Feb - Mar - Apr 2003
Archived Program Index

Each and every program presented at the Blinding Light!! Cinema is detailed here. Click on the link to see that quarter's programming and an image of the programme guide cover.

2003
May - Jun - Jul '03
Feb - Mar - Apr '03
Nov - Dec - Jan '03
2002
Aug - Sept - Oct '02
May - Jun - Jul '02
Feb - Mar - Apr '02
Nov - Dec - Jan '02
2001
Aug - Sept - Oct '01
May - Jun - Jul '01
Feb - Mar - Apr '01
Nov - Dec - Jan '01

2000
Aug - Sept - Oct '00
May - Jun - Jul '00
Feb - Mar - Apr '00
Nov - Dec - Jan '00
1999-8
Aug - Sept - Oct '99
May - Jun - Jul '99
Feb - Mar - Apr '99
Nov - Dec - Jan '99
Aug - Sept - Oct '98


February 2003

Canadian Theatrical Premiere: Jon Moritsugu's
Scumrock
"Part melodrama, part comic book, part art-damage assemblage, Jon Moritsugu's films unfold like an amphetamine-laced car crash... The only thing more brutal and abject than the films of Jon Moritsugu is real life." (Raygun)
I'm saying 'fuck you' to the digital revolution, digital is just another way for The Man to keep the brothers and sisters down." Jon Moritsugu
We are pleased to present this latest lurid, low-budget feature by Jon Moritsugu (Fame Whore, Terminal USA, Mod Fuck Explosion) and his first shot on Hi8 video. Made with his trademark irreverent aesthetic, Moritsugu exploits video for what it is: an electronic signal rather than a photographic image. A lo-fi satire about the lives of struggling artists in San Francisco, Scumrock chronicles the intertwining stories of a group of Bay area hipsters struggling to be creative on their own terms. Miles is a struggling filmmaker and record collecting geek in his late-twenties, freaking out that he's too old. He is about to shoot his first independent feature film Death, sorta based on the fact that both his parents were recently killed in a freak car accident. Miles' know-it-all friend Jelly agrees to produce the flick. She's a student at San Francisco State and hating every minute of it. Meanwhile on the other side of town, Roxxy and her punk rock band rehearse for their upcoming comeback gig. Aside from the pressures of breaking in a new bass player, Roxxy must also contend with the fact that she can't drive and must rely on her snotty kid brother for rides, she's 27 and still lives with her folks, and worst of all her real name is the very uncool Amy. Scumrock features the filmmaker's usual stock company of players, including leading lady Amy Davis (as Roxxy), the exquisitely named Victor of Aquitaine, along with cameos from Bay area filmmaking legends Danny Plotnick, Valerie Soe, and Craig Baldwin. (80 mins 2002)
Saturday, February 1 at 8:30pm
Sunday, February 2 at 8:30pm

Best of ResFest
Don't miss this stellar collection of 16 hand-picked short films from the archives of RESFEST, a preeminent event that travels the world showcasing outstanding works from emerging digital media artists in the areas of filmmaking, broadcast design and music video. Highlights include Snack and Drink, now a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Mike Mill's Deformer, a portrait of legendary skateboarder and artists Ed Templeton, Tongues and Taxis, Michael Overbeck's award-winning hand-drawn animation tour-de-force, and Vancouver's own Stephen X Arthur's Vision Point, a dizzying rhythm of mountains and horizon, relentlessly moving forward but never quite reaching it. (80 min 2002)
Tuesday, February 4 at 8:30pm
Wednesday, February 5 at 8:30pm

"Doc In the House"
Mother Dao the Turtle Like
With Colin Browne
More than 260,000 meters of 35mm documentary nitrate film footage from the Dutch film archives served as the source material for this documentary. In a span of ninety minutes the film aims to show how the Netherlands administered its colony as a colonial enterprise and what the relations were like at the time. The usual commentary has been omitted and in its place poems and songs in Bahasa Indonesia have been included in a digital sound composition. In Mother Dao the Turtlelike, the viewer sees how the colonial machinery in the 1920s was implanted in a world so different from Western Europe. He or she will witness various phenomena and aspects of that colonial enterprise - then at its peak - which, thanks to cinematography, were recorded. The shoots for the more than one thousand 35mm nitrate documentary films took place in the Dutch West Indies between 1912 and about 1933. All belong to the collections of the two Dutch film archives, and in the meantime the main corpus has been preserved. The film has screened at forty-eight international film festivals and has received eighteen awards and prizes. The film was proclaimed the best Dutch film of 1995. Introducing the film will be local documentary filmmaker and SFU Communications Department teacher Colin Browne. (90 mins 1995)
(DOC IN THE HOUSE is a monthly series sponsored by the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, curated and hosted by Clancy Dennehy)
Thursday, February 6 at 8:30pm

Vancouver Premiere: Ileana Pietrobruno's
Girl King
Music by Amon Tobin
Starring Michael-Ann Connor, Crystal Donbraith and Victoria Deschanel.
Don't miss the local premiere of this sexy, gender-bending pirate adventure. Naïve baby Butch is taken prisoner by lusty pirate Captain Candy, and enlisted on a hunt to reclaim the Queen's stolen treasure. In this playful and rollicking swashbuckler, drag king pirates take to the high seas on a quest to restore stolen treasures. The gender-skewed adventures begin when Butch, a handsome but naive baby butch, is compelled by the Queen to seek out and bring back her purloined koilos - the source of all pleasures and the very key to order and harmony on her island. As an additional inducement, however, the Queen holds out to Butch the promised return of the hostaged Claudia, a beautiful and feisty femme whose not about to sit idly by awaiting rescue. Under the Queen's wrathful gaze, tops are bottomed, tranny sailors seduce pirate captains, kings are mothers and cross-dressing femmes pack a wallop. Decidedly tongue-in-cheek, this clever tale uses a stylish pastiche of pirated images and themes to lead us into the uncharted oceans of dyke desire and queer identity. With the added bonus of an amazing soundtrack by electronic music whiz Amon Tobin , GIRL KING is a uniquely erotic tale that is both sexy and thoughtful. (80 mins 2002)
Friday, February 7 at 8:30pm
Saturday, February 8 at 8:30pm
Sunday, February 9 at 8:30pm

