WINTER II (the sequel)

2008 Winter Spring Season

8.00pm Every Friday Night

@ 127 Campbell St
Collingwood

note: most previews of foreign films are without english subtitles

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July 11th

Teorema (Theorem)– Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy 1968 94m)

A news report announces the passing of a factory into the hands of its workers as its owner wanders into the desert. Flash-back… A mysterious visitor (Terence Stamp) appears at a rich industrialists family reunion. As if by unseen power he embeds himself in the house and proceeds to make love to, and unfurl the repressed souls of all within its walls. A story of sex, angelic possession and madness… Pasolini’s most enigmatic film, attempts to merge his revolutionary, sexual and religious tensions and beliefs into a whole, as if it were an argument, a game… a theorem…

July 18th

The Yakuza Papers– Kinji Fukusaku (Japan 1972 99m)

Beginning in Hiroshima, in the aftermath of the Bomb amidst the anarchy of Japans painful rebirth. An ex soldier falls in with a Yakuza Family out of desperation. Keenly observant of a presumed code of honour, he is quickly taken advantage of by his unscrupulous colleagues. Fukusaku broke with the type of sycophantic glory that films of the day awarded the Yakuza. Instead he chose to portray the sleaze and betrayal within its ranks. Tightly structured, brilliantly filmed, rocking soundtrack, and oozing with tension and violence, Yakuza Papers (Battles without Honour or Humanity) is a giant within the Yakuza film genre.

July 25

Third Part of the Night - Andrzej Zulawski (Poland 1972 105m)

Set amidst the harrowing Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Michal, a young man having witnessed the senseless killing of his entire family joins the underground. Through a cruel twist he finds himself enmeshed with a woman who is a doppelganger of his murdered wife. Like other fugitives he is sheltered and protected by a medical research facility experimenting with human lice-borne disease as both test subject and researcher. Based on his Fathers own stories of the Polish Resistance, Images of parasitism and arbitrary violence mix into a nightmare logic; assisted more than adequately with arresting performance and sheer visual artistry from this unsung maverick of Polish cinema.

August 1

Ciao Manhattan – John Palmer and David Weisman (USA 1972 84m)

A brilliant and lucid confessional of the rise and fall of Edie Sedgwick, Warhols most notable “superstar”. “Ciao Manhattan” is perhaps the most curious biopics ever produced. A strange treatment of Edies tortured “poor little rich girl” tale that started as a document, became a fictional work and then somehow became real again. Intimate, honest, and truly affectionate despite the unflinching focus on her decadence. Great scenes in the so called health spa of Dr Robert, the reputed “Dr Feelgood”, the real-life amphetamine dispenser to the stars. ”Ciao Manhattan” is both an illuminating light into the speed-fueled Dream machine of 60’s NYC scene, and the beauty, damage, and depth of Sedgewick after the parade had passed. Forget that revolting piece of unrelenting bullshit “Factory Girl”, see the real deal.

August 8

Wake in Fright – Ted Kotcheff (Australia 1971 109m)

This critically revered, yet rarely seen or enjoyed moment in Australian film history is based on the novel by Kenneth Cook, and stars Chips Rafferty, Jack Thompson and Donald Pleasence. It is best described as a gothic tale of booze, sun and masculinity. Gary Bond plays John Grant a Sydney schoolteacher submitting to a mandatory stint of rural service. In the spirit of Australian manhood and mateship he sinks deeper into a knuckle-headed world of beer-swilling and kangaroo killing. “Wake in Fright” cut far too deep to be enjoyed much in Australia but just like “Wolf Creek” in more recent years, it provided overseas audiences with pleasurably barbaric views of the Australian Outback. This film is very hard to find!!!! Dont miss

August 15

La Cabina – Antonio Mercero (Spain 1972 34m)

A man finds himself trapped in a telephone booth, though people try, they cannot free him. After a series desperate measures he is eventually carted off to an unknown destination. A Kafkaesque and cloying type of horror, made effective due to its arbitrary and absurd premise

Pure Shit – Bert Deling (Australia 1975 83min)

A crowning example of Melbourne 1970’s underground film-making that chronicles 24 hours in the life of a group of junkies trying to find good quality heroin. From parties to kitchens to drug stores to the streets of St Kilda, Fitzroy and Footscray. Pure Shit says as much about the sexual politics and crudity of Melbourne’s drug subcultural life as it does the vacuousness of addiction and government policy in regards to it. Delings’ film was hilariously dubbed “the most evil film in the world” by some dumb critic in the Herald Sun which also indicates another form of backwardness. Don’t take it from him though… see for yourself

August 22

The Last Wave – Peter Weir (Australia 1977 106m)

Weirs follow up to “Picnic at Hanging Rock” finds another, more esoteric angle on White alienation in the Australian landscape. Freak weather patterns and Aboriginal mysticism, set the scene of this very unusual and timely piece of Australiana. Richard Chamberlain plays a Sydney Lawyer asked to defend a group a Aboriginal men indicted for the murder of a compatriot and transgressor. He uncovers a web of magic and etheric power announcing a cycle of watery destruction. Naive and brave in it’s attempt to map out Anglo Aboriginal conflict from a more metaphysical perpective, its fallacies are (in my humble opinion) eclipsed by its integrity. Impressive and imaginative usage of metaphor in dream sequences and great sound design, make this often ignored anomaly in Peter Weirs career definately worth watching.

August 29

Salut du Cubains – Agnes Varda (France 1963 30m)

A salute to the people of Cuba in black and white photography and film footage, woven with great love and gusto with the words of Agnes Varda, Celebrating the sassy and sexy soul of Cuban women and men, music, dancing and style as much as its revolutionary acheivments, Varda with the assistance of a team of other Parisian film-makers give us a glimpse into the optimistic spirit of a young island state then subject to much American aggression.

Vagabond – Agnes Varda (France 1985 105m)

Without adornment, or stylization “The Vagabond” opens with the death of a female drifter. Through a sequence of recollections from friends, lovers and complete outsiders a picture is formed of our response to those who chose to live outside of social obligations. Neither moralising or glorifying the choices made by our protagonist, Varda makes her point about the discomfort caused by those who spiral out of control amongst those close to them. An amazing talent for for telling human stories without the typical cliches, Vagabond is considered the heights of her work

September 5

Fantomas contres Juves – Louis Fueillade (France 1913 60m)

Louis Fueillade, the early silent film-maker made crime films that were truly innovative and equally transgressive. Second in a series of highly popular films depicting the murderous and creepy figure of Fantomas, based on the equally popular pulp novels of the early 1900’s. Fantomas is the face of a willful evil that finds much fascination in French culture at the turn of the century, Like the writings of Marquis De Sade, or Lautremont. Fueillades’ Fantomas films and his “Les Vampires” series were inspiration to the Surrealists and became a popular “cult” in Europe and Latin America.

