Considered by many to be “Brazil’s Freddy Krueger,” the horror icon known as Coffin Joe was played by the late José Mojica Marins, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of outrageous movies from 1964 to 2008. They’re collected together for an Arrow Video Blu-ray set that was announced earlier this year, fittingly titled Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe.
The 6-disc Blu-ray set will be available on Blu-ray and available to stream on Arrow from January 15, 2024, and you can exclusively watch the official trailer down below!
“Newly restored from the best available elements and packed with extras, Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe is a love letter to one of the great iconoclasts of horror who forged his films in the face of military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil’s national Boogeyman.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming set, which features:
Brand...
The 6-disc Blu-ray set will be available on Blu-ray and available to stream on Arrow from January 15, 2024, and you can exclusively watch the official trailer down below!
“Newly restored from the best available elements and packed with extras, Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe is a love letter to one of the great iconoclasts of horror who forged his films in the face of military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil’s national Boogeyman.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming set, which features:
Brand...
- 12/20/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with Program Director and author Jack Sargeant about the Revelation Perth Film Festival, which takes place July 9th – 19th 2020.
It’s a virtual festival with all films available across Australia and a handful of films available to watch anywhere in the world. Tickets and details are here. Revelation already provide a streaming service called Rev On Demand. So, if you want to check out their unique brand of eclectic and unusual cinema you can tune in here at any time right here: www.revelationfilmfest.org/film-rev-on-demand
Highlighted films discussed on the podcast are:
Francis Ferguson (2019) Written and directed by Bob Byongton Experimental Programs 2019/20 Morgana (2019) Written and directed by Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard Siberia (2020) Written by Abel Ferrera and Christ Zois; Directed by Abel Ferrera An Ideal Host (2020) Written by Tyler Jones; Directed by Robert Woods...
It’s a virtual festival with all films available across Australia and a handful of films available to watch anywhere in the world. Tickets and details are here. Revelation already provide a streaming service called Rev On Demand. So, if you want to check out their unique brand of eclectic and unusual cinema you can tune in here at any time right here: www.revelationfilmfest.org/film-rev-on-demand
Highlighted films discussed on the podcast are:
Francis Ferguson (2019) Written and directed by Bob Byongton Experimental Programs 2019/20 Morgana (2019) Written and directed by Josie Hess & Isabel Peppard Siberia (2020) Written by Abel Ferrera and Christ Zois; Directed by Abel Ferrera An Ideal Host (2020) Written by Tyler Jones; Directed by Robert Woods...
- 7/7/2020
- by Stuart Wright
- Nerdly
In the latest installment of his ongoing interview series, host Stuart Wright talks with author Jack Sargeant about his 5 Great British Horror Films, which include:
The Devils (1971) Theatre of Blood! (1973) The Wicker Man (1973) Under The Skin (2013) Aaaaaaaah! (2015)
As an author Jack Sargeant’s work has been described as “dangerously inspirational” by Six Degrees magazine, his numerous books include Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground, Naked Lens: Beat Cinema (like Deathtripping now in its third English language edition), Cinema Contra Cinema and Suture. His most recent book Against Control focuses on the work of William S. Burroughs. He also edited a special film edition of the journal Abraxas for publication in 2014. He has contributed essays on film and culture to numerous books, anthologies and journals, most recently on the underground films of Jon Moritsugu and the representation of Melbourne suburbs in crime movies. He contributes a regular column to FilmInk, and has written articles for The Wire,...
The Devils (1971) Theatre of Blood! (1973) The Wicker Man (1973) Under The Skin (2013) Aaaaaaaah! (2015)
As an author Jack Sargeant’s work has been described as “dangerously inspirational” by Six Degrees magazine, his numerous books include Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground, Naked Lens: Beat Cinema (like Deathtripping now in its third English language edition), Cinema Contra Cinema and Suture. His most recent book Against Control focuses on the work of William S. Burroughs. He also edited a special film edition of the journal Abraxas for publication in 2014. He has contributed essays on film and culture to numerous books, anthologies and journals, most recently on the underground films of Jon Moritsugu and the representation of Melbourne suburbs in crime movies. He contributes a regular column to FilmInk, and has written articles for The Wire,...
- 6/4/2019
- by Stuart Wright
- Nerdly
In 1997, the Chicago Underground Film Festival held its fourth annual edition on August 13-17 at the Theatre Building at 1225 W. Belmont Avenue. One way the festival promoted itself that year was it published a four-page pull-out section in the Chicago-based political magazine Lumpen, vol. 6 no. 4.
These pages included the entire festival schedule, which the Underground Film Journal has re-created below. In addition, scans of the original Lumpen pages appear at the bottom of this article. This program schedule did not include director names for the most part, but the Journal has included names that we could find through research.
In the Theatre Building, Cuff screened on two screens simultaneously. One theater screened films shot exclusively on film; while the other theater screened films shot exclusively on video. In addition, a Closing Night event of director John Waters‘ live performance piece “Shock Value” took place in the film theater and was simulcast into the video theater.
These pages included the entire festival schedule, which the Underground Film Journal has re-created below. In addition, scans of the original Lumpen pages appear at the bottom of this article. This program schedule did not include director names for the most part, but the Journal has included names that we could find through research.
In the Theatre Building, Cuff screened on two screens simultaneously. One theater screened films shot exclusively on film; while the other theater screened films shot exclusively on video. In addition, a Closing Night event of director John Waters‘ live performance piece “Shock Value” took place in the film theater and was simulcast into the video theater.