S. Siobhan McCarthy's
SPIRALING WITHIN
SPIRALING WITHIN is an odyssey into the mind of a young woman. Kayla pops her pills of choice and trips through bus rides, raves and psych wards… Written by S. Siobhan McCarthy and Directed by Mercede Baines, SPIRALING WITHIN is a bold, innovative multi-media one-woman show that combines statistics, dance, movement and darkly humoured scenes to explore mental illness and examine the system from the inside out. The play explores the issues that surround Depression, Obsessions, Anxiety, Bi-Polar Disorder and the ways in which these are dealt with by society, families and individuals. Adapted from the enormously successful, Who Are You Calling Crazy!?!, SPIRALING WITHIN guarantees to stimulate, educate and entertain both youth and adults alike. Who Are You Calling Crazy!?! is proof that live theatre lacks no courage when tackling tough issues -Peter Birnie, The Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, February 11 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 12 at 8:00pm
Thursday, February 13 at 8:00pm
Friday, February 14 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 15 at 8:00pm
Sunday, February 16 at 2:00pm

Westcoast Premiere: James Motluck's
Life Under Mike
Rarely are Canadians permitted a tough, unforgiving look at some of the skeletons stacked in their own closets. (The Globe & Mail) Motluk's gritty digital video documentary shot in 18 months but edited over a period of roughly two years traces the not-so-slow dissolution of the low-income Ontarian's basic standard of living under Mike Harris empty food banks, broken strikes and a terrifying montage of street-level survival tactics that begins with sales of Outreach and soup from the back of a truck, then sinks inexorably through cardboard-box houses and garbage-bag tents to the autopsy room at the local morgue. (Eye Weekly) LIFE UNDER MIKE is a political documentary crammed with wit and biting social commentary. A powerful, gripping expose of the neo conservative common sense revolution in Ontario, this film gives a much needed voice to those citizens displaced and marginalized by the corporate agenda. Telling a story that reverberates around the industrialized world, LIFE UNDER MIKE offers a caustic and critical challenge to the status quo view that free trade, small government and enormous corporate dollars benefit society. Funded by a host of private contributors, among them, the Canadian Auto Workers, United Steel Workers of America and filmmaker MICHAEL MOORE, the film includes interviews with economist John Kenneth Galbraith, a music score by Tad Winklarz and the songs Man of Peace by Bob Dylan and The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen, and was honoured at the Canadian Media Human Rights Awards in 2001. Preceded by a surprise short from the vault.
Tuesday, February 18 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 19 at 8:00pm

BYO8: Bring Your Own Film
This is the night you take over and show us exactly what you want to preferably something of the moving image variety…home movie, found footage, how-to, and works in progress we accept VHS, DVD, Super 8, 16mm, and please keep it under 10 minutes. Remember, its always cheaper to get in if you are carrying, so go make that movie.
Thursday, February 20 at 8:00pm

Harry Smith:
American Magus
Perhaps now best known for his Anthology of American Folk Music, HARRY SMITH was also a brilliant filmmaker, anthropologist and occultist. Paola Igliori was fortunate to spend the last months of Smith's life with this genius, and her documentary AMERICAN MAGUS sketches a fascinating portrait of this influential figure. Featured are interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frank, Jonas Mekas stills from his astounding film works and countless collections, diagrams and rare archive material, all sketching a fascinating portrait of the man who influenced artists from Gregory Corso to DJ Spooky. Born May 29 1923 in Portland, Harry Smith - a child prodigy - compiled a dictionary of Puget Sound native dialects and as a teenager began to make field recordings of native and folk song. Decades later he would win an Honorary Grammy for his 1952 multi-volume Anthology of American Folk Music and Bob Dylan would say Without Harry Smith I wouldn't have existed. Moving to Berkeley after WWII, Harry turned to jazz paintings and hanging out with poets Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer. In the mid-50s, he moved to New York and began exhibiting his unsurpassed hand-painted films. An intellectual wizard of the Beat scene, he cross-fertilized his vast knowledge of anthropology, linguistics, the occult, folk music and design patterns with his painstaking genius as a visual and cinema artist. His influence on the 60s and everything that followed that cultural revolution is incalculable. (VIFF) To me he was the multimedia guy. He's like an improvisational archivist. Someone who gives shape and meaning to memory.-DJ Spooky He was a genius, the only person I met who transcended everything. He always gave an answer that was the end of the line; you didn't have to go through all the shit.-Robert Frank
Friday, February 21 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 22 at 8:00pm
Sunday, February 23 at 8:00pm