Fantomas – Louis de Funes (France 1964 97m)

Fantomas leaves the jaundiced world of the absinthe sipping “fin-de-ciecle” and instead takes a leaf from James Bond in a swinging sixties B-Grade treatment of the Fantomas charachter. Jean Marais, toy-boy of Jean Cocteau and aging French sex-symbol plays both hero and villian in the first of a series of campy and frothy treatments of the highly subversive character created by Fueillade. Certainly not a great work of film art it IS however a great exercise in syle, and it is clearly this film that served as a cue for Mario Bava’s Diabolik (refer to http://timecapsules.wordpress.com/2008/01/)

September 12

Schastye (Happiness) – Alexandr Medvedkin (Russia 1935 94m)

One of the three film makers who commanded the famed “Agit-prop” trains in the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution. Happiness details the misfortunes of a poor Peasant named “Loser” trying to “get ahead” and survive the caprices of landlords and bureaucrats in the backwards world of rural west Russia. Slapstick and biting satire on par with Chaplin’s “Modern Times”. Dealing cheekily with the common persons fantasy of wealth, and on the problems of institutional and individual power without submitting to propagandist cliche or rhetoric. Happiness is a window into the heart of an artist who deeply cared about the fate of ordinary people. It is no surprise that this films irreverence fell foul of Stalin and his apparatchiks. Medvedkin was prevented from making another film until he capitulated to making rousing musicals about combine harvesters and the people who drive them.

Preceded by an interview with Medvekin from ”The Train rolls on” by Chris Marker and the SLON collective (France 1971 12m)

September 19

Le Corbeau – Henri Georges Clouzot (France 1943 91m)

(Replacing Maurice Tourneurs “La Main du Diable” which is sadly unavailable in a subtitled version)

“Le Corbeau” is a highly controversial film, that both details the escalation of rumour-milling, betrayal and hysteria, and was itself the subject of vilification and recrimination.. A small town is pulled to pieces when a series of letters are circulated and signed by a shady figure named “Le Corbeau” (the Raven) implicating its more prominent members in terrible scandal. Made during the Nazi Occupation for an independant German owned studio, “Le Corbeau” was denounced as Anti-French by both poles of the politcal spectrum as well as the Catholic church (for allegedly being soft on abortion) and was promptly banned after liberation. Clouzot also was barred from making films for years and this film only resurfaced in the late 60’s. It is clear to see that the real problem presented by this gritty Gallic “Noir” was that it highlighted the political opportunism, and the betrayals of thousands by informants during the Vichy era… Picking open unmentionable scabs whilst the Republic was desperately trying to raise it’s wounded pride.

September 26

Gold Diggers of 1933 – Mervyn LeRoy (USA 1933 97m)

First of the three films Mervyn Le Roy made with Busby Berkely and the first of a series of “Gold Diggers” films exploring the desperate world of showbiz and specifically the lives of Showgirls during the heights of the Great Depression. These sassy, wise cracking dames, completely at ease with their sexualities, provide an interesting glimpse into the innocent and sexy world of pop culture of the time. A time before the Catholic “League of Decency” made moves to clean up Hollywood, songs like “Pettin in the Park” are saucy even by todays standards. Apart from the unforgettable choreography and squadrons of neon-violin wielding femmes. Whilst the public craved an escape from their everyday lives, “Gold Diggers of 33″ broke the mould with what social issues it managed to incorporate into its plot. The film ends notably with a sobering and heart wrenching paeon to those broken ex-service men on the breadlines of America.

October 3

O No Coronado! – Craig Baldwin (USA 1992 40m)

Craig Baldwins’ least known work is an exploration of the conquering of America by the brutal forces of the Spanish Inquisition. It details the infamous exploits of the psychotic Conquistador, Coronado and his hunt for a mythical city of gold in North AmericaUsing his trademark style of blending found footage, live action and poetic narrative, he explores the underlying machinations of colonial power and the decimation of one civilization by another from the 16th Century through to the modern day.

Story Without End / We Programme Life – People Like Us (UK 2005 20m)

People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett) is a maestro of audio montage and pop music mash up, a Star DJ on the famed WFMU radio and inheritor of a line of British humour that traces its lineage from Spike Milligan and Monty Python as well as Neo-Dada sound artists like Nurse with Wound. These films are largely culled from the wonderful Prelinger Archives video databank (www.archive.org) and made into a kitsch and perverse video mixage of radiant 1950’s America’.

The Voice – Johan Soderberg (Sweden 2004 28m)

Neo conservatives and Islamic fundamentalists eventually wake up to the notion that they have too much in common to be at war with each other. Instead they join forces againt the godless, the homosexual and the other undesirable elements to create a new North/South divide. Soderberg is an angry young media artist who lives with one foot squarely placed in the language of MTV and the other in the radical tradition.

October 10

Ilhas das Flores (Isle of Flowers) – Jorge Furtado (Brazil 1989 12m)

A deeply ironic exploration of the human race through the economic life-cycle of a common tomato. The film employs a unique usage of scientific relativism and educational film style to show the disgraceful state of the poor in Brazil and to illustrate the primordial dynamics of what we now fondly refer to as globalization.

Pixote – Hector Babenco (Brazil 1973 130m)

Few words sum up the intensity and purity of Pixote. Performed by a cast of real street children, namely the lead performer Fernando Ramos Da Silva who eventually was killed by police gunfire. Pixote (Portugese for Urchin) is a story of social refuse, intimately bonded against the hostile forces of Sao Paolo’s ghetto’s and endless sexual predation that encroach them from all sides. Whilst things are not quite as bad in Brazil since the fall of the Junta, Pixote is a reminder of an era of terrible hardship, and reminds us of the wider realities of stolen childhood in the poorer nations of the world. Those who were impressed by “City of God” would be foolish to not catch this landmark film.

WINTER COLLECTION 2008

127 Campbell Street  Collingwood

8.45 Start with suprise short afterward

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17 April SKULJACI PERJA (Feather Gatherer)

Director Alexandra Petrovica,Yugoslavia 1968
A torrid tragicomedy about the Roma (Gypsies) which exposes the dark side of poverty, oppresion and religion. Bora trades in goose feathers in Serbia, as does Mirta, whose stepdaughter, Tisa, Bora craves despite being married. Mirta also desires Tisa and eventually tries to rape her. After struggle, disillusionment and murder Bora and Tisa finally flee as a couple, protected by the Roma. A lyrical movie encapsulating the heartaching beauty and transience of Romany existence.