- 12/10/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In September 1985, Nick Zedd published the fourth issue of his zine The Underground Film Bulletin, which featured a drawing of punk musician Richard Hell on the cover. Zedd published the zine primarily as a promotional tool to promote the work of his fellow punk Lower East Side filmmakers. The fourth issue included articles on Cassandra Stark, Manuel Delanda and Jim Jarmusch.
However, the most important article in this issue of the Underground Film Bulletin was Zedd’s “The Cinema of Transgression Manifesto,” which reads like a proclamation of war against avant-garde filmmaking and “academic snobbery.” You can read the full manifesto here. As Jeriko, Zedd proposed that “all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again” and declared that “any film which doesn’t shock isn’t worth looking at.”
According to an interview with Jack Sargeant in his book Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground, Zedd...
However, the most important article in this issue of the Underground Film Bulletin was Zedd’s “The Cinema of Transgression Manifesto,” which reads like a proclamation of war against avant-garde filmmaking and “academic snobbery.” You can read the full manifesto here. As Jeriko, Zedd proposed that “all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again” and declared that “any film which doesn’t shock isn’t worth looking at.”
According to an interview with Jack Sargeant in his book Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground, Zedd...
- 11/23/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Miskatonic Institute, seeking to educate and enlighten the masses on the intricacies, beauty and terror of the wide swath of that which we call horror films, is back for a second season. Co-director Kier-La Janisse and Virginie Selavy have put together an eclectic and fascinating program for early January, including talks about J.G. Ballard, a discussion with great director John Hough (The Watcher in the Woods, The Legend of Hell House), a talk on music in horror films, and much more. The events will once again take place at the Horse Hospital. Having attended last year, I can highly recommend for those who are both new to horror cinema, or for those aficionados who might learn something new. Visiting instructor Jack Sargeant (author of...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 12/12/2015
- Screen Anarchy
The 8th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival is a power-packed event featuring outrageous cult films, provocative documentaries and wild short films that will run September 4-7 at its usual haunt, The Factory Theater.
Opening Night: The fest opens with Housebound, a New Zealand horror comedy by Gerard Johnstone about a woman in trouble with the law who comes to believe that her family home is haunted. The film will be preceded by a performance by Renny Kodgers and a free pizza party; and followed by an after party.
Closing Night: The fest will close with the controversial German teen sex comedy Wetlands directed by David Wendt. The film will then be followed by a late-night after party.
Highlights: Usama Alshaibi‘s must see documentary American Arab — an intimate, socially relevatory and essential film — screens at 4 p.m. on Sept. 6. Read the Underground Film Journal review of American Arab.
Jorge Torres-Torres...
Opening Night: The fest opens with Housebound, a New Zealand horror comedy by Gerard Johnstone about a woman in trouble with the law who comes to believe that her family home is haunted. The film will be preceded by a performance by Renny Kodgers and a free pizza party; and followed by an after party.
Closing Night: The fest will close with the controversial German teen sex comedy Wetlands directed by David Wendt. The film will then be followed by a late-night after party.
Highlights: Usama Alshaibi‘s must see documentary American Arab — an intimate, socially relevatory and essential film — screens at 4 p.m. on Sept. 6. Read the Underground Film Journal review of American Arab.
Jorge Torres-Torres...
- 8/7/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Charles Pinion exists at a unique transection of the modern underground film scene.
A pioneer of the Analog Video Feature Film movement. (That never materialized.) Interaction with the Cinema of Transgression, but not a part of it. Screened back-to-back features at the then-nascent Chicago Underground Film Festival.
He’s been there. He’s done that.
To date, he’s made just three feature films. (Although, hard at work on finishing up his fourth.) And all three — Twisted Issues, Red Spirit Lake and We Await — deserve to be freshly rediscovered and recontextualized. These films put out vibes that stretch out and can be felt in work by makers such as Calvin Lee Reeder, Bob Moricz, Waylon Bacon and others, whether they were specifically influenced by them or not.
All of Pinion’s films can be purchased on DVD from the filmmaker’s website. Gross. Surreal. Unsettling. If that’s your bag...
A pioneer of the Analog Video Feature Film movement. (That never materialized.) Interaction with the Cinema of Transgression, but not a part of it. Screened back-to-back features at the then-nascent Chicago Underground Film Festival.
He’s been there. He’s done that.
To date, he’s made just three feature films. (Although, hard at work on finishing up his fourth.) And all three — Twisted Issues, Red Spirit Lake and We Await — deserve to be freshly rediscovered and recontextualized. These films put out vibes that stretch out and can be felt in work by makers such as Calvin Lee Reeder, Bob Moricz, Waylon Bacon and others, whether they were specifically influenced by them or not.
All of Pinion’s films can be purchased on DVD from the filmmaker’s website. Gross. Surreal. Unsettling. If that’s your bag...
- 4/28/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The fourth annual London Underground Film Festival is the first edition of the fest to be run by new caretakers Daniel Fawcett and Clara Pais, two accomplished filmmakers. The festival will run November 14-17 at the legendary avant-garde media center, the Horse Hospital.
Fawcett and Pais have programmed a bold fest, which begins on the 14th with the London-based documentary Grasp the Nettle by Dean Puckett. The film follows the challenges faced by a group of land rights activists fighting for a piece of disused land in West London. Also on opening night is Randy Moore’s Escape From Tomorrow, which was filmed surreptitiously at Disneyland; and Táu by Daniel Castro Zimbrón.