Taylor Meade in
Curious White Boy
Taylor Mead was one of the first ever underground film stars, starting out in North Beach in San Francisco in the fifties in Ron Rice's 'The Flower Thief' and Vern Zimmerman's 'Lemon Hearts', which Andy Warhol had seen at the Film-Makers Co-op. He later starred in many of Warhol's film classics including Tarzan and Jane Regained…Sort of. One of the few Superstars who didn't overdose or disappear completely, Mead has never wavered from his strange ways. With CURIOUS WHITEBOY, Wright Thomas has created a story about a curious man (played by Taylor Mead) whose curious life is centered in New York City. Utterly breaking with convention, the film resembles a languorous Kuchar brothers collaboration in the crispness of an NYC autumn, indulging in just the right ways at just the right times, while also as daring, frustrating and indulgent as Warhol's works with Mead. In the director's words: It's delicately fractured shards and pieces are woven from across the whole of the twentieth century into a surreal tapestry that rides like a fleamarket flying carpet with Taylor at the wheel, lit by his own sun and blown by eleven winds into the hazy haphazard horizon of the future… Steve Buscemi said he couldn't believe that something so 'beat' could be made in this day and age- it would take a lot of money to make a film look the way CWB looks naturally. And I just heard that Nick Nolte is consoling himself every evening watching CWB since they took away his license to drive. Taylor Mead, himself, says it's 'the most beautiful picture you'll never see' - a statement a bit too close to the bone, I am afraid, as is the flick itself. (W. Thomas) (120 min 2002)
Tuesday, February 25 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, February 26 at 8:00pm

Art on Film
Philip Guston: A Life Lived + Alice Neel
PHILIP GUSTON: A LIFE LIVED catches Guston at an important stage in his development as an artist; late in his career in the 1970's, when he has returned to figurative paintings that are packed with symbols, both political and autobiographical. That an established and respected artist like Guston, who was considered a major figure in the New York School of the 40's and 50's, would make such a drastic stylistic change shocked and outraged the art world. Yet, this later work is what he is known for today, and was influential to a generation of artists known as Neo-Expressionists who were emboldened to paint in a similar figurative style. The film takes us to his studio in Woodstock, where he discusses his philosophy and motivations while he works on a large canvas that he ultimately paints over the next day, feeling that it did not succeed. As his retrospective is being installed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the artist reflects on four decades of his work. His statements in response to questions from critics and art historians constitute a testament. PLUS: ALICE NEEL, A PORTRAIT Alice Neel has been acclaimed as one of the most profound portrait painters of the modern era. In this short video, the painter is interviewed late in life discussing her process and her work. (TRT 90 mins)
Thursday, February 27 at 8:00pm

Harry Nillson's The Point
With Musical Guests
Ringo Starr narrates the famed animated feature dreamt up, written and produced by the late Harry Nilsson, based on his album of the same name and featuring the hit song Me and My Arrow. In a land where everyone and everything has a point, the birth of a pointless child throws the kingdom into an existential crisis that is temporarily resolved by banishing the youngster Oblio to the Pointless Forest with his pet (and accomplice) Arrow. On their journey, Oblio and Arrow meet a bizarre stable of characters no doubt inspired by Nilsson's many acid trips. Furthermore, they discover that just because someone or something seems to have a point doesn't mean they do, and sometimes the most seemingly pointless things are the most integral to human existence. A treat for Nilsson aficionados and '70's animation fans alike, THE POINT will be preceded by a musical performance in memory of this visionary artist.
Friday, February 28 at 8:00pm

March 2003   (top)

Mark Street in person with the Canadian Premiere of
At Home and Asea
AT HOME AND ASEA is MARK STREET's collage of portraits charting the disillusionment shared by a group of Baltimore denizens. Street, whose previous work (some screened on his last visit) includes striking abstract pieces, as well as films in which he's scratched and bleached the emulsion, here works with digital video; this allows him to capture intimate and casual moments with his subjects, who include three single mothers, a 23-year-old beer-drinking slacker and a man trying to understand his deceased father's life by revisiting what the elderly man left behind. While it's never entirely clear what's scripted and what's real, the video nevertheless gradually acquires a weighty torpor as the characters fight the inertia wrought by the exhausting, uphill struggle to create lives that live up to expectations. Street has always been adept at aligning invisible emotions with their physical counterparts, and here he perfectly captures his subjects' anomie with images of Baltimore's anonymous buildings and blighted neighborhoods. Their growing despair is perhaps best embodied, though, in shots showing boats bobbing slowly up and down on the gray water against the evanescent, lead-colored fog. (Holly Willis) Street's amalgam of documentary and fiction is poignant and, thanks to Guy Yarden's score, anxiety-provoking. It's also a subtly crafted portrait of an economically blighted city, pulled between North and South and central to neither. (Amy Taubin, Village Voice)
Saturday, March 1 at 8:00pm

Eye of Newt Play Live to
The Dark Crystal
THE DARK CRYSTAL is a visual feast of impressive alien landscapes and outlandish, brashly original creatures thrust into a fantasy world of Jim Henson's imagining. The world of THE DARK CRYSTAL is inhabited by two races: The Skekses, a race of evil and corrupt birdlike creatures who wallow in luxury and gluttony hidden away in a dark castle where they keep the Dark Crystal and use it's awesome power to maintain their life-force over the centuries. The Mystics, a race of gentle, soft-spoken Wisemen who live close to the earth in simple homes in a valley. The Skekses have used their dark army of bug like soldiers to dominate the planet, wiping out lesser races entirely. One such race, the Gelflings, is survived by only one member, Jen, who has been raised since childhood by the Mystics. Now, as the planets begin to align, the all-knowing Mystics send Jen on an all-important quest to seek out the shard, which alone can be used to heal the Dark Crystal and destroy the Skekses once and for all. (94 mins, 1982)
Sunday, March 2 at 8:00pm

WestCoast Premiere:
Schmelvis
Nobody knew Elvis was Jewish until the influential Wall Street Journal published an article in 1998, 'All Shook Up in the Holy Land' exposing the King's improbable lineage. Elvis was very aware of his Jewish roots, according to Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan who told the Journal, 'It was something Elvis was aware of and certainly was sensitive to.' SCHMELVIS is the story of a true life Montreal-based Jewish Elvis impersonator named Dan Hartal. For years, Hartal has worked as an entertainer at Jewish senior citizens' homes in his incarnation as Schmelvis singing his own versions of Elvis songs in a Jewish musical style. SCHMELVIS follows Hartal on a bizarre odyssey to Elvis's Graceland home in Memphis to say Kaddish the Jewish prayer for the dead at Elvis's grave. Stopping at roadside diners in his Winnebago down Highway 61, Schmelvis mingles with rednecks, truckers, white trash and middle Americans. Bizarre and unpredictable reactions result as he tries to convince his fellow travellers that Elvis was a Jew. SCHMELVIS sheds facinating light onto contemporary idol worship and the serious quest of an Orthodox Jew in an Elvis costume. (Dir Max Wallace 80min 2002)
Tuesday, March 4 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 5 at 8:00pm