24 April THE INNOCENTS

Director Jack Clayton, UK 1961
Based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, this is a stunning low-key ghost story. A governess, Miss Giddens, is hired by the uncle of his orphaned nephew and niece to look after them, without bothering him. All the cast are strange but the smooth and creepy Miles is a stand out. The children are obsessed with the recently deceased valet and the late governess. Perversion, suicide and innuendo lace a subtle vision of secret communications with an evil underworld, or is it all in Miss Giddens head? A struggle with evil that leads to a devastating conclusion.

2 May THE STONE TAPE

Director Peter Sasdy, UK 1972
If these walls could talk… They do more than that when a group of corporate scientists clod hop into a country manor house to work on the next communications revolution. But crawling through the cracks of the Dr Who set and slinking beneath the blustery acting is an idea that can stop you in your tracks like a manor house rat. A typical serve of ingenuity and creepiness from writer Nigel Kneale.

9 May IDI I SMOTRI (Come and See)

Director Ellem Klimov, USSR 1985
Farm boy Florya tries to make it through each day intact as the blitzkrieg eviscerates the land and people around him. There are moments of fascination in the great Russian forests, even some eroticism, but these are fleeting as the nazi machine finds its way into every last quiet place. Still a teenager at the end of the flim, Florya seems to have aged a hundred years as he confronts an image of the cause of this hell on earth. A film that holds its anger like a newborn child.

16May SLACKER

Director Richard Linklater, USA 1991
Presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas among its younger social outcasts and misfits, using a series of linear vignettes which move from one point of physical contact to the next. The characters social disjunction melds with the seamless movement of life scenes. Highlights include a UFO buff who insists the US has been on the moon since the 1950s, a woman who produces a glass slide purportedly of Madonna’s pap smear and an old anarchist who sympathetically shares his philosophy of life with a robber.

23 May MARTIN

Director George A. Romero, USA 1978
Is Martin a vampire or just an awkward teenager? He does attack people for their blood but he also walks around in daylight delivering groceries. George Romero drained the ritual and eroticism from vampires just as he had removed the voodoo from the zombies in his landmark Night of the Living Dead. In both cases he used the horror genre as a starting point for bitter social commentary.

30 May SEDOTTA E ABBANDONATA
          (Seduced and Abandoned)

Director Pietro Germi, Italy 1964
Shotgun weddings, kidnapping, attempted murder, emergency dental work -the things Don Vincenzo will do to restore his family’s honor! Seduced and Abandoned was the follow-up to Germi’s Divorce Italian Style, and in many ways is even more audacious – a rollicking yet raw series of escalating comic calamities that ensue in a small village when sixteen-year-old Agnese loses her virginity at the hands of her sister’s lascivious fiance. Merciless and mirthful, Seduced and Abandoned skewers Sicilian social custom

6 June DESPERATE REMEDIES

Directors Stewart Main and Peter Wells, NZ 1993
A wonderfully camp and lusty production filmed in staged sets. In the 19th century New Zealand town of Hope elegant and attractive Dorothea has a sister, Rose, addicted to opium and her boyfiend/supplier. Dorothea hires a handsome immigrant, Lawrence, to lure Rose away from this relationship. But Dorothea and Lawrence grow attracted to each other. Dorothea already has a ‘suitor’ in Anne, who sensing a rival, pushes her into a marriage of convenience. A vivid and gay melodrama.

13 June KYUA (Cure)

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan 1997
A series of baffling murders, a detective whose life is imploding from stress, and a softly spoken drifter who exudes a strange charisma are the ingredients of this troubling urban fable from Kyoshi (don’t call him Akira) Kurosawa. The cure of the title is as dreadful as it is subtle.

20 June WESELE (The Wedding)

Director Andrzej Wajda, Poland 1973
Set at the turn of the century during one night and based on the play by Stanislaw Wyspianski, the film concerns a Polish poet who has decided to marry a peasant girl. The wedding is attended by a heterogenous group of people from all strata of Polish society, who dance, get drunk and lament Poland’s division between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The bridegroom, a painter friend and a journalist each in turn is confronted with spectres of Polish past. In the end a call to arms is called but turns out to be a farce. A confined, painterly satire on oppression.

27 June PHASE IV

Director Saul Bass, USA 1974
Saul Bass is best known for his movie poster work and title design for Alfred Hitchcock but his second and only major feature film is Phase IV, a wonderfully photographed and metaphorical film that lurches from B grade horror to profound metaphysics. Dealing with the nature of fascism, evolution and humanity it confronts an alien, elevated mass mind – in the form of altered ants. Transformed by cosmic bombardment they begin to etch mathematical patterns in the soil and freak their investigators out…

4 July DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE
        (Cemetary Man)

Director Michele Soavi, Italy 1994
The girl of Francesco’s (Rupert Everett) dreams is murdered after their consummation. Then it happens again. And again. Between that and dispatching the increasing parade of the living dead who are crawling out of their graves at the cemetery where he works life gets tough. Michele Soavi serves up comedy, creepiness, violence and even romance before slamming on the brakes for one of the horror genre’s strangest endings.

LATE SUMMER PROGRAMME JANUARY – MARCH 2008

18th January – 21st March

8.45pm every Friday

ABC GALLERY
127 Campbell Street
Collingwood 3066

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Check the The Ages “EG” article here

18th January

Grey Gardens – Mayles Brothers / 1972 100 min

In the shadow of Camelot stands the Grey Gardens. Inside this overgrown estate in East Hampton, Long Island, mother and daughter “Big” and “Little” Edie Bouvier Beale are caught in a time tunnel of regret and fantasy. Their once beautiful 28 room shingle mansion declined to such a state that after a National Enquirer story the Health Department threatened its closure. Close cousins Jaqueline Onassis Kennedy and her sister Lee Radizwell intervened, had it cleaned and saved the day. In the wake of this, Albert and David Mayles spent most of a year, assisting and documenting the fabric of these two women’s lives, amidst defecating cats and fleas. At once tragic and full of wit and spirit, Grey Gardens is a rare film portrait, a snapshot of the faded halcyon of fallen aristocrats, those rare types that even decay with a sense of style.

25th January

Bigger than Life – Nicholas Ray / 1956 95min

James Mason stars as Ed Avery, family man and school teacher, self-bound to the task of providing his family with a suburban lifestyle he cannot afford. Secretly taking a second job to make ends meet Ed precipitates a rare and potentially fatal coronary disease that strikes him down. The experimental steroid Cortisone that is used to save him becomes the vessel for a dark journey into the heart of 1950’s America. Hysterically terrified of death, Ed binges on the substance till he becomes addled with a psychopathic rage causing him to terrorise his family. Ray’s searing critique of the nuclear family, patriarchy and materialism passed cleverly under the censor’s radar due to such devices as its “drug-message” and it’s seemingly saccharine ending.

1st February

Experimental Music Documentaries

Two BBC Four documentaries exploring the life works of composers who have helped re-invent music in the 20th century.