Other films screening at the fest include the award winning doc A Body Without Organs, directed by Steven Graves; Alex Munt’s Warhol homage Poor Little Rich Girls (After Warhol); Irene Lusztig’s history of childbirth, The Motherhood...
Fawcett and Pais have programmed a bold fest, which begins on the 14th with the London-based documentary Grasp the Nettle by Dean Puckett. The film follows the challenges faced by a group of land rights activists fighting for a piece of disused land in West London. Also on opening night is Randy Moore’s Escape From Tomorrow, which was filmed surreptitiously at Disneyland; and Táu by Daniel Castro Zimbrón.
Other films screening at the fest include the award winning doc A Body Without Organs, directed by Steven Graves; Alex Munt’s Warhol homage Poor Little Rich Girls (After Warhol); Irene Lusztig’s history of childbirth, The Motherhood...
- 11/13/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 7th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival, which runs this year on September 5-8 at the Factory Theatre, opens with a real bang when they will screen cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest cinematic odyssey, The Dance of Reality. This is Jodorowsky’s first film in over twenty years and is an imaginative and playful quasi-autobiography.
The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.
Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.
The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.
Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.
- 8/15/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The massive 20th Chicago Underground Film Festival has come and gone and, surprisingly, the city is still standing!
But, in the epic event’s wake is left the exhausted bodies of several award winners, chosen by a three-panel jury composed of Mimi Brody, Frederic Moffet and Jack Sargeant; as well as a special award chosen by the audience.
Actually, the audience was so enamored of all the films screening at Cuff this year, they couldn’t make a decision of what they enjoyed the most. So, the Audience Award resulted in a tie between the feature film debut of Drew Tobia, See You Next Tuesday, and the anti-war documentary Hit & Stay by co-directors Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk.
The jury gave the Most Visionary Award to the very personal documentary A Body Without Organs by Stephen Graves. And they bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award on underground filmmaking legend Jon Moritsugu,...
But, in the epic event’s wake is left the exhausted bodies of several award winners, chosen by a three-panel jury composed of Mimi Brody, Frederic Moffet and Jack Sargeant; as well as a special award chosen by the audience.
Actually, the audience was so enamored of all the films screening at Cuff this year, they couldn’t make a decision of what they enjoyed the most. So, the Audience Award resulted in a tie between the feature film debut of Drew Tobia, See You Next Tuesday, and the anti-war documentary Hit & Stay by co-directors Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk.
The jury gave the Most Visionary Award to the very personal documentary A Body Without Organs by Stephen Graves. And they bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award on underground filmmaking legend Jon Moritsugu,...
- 3/12/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The mighty and all-powerful Chicago Underground Film Festival has done the absolute unthinkable: Reached their 20th year of operation! How many underground festivals have accomplished that feat? None, until now! Well, “now” being March 6-10 at the fest’s new location: The Logan Theatre.
Obviously, there are a lot of people who have worked with the fest over the years to help make it last for exactly two fantastic decades, but, truly, there is one special person who has to be specially lauded for his tireless dedication to the advancement of underground film and its makers. Especially because Cuff hasn’t just been around for 20 years: It’s been fucking awesome for 20 years.
That person, of course, is Artistic Director Bryan Wendorf, who has been with the fest for the very first edition to it’s most recent, mind-blowing one. Year after year, Wendorf has guided Cuff into defining, challenging,...
Obviously, there are a lot of people who have worked with the fest over the years to help make it last for exactly two fantastic decades, but, truly, there is one special person who has to be specially lauded for his tireless dedication to the advancement of underground film and its makers. Especially because Cuff hasn’t just been around for 20 years: It’s been fucking awesome for 20 years.
That person, of course, is Artistic Director Bryan Wendorf, who has been with the fest for the very first edition to it’s most recent, mind-blowing one. Year after year, Wendorf has guided Cuff into defining, challenging,...
- 2/13/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Embedded above is the first music video ever produced for the legendary art rock band Sonic Youth, “Death Valley 69,” the eighth and final track on their 1985 album Bad Moon Rising. This is also the first music video that was co-directed by Richard Kern, one of the leading figures of the Cinema of Transgression movement. The song and the video are a perfect time capsule blend of audio and images from the raging punk scene coming out of NYC’s Lower East Side in the ’80s.
According to Jack Sargeant‘s definitive history of the Cinema of Transgression, Deathtripping, Judith Barry was originally hired to direct the video with Kern only hired to do the gore makeup special effects. However, Kern would end up co-directing along with Barry. (The video’s on-screen credits, listed in full below, also credit Sonic Youth as a co-director.)
The final video ends up being...
According to Jack Sargeant‘s definitive history of the Cinema of Transgression, Deathtripping, Judith Barry was originally hired to direct the video with Kern only hired to do the gore makeup special effects. However, Kern would end up co-directing along with Barry. (The video’s on-screen credits, listed in full below, also credit Sonic Youth as a co-director.)
The final video ends up being...
- 9/28/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 7th annual Wndx Festival of Moving Image, in addition to the fest’s usually fantastic lineup of new experimental film and video, is presenting a virtual smorgasbord of special events. So, be on the look out for them as they completely take over the city of Winnipeg on Sept. 26-30.
The fun kicks off on Sept. 26 with the debut of “Situated Cinema,” a roving microcinema created by Thomas Evans and Craig Rodmore that will screen at different venues throughout the entire festival. The opening night will take place at Raw Gallery and feature five films curated by Solomon Nagler that will connect viewers with their environment. The filmmakers presenting work at this unique screening experience are Heidi Phillips, Alexandre Larose, Caroline Monnet, Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof and Alex MacKenzie.
