COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN

1982. 109 min. Directed by Robert Altman.

Inside a decrepit Woolworth’s five-and-dime store 90 miles outside Marfa, Texas, a group of women, formerly the “Disciples of James Dean” fan club, reunite on the 20th anniversary of the actor’s death. Alternating between the present 1975, and intermittent flashbacks to 1955, a dirge of secrets, confessions, and breakdowns unfurl in dazzling, phrenetic, drunken hysteria. Adapted from Ed Graczyk’s stage play, the film features a youthful Cher as the town slut, Kathy Bates as a blow-hard bully, and arguably Sandy Dennis’ most stunning (ie: unhinged) performance. Karen Black’s ‘shocking’ reveal that she was formerly Joe, now Joanne, adds to the frenzy of dated “welcome to the freak show” vibes. Our presenting artist, poet CAConrad, has seen this film over 110 times.

THE EXILES

1961. 72 min. Directed by Kent Mackenzie.

Multidisciplinary artist Jeffrey Gibson presents THE EXILES, a 1960s anti-social documentary about a group of young urban native Americans who have left reservation life to live in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. Shot in black and white, the film fluctuates between social and solitude as we follow the characters in and out of the noisy, bustling city with pit stops to quieter domestic spaces. Vignettes of daily life and nighttime gallivanting are punctured by interior monologues of each character reflecting on their intertwined lives. Using the form of a fiction film, and writing collaboratively with the performers who play themselves on screen, dir. Kent Mackenzie wanted to challenge conventional documentary to capture a more complex depiction.

BELLY

1998. 96 min. Directed by Hype Williams.

Curator and writer Legacy Russell, with writer and multi-disciplinary artist Anaïs Duplan, present the controversial and visually riveting neo-noir, BELLY (1998). Childhood friends Sincere (Nas) and Buns (DMX) build an empire of drug trafficking and backstabbing. But Sincere grows weary of their lifestyle, while Buns sinks deeper and deeper into bigger, riskier deals. After an arrest, the cops offer him a deal - assassinate the head of a Muslim group or life in prison. Sincere imagines leaving the drug trade and moving to Africa. Though he’s never been, he is motivated by a fantasy of diasporic homecoming; the idea that escape is possible and there is a place to belong. At its release, the now cult classic was banned from being shown in basketball player Magic Johnson’s theater chain due to “negative and violent depictions of African Americans.”

CITY OF LOST SOULS

1983. 94 min. Directed by Rosa von Praunheim.

T Fleischmann, author of the book length essay Time is the Thing the Body Moves Through, presents the film CITY OF LOST SOULS (1983) starring Angie Stardust of the famous New York Club 82 who plays house mom to a group of raunchy and wildly eccentric outsiders living in Berlin. Amongst the cast is Glam Rock punk singer Jayne County (of Derek Jarman’s JUBILEE and the Warhol Factory films), and the late Tara O’Hara. The film funnels through a vortex of sets saturated with americana, devilish hellscapes, underground nightclubs, and a diner that serves up flesh of all varieties. We join the characters in a feverish state as they fuck, wax poetic about racism, transphobia, queerness, and political commentary on the east versus west. For these lurid exhibitionists, even the act of eating becomes a type of orgy, as the characters don’t just bite and chew as much as they devour disproportionately large servings of food in erotic, messy sploshing scenes. The film is unabashedly risqué, camp, and queer in a way much like american transplant and trapeze artist Tron summarizes it to the audience, “I am not gay, straight, bi nor trisexual; I’m simply sexual!”

ANNIHILATION

2018. 115 min. Directed by Alex Garland

Multidisciplinary artist Christopher Udemezue presents Annihilation (2018) starring Natalie Portman as a biologist on an expedition into an environmental disaster zone created by a comet, as she looks for her husband who disappeared into the mysterious zone after volunteering to go on a special forces mission. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff Vandermeer, the film follows a team of all female scientists as they embark on what appears to be a suicide mission into the mysterious zone known as “The Shimmer”. The film, directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina), has drawn comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky’s Stalker. Annihilation challenges and expands upon what a sci-fi film can do while simultaneously grappling with massive existential questions and highly intimate personal ones in the lives of the characters. With a shocking ending that has kept audiences guessing for years following the film’s release, you won’t want to miss the chance to see this one on the big screen!

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

2012. 93 min. Directed by Benh Zeitlin

Our fall 2022 season of Queer|Art|Film concludes with Beasts of the Southern Wild, a dystopian family drama that takes place on the edge of the world. Six-year-old Hushpuppy (played by the remarkable Quvenzhané Wallis) and her ailing father Wink live in ‘The Bathtub’ – an island in the Mississippi Delta at constant risk of flooding. As her father’s illness worsens, so too does the climate around them, as melting polar ice brings rising floodwaters and prehistoric beasts to bear on their small community. Shot in a cinema-verite style by debut director Benh Zeitlin, and featuring a cast of amateur actors from a small Louisiana parish, the film achieves a documentary style even as it tells a fantastical tale. As presenter Lola Flash writes, “it speaks to the strength of community and centers family, in much the same way our LGBTQ+ families are empowered.”

BLOODSISTERS: LEATHER, DYKES, AND SADOMASOCHISM

1995. 77 min. Directed by Michelle Handelman

Interdisciplinary artist Tamara Santibañez presents Bloodsisters: Leather, Dykes, and Sadomasochism, a deep dive into a community of Leatherdykes in San Francisco in the mid-90s. This debut documentary by filmmaker Michelle Handelman presents a rough collage of kink and BDSM practices, leaning into forms of play not often shown, even in queer films. From images of needle play to shots of extended BDSM scenes to tops directly addressing the audience as their submissives, the film is unflinching in its portrayal of this leather scene. Through collected interviews, an image of a community that is grappling with questions of forbidden desires, gender & sexual fluidity, and the politicization of their very existence begins to emerge. Between the bright colored overlays and the iconic 90s fashion (mullets everywhere!), the film itself transforms into a kind of a time capsule, documenting a moment in queer history in all its messy, complicated, campy glory.

LATIN BOYS GO TO HELL

1997. 71 min. Directed by Ela Troyano

Tickets here

Five young Latinos with extreme passions interact and eventually explode across Brooklyn in this story of self-discovery, friction, and resentment. The film stars Irwin Ossa as 20-year-old Justin, John Bryant Davila as his handsome cousin Angel, and in his film debut, Mike Ruiz as Carlos. Presenting artist Cassils writes that “Ela cast Latin heartthrob Mike Ruiz, centering homosexual Latin representation over cis white West Hollywood twinkdom. This film flags John Waters, telenovela, and Pedro Almodóvar.” Shot in dreamy 16mm, the film glows with the fiery desire of its characters, who find themselves caught between their attraction to a machismo image and a longing for meaningful gay intimacy. Adapted from an unpublished novel by André Salas, this feature debut from legend of the downtown scene Ela Troyano is sure to get your blood pumping!