Docs in the House Presents Celluloid Dreams
With Director James Dunnison
A handful of filmmakers constantly push the envelope of our imagination. They speak in an exciting visual language, and their stories and imagery charm and disturb us in ways that often defy description. CELLULOID DREAMS takes an intimate look into the artistic processes and inspirations of the directors who transport us beyond our dreamiest dreams. By constantly challenging the boundaries of what is conventional and familiar in cinema, these filmmakers have a proven genius for delighting us one minute and making our hair stand on end the next. CELLULOID DREAMS explores the films of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children), Guy Maddin (Careful, The Heart of the World), and the Brothers Quay (The Comb, Institute Benjamenta). Exclusive interviews with these directors illuminate the metaphors and motivations behind their enchanting and spine-tingling visions. Director JAMES DUNNISON will be in attendance to introduce and discuss the film.
Thursday, March 6 at 8:00pm

Sistahood 2003: Reel Sista's
The Sista'Hood Celebration is a collaborative production from Burning Will Creative and Velocity Media Arts Services Society that celebrates International Women's Day and raises money for the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. From March 7-9th 2003 SISTA'HOOD will include a Film festival, workshops and a live Hip Hop event at Sonar. Friday March 7th 2003 will feature the Reel Sista's film festival that will include independent films and productions by women from around the world. Tickets are $5 per film. Check www.sistahoodcelebration.com for details.
Friday, March 7 at 8:00pm

Canadian Premiere: Andrew Bujalski's
Funny Ha-Ha
Named INDIEWIRE's BEST UNDISTRIBUTED film of the year
FUNNY HA HA is the most refreshing and exciting debut feature from an American independent filmmaker to come along in years. -Olympia Film Festival FUNNY HA HA is a wonderful film! It is light and fragile as life, it's unpredictability is so painful to accept and follow. It has strange power, innocence, charm and brainless wisdom, a most difficult thing to accomplish. I am still under its grip! Bravo maestro!...Vulnerability turned into a sword! -Dusan Makavejev (WR: Mysteries of the Organism, Montenegro, Sweet Movie) Unfussy and bracingly direct in its visuals, nuanced and comically detailed in its performances, the film finds a careful balance of sweetness and melancholy in an understated examination of romantic flailing. —Cinematexas Marnie is a 23-year-old girl living alone in Boston and facing all of the classic navel-gazing challenges of love, work, indulgence, etc. Maintaining her humor and dignity to the best of her ability, she ping-pongs between several awkward boy situations and tries to find her footing. But that is only the beginning of what has proven to be one of the most understated, inspired and genuinely independent films of the past year. We are thrilled to be presenting FUNNY HA HA for its Canadian Premiere, with the hopes that director Andrew Bujalski will find a way to be in attendance (he wants to be, he really does!). (90 mins 16mm 2002)
Saturday, March 8 at 8:00pm
Sunday, March 9 at 8:00pm

Freedom Downtime
FREEDOM DOWNTIME is the story of computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, imprisoned without bail for nearly five years. The film tries to uncover the reasons why the authorities are so scared of Mitnick as well as define what exactly he did. As word of a new Hollywood movie portraying Mitnick as a terrorist becomes known, hackers begin to turn to activism to get their message out. Through interviews with relatives, friends, lawyers, and experts in the computer and civil liberties arena, a picture of a great injustice becomes apparent. A cross-country journey uncovers some realities of the hacker culture as well as the sobering reality that so many technically adept young people seem destined for prison. Featuring an original soundtrack by Theta Wave State. Director Emmanuel Goldstein has been publishing 2600 Magazine, The Hacker Quarterly since 1984. He also hosts America's largest hacker radio show on WBAI.Winner of the Audience Award for Documentaries at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, 2002 (121 minutes, 2001)
Tuesday, March 11 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 12 at 8:00pm

Nyla Raney Presents:
This Side Up: The Slide Show
Join us for an inspired and inventive evening of slide shows with THIS SIDE UP. Looking nothing like those long drawn out evenings at your auntie's, this evening each of the participants have put together individual slide segments with some adding sound design. Each presentation runs for approximately 3 minutes and each approaches the idea of the slide show in new and original ways, from unconventional takes on the traditional family holiday style to everything beyond. Featuring slides that are alternately hand-made, found, altered and more, these short shows have been created by a number of artists from across the country. Donate a slide to the event and get a buck off admission!
Thursday, March 13 at 8:00pm

Norwood Cheek in person with Flicker's
Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
Join us as L.A.-based Super 8 afficionado NORWOOD CHEEK graces us with his presence for the latest round of FLICKER mania entitled THE ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT REELS. Fifteen filmmakers were each given a roll of Super 8 film with instructions to make a film edited entirely in camera. Furthermore, their sound was to be designed without seeing the images they had shot. In this massive risk-taking venture, they got one roll: one take and move on, one chance at getting it right. Filmmakers featured include FLICKER favourites Norwood Cheek himself, Peyton Reed, John Schultz, Erik Andersen, David Palmer and others! That's 50 feet - 3:20 to make it work - all shot on Super 8 film and presented to you when Flicker comes to town with THE ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT REELS. Don't miss it! NOTE: THe TIME AND DATE FOR THIS SHOW ARE CORRECT AS BELOW, THE PRINTED CALENDAR IS INCORRECT.
Friday, March 14 at 8:00pm