The Outsider / 2007 60min

Harry Partch was a celebrated young American composer whose mission was to bury classical musical conventions such as notation, scales, and even its instruments. He constructed his very own orchestra replete with instruments with which to pursue his unique micro-tonal composition. Partch’s career was railroaded by the Depression, when he became a Hobo drifting the continent for 10 years and only returning to his work in the 40’s.

Alchemists of Sound / 2007 – 60min

Dick Mills, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson were amongst numerous sonic experimenters, composers and engineers who worked at the BBC Radiophonics Workshop from 1958 til 1995. Hand-crafting sounds for such films, television and radio shows as “Quatermass”, “Doctor Who”, “The Goon Show”, “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and “Blake 7″. In the process they contributed immeasurably to the development of electronic and electro-acoustic sound.

8th February

Danger Diabolik – Mario Bava / 1968 99min

An adaptation of the popular Italian comic book “Diabolik” which details the exploits of a master criminal who plunders both government and organised crime syndicates alike. John Philip Law, who played the blind angel in Roger Vadims’ “Barbarella”, sheds his wings and slips effortlessly into the black rubber and leather skin of an erotic demon. A superior comic book adaptation than “Barbarella”, Bava eschewed excessive dialogue and kept to the style of the graphic novel. Like Louis Feulliades “Fantomas” films which inspired the original comic-book character, Danger Diabolik gleefully revels in the pleasure of crime and destruction without any recourse to moralism.

15th Feb

Kurotokage 黒蜥蝪 (Black Lizard) – Kinji Fukasaku / 1968 88min

Screen-written by Yukio Mishima and directed by the man who brought us “Battle Royale”, “Kurototage” features transvestite actor Akihiro Maruyama (now a voice behind Hayao Miyazaki’s animations) and music by Isao Tomita. “Kurotokage” parallels the same impious spirit and excess as “Danger Diabolik”, and was released the same year. The Black Lizard is a female arch fiend who has set her eyes on the great jewel the “Star of Egypt” and kidnaps the daughter of its owner. Tormented by her own fading beauty, she is obsessed with the eternal beauty of her shimmering prize. A cat and mouse game between the Black Lizard and the detective hired to save both daughter and diamond evolves into a type of seduction culminating in increasingly bizarre scenarios. The Black Lizard turns those whom she seduces into preserved artefacts that she can enjoy forever…

22nd February

Boom! – Joseph Losey / 1968 110min

Joseph Losey was blacklisted by McCarthy’s HUAC for communist leanings and relocated to Britain, using pseudonyms to release films in his native country. His work ranged from the acclaimed “The Servant” through to the maligned “Modesty Blaise”. “Boom!” (aptly named after the crashing of waves on rocks) is perhaps the greatest blooper of his career, but that doesn’t stop it from being a foray into absolute excess. This insane rendition of “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” by Tennessee Williams features Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Noel Coward as “the witch of Capri”. A fashion designers dream (or nightmare) and a cloying portrayal of wealth and evil. Outrageously pretentious, overblown and over-dressed, this film is considered one of the greatest flops of the 1960’s, earning back a fifth of the money spent on it and becoming almost completely buried. “Boom!” was performed by a cast of drunkards, which only partially explains its particular qualities. John Waters has extolled it as his biggest inspiration, and continues to tour with it right across the world. (See him lecture about it in the video below).

29th February

Animationfest – Best of Looney Toons 120min

Brian May (AKA DJ Delay of “Balkan Beasts”) purveyor of “Loony Toons” an ongoing mix-up of animation and music brings a selection of his favourite animations from his personal collection, this time in their entire original sonic glory.

Run Wrake – Idol (2005)
Sun Ra & Dumbo – Pink Elephants
Visions Of Frank – (Taruto Fuyama)
Konstantin Bronzit (2003) – The God
Ishu Patel (1977) – The Bead Game.
Fallen Art (Tomek Baginsky) 2004
Osvaldo Cavandoli – la linea (episode 120 & 110)
The Fly (oscar winner 1980)
Bill Plympton – 25 ways to quit smoking (1995).
Don Hertzfeldt – rejected

March 7th

Brothers Quay Retrospective / 80min

Twin brothers Stephen and Timothy Quay have a keen eye for crumbling Victoriana, subtle emotional energies and a direct connection with the power of substances and objects. Their dream-like stop-motion films take a leaf from Czech and Polish animators such as Jan Svankmajer and Jan Lenica but take it to a more fetishistic and nightmarish level. This is a selection of films spanning their pure animation career before they embarked on producing drama features “Institute Benjamenta” and “Piano Tuner of Earthquakes”…

Nocturna Artificialia 1979 (21min)
Street of Crocodiles 1986 (20min)
Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer 1984 (14min)
Stille Nacht I / Dramolet 1988 (2min)
Anamorphosis 1991 (14min)
Stille Nacht III / Tales from the Vienna Woods 1992 (4min)

Video Clips for “His Name is Alive”
“Cant go Wrong Without You / Stille Nacht IV” and “Are we still married?”

March 14th

The Saddest Music in the World – Guy Maddin / 2006 96min

Winnipeg, Canada, during the heights of the great depression is dubbed the most depressed city in the world. A beer baroness embittered by the loss of her two legs and the cruel machinations of love is the richest woman of the city. In order to increase sales she embarks on a giant promotional campaign, to invite musicians from all over the world to compete for the title of the “saddest music”. Maddins films are like entering into an imagined past of cinematic melodrama, Frank Capra meets Arnold Fanck meets the Kuchar Brothers. Ridiculous, imaginative and unique….

21st March

Love and Anarchy- Lina Wertmuller / 1973 120min

Operatic, melancholic and warm spirited treatment of the ugly Fascist era of pre-war Italy. Turin a young peasant has taken on the task of assassinating Mussolini on behalf of Anarchist insurgents, and to avenge the murder of his father. He is deployed to take cover in a brothel under the wing of anarchist sympathising prostitute Salome until his opportunity has arrived. Racked equally by a lust for vengeance and fear of his inevitable death, Turin also realises that he has barely lived as he falls in love with a young prostitute. Wertmuller explores the painful territory where revolutionary ideals are eclipsed by totalitarian force, and attempts to express an emotionally feminine perspective on such loss.