Another fantastic multi-part special event at Wndx will be hosted by underground film historian Jack Sargeant, the world’s foremost authority on Beat Cinema.
The fun kicks off on Sept. 26 with the debut of “Situated Cinema,” a roving microcinema created by Thomas Evans and Craig Rodmore that will screen at different venues throughout the entire festival. The opening night will take place at Raw Gallery and feature five films curated by Solomon Nagler that will connect viewers with their environment. The filmmakers presenting work at this unique screening experience are Heidi Phillips, Alexandre Larose, Caroline Monnet, Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof and Alex MacKenzie.
Another fantastic multi-part special event at Wndx will be hosted by underground film historian Jack Sargeant, the world’s foremost authority on Beat Cinema.
- 9/24/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Since I skipped a links post last week due to other projects taking up my weekend, some of these are from awhile ago, but very, very worthy of a click:
Once again for this week’s Must Read, Mark Toscano has another amazing film restoration post up, this time discussing restoring two films by Will Hindle, Pastorale d’Ete (1959) and Later That Same Night (1971). This is an important article because, as Mark notes, Hindle’s place in the underground universe has been on a bit of a slide the past few years.If you’re interested in accurately archiving Shaw Brothers movie releases, then Temple of Schlock has the ultimate post for you.This interview on Experimental Cinema with German filmmaker Klaus Wyborny goes into fascinating depth on his theories of film construction.San Francisco’s Artists Television Access interviewed Chicago filmmaker/curator Amir George on his touring program called “Watch This!
Once again for this week’s Must Read, Mark Toscano has another amazing film restoration post up, this time discussing restoring two films by Will Hindle, Pastorale d’Ete (1959) and Later That Same Night (1971). This is an important article because, as Mark notes, Hindle’s place in the underground universe has been on a bit of a slide the past few years.If you’re interested in accurately archiving Shaw Brothers movie releases, then Temple of Schlock has the ultimate post for you.This interview on Experimental Cinema with German filmmaker Klaus Wyborny goes into fascinating depth on his theories of film construction.San Francisco’s Artists Television Access interviewed Chicago filmmaker/curator Amir George on his touring program called “Watch This!
- 8/26/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Jack Sargeant, director of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, has co-curated a photography show with Linsey Gosper that will have its opening at the Alaska Projects gallery in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday, August 21 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
While the show is untitled, it has been colloquially named “Atrocity Exhibitions” and will feature photographs by a number of underground filmmakers and other artists. The show will be on display from the 21st to the 26th.
Inspired by the experimental novel by J G Ballard The Atrocity Exhibition, this photography show will explore “the emergence of new manifestations of the psychosexual unconscious.” The images document unusual fetishes and unleashed urges that emerge “from the collusion of urban zones and economics, amputated urges and personal explorations of seduction and desire.”
Artists represented in the show include transgressive filmmaker Usama Alshaibi and underground icon Lydia Lunch, as well as work by Romain Slocombe,...
While the show is untitled, it has been colloquially named “Atrocity Exhibitions” and will feature photographs by a number of underground filmmakers and other artists. The show will be on display from the 21st to the 26th.
Inspired by the experimental novel by J G Ballard The Atrocity Exhibition, this photography show will explore “the emergence of new manifestations of the psychosexual unconscious.” The images document unusual fetishes and unleashed urges that emerge “from the collusion of urban zones and economics, amputated urges and personal explorations of seduction and desire.”
Artists represented in the show include transgressive filmmaker Usama Alshaibi and underground icon Lydia Lunch, as well as work by Romain Slocombe,...
- 8/14/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Brief batch this week, but some really great reads!
This week’s Must Read is a sad one: The obituary for filmmaker and author Stephen Dwoskin that ran in the Guardian UK. He was born in NYC in 1948, began making films in the early ’60s whereupon he moved to England and helped co-found the London Film-makers’ Co-operative. He also wrote the influential book Film Is…, which was published in 1975, and made films pretty much up until the very end.Meant to put this up last week, but it’s still relevant: The blog We Love Perth interviewed Jack Sargeant about his job programming the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, which just wrapped up this year. Jack is one of those rare creatures who’s as great an interview subject as he is an actual interviewer himself.This link isn’t really about underground film, but I figure you’re a...
This week’s Must Read is a sad one: The obituary for filmmaker and author Stephen Dwoskin that ran in the Guardian UK. He was born in NYC in 1948, began making films in the early ’60s whereupon he moved to England and helped co-found the London Film-makers’ Co-operative. He also wrote the influential book Film Is…, which was published in 1975, and made films pretty much up until the very end.Meant to put this up last week, but it’s still relevant: The blog We Love Perth interviewed Jack Sargeant about his job programming the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, which just wrapped up this year. Jack is one of those rare creatures who’s as great an interview subject as he is an actual interviewer himself.This link isn’t really about underground film, but I figure you’re a...
- 7/15/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Easter Bunny loves you. Some great eggs below:
This Week’s Must Read: Jack Sargeant with a really great, detailed piece on the career of New York underground filmmaker Carey Burtt. I mentioned recently on Bad Lit’s Facebook page that Burtt hasn’t gotten enough love and appreciation for his films that he deserves, so this article warmed our cold little hearts immensely. (Image above from Burtt’s classic Mind Control Made Easy.)Frieze has a report on a fairly recently unearthed, previously lost 8mm film by Rudolf Schwarzkogler of the Viennese Actionist art movement, which sheds much needed light on the working process of the filmmaker who passed away in 1969. (P.S. Mr. Sargeant tipped us off to this article, as well.)Rick Trembles has cast another very obscure flick, the 1971 experimental sex farce The Telephone Book, into Motion Picture Purgatory. The film features appearances by Warhol superstars Ondine and Ultra Violet.
