wife’s brother (Leonardo), who had been lost for years. The rich man then remembers that his father in law’s testament could only be paid when all brothers get together, so treats Cantinflas, a real bum, as a king.
Eyes Without a Face
Georges Franju, France, 1960, 90 mins
At his secluded chateau in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor (Pierre Brasseur) attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured countenance—at a horrifying price. Eyes Without a Face, directed by the supremely talented Georges Franju, is rare in horror cinema for its odd mixture of the ghastly and the lyrical, and it has been a major influence on the genre in the decades since its release. There are images here—of terror, of gore, of inexplicable beauty—that once seen are never forgotten.
Two By: Time to Die (1966)
Free Screening!
Arturo Ripstein, 1966, Mexico, 90 min
A man comes home after serving 18 years in jail for murder in this routine western. Although the man killed in self defense, rumors in town circulated that he murdered the victim in cold blood. The ex-con wants to get his life together, but the two sons of the slain man are gunning for the man who killed their father.
Fresh Kill
Shu Lea Cheang, 1994, United Kingdom/United States, 80 min
FRESH KILL coined as an eco cybernoia film, an avant-anarcho ecosatire, envisions a post-apocalyptic landscape strewn with electronic detritus and suffering the toxic repercussions of mass marketing in a high-tech commodity culture.
FRESH KILL tells the story of two young lesbian parents caught up in a global exchange of industrial waste via contaminated sushi. The place is New York and the time is now. A riveting and densely packed film, Fresh Kill evokes the furious rhythms of channel surfing with its rapid-fire editing style.
Omar (2013)
Guest programmed by artist Nour Alkhatib!
Hany Abu-Assad, 2014, Palestine, 96 mins
In this Oscar-nominated film, a baker in pursuit of his sweetheart gets framed for the death of an Occupation soldier, forcing him to make difficult decisions.
Fresh Kill
Shu Lea Cheang, 1994, United Kingdom/United States, 80 min
FRESH KILL coined as an eco cybernoia film, an avant-anarcho ecosatire, envisions a post-apocalyptic landscape strewn with electronic detritus and suffering the toxic repercussions of mass marketing in a high-tech commodity culture.
FRESH KILL tells the story of two young lesbian parents caught up in a global exchange of industrial waste via contaminated sushi. The place is New York and the time is now. A riveting and densely packed film, Fresh Kill evokes the furious rhythms of channel surfing with its rapid-fire editing style.
Mixed Blood (1984)
Paul Morrissey, 1984, USA, 98 min. New 4K Restoration!
Following his vérité-exploitation trilogy of FLESH (1968), TRASH (1970) and HEAT (1972), as well as the one-two gore-soaked punch of FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and BLOOD FOR DRACULA (1974) would have been a daunting task for most filmmakers, but most filmmakers were never quite as enterprising, resourceful or constantly ahead of their time as Paul Morrissey was. Spiritually and, in a sense, geographically tethered to 1982’s FORTY DEUCE, Morrissey’s freewheeling, vitriolic crime comedy MIXED BLOOD (1984) is the filmmaker at his most propulsive and, dare say, endearing.
A family film in the same sense as John Waters’s similarly acerbic FEMALE TROUBLE (1974), MIXED BLOOD concerns a Brazilian matriarch (played with zeal by Marília Pêra) in New York’s Alphabet City, who lives with her son and his gang of juvenile delinquents. In an attempt to control the drug trade below 14th Street, she starts a turf war, which only becomes more complicated due to a budding romance between her son and an outsider.
Fresh Kill
Shu Lea Cheang, 1994, United Kingdom/United States, 80 min
FRESH KILL coined as an eco cybernoia film, an avant-anarcho ecosatire, envisions a post-apocalyptic landscape strewn with electronic detritus and suffering the toxic repercussions of mass marketing in a high-tech commodity culture.
FRESH KILL tells the story of two young lesbian parents caught up in a global exchange of industrial waste via contaminated sushi. The place is New York and the time is now. A riveting and densely packed film, Fresh Kill evokes the furious rhythms of channel surfing with its rapid-fire editing style.