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Timecapsules presents “Cinema Ephemera” at the Nati Frinj 2nd – 4th November

NATIMUK AND THE ‘NATI-FRINJ”

Deep in the heart of the Wimmera, Victoria’s drought beleaguered grain growing district is the sleepy two horse / one pub hamlet of Natimuk (Pop: 500 greater district) . Even if the grain silo’s aren’t brimming with bounty, for the last two biennial “Nati-Frinj” festivals, they have been brought to life with giant video and aerial performance routines…

 

Each Nati-Frinj festival is gaining more momentum and this November its time for its return.
http://www.natimuk.com/html/2007.html is the page for the 2007 program which should be finalised over the course of September 2007 so STAY POSTED

On the weekend commencing on the evening of Friday 2nd and finishing on the early evening Sunday 4th there will be performances, film screenings, exhibitions, featuring a major performance work on Natimuk Lake and a cool party on the Saturday night… If you need to sleep over there is plenty of camping space at the Arapiles National Park.

THE ARAPILES

The Arapiles is perhaps one of the greatest geological wonders of Victoria (imagine a condensed Grampians) a wall of rock spires vaulting out of an otherwise flat landscape. It is a mecca for rock-climbers internationally and another great reason to come out here.. Even the marsupials are chilled out and fearless… Enjoy your Sunday morning post party recovery having brunch on top of the peaceful soul-enriching pinnacles that overlook golden harvest-fields Dont worry about climbing though, you can reach the top easily by car via the reverse slope

CINEMA EPHEMERA

Just make sure you come back in time for Cinema Ephemera as I will be presenting a 145 minute program on the Sunday afternoon 1.00 – 3.30pm… though there will be a local film presentation and a film and live score performance called Subsonic earlier during the weekend..

The Program is…….

Chromophobia – Raoul Servais 1966 (9.26)
A kids story about authoritarianism in which the invading grey forces of control, outlaw all colour in a small town. A child, artist, and a jester set in wheels an inevitable rainbow revolution. Though based on childhood experience of Nazi occupation, Chromophobia is prescient of the psychedelic youth-quake of 68-69.

 

Storytime – Terry Gilliam 1968 (9.00)
The first animation and first film by the Director of “Monty Python’s” cinematic output. Featuring a series of vignettes, trademark “off the wall” antics and plot tangents; all culminating a beautifully tasteless exploration of the Christmas Card.

 

The Isle of Flowers – Jorge Furtado 1989 (12.31)
Bittersweet exploration of the human race through the economic life-cycle of a common tomato. The film employs a unique usage of scientific relativism and educational film style to show the disgraceful state of the poor in Brazil and to expose the primordial dynamics of what we now call globalization.

 

Giselle Kerozene – Jan Kounen 1989 (5.00)
Amazing stop motion animation of three broom-flying transvestite witches battling over a fetish object through the ultra-modern section of Paris. Debut short from the director of “Blueberry” and “Dobermann”.

 

Une Mission Ephemere – Piotr Kamler 1994 (8.09)
A perpetual unveiling of an extra-terrestrial realm within the confines of an Orb, Some aspects of 70’s science fiction and designer sensibilities being most evident.

 

O No Coronado – Craig Baldwin 1992 (40.00)
Craig Baldwins’ least known work is an exploration of the conquering of America by the brutal forces of the Spanish Inquisition. Using his trademark style of blending found footage, live action and poetic narrative, he explores the underlying machinations of colonial power and the decimation of one civilization by another from the 16th Century through to the modern day.

 

El Capitan – Fred Padula 1971 (60.00)
Screening especially for the Arapiles rock- climbing community…. A special presentation of this visually stunning and psychologically revealing climb, miraculously shot on 16mm film. A straight forward document of a three day escalation of “El Capitan”, (Yosemite Valley’s famed kilometre high cliff-face), the film revels in its sheer grandeur, unadorned by extra vocal narrative.

MAY – JUNE 2007 SCREEN PROGRAMME

WEEKLY THURSDAY NIGHT SCREENINGS
8.30 Open / 8.45 Shorts / 9.00 Feature
Heated and improved sound. Gold coin donation. Large video screen. Bar at pub prices
ABC GALLERY – 127 Campbell St, Collingwood

(refer to feb program for map)

MAY 3rd

Heavy Metal Parking Lot – Jeff Krulik 1986 (30min)
Hanging out in the stadium parking lot somewhere in the deep heart of Maryland USA, waiting for Judas Priest, the bitchenist metal band in the world, peach-fuzz, hormones, big hair and luke warm Budweiser… mmmmmmm
Phantasm – Don Coscarelli 1979 (1.28 hr)
More of a cult than most cult films, generations of metal heads and horror geeks swear by it, and they are not wrong. Phantasm is a “one of a kind” genre picture. Mixing good old Yankee style teen drama, gothic Italian horror and science fiction that is genuinely surreal. Coscarelli never made another film that is this uncanny, and chose to ruin the enigmas contained in the original by making two sequels. He later made films with people with big hair and even bigger swords (or is it the other way round) which is why I have played it with “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”…. OK?

MAY 10th

The Milky Way – Luis Bunuel 1969 (1.37hr)
Bunuel explores the history of heretics through the ages and of the church authorities who persecuted them. Two French tramps make a pilgrimage to the tomb of the St James in Spain, encountering Jesus, the Devil, the Virgin Mary, heretics, priests, revolutionaries and madmen along the way. Mixing both time-period and cinematic forms, fiction and documentary modalities “The Milky Way” questions the dogma of Christianity through its most ludicrous proclamations, double speak and superstitions.

MAY 17th

Karen Carpenter clips (15min)
“Calling All Occupant of Interplanetary Craft”, “Superstar” and “Karen Plays Drums”
Superstar – Todd Haynes 1987 (43min)
Todd Haynes’ daring treatment of the rise and fall of Karen Carpenter, enacted by Barbie dolls and set against a backdrop of Nixon’s reactionary America. Quashed by the Carpenter family due to their bleak treatment in the script (and copyright issues), this film is only available through the exchange networks. Superstar somehow manages to convey pathos and sympathy despite the usage of plastic figurines (amazing).
Tribulation 99 – Craig Baldwin 1992 (48min)
Craig Baldwins debut feature premiering his trademark derangement of stock footage and B-grade Science fiction in the service of political conspiracy. Through a double layered pastiche, Baldwin describes the black operations carried out in Latin America by the Reagan Administration during the 1980’s as part of extra-terrestrial world domination plot

MAY 24th

Dimensions of Dialogue – Jan Svankmajer 1982 (12min)
A homage to the painter Archimboldo, and a brilliant visual exploration of the dialectic, the process of digestion and integration, borne from clay and returning to clay.
Death of Stalinism in Bohemia – Jan Svankmajer 1990 (10min)
A bitter, comical, and powerfully metaphoric journey into the painful history of the Czech nation under Russian occupation. The whitewash of history, the reforms and counter-reforms, the passing of despots and the smashing of monuments.
Closely Observed Trains – Jiri Menzel 1966 (1:33hr)
Comedy-drama about a young man employed in a tiny station during World War II. Milos Hrma, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice at a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, he embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot. Milos becomes involved in a plot to blow up a German ammunition train, but when the plan backfires, he is forced to commit the ultimate act of courage.