Sol Nagler in person with: The Centre's Crooked
Manifestations of Manitoba Mania
From the vaults of the infamous Winnipeg Film Group and Video Pool come a collection of short films and videos stretching over three decades of works featuring numerous manifestations of acute mania. Included in the program are JON KROCKER'S maddened dance routines in 38 JANSKY UNITS, WENDY GELLER's sarcastically improvised one woman sketch routines in SEVEN, GORD WILDING's perverted pedophillic classic RAPTURE, and CLIVE HOLDEN's haunting exploration of poetic suburban spaces in NEIGHBORS WALK SOFTLY. Also featured: Royal Art Lodge Members MICHAEL DUMONTIER & DRUE LANGLOIS' THERE'S A WHOLE WORLD OF SURPRISES, JEFFREY ERBACH's MONDAY WITH THE MARTINS, RUSS DYCK's JOE 90, and more. Bring your own Ritalin, this collection will take you on the emotional roller-coaster that we call Angst in the Flatlands! (Curated by Sol Nagler, 95 mins) NOTE: THE TIME AND DATE FOR THIS SHOW ARE CORRECT AS BELOW, THE PRINTED CALENDAR IS INCORRECT.
Saturday, March 15 at 8:00pm

Neil Young's Cult Classic
Human Highway
Working under the nom de plume Bernard Shakey, Young conceived, starred in, and directed this gleefully incomprehensible mess of a feature film the make-it-up-as-we-go-along script has something to do with a diner, a nuclear power plant, and a geeky mechanic (Young) who dreams of being a rock star. The exquisite B-movie cast - Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Sally Kirkland, and Russ (Twin Peaks) Tamblyn - seems to be enjoying itself immensely, especially musical troublemakers Devo, who pop up throughout as a sort of radioactive Greek chorus, and whose 10-minute version of Hey Hey, My My has to be heard - and seen - to be believed. A must for fans of Young in particular and defiantly bad movies in general. (John Sakamoto) Though the visual style has been compared to Coppola's One From the Heart, it might be more aptly described as The Wizard of Oz on acid. Cameos by Young's wife Pegi (as a motorcyle mama) and folksinger David Blue (as a milkman)! (83 mins 1982)
Sunday, March 16 at 8:00pm

Paul Richmond in person with:
Canadian Premiere: Urban Warrior
Within recent years, the formerly bright line separating U.S. military operations from domestic police work has become increasingly blurred. From Waco, to the WTO protests, tactics once reserved for wartime combat are being used in domestic law enforcement operations with increasing frequency. During the 1980s and 90s, the Pentagon began supplying both military training and surplus military hardware to domestic law enforcement agencies. Paramilitary SWAT teams, utilizing urban combat tactics, sub-machine guns, and armored personnel carriers, now exist in 90% of American cities with a population of 50,000 or more. URBAN WARRIOR investigates the history of this trend as it has evolved over the last three decades, and examines case studies of militarized policing ranging from the Seattle WTO protests, to the Elian Gonzalez raid, to the SWAT team shooting of Miami resident Richard Brown. Our guest over these two nights, PAUL RICHMOND, is a Seattle attorney and longtime activist. He established the National Lawyers Guild legal observer program prior to the WTO protests, and helped found the original Independent Media Center. Paul authored the National Lawyer's Guild report on the WTO, and also acted as an advisor for the documentary URBAN WARRIOR.
Tuesday, March 18 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 19 at 8:00pm

BYO8: Bring Your Own Film
Bring it on down and let's have a look-see it is that time once again, an opportunity for you to show us your goods we accept VHS, DVD, 16mm and Super 8. And we need you to keep it under 10 minutes so we can squeeze everyone in. All styles, genres and obsessions accepted!
Thursday, March 20 at 8:00pm

Canadian Premiere: Filmgruppe Chaos'
Faites Vos Jeux
FAITES VOS JEUX is the latest collaborative effort from the German Super 8 collective FILMGRUPPE CHAOS (who last brought us the astounding MALDOROR) and A.K.A.S. in loose cooperation with the Copyright Violation Squad. A project made without using a camera, the film is a collection of pirated images/'samples' from home movies, adverts, art-videos, TV news, documentaries, game shows and feature films from Hollywood to Bollywood. Assembled using old video-mixers and PC's running on cracked/ freeware programs, the final video-mix-mash was transferred to film stock where the negative was further abused and transformed via healthy doses of sandpaper, acid, felt-pens, 'Letraset', sharp blades and other devices. To top it off, the soundtrack was created by 18 artists from Germany, Japan, Australia, Poland, UK, Lithuania, France, the US and Turkey. What results is a a wholly engaging and entirely radical story that travels through time. Beginning with the image of a baby born around 1970 and then on to events/experiences such as his first day at school, the film follows him to the very end of his life. Along the way the film melds in the parallel universe of political events, music, and media styles along the way. We witness the events surrounding the deaths of Germany's Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Group) in a high-security prison, the rise of the punk movement and early eighties new wave culture, and eventually move on to the Gulf War, the WTO-riot in Genoa and ultimately to a 'mega-media-mix' showdown of the events of 9/11 and the war against terror featuring beloved heroes John W. Wayne and George Rambo. Radical in form and aggressive in politics, FAITES VOS JEUX is an assault on the senses that breathes firey energy.
Friday, March 21 at 8:00pm
Saturday, March 22 at 8:00pm