Mayabazar Presents: The Cloud Capped Star
Ritwik Ghatak, 1960, India, 127 min
Directed by the visionary Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, The Cloud-Capped Star tells the story of a family who have been uprooted by the Partition of India and come to depend on their eldest daughter, the self-sacrificing Neeta (Supriya Choudhury). She watches helplessly as her own hopes and desires are pushed aside time and again by those of her siblings and parents, until all her chances for happiness evaporate, leaving her crushed and ailing. Experimenting with off-balance compositions, discontinuous editing, and a densely layered soundtrack, Ghatak devised an intellectually ambitious and emotionally devastating new shape for the melodrama, lamenting the tragedies of Indian history and the inequities of traditional gender roles while blazing a formal trail for the generations of Indian filmmakers who have followed him.
*smiles and kisses you*
$15, followed by per-recorded virtual Q&A with director Bryan Carberry moderated by Simon Pruitt.
Bryan Carberry, 2024, USA, 88 min
Chris, a thirty-something gas station employee, lives in North Carolina with his girlfriend Mimi, a live-sized 'love doll', who he communicates with through an AI app. A clear-eyed, open-hearted and fascinating take on machine learning and AI, the rising levels of loneliness, and the social implications for people who may seek safety and control over their circumstances in ways they cannot find elsewhere in life.
Finders Keepers (2015)
Post-screening pre-recorded Q&A with director Bryan Carberry moderated by Simon Pruitt.
Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel, 2015, USA, 82 min
Amputee John Wood finds himself in a stranger-than-fiction battle to reclaim his mummified leg from entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill that he bought at an auction.
Evan Gordon Presents: Shredder Orpheus
Featuring a post-screening live virtial Q&A with director/star Robert McGinley!
Robert McGinley, 1990, USA, 88 min
Let's shred our way to hell! The Greek myth is reimagined as a post-apocalyptic skateboard rock opera in SHREDDER ORPHEUS—a low budget hallucination that drops somewhere between the music video for Devo's "Whip It," a Bones Brigade skate tape, and a surrealist art project. The story follows Orpheus (director Robert McGinley), a rock star who descends to hell in order to save his kidnapped wife (and the universe) from Satan and his hypnotic TV signals. Filmed in Seattle and featuring a rare screen role from Steven Jesse Bernstein—the William S. Burroughs of the Pacific Northwest—SHREDDER ORPHEUS makes its disc debut with a new preservation from the original film elements.
Castration Movie Anthology ii. The Best of Both Worlds
Co-presented with misc-en-scène! Post-screening in-person Q&A with director Louise Weard and producer Elizabeth Purchell.
Louise Weard, 2025, Canada, 300 min
Castration Movie is a labyrinthine postmodern epic about gender. A trans woman named Michaela “Traps” Sinclair is a sex worker in Vancouver who splits her time between seeing clients and hanging out with her group of trans friends. As the weight of the world piles up on her, she decides to reclaim some sense of control by seeking out a back-alley orchiectomy.
Castration Movie Anthology ii. The Best of Both Worlds was shot entirely on location in New York City and features a cast headlined by Alex Walton (Pomp and Circumstance), Ivy Wolk (Anora), Jack Haven (I Saw the TV Glow), Lea Rose Sebastianis (In a Violent Nature), Hesse Deni (Brain Death), Theda Hammel (Stress Positions), Alexandra McVicker (The Serpent’s Skin), Betsey Brown (Actors), and Peter Vack (www.RachelOrmont.com), plus a mix of other emerging talent and weird and wonderful cameos.
Castration Movie Anthology ii. The Best of Both Worlds contains one chapter:
In Chapter iii. Polygon!!!! Heartmoder, Circle (Alex Walton) tries to leave a trans separatist cult in New York.
Protect Yr Local Dolls!
In collaboration with mise-en-scène, Protect Yr Local Dolls is a local bash for Dallas’ trans family! Hosted by Margot Stacy & Rae Henri, this hangout party will feature readings by local trans authors (you can also present read your work!), music, mingling, and other weird projections.
Be sure to also catch Castration Movie Part 1 playing Saturday, Sept 13th 7pm and Part 2 (featuring a post-screening Q&A with director Louise Weard) on Saturday, Sept 20th 1pm!
Free event!
Rosa la rose, fille publique
Paul Vecchiali, 1986, France, 92 min. New 2K Restoration!
Barely screened in North America outside of a small number of ‘80s festival appearances, Paul Vecchiali’s effortless ROSA LA ROSE has a kinetic flow that’s something to behold. On the streets of Paris, Rosa (Marianne Basler, VA SAVOIR) is the belle of Les Halles. With no shortage of clients, she’s beloved by her fellow working girls and spoiled by her pimp Gilbert (Jean Sorel, BELLE DE JOUR). For her, this is a charmed life – until her 20th birthday arrives. Across the floor, she locks eyes with a blue-collar worker who sees something deeper beyond her fun-loving façade. Shakespearean in its execution, Vecchiali’s vastly underseen drama explores class consciousness and female sexuality with startling precision.