This Week’s Must Read: Jack Sargeant with a really great, detailed piece on the career of New York underground filmmaker Carey Burtt. I mentioned recently on Bad Lit’s Facebook page that Burtt hasn’t gotten enough love and appreciation for his films that he deserves, so this article warmed our cold little hearts immensely. (Image above from Burtt’s classic Mind Control Made Easy.)Frieze has a report on a fairly recently unearthed, previously lost 8mm film by Rudolf Schwarzkogler of the Viennese Actionist art movement, which sheds much needed light on the working process of the filmmaker who passed away in 1969. (P.S. Mr. Sargeant tipped us off to this article, as well.)Rick Trembles has cast another very obscure flick, the 1971 experimental sex farce The Telephone Book, into Motion Picture Purgatory. The film features appearances by Warhol superstars Ondine and Ultra Violet.
- 4/8/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
After Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film published an editorial last week entitled “Do Underground Film Festivals Have to Screen Only Underground Films?, Bryan Wendorf, the Artistic Director of the Chicago Underground Film Festival, initiated a conversation on Facebook amongst a few of his fellow festival directors around the world.
With their permission, we have reprinted that conversation below. It’s a frank and candid discussion that should help filmmakers gain an insight into exactly what considerations go into programming a major festival.
Bryan initiated the dialogue by asking for comments, Wolstencroft was the first to respond:
Richard Wolstencroft (Melbourne Underground Film Festival)
I have been criticized for playing a lot of genre cinema at Muff. To me, anything outside the mainstream and the ‘normal’ qualifies. Well done, edgy Genre can be as exciting as any traditional underground cinema and equally avant-garde at times. Adding transgressive genre cinema from...
With their permission, we have reprinted that conversation below. It’s a frank and candid discussion that should help filmmakers gain an insight into exactly what considerations go into programming a major festival.
Bryan initiated the dialogue by asking for comments, Wolstencroft was the first to respond:
Richard Wolstencroft (Melbourne Underground Film Festival)
I have been criticized for playing a lot of genre cinema at Muff. To me, anything outside the mainstream and the ‘normal’ qualifies. Well done, edgy Genre can be as exciting as any traditional underground cinema and equally avant-garde at times. Adding transgressive genre cinema from...
- 4/3/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Considering I’m completely sick of the Internet tradition of doing fake posts on April Fools Day, don’t fear: All the links below are very real.
This Week’s Must Read is a group of links as it was a major weekend in the underground film scene with both the Boston Underground and Ann Arbor film festivals running concurrently, so lots of news about them. First, Under the Gun conducted an in-depth interview with two great Buff workers — and good Bad Lit friends — Nicole McConvery and Bryan McKay.Then, local paper the Boston Globe had a really nice Buff preview article, discussing many of the films screening.All Things Horror reviewed Buff’s opening night film, Don Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End, calling it “the perfect project falling in the right creator’s hands.”The official Buff blog had regular dispatches of its goings-on.Over at the Ann Arbor Film Festival,...
This Week’s Must Read is a group of links as it was a major weekend in the underground film scene with both the Boston Underground and Ann Arbor film festivals running concurrently, so lots of news about them. First, Under the Gun conducted an in-depth interview with two great Buff workers — and good Bad Lit friends — Nicole McConvery and Bryan McKay.Then, local paper the Boston Globe had a really nice Buff preview article, discussing many of the films screening.All Things Horror reviewed Buff’s opening night film, Don Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End, calling it “the perfect project falling in the right creator’s hands.”The official Buff blog had regular dispatches of its goings-on.Over at the Ann Arbor Film Festival,...
- 4/1/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Feb. 18 & 19
6:30 p.m. (18th) & 12:00 noon (19th)
Vivid
140 Heath Mill Lane
Birmingham, West Midlands, B9 4Ar, U.K.
Hosted by: The Garage
This two-day event curated by Bernadette Louise features films and performances both direct from and inspired by the Cinema of Transgression movement of the 1980s..
On Feb. 18, Transgression vixen Lydia Lunch will headline a night of spoken word performances. Lunch herself will read excerpts from Paradoxia, her memoir of working within the Transgression scene where she starred in numerous films produced in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Following Lunch, there will be selection of performances by artists such as Joss Carter, Paula Davy, Emergent Behaviour, Evangelia Christakou, Yolanda de los Bueis, Isabelle Schiltz, Benjamin Fox, Andrew Moscardo-Parker and a DJ set by Greg Bird.
Then, on Feb. 19, spend an afternoon watching films by the founder of the Cinema of Transgression movement, Nick Zedd, and one of the movement’s major contributors,...
6:30 p.m. (18th) & 12:00 noon (19th)
Vivid
140 Heath Mill Lane
Birmingham, West Midlands, B9 4Ar, U.K.
Hosted by: The Garage
This two-day event curated by Bernadette Louise features films and performances both direct from and inspired by the Cinema of Transgression movement of the 1980s..
On Feb. 18, Transgression vixen Lydia Lunch will headline a night of spoken word performances. Lunch herself will read excerpts from Paradoxia, her memoir of working within the Transgression scene where she starred in numerous films produced in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Following Lunch, there will be selection of performances by artists such as Joss Carter, Paula Davy, Emergent Behaviour, Evangelia Christakou, Yolanda de los Bueis, Isabelle Schiltz, Benjamin Fox, Andrew Moscardo-Parker and a DJ set by Greg Bird.