The "Work Sucks" Tour
With Marc Moscato and Dave Roche
Eugene, Oregan's Marc Moscato and Portland's Dave Roche team up to hit the road, bringing their collection of labor-related films and zines on their WORK SUCKS TOUR. Roche's zine ON SUBBING documents his three-year stint as a substitute teacher in the Portland school system. Roche hilariously retells stories of his experience at his job, including being regularly mistaken for a student and getting beat up in school. Roche's readings are well known for their unpredictability and audience involvement, such as when he read his zine while doing push ups and sit ups, or at the Portland Zine Symposium, when Roche read riding on a tricycle. Marc Moscato will be presenting his THE BEST OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING VIDEOS, a half-hour montage the weirdest, funniest and most disturbing moments from the annals of management propaganda. Rapping hamburgers, stripping scientists, layabouts and brown-nosers, horny bosses and herbal boob enhancers, this entirely unlicensed collage comes to us courtesy of the mysterious GGC Corporation. Compiled by solicitations for people to steal training videos from their place of employment for the project, the final product interweaves these training tapes with a narrative of an employee's first week at a new job, leaving the viewer in a manic state between the humor of its absurdity and the creepiness of its reality. Also screening is COMPLIANCE CULTURE, a look at an organizational consultant whose fascist rhetoric is likely to make your skin crawl. Lecturing an audience of managers, the speaker proselytizes on how to beat that pesky free will out of employees, comparing them to untrained puppies! Moscato has been involved with non-commercial independent culture for many years, self-publishing numerous zines and making videos on a shoestring budget. Moscato recently co-founded My House (www.notmyhouse.com), a microcinema based in Eugene, Oregon. Moscato is currently a graduate student at the University of Oregon and teaches several classes, including Art, Human Values and Zines and Do It Yourself Democracy.
Sunday, March 23 at 8:00pm

The Maysles Brothers' Classic
Grey Gardens
A stunner. Half humorous, half horrific and 100% mesmerizing. - The New York Post Haunting. - The New York Times GREY GARDENS is the unbelievable but true story of Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Mother and daughter live in a world of their own behind the towering privets that surround their decaying 28-room East Hampton mansion known as Grey Gardens, a place so far gone that the local authorities once threatened to evict them for violating building and sanitation codes. The incident made national headlines American royalty, living in squalor! Little Edie was an aspiring actress of striking beauty who put her New York life on hold to care for her mother - and never left her side again. Together they descended into a until the Maysles arrived with their camera and tape recorder. The Beales were ready for their close-ups. Little Edie a still-attractive woman at 56 parades about coquettishly in her trademark improvised turbans (her wildly original ensembles inspired a 9-page fashion spread in a 1998 issue of Harper's Bazaar and a 1999 issue of Italian Vogue), reminisces about her brilliant past, still hoping that her Big Chance and Big Romance are just around the corner. Big Edie, trained soprano in her bohemian days, trills romantic songs of yesteryear in a slightly wobbly, but still rich voice. The women bicker, prattle, and flirt like characters out of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill. The film is a bittersweet love story, a record of the powerful and complex relationship between mother and daughter. (Dir David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke, 94 min 1976)
Tuesday, March 25 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, March 26 at 8:00pm

Eye of Newt Play Live to
The Seventh Seal
Join the EYE OF NEWT with their live accompaniment to classic Bergman. The film that gained Ingmar Bergman an international reputation, THE SEVENTH SEAL is an all-out religious allegory addressing that most-contemplated question, Does God exist? The film's imagery is among the most memorable ever put on screen—the image of Death wandering the countryside remains unforgettable. (96 mins 1957)
Thursday, March 27 at 8:00pm

The Return of
The Precious Fathers
Join us for an evening of quiet, thoughtful and inspired live music as Vancouver's favourite instrumentalists grace us once again with their beautiful sounds and subtle presence. Expect their trademark visuals for added flare and retinal focus
Friday, March 28 at 8:00pm

The Criminal Cinema Presents the Canadian Premiere of:
Candy Von Dewd & the Girls From Latexsploitia
In the 22nd century, mankind faces extinction: radioactive waste, ozone depletion, genetic engineering, tight polyester pants, and other forms of bio-plunder have wrecked the genome and abolished scores of nature's laws, and worldwide fertility rates are dropping. Scientists fear that at the present rate procreative feasibility will not last into the 23rd century. 174 'Rocket Leroy' expeditions now search the galaxy. Their mission: to locate seedable life forms and a possible solution to Humankind's fertility problem. Because of their extreme potency entropy each mission is armed with an experimental new drug. The drug is Vakuta-16. Join us for the Canadian Premiere of this unabashedly bad latex-jammed Barbarella-style opus of sci-fi punk and Amazonian erectronica. CANDY VON DEWD AND THE GIRLS FROM LATEXPLOITIA carries influences from science fiction films of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Equal parts Barbarella, 2001, and Forbidden Planet, the film was, appropriately enough, shot through the facilities of The Werepad, San Francisco's cult/exploitation cinema lounge. (70 mins DVD 2002)
Saturday, March 29 at 8:00pm
Sunday, March 30 at 8:00pm

April 2003   (top)

Beat Films!
Fried Shoes, Cooked Diamonds, PLUS ALfred Leslie and Robert Frank's Pull My Daisy
A serious and spontaneous account of conversations, teachings and home scenes of myself and the poets...including singing, nakedness, meditation and readings. (Allen Ginsberg) FRIED SHOES, COOKED DIAMONDS is a look at the survivors of America's Beat Movement who spend summers as guests and faculty members at the controversial Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. As Allen Ginsberg narrates, performances emerge from Gregory Corso, Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, Peter Orlvosky, Meredith Monk, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Miguel Pinero and Ginsberg himself. This rare film also includes footage of the nuclear protest at Rocky Flats, with Ginsberg reading Plutonium Ode and Corso reading Bomb. (Dir: Costanzo Allione, 16mm 55mins 1979) PLUS: PULL MY DAISY: The only film the Beat writers of the 1950's actually created themselves PULL MY DAISY is at its core a fun and largely spontaneous experiment arranged in 1959 by the well-known photographer Robert Frank and filmmaker and painter Alfred Leslie. Enlisting the participation of Jack Kerouac, who offered in place of an original screenplay a stage-play he'd never finished writing, the plot is based on an incident in the life of Neal Cassady and his wife Carolyn. Kerouac provides the voice-over as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, artist Larry Rivers and musician David Amram act out the scenes 'A wonderful glimpse into the lives of the major Beat writers at a time when they were still not too trapped by their legendary personas to do something silly in public, just for the sake of doing it.' (TRT 85 mins)
Tuesday, April 1 at 8:30pm
Wednesday, April 2 at 8:30pm