MAY 31st

The Unknown – Tod Browning 1927 (50min)
Browning worked in the Circus as a young man, which is perhaps why his “Carni” films best embody his love of the misfit, the freak. “Unknown” explores the dark world of “Alonzo” (Lon Chaney) the “armless” knife thrower and part time strangler as he desperately tries to consummate his unfulfillable desires for his assistantt Estrellita (Joan Crawford). Chaneys facial expressions are so brilliant, so convulsive, they constitute one of the greatest moments of acting…EVER!!!!. This film is said to have been the inspiration for Jodorowsky’s “Sante Sangre”
Freaks – Tod Browning 1932 (1.07hr)
An inimitable, (and in this P.C. epoch) unrepeatable journey into the lives of those in a Carnival freak-show. Populated by midgets, pin-heads and hermaphrodites, they endure relentless jaunts from so-called normal folk. A wrong doing to one brings vengeance from all. Despite it having a horrifying conclusion, Browning is clearly on the side of the pariah, and against the blonde beauty that constitutes his model of villainy. The shock this film brought to audiences of the time resulted in Brownings’ career being stifled by the studios.

JUNE 7th

WR : Mysteries of the Organism – Dusan Makayev 1971 (1.24hr)
Partly a documentary on the radical theories of sex-liberationist Wilhelm Reich, and the integration of sexual freedom into revolutionary politics, WR is a freewheeling magazine style essay film of the radical 60’s. Full of wit and humour, Makayev attempts to approach the idea of sex and revolution from as many angles as he can muster. The result can be baffling, but with at least some passing knowledge of Reich’s ideas and radical politics, it is a wild and memorable contribution to that legacy. WR departs from the dry handling of facts, and instead wants to play with meaning and argument and refuses to force his various ideas into an uneasy whole.

JUNE 14th

Eternal Beauty – Marcel Schwieren 2003 (1.30hr)
A compelling documentary detailing the role of aesthetics and the rationale behind it’s usage in the Third Reich. Using cinema and numerous propaganda reels, this document explains the ambitions and material philosophy of the Nazis, and its firm basis in body, sexuality and a neo-pagan nostalgia for earth. Notions of Nazi style neo-classicism are counter pointed with a clear internal logic, that the ultimate beauty, and the longest lasting, is death glorious death.
Berlin : Symphony of a City – Walther Ruttman 1927 (1.12hr)
A parallel to Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie camera”, Ruttman’s “Berlin” is the course of a day in what was arguably the most racy, vibrant and volatile city in western Europe during the short lived days of the Weimar Republic. This is a brilliant time capsule most appreciated by those who love Berlin, the culture of pre-war Europe, or both. Ordinary shots of commuting, working, drinking and cavorting are mixed with micro-drama and montage, illustrating the class conflict, poverty, and despair experienced by ordinary people at the time.

JUNE 21st

The Testament of Dr Mabuse – Fritz Lang 1932 (2.00hr)
A “magical-realist” detective story, and Lang’s final film before fleeing Germany for the US. “Testament” reprises the character of the arch manipulator he had created for his famous two-part ‘Dr Mabuse, der Spieler’. Mabuse now locked in an asylum, has shrunk into catatonia, only emerging to scrawl his insane testament, his blueprint for absolute power. Parallels to Hitler’s imprisonment are clear, but this story is more than just a parable about Hitler. Lang through Mabuse, explores the exploitation of crime (terrorism) and mass hysteria as tools of state control. Mabuse is about totalitarianism, and how individuals become posessed by fear, and allow themselves to become instruments of power.

JUNE 28th

The Mad Masters – Jean Rouch 1955 (36mins)
Simple premise of this film is to follow the effects of colonialism on indigenous Africans via specific rituals developed as a reaction to the colonial system. The film turns into a crazy elaboration on both the madness of such a political system and man himself. At once we are amazed and confused by the violent and involved trance that the Africans take part in; however, we are, at the same time, forced to recognize the power that the camera may have over those in front of it. That is, the very “reality” of a documentary is dissolved or, at least, questioned. Disturbing and essential.
Divine Horsemen – Maya Deren 1961 (55min)
A sublime and extraordinary documentary on Haitian Voudoun shot during the 40’s and 50’s by Maya Deren. While apparently only planning to bring back rare footage of ritual dance, the artist ended up writing a revealing book on Haitian Voodoun (by the same title) and becoming an actual initiate of the practice. This movie is a must see for anyone even the least bit curious about Voudoun religion or Haitian culture. Deren as artist rather than ethnographer is sensitive to the archetypal poetry contained in Voudoun symbolism, and this is conveyed in the details.

APRIL PROGRAM

8.30 Doors open
9.00 Feature
Heated and Improved Sound
same venue as always

April 5th

Wolfen – Michael Wadleigh 1981
Wolfen is a highlight of 80’s horror cinema, and the only other feature by the maker of the “Woodstock” documentary. An otherworldly tale of ancient Wolf entities that feed off the destitute denizens of New Yorks slums.. The film features great “point of view” sequences through the enhanced perception of the wolves. Based on the novel by Whitley Strieber; who later became the world’s most famous alien abductee, certainly carries the idea of a cosmos where man isn’t master. Wolfen also contains strong subtexts concerning the destruction of nature by humanity and the plight of the “original” Americans.

April 12th

The Medusa Touch – Jack Gold 1978
Richard Burton gives a customarily grandiose performance as John Morlar the writer and apocalyptic telekinetic, who narrowly survives a brutal bludgeoning by a mysterious assailant. Morlars’ unwavering wrath emanates even from his broken and comatosed body on the hospital bed. Through investigation we discover that he has the power to cause floods, fires and air crashes (one scene eerily reminiscent of September 11). The film works both as supernatural thriller and as a curious commentary on political anger, terrorism, and even ecology. The attempted portrayal of Morlar as evil limply distracts from the sheer pleasure of watching his retribution against the British establishment, as he bumps off Headmasters, Tories, Hanging Judges and Archbishops.

April 19th

Spiderbaby – Jack Hill 1964
As featured in the seminal RE-Search tome “Incredibly Strange Films”, Spiderbaby is a story of a degenerative disease that emerges in the Merrye Family, a family sealed off from normal society. Starring Lon Chaney Jr as Bruno, the Merrye Chauffeur / Guardian in his last film performance also sings the ghoulish title song, which sets the tone for this psychosexual horror farce. Jill Banner plays Virginia’ a girl who thinks she is a spider, wielding a net and two carving knives as fangs. Overall this film could be seen an “Adams Family” for perverts or as one reviewer puts it “a TV sitcom directed by Luis Bunuel. Spiderbaby somehow bridges the gap between “Psycho” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”

April 26th

The Amazing Mr Bickford – 1987
In Bruce Bickford’s studio in Santa Monica, California; there exist another time zone. In his world nothing is stable, and no meaning is fixed. In claymation and line drawing, highways become primordial jungles, Cars become smoke become monsters, Rock clubs undulate with violence and become graveyards. The morphing landscape is unbelievably complexed and obsessive, and its parade of filmic clichés that twist uncontrollably according to the logic of dreams. Bickford is an American surrealist that could be seen as an artist operating in the same unconscious America explored by David Lynch.