Then, on Feb. 19, spend an afternoon watching films by the founder of the Cinema of Transgression movement, Nick Zedd, and one of the movement’s major contributors,...
- 2/14/2012
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
1 more shopping week until Christmas!
Robert Maier wrote a book about working for John Waters and now he’s got a blog with a ton more stories. This article about how Hairspray became a PG-rated movie is extremely fascinating, but go ahead and read through the entire site, too.Michael Varrati has a wonderful interview up with Lewis Jackson, director of the Christmas cult classic You Better Watch Out aka Christmas Evil. Jackson is very candid about all the horrible things that went wrong making the film and with its distribution. Yet, he still managed to make a masterpiece.Film Comment posted up their list of the Best Unreleased Movies in 2011 and, of course, they have some underground films on there, like Alex Ross Perry’s The Color Wheel, which screened at this year’s Chicago Underground Film Festival; and experimental features like Nathaniel Dorsky’s The Return, Ken Jacobs’ Seeking the Monkey King,...
Robert Maier wrote a book about working for John Waters and now he’s got a blog with a ton more stories. This article about how Hairspray became a PG-rated movie is extremely fascinating, but go ahead and read through the entire site, too.Michael Varrati has a wonderful interview up with Lewis Jackson, director of the Christmas cult classic You Better Watch Out aka Christmas Evil. Jackson is very candid about all the horrible things that went wrong making the film and with its distribution. Yet, he still managed to make a masterpiece.Film Comment posted up their list of the Best Unreleased Movies in 2011 and, of course, they have some underground films on there, like Alex Ross Perry’s The Color Wheel, which screened at this year’s Chicago Underground Film Festival; and experimental features like Nathaniel Dorsky’s The Return, Ken Jacobs’ Seeking the Monkey King,...
- 12/18/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Chicago Underground Film Festival
The reigning champion of all underground film festivals is still going strong as it nears in on two decades in operation. That’s right, the Chicago Underground Film Festival is now open for submissions for their 19th annual edition that will run sometime in 2012.
There’s a reason why Cuff has been so successful for so many years: The fierce dedication of festival Artistic Director Bryan Wendorf, who’s been running things since the very beginning. However, the truly astounding thing that Wendorf has done is that he’s allowed the fest to grow over the past 19 years.
Since the fest abandoned its transgressive leanings many moons ago, Cuff has always allowed the notion of what an “underground film” is to grow and adapt. For that reason, it’s always difficult to pin down exactly what Wendorf and his crew are looking to program every year,...
The reigning champion of all underground film festivals is still going strong as it nears in on two decades in operation. That’s right, the Chicago Underground Film Festival is now open for submissions for their 19th annual edition that will run sometime in 2012.
There’s a reason why Cuff has been so successful for so many years: The fierce dedication of festival Artistic Director Bryan Wendorf, who’s been running things since the very beginning. However, the truly astounding thing that Wendorf has done is that he’s allowed the fest to grow over the past 19 years.
Since the fest abandoned its transgressive leanings many moons ago, Cuff has always allowed the notion of what an “underground film” is to grow and adapt. For that reason, it’s always difficult to pin down exactly what Wendorf and his crew are looking to program every year,...
- 10/22/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
After a several month hiatus — way over half a year — I finally returned to updating Bad Lit’s Underground Film Timeline project, a comprehensive, chronological survey of significant events and films in underground film history. You can start navigating the Timeline here.
Phase 7 of the Timeline involved adding events and films found in P. Adams Sitney‘s landmark book Visionary Film: the American Avant-Garde 1943-2000. As you can tell from the title, I used the 3rd and most recent version of the book.
Originally published in 1974, Visionary Film was the first serious critical survey of the modern underground film movement. Yes, Sheldon Renan’s An Introduction to the American Underground Film had preceded it in 1967, but that offered more of a straight history than analysis. And despite the title of Parker Tyler’s Underground Film: A Critical History being published in 1970, that book is more of an angry polemical rant than a serious survey.
Phase 7 of the Timeline involved adding events and films found in P. Adams Sitney‘s landmark book Visionary Film: the American Avant-Garde 1943-2000. As you can tell from the title, I used the 3rd and most recent version of the book.
Originally published in 1974, Visionary Film was the first serious critical survey of the modern underground film movement. Yes, Sheldon Renan’s An Introduction to the American Underground Film had preceded it in 1967, but that offered more of a straight history than analysis. And despite the title of Parker Tyler’s Underground Film: A Critical History being published in 1970, that book is more of an angry polemical rant than a serious survey.
- 9/28/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
For their 5th annual event, which is set to run Sept. 8-11, the Sydney Underground Film Festival is looking a little more demented than ever. And that’s saying a lot for this scrappy, still relatively young fest, which typically offers ample twisted cinematic offerings.
The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.
Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.
For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...
The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.
Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.
For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...
- 8/9/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Must Look At is way not underground, but this cool site came my way this week: It’s a blog devoted to John Tartaglia, the “cement artist” who casted the footprints and handprints of numerous Hollywood stars outside of the famous Mann’s Chinese Theater between 1953 and 1987. This list contains all the stars for whom Tartaglia served as Masonry master. Interesting stuff.Is Netflix trying to kill the DVD? Filmmaker Mag investigates. By the way: Filmmakers offering films for Bad Lit to review via a password-protected Vimeo page is steadily increasing.Light Industry’s Thomas Beard was interviewed by Art in America for his recent “The Unfinished Film” exhibit.The Chicago Arts Archive interviewed filmmaker Amir George about his recent short feature film The Mind of Delilah.For FilmInk, Jason Reed reviews some of the highlights of this year’s Revelation Perth International Film Festival, particularly singling out Zach Clark’s Vacation!