An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcom Lowry, With Gilles Roy
Doc in the House: Volcano
Author of one of the major novels of the 20th century, Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry fought a winning battle with words, and a losing battle with liquor. On-location shooting in four countries, archival photographs, readings by Richard Burton from Lowry's novel, and interviews with the people who loved and hated him give the film a terrifying immediacy. More than a portrait, it is a reflection on the greater agony of man, and remains to this day one of director Donald Brittain's most original contributions to the documentary genre. (1976 - 90min.)
Gilles Roy is workshop educator at the Montreal-based CineRobotheque of the National Film Board of Canada where he presents NFB documentary history. He is also creative director for 26 media inc. where he is currently developing an online course for web-based collaborative documentary.
-Free Admission-
(thanks to the NFB and 26media)
Thursday, April 3 at 8:00pm

Other Cinema's
Experiments in Terror
SEE: The Monster Attack the Slumber Party! Alfred Hitchcock's tour of Norman Bates' Mansion! Horrific subliminals in PSYCHORAMA! Terrifying Trailers of Future Attractions, COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU! Courtesy of the folks down at OTHER CINEMA (Craig Baldwin's weekly microcinema in San Fran), EXPERIMENTS IN TERROR exhibits recent work of experimental filmmakers working within and in dialogue with the genre of the horror film. As a counterpoint in that dialogue, it also assembles a rarely screened collection of trailers, clips, and other celluloid strangeness from the best (and worst!) of cinematic horror. Carey Burtt explores the horrific nature of schizophrenia in THE PSYCHOTIC ODYSSEY OF RICHARD CHASE, Martha Colburn's psycho-spazzumentaries finally return as we feature SPIDERS IN LOVE and EVIL OF DRACULA, PLUS: Kerry Laitala's abstract mediation on murder JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN, David Sherman's TUNING THE SLEEPING MACHINE explores early cinema's obsession with the subconscious, J.X. Williams' terrifying, screaming plunge to the depths of hell THE VIRGIN SACRIFICE and MORE!!
Friday, April 4 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 5 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 6 at 8:00pm

Canadian Premiere of Richard Sandler's
The Gods of Times Square
-BEST DOCUMENTARY, CHICAGO UNDERGROUND—AUDIENCE AWARD, ROTTERDAM FILM FEST-
Shouting, mumbling, or merely raving, the multiple blessed, repressed, and possessed street preachers of Times Square were as New York as the Yankees or subway muggings. Filmed from 1993-1998, Richard Sandler's documentary captures not only a way of New York life in all its wondrous, stunning chaos, but also its slow, strangled transformation into a Giuliani-sponsored sanitized hell of chain stores, corporate malls and Disney parades. Wandering the streets with his hand-held camera and microphone, Sandler interviews Christian fundamentalists, Muslim fundamentalists, militant white Jews, militant black Jews, those who preach holy war, those who preach good orgasms, and those who just dig Lucifer's kinkiness, so let's go see some girls, man. Homeless visionaries, panhandling philosophers, Jimi Hendrix impersonators, porno addicts, impromptu exorcisms of the Anti-Christ, Mickey Mouse and prognostications of Jesus' eventual return with a triple platinum grunge albumhere are all the gods anyone could want, and possibly even more. (2002 112 min)
Tuesday, April 8 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, April 9 at 8:00pm

Back By request: Guy Debord's
Society of the Spectacle
Debord's incisive and unrelenting film SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE seems more relevant now than ever as it explores the very essence of our culture's sleep-walking complicity in maintaining an ignorance of the blood-soaked impact of commodity culture, while remaining in apolitical awe of its spectacle. SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is an intense and densely packed montage assembled out of detourned images from feature films, pornography, commercials and news footage. Few groups have had as profound an impact on French culture as the Situationist Internationale with its unparalleled interrogation of political and cultural relations. While the writing of leading Situationist Guy Debord has become the cornerstone of postmodernism, his paintings, artist books, and films remain unknown. (Keith Sanborn, translator/subtitles) Debord's analysis of a society suspended inside the free space of the commodity infiltrates every frame. (Steve Seid, PFA)
Thursday, April 10 at 8:00pm

West Coast Premiere: George Ratliff's
Hell House
An unsettling, hilarious and unforgettable viewing experience (VIFF) At first glance a souped-up Halloween haunted house, Hell Houses are modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermons replete with hundreds of actors, truck loads of lights and full audio-visual tech crews. In each room, visitors view depictions of school massacres, AIDS deaths, fatal drunk driving crashes, and botched abortions while demons goad the gullible sinners into doing their bidding and then cart their souls off to hell. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, director George Ratliff's HELL HOUSE follows the process from the first script meeting until the last of the 13,000 visitors passes through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a vérité window into the whole outrageous process of creating this over-the-top sermon, while showing an intimate portrait of the people who haunt this peculiar culture. (85 mins 2002)
Friday, April 11 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 12 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 13 at 8:00pm