Monster Road – Brett Ingram 2004
Monster Road explores the wildly fantastic worlds of legendary underground animator Bruce Bickford. Tracing the origins of Bickford’s remarkably unique world view, the film journeys back to Bickford’s childhood in a competitive household during the paranoia of the Cold War and examines his relationship with his father, George, who is now facing the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. Entirely self-taught, the sixty-year-old Bickford now works alone in a makeshift basement studio in his house near Seattle making films for no apparent audience.

March 2007 Screening Season

8:30pm every Thursday.
Refer to February Program for venue details…

March 1st – Days of Rage 1

Punishment Park – Peter Watkins 1971 : 1 hr 30mins

Its 1970, The war in Vietnam is escalating. Nixon has decided on a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia. There is massive public protest in the United States and elsewhere. Martial law is declared, protesters are forced to run the gauntlet of murderous national guards, and searing desert heat. This a severe accusation of extreme violence levelled at the American state, resulted in a nervous black ban by Hollywood distribution. Watkins is a brilliant and an extremely angry and caustic film-maker… be warned some may find this film hard going.

The Third Generation – R.W. Fassbinder : 1979 : 1hr 10min

Fassbinder went to primary school with Andreas Baader (of the Baader Meinhof gang) and was avowedly left wing in his politics. It was a shock to radical youth when he produced this film, resulting in violent attacks on subsequent screenings. A squad of German radicals kidnap a prominent corporate official. Hoping to attract attention to their cause, the terrorists are in constant fear of betrayal from within, and may even be the unwitting tools of the government they seek to disrupt. Meanwhile captive and captor slowly enter into a perverse and comical game.

March 8th Days of Rage 2

Grin without a Cat (Le fond de l’air est rouge) – Chris Marker : 1978 : 3 hrs

Beginning with the Vietnam war and the death of Che Guevara, ending with the Prague Uprising and the fall of the Allende Government in Chile. This brilliant and passionate 2 part document weaves an incredibly detailed picture of those years of revolutionary unrest from 1967 to 1977. Engrossing images of Paris during the May 68 riots, Psychological Operations in Vietnam, as well as interviews and statements from leading players of the left and the right are gleaned from the SLON collectives’ exhaustive film archives. It recapitulates the nearly forgotten dream of worker managed society and the end of capitalist oligarchy. Whilst it admits the lefts’ tactical defeat, it reminds the audience of the perpetuality of revolutionary spirit. This monumental work has never been released in Australia theatrically or on video, and is very hard to obtain.

Expanded Cinema by Trans-Tasman Renegades

Sam Hamilton & Eve Gordon (NZ),

“Light-mantled sooty albatross” 25 mins4 modified film projectors/1 destroyed guitar/2 good humans… NZ champions of creative cinema preside over the marriage of abstract sound & image: marmite abstractions conceived in the shadow of a searchlight sweep. Veterans of collaborative activities with the likes of Damo Suzuki & the Tall Dwarfs, organisers of the Auckland International Film Festival’s fps program, Golden Plains Festival guests.

March 15th Hiroshimas Mental Spawn 1

Yûkoku (Patriotism) Rite of Love & Death : Yukio Mishima; Domoto Masaki : 1966 : 28mins

Yukio Mishima, was a cruel example of the identity crisis of post war Japan. Simultaneously homosexual and writer/poet in the mould of Arthur Rimbaud as well as a samurai revivalist at the helm of a right wing militia. “Patriotism” is simultaneously beautiful, erotic and incredibly graphic in its bloody depiction of Seppukku (auto-disembowellment). This film was celebrated as great cinema art, until 5 years later its author lived out in REAL LIFE the same attempted coup, the same disgrace and betrayal, and subsequently the same grisly conclusion. Mishima, the narcissist warrior and literary aesthete, had made this film as a romantic blueprint for his own self imposed martyrdom. Mishima’s long suffering wife desperate to rehabilitate the morbid image of her dead husband, suppressed this film, of which her recent death has again made it possible to see.

Three Animations – Tadanori Yokoo 1964-65 : 17 mins

Garish and sublime zig zag between the poles of pop art and magic, mining the subconscious language of cinema and advertising language in a series of jarring anthemic leaps. Yokoo was a leading figure in 60’s avante garde and psychedelic design who has had a lasting influence on the somewhat perverse aesthetics of Japanese pop culture.

Atman – Toshio Matsumoto 1975 : 11 mins

A convulsive and intensely coloured journey, a magical view of the daemon of the spirit. Toshios trademark zoom fluctuations dominate the scene.

Kanashimi No Belladonna – Eiichi Yamamoto 1973 1hr 36min

“Belladonna of Sadness” is a unique event in animation, by either Eastern or Western standards. A psychedelic, demonic and erotic story of witchcraft and female revolt via a bizarre treatment of the story of Jean D’ Arc. Sympathtic to the devil and to the subjugated woman; the aesthetics of the film more strongly influenced by symbolist / nouveau painting and psychedelia, than by American cartoons.

March 22nd – Hiroshimas Mental Spawn 2

Matango (Curse of the Mushroom People) – Ishirô Honda : 1963 : 1 hr 29min

Visually stunning but bleak in its view of Japans newly americanised society. This was the last TOHO studio films from the director who brought you “Godzilla”. A chartered yacht and crew (spookily reminiscent of the charachters from “Giligans Island”) are stranded on a deserted island with little to eat except prolific funguses. As the food supplies dwindle, each turns against the other, some succumb to the mushroom morsels whilst strange figures lurk in the encroaching shadows.

Uzumaki (Vortex) – Akihiro Higuchi : 2000 : 1 hr 31min

Darkly metaphoric of the singular and obsessive nature of Japanese society. A “spiral” curse has descended on a small village causing most of its members to become insanely or autistically fixated on spirals and rotations, resulting in destruction or turning into snails. A rare and eccentric gem from the Manga genre, a frame perfect reproduction of the cult comic by Junjii.

Do our best to make it comfortable but…..