- 7/31/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Kind of a short list this week. Not sure why that is, but what I can say is that there are some really great articles linked to below.
Underground figures invaded mainstream newspapers this week. First, the Alexandria Gazette Packet has a very lovely profile of the legendary Mink Stole.Then, the Vancouver son profiled bad boy pornographer and avant-garde troublemaker Bruce Labruce.Now you can download the amazing soundtrack to Jaimz Asmundson’s trippy short film The Magus.Mark Savage has tons of great photos from his latest naughty production, the awesomely titled Pond Scum, which looks very classic transgression-ish just from the pictures of star Renae Boult.I always really enjoy reading Bill Plympton’s reviews of classic animated films. They’re usually very brief, but direct and insightful. Most recently, he checked out and loathed The Great Mouse Detective.Jack Sargeant has a nice, short write-up of...
Underground figures invaded mainstream newspapers this week. First, the Alexandria Gazette Packet has a very lovely profile of the legendary Mink Stole.Then, the Vancouver son profiled bad boy pornographer and avant-garde troublemaker Bruce Labruce.Now you can download the amazing soundtrack to Jaimz Asmundson’s trippy short film The Magus.Mark Savage has tons of great photos from his latest naughty production, the awesomely titled Pond Scum, which looks very classic transgression-ish just from the pictures of star Renae Boult.I always really enjoy reading Bill Plympton’s reviews of classic animated films. They’re usually very brief, but direct and insightful. Most recently, he checked out and loathed The Great Mouse Detective.Jack Sargeant has a nice, short write-up of...
- 7/24/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Must Read is actually a series of articles. Cineflyer is reprinting and transcribing articles from the first 2007 edition of The Moose, the newsletter of the Winnipeg Film Group. Here’s a scan of the cover. The issue included movie reviews by Darryl Nepinak and Mike Maryniuk’s top 10 Wfg films. Plus, there’s filmmaking tips by Cecilia Araneda and Heidi Phillips. An article by King of the Internet, Jaimz Asmundson. Guy Maddin interviews his favorite filmmaker, Guy Maddin.Heavy Metal Parking Lot hits the big time with a profile in the Wall Street Journal, of all places!Did you know Chicago’s Facets had a Tumblr blog? We didn’t, but now we do. Go bookmark.Plus, on the Facets blog, Gregory Hess reviews Steven Soderbergh’s “lost” film Kafka, which is only available on VHS. That’s weird.Speaking of Chicago, the Tribune spotlights two homegrown...
- 7/10/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Happy almost Independence Day! Hope everybody is having a great holiday weekend. This first link should put you in the mood. Or not.
This is a little different than my typical Must Reads, but I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Sargeant reprinting his history and analysis of the ’80s “death film” genre, most famously epitomized by the film Faces of Death. I’ve never seen any of these films — nor do I want to — but Jack’s conclusion is fabulous.Filmmaker Waylon Bacon has written a fantastic overview of the Berkeley film scene for CineSource Magazine.Fangoria interviews director Rona Mark on the eve of her awesome Strange Girls finally getting a DVD release. Finally!GorePress.com has a really nice interview with Paul Campion about his first feature film, The Devil’s Rock.IndieWIRE interviews Mike Plante about his new Cinemad distribution venture, who, strangely enough, isn’t in it for the money.
This is a little different than my typical Must Reads, but I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Sargeant reprinting his history and analysis of the ’80s “death film” genre, most famously epitomized by the film Faces of Death. I’ve never seen any of these films — nor do I want to — but Jack’s conclusion is fabulous.Filmmaker Waylon Bacon has written a fantastic overview of the Berkeley film scene for CineSource Magazine.Fangoria interviews director Rona Mark on the eve of her awesome Strange Girls finally getting a DVD release. Finally!GorePress.com has a really nice interview with Paul Campion about his first feature film, The Devil’s Rock.IndieWIRE interviews Mike Plante about his new Cinemad distribution venture, who, strangely enough, isn’t in it for the money.
- 7/3/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Absolute Must Read is Robert Koehler’s mind-blowing essay on film criticism and film advocacy. Structured around the offerings of the Los Angeles Film Festival, Koehler really hits on the core problem about film writing on the web. Here’s the key part of the article: “This is ideology, all right: The Ideology of advertisers, the force that most fundamentally drives ‘their’ criticism. It informs movie websites and blogs as much as the papers, by the way, as more and more websites are propelled forward by the hits metric that advertisers gauge in order to determine whether or not they want to invest in a given site.” (For the record: “A criticism of advocacy” is a good description of Bad Lit. And I run tons of ads!)A great “must read” contender is this funny Pittsburgh City Paper article about the FBI releasing — then retracting — their report...
- 6/26/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Now this is what I always want to see more of: Filmmaker Chris Hansen started chronicling the shoot for his latest feature film, An Affair. He has several posts up, so I recommend going to his June blog archives to read up on how it’s going. (The shoot’s still in it’s very early stages.) I know blogging after a day of shooting probably sucks, but I love reading production diaries.In case you missed the fascinating recent dust up between the media advocacy group Reel Grrls and Comcast, Flip the Media has a great article on it, including the positive outcome of the whole thing.Usama Alshaibi’s Profane screened at the Chicago Underground Film Festival the other day and Ben Sachs has a capsule review of it in the Chicago Reader, which focuses on the film’s more lurid aspects.Speaking of Cuff, the Chicago Sun-Times...