Cop Talk III
Techniques of Enforcement
Join us for our third installment of strange and rare industrials from our forbidden archive of police training films. These films date from the late '60s and early seventies and were meant for the exclusive use of law enforcement training come find out what they were telling them to do to keep us in line! Featuring films about drunk driving, body identification, weapons training, prison inmate psychology and more, this is a disturbing amalgam of materials you won't soon forget. WARNING: Some graphic imagery of death and brutality.
Tuesday, April 15 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, April 16 at 8:00pm

BYO8: Bring Your Own Film
April showers bring May flowers, so get in out of all that rain and watch some movies. Your movies! Tonight we feature movies by you, so bring them down VHS, DVD, 16mm, and Super 8 are the formats we can handle, please keep it under 10 minutes so we can watch more arrive on time or risk not seeing your tour-de-force.
Thursday, April 17 at 8:00pm

David Franklin and Jason Thrasher present the
Underskatement Film Festival
Now in its second year, the underSkatement film festival is the first nationally touring forum to exclusively showcase the undeniable creativity of skateboarder-artists both on and off their boards. These short films and videos encompass a broad spectrum of subjects that may or may not include skateboarding, although its influence is evident. Films in this year's selection range from the spiritual and philosophic to skit comedy to B-movie gore to skater-related documentary, which will undoubtedly appeal to all audiences simply because films and videos are well-made and imaginative. If your conception of skateboarders is limited to the X-Games, or possibly the kids pushing hurriedly past you in the street, this film festival might shed new light on a group of people who are much more than just the next target demographic of advertising companies. Look for Mark Gonzales' newest film collaboration. underSkatement was conceived by veteran skaters David Franklin (SF) and Jason Thrasher (Athens, GA) with support from the creators of the Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival.
Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 19 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 20 at 8:00pm

From the Vaults III
Another round of strange and wondrous flicks from our private archive of 16mm celluloid. We provide a list on your way in and you pick the films you want to see based on title alone. Covering subjects like dental hygiene, psychological abnormalities, police training, sex education and soccer techniques, there is bound to be something in there you'll want to sink your eyes into. Each film is around 10 minutes so expect to see around 10 or so. And hey - if it's really bad, the projectionist reserves the right to cut to the next film! The earlier you arrive, the more likely your picks will be picked…. Free film cores at the door while they last! (What's a film core you ask? Come and find out.)
Tuesday, April 22 at 8:00pm

Anne McGuire's
Strain Andromeda The
With STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE, American film and video artist Anne McGuire has created an awesome and spellbinding film that throws everything from story structure to character motivation into question. Put simply, McGuire has taken the entire 1971 Robert Wise-directed THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (based on the novel by Michael Crichton) and re-edited it shot by shot precisely in reverse, so that the last shot appears first and the first last, though nothing is actually running backwards. As the film unfolds (or reverts?), more and more information about how our characters and their surroundings came about is revealed to us. While initially confusing, the film quickly takes on an ominous and mesmerizing quality that defies description. The original film plot is one filled with tension in a race against time which only adds to this effect. It develops its own wonderfully absurd and perplexing level of suspense. (Chicago Filmmakers) ...every action is followed by its stimulus, every comment by its query, you find yourself in a dizzying spin, grasping desperately for causal certainty, yet firmly held by the reversibility of suspense. (Steve Seid) STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE can only be experienced to be understood. And if you have never seen the original film, all the better. Above all, don't arrive late or you'll miss the...end. (102 mins 2000)
Wednesday, April 23 at 8:00pm

Eye of Newt Play Live to:
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Join EYE OF NEWT as the play live to the first of the famed Charles H. Schneer-produced SINBAD movies. THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD brings the legendary sailor into combat with a variety of creatures, all brought to life by the stop-motion magic of special effects guru Ray Harryhausen. Seafaring adventures, stunning stop-motion effects featuring an incredible Cyclops and more combine for a thrilling evening of big-screen magic. (88 mins, 1958)
Thursday, April 24 at 8:00pm

Ben Harper: Pleasure & Pain
Music is the last true voice of the human spirit. It can go beyond language, beyond age, beyond color...straight to the heart and mind of all people. - Ben Harper PLEASURE & PAIN was conceived, produced and shot by rock photographer Danny Clinch, who toured with Harper throughout the United States and Europe last year. In addition, Clinch traveled to Harper's childhood home in Claremont, California, and interviewed Harper's parents, grandmother and other people he grew up with. PLEASURE & PAIN is truly a for-fans in-depth look at the life that is lived by this contemporary roots rock icon. The documentary offers a rare glimpse into Harper's travels, performances, songwriting, religion and life in general. Along with behind-the-scenes perspectives on the lives that these enigmatic musicians live both on the road and off, it incorporates concert footage, backstage clips and what goes into producing Ben Harper's performances. Not just another self-indulgent music documentary, PLEASURE & PAIN lives up to its name by showing the imperfect yet true humanity behind the performer on a pedestal. (Dir Danny Clinch 92 mins. 2002)
Friday, April 25 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 26 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 27 at 8:00pm

DICKIN' AROUND
It's back! Movie serials and educational films from the 30s to the 50s all re-dubbed live and sanitized for your protection by Vancouver's top improvisers. Now with na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Batman! Join Urban Improv's IAN BOOTHBY, RAY GURRIE, DIANA FRANCES and TOBY BERNER for some old school black and white fun. Plus free prizes and backrubs (if the person sitting behind you is willing).
Tuesday, April 29 at 8:30pm

CINEWORKS PRESENTS
WORKING TV: LABOUR VIDEO
In recognition of International Workers' Day, CINEWORKS Special Exhibition Series presents a program of labour video from around the world. Guest curated by WORKING TV's JULIUS FISHER, the line up includes new work from Korea's Labor News Production. Discussion to follow. For more information log on to www.cineworks.ca or www.workingtv.com
Wednesday, April 30 at 8pm


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