Mixed Blood (1984)
Paul Morrissey, 1984, USA, 98 min. New 4K Restoration!
Following his vérité-exploitation trilogy of FLESH (1968), TRASH (1970) and HEAT (1972), as well as the one-two gore-soaked punch of FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and BLOOD FOR DRACULA (1974) would have been a daunting task for most filmmakers, but most filmmakers were never quite as enterprising, resourceful or constantly ahead of their time as Paul Morrissey was. Spiritually and, in a sense, geographically tethered to 1982’s FORTY DEUCE, Morrissey’s freewheeling, vitriolic crime comedy MIXED BLOOD (1984) is the filmmaker at his most propulsive and, dare say, endearing.
A family film in the same sense as John Waters’s similarly acerbic FEMALE TROUBLE (1974), MIXED BLOOD concerns a Brazilian matriarch (played with zeal by Marília Pêra) in New York’s Alphabet City, who lives with her son and his gang of juvenile delinquents. In an attempt to control the drug trade below 14th Street, she starts a turf war, which only becomes more complicated due to a budding romance between her son and an outsider.
Castration Movie Anthology i.
Co-presented with misc-en-scène!
Louise Weard, 2024, Canada, 275 minutes
Castration Movie is a labyrinthine postmodern epic about gender. A trans woman named Michaela “Traps” Sinclair is a sex worker in Vancouver who splits her time between seeing clients, hanging out with her group of trans friends, and a vain attempt at pursuing motherhood. As the weight of the world piles up on her, she decides to reclaim some sense of control by seeking out a back-alley orchiectomy. Written and directed by Louise Weard, Castration Movie Anthology i.’s cast includes Vera Drew (The People's Joker), Ada Rook (Black Dresses), Alice Maio Mackay (T Blockers), Avalon Fast (Honeycomb), John Paizs (Crime Wave), and Lea Rose Sebastianis and Nate Wilson (The All Golden) amongst a mix of other emerging talent and weird and wonderful cameos.
Castration Movie Anthology i. The Fear of Having No One to Hold at the End of the World contains two chapters:
In Chapter i. Incel Superman, a production assistant named Turner Stewart (Noah Baker) sees his world spiral out of control as he uncompromisingly attempts to shape his life into the one he feels he deserves.
In Chapter ii. Traps Swan Princess, a trans sex worker named Michaela “Traps” Sinclair (Louise Weard) finds her relationships becoming increasingly strained as she decides to pursue motherhood.
Rosa la rose, fille publique
Paul Vecchiali, 1986, France, 92 min. New 2K Restoration!
Barely screened in North America outside of a small number of ‘80s festival appearances, Paul Vecchiali’s effortless ROSA LA ROSE has a kinetic flow that’s something to behold. On the streets of Paris, Rosa (Marianne Basler, VA SAVOIR) is the belle of Les Halles. With no shortage of clients, she’s beloved by her fellow working girls and spoiled by her pimp Gilbert (Jean Sorel, BELLE DE JOUR). For her, this is a charmed life – until her 20th birthday arrives. Across the floor, she locks eyes with a blue-collar worker who sees something deeper beyond her fun-loving façade. Shakespearean in its execution, Vecchiali’s vastly underseen drama explores class consciousness and female sexuality with startling precision.
Rosa la rose, fille publique
Paul Vecchiali, 1986, France, 92 min. New 2K Restoration!
Barely screened in North America outside of a small number of ‘80s festival appearances, Paul Vecchiali’s effortless ROSA LA ROSE has a kinetic flow that’s something to behold. On the streets of Paris, Rosa (Marianne Basler, VA SAVOIR) is the belle of Les Halles. With no shortage of clients, she’s beloved by her fellow working girls and spoiled by her pimp Gilbert (Jean Sorel, BELLE DE JOUR). For her, this is a charmed life – until her 20th birthday arrives. Across the floor, she locks eyes with a blue-collar worker who sees something deeper beyond her fun-loving façade. Shakespearean in its execution, Vecchiali’s vastly underseen drama explores class consciousness and female sexuality with startling precision.