- 6/5/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Must Browse link is the new Cinemad Presents website for Mike Plante’s distribution arm of his legendary zine and blog. He’s currently representing some amazing films, including perennial Bad Lit hits Heavy Metal Picnic and Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then.Not sure when this happened, but the Video Data Bank completely revamped their website and it looks amazing! They’ve also made it easier to watch lots of clips of videos in their collection, so go browse around.Migrating Forms is happening right now this week in NYC and the fest got a ton of press. First up, for the Brooklyn Rail, Aily Nash interviewed organizers Nellie Killian and Kevin McGarry.For the Village Voice, Nick Pinkerton wrote a nice Migrating Forms fest overview.For The L Magazine, David Phelps considers the notion of what’s “experimental” in the context of Migrating Forms’ offerings.Art...
- 5/22/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Absolute Must Read is a career overview of Spanish surrealist Carlos Atanes by Rob Smart for Bright Lights Film Journal. I’ve been touting Atanes’ work for years, so it’s really nice to finally see a much more respected film website than Bad Lit also champion him. His films are rarely seen — and that’s wrong! So, after you read the article, go Netflix the film Faq.For Filmmaker, Lauren Wissot interviews Zach Clark about his subversive feature films, Vacation! and Modern Love Is Automatic. Also on Filmmaker, Nicholas Rombes proves that Paranormal Activity 2 is an avant-garde film. Hey, he convinced me!For his latest Motion Picture Purgatory, Rick Trembles tackles the Jodie Foster cult classic The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. (Coincidentally, I just saw this film for the first time recently and immediately fell in love!)Candlelight Stories has some short...
- 5/15/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Feb. 7
7:00 p.m.
Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Place
Brooklyn, NY 11221
Hosted by: Microscope Gallery
Following last month’s successful screening of Nick Zedd’s films, Brooklyn’s Microscope Gallery is having the Master of Transgression come back for a second time with four different films spanning across his career.
This event also marks the last time you can check out Zedd’s paintings and publications that are also on display in the gallery. His oil paintings — a series he’s been working on over the past three years called “Entities” — are portraits of mutants that are pretty freaky looking, so if you haven’t seen them in person yet, now’s the time to go. You can see samples of them on the Microscope Gallery website.
The films that Zedd will be screening at this Closing Night event include his notorious 1987 classic, Police State, a 20 min. 16mm B&W film,...
7:00 p.m.
Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Place
Brooklyn, NY 11221
Hosted by: Microscope Gallery
Following last month’s successful screening of Nick Zedd’s films, Brooklyn’s Microscope Gallery is having the Master of Transgression come back for a second time with four different films spanning across his career.
This event also marks the last time you can check out Zedd’s paintings and publications that are also on display in the gallery. His oil paintings — a series he’s been working on over the past three years called “Entities” — are portraits of mutants that are pretty freaky looking, so if you haven’t seen them in person yet, now’s the time to go. You can see samples of them on the Microscope Gallery website.
The films that Zedd will be screening at this Closing Night event include his notorious 1987 classic, Police State, a 20 min. 16mm B&W film,...
- 2/6/2011
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
I always love new websites that celebrate the art of short films. Short of the Week is a nice new site that features some great stuff, including, yes, short films, but also news and updates. Go bookmark this one. Congrats to Bad Lit fave Jef Taylor for a successful Sundance romp! (You usually hear so little about short films at these kinds of events.) His After You Left got some nice reviews, first at Reel Guys and then at College Movie Review. It was sad to hear that Random Lunacy star Poppa Neutrino passed away last week. The New Yorker‘s Alec Wilkinson, who wrote a book on Poppa, has a wonderful remembrance. Rupert of SnuffBox Films keys us into a great new web video tool, Vid.ly, which converts video into every playable online video format possible. The sample played really great. Mike White posted up an amazing list...
- 1/30/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
From the bowels of 1986 comes this regurgitated interview with two titans of the Cinema of Transgression, Cassandra Stark and Richard Kern. While the two are clearly posing trying to act as transgressive as possible — only Stark smiling for a brief second breaks the performance — this is actually an interesting interview as Kern details the production of one of the seminal films of the Transgression movement, Fingered, starring Lydia Lunch and Marty Nations. Plus, there are extremely brief clips of some of Kern’s films opening the interview. And things Kern discussing are absolutely Nsfw if the sound is up.
This interview is apparently from something called Sublapse Video Magazine, which, according to this bootleg video site ran for about 100 minutes and featured music and short films by Morbid Opera, Redd Kross, Richard Kern, Psycho Daisies, Nick Zedd, Half Japanese, Sonic Youth, White Flag and Casandra Stark. I’ve never heard of Sublapse,...
This interview is apparently from something called Sublapse Video Magazine, which, according to this bootleg video site ran for about 100 minutes and featured music and short films by Morbid Opera, Redd Kross, Richard Kern, Psycho Daisies, Nick Zedd, Half Japanese, Sonic Youth, White Flag and Casandra Stark. I’ve never heard of Sublapse,...
- 1/14/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Welcome to the first Underground Film Links post of 2011! I predict it’s going to be an amazing year for these! (So, get to work…)
This week’s must read is a fine list of resolutions for filmmakers put together by Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker Magazine. This is one of