This is the exciting bid to make a regular, stimulating, friendly, warm, boozy and relaxed cinema experience with all due care to the comfort of our visitors but… The chairs are just chairs…… so the typical derriere MAY become uncomfortable with time. We will have SOME soft things but if you are prone to discomfort  bring a cushion…. or if you are really kind, donate any unwanted cushions to the venue, so we can become more like a luxury liner

An Alternative TV

Wild Screen Culture from network to speakeasy. Visions of possibility presented an alternative to ordinary couch potato vegetation. Imagination and magic burnt into the retina. Conjunctions of emulsion, laser, and torrent. Street cinemateque for the psychic citizens of Carringbush Shire and its spiritual sisters.

FEBRUARY 2007 SCREENING SEASON

8:30 PM
Every Thursday
ABC GALLERY
127 Campbell St
Collingwood

Gold coin donation . .(voluntary!!)
. . . large video screen
. . . Bar at pub prices

Thursday Feb 1st – 8:30 pm
Extradimensional Yearnings Part 1
3 hrs 10mins

Poeme Electronique – Le Corbusier / Edgar Varese 1958
A distillation of the groundbreaking large-scale multimedia work presented at the first post-WWII World Fair in Brussels1958. A journey in light and sound, from prehistoric time, through world war and towards a radiant future.
(8.27)
Les Astronauts – Walerian Borowcyk 1959
Idiosyncratic montage-animation describing the desire to go beyond planet earth. An inventor with the help of his homebaked craft unleashes a promethian mischief onto the world at large.
(12.05)
Le Planete Sauvage – Rene Laloux 1973
Beautiful animated feature exploring the dominance of humans over other life-forms and of one class over another by placing humans into the role of vermin on a planet of giants.
(1.11.47)
Ah Pook is Here – Phil Hunt 2005
A disarmingly cute animated interpretation of William Burroughs’s metaphysical apocalypse, the riddle of death, the end of control, the end of the empire, and the demise of the great gods of time and space.
(6.04)
Spectres of the Spectrum – Craig Baldwin 1999
A science-fiction allegory that mixes the wild frontiers of science and utopian revolt through a subversion of Science TV, Propaganda, and Newsreel. Baldwin illustrates the voice of rebel scientist Yogi and his angry daughter Boo-boo as they plot the demise of corporate electromagnetic tyranny.
(1.31.14)

Thursday Feb 8th – 8:30pm
Extradimensional Yearnings Part 2
3 hrs 40mins

In the Realms of the Unreal – Jessica Yu 2005
An extremely moving portrait of Henry Darger; America’s most significant outsider artist. From a brutalised childhood to monastic isolation, Darger survived purely through the creation of an epic 15 000 page pictorial novel. An alternate reality of enslaved children rising against brutal adult oppressors and the establishment of a garden of earthly delight populated with hermaphrodite children, fantastic beasts and mutant flowers.
(1.20.01)
Sun Ra : Space is the Place – John Coney 1974
Sun Ra, space-age prophet, Pharaonic jester, shaman-philosopher and avant-jazz bandleader lands his spaceship in Oakland, having been presumed lost in space for a few years. With Black Power on the rise, Ra proclaims himself “the alter-destiny” espousing a mixagé of sonic theory, transcendentalism, and pan-african nativism. A unique collision of street culture and esoteric instruction.
(1.21.17)
The Arrival – Brotherhood of Unarius 1978
The allegedly true story of Zan, a primitive warrior and son of a chief, who is contacted by an immense Starship while on expedition. In telepathic conversations with the “Brothers”, he is awakened. The most elaborate of two feature films made by the Unarians, the world’s most deliriously flamboyant UFO religion, lead by the incarnate angel Uriel (Ruth Norman) and Unarius Founder Ernest Norman. Amazing art direction and effects expound a vision somewhere between Hubbards’ “Battleship Earth”, and a Las Vegas Burlesque. Uriel’s earnest yet arrhythmic mid-western sermonising is as rapturous as her wig and gown selection.
(1.00.08)

Thursday Feb 15th – 8:30pm
Entheogenic Ethnographic Television
3 hrs 20mins

Shamans of the Amazon – Dean Jeffereys 2002
A solid yet fairly devotional exploration of Ayahuasca culture through Ecuadorian Shamans Flavio and Raphael, Shaman Artist Pablo Amaringo, Santo Daime “priest” Yatra De Silvera Babosa, and most famed expert on super psychedelic DMT, Terrence McKenna. An SBS independent documentary.
(52.17)
Jungle Trip – Piers Gibbon 1995
TV maker and narrator Piers Gibbon has more than a passing fascination for ethnobotany. He goes to the Amazon to seek out the main ingredient of Ayahuasca, “Psychotria Viridis Chacruna” for his the collection at Kew Herbarium London. Piece by piece his urbane sensibilities are dismantled as he sails into uncharted inner and outer territories.
(49.22)
Detox or Die – David Graham Scott / Liam McDougall 2004
David Graham Scott has relapsed one too many times into the squalid world of being a junkie in Glasgow. He hears of the miraculous but brutal psychedelic therapy achieved by the use of Ibogaine… his last chance. Astounding and harrowing self portrait of heroin addiction and an unusual salvation.
(43.43)
Ibogaine : The rite of passage – Benjamin De Lounen 2004
This documentary spans from America to Gabon. Ibogaine, the most unusual of the tryptamine family (DMT, Psilocybin) is being used to return people to themselves through its psychedelic remembrance of pain and formative experience. More importantly it is perhaps the greatest weapon available in the desperate search for liberation from destructive addictions.
(50.00)

Thursday Feb 22nd – 8.30pm
H.P. Lovecraft on Film
3hrs 40min

H.P. Lovecraft’s cult status and mystique is unmatched in the world of horror writing. His unique blend of trans-dimensionality and cosmic horror has spawned much imitation and even occult followers. This is a selection of the better attempts of adapting his “Mythos” into film.

Call of Cthulhu – Andrew Leman / Sean Brannery 2005
Dark rumination, crimes, disasters and nightmares escalate as something rises from the aquatic depths. Beautiful and artful reproduction of 1920’s style filmmaking by independent company of Lovecraft fans. The only film to be as true to Lovecrafts’ writings and aesthetics and to tackle the central story of the Lovecraft Mythos
(46.44)
From Beyond – Stuart Gordon 1986
From the director who brought you “Reanimator”, a typically sardonic treatment of Lovecrafts story of the wonder and horror of the dormant pineal gland. A researcher has learnt to stimulate the pineal to open up portals to other dimensions, but comes across something thats not too nice…
(1.25.48)
Dagon – Stuart Gordon 2001
A blending of two stories “Dagon” and “The Shadow Over “Innsmouth”. A fishing village has sold its soul to the “Deep Ones” to the god of the depths, for the gift of gold. A touring yacht fatefully strands itself there, its’ subjects at the mercy of fishy half-breed infernals who shuffle eerily through the damp dank streets.
(1.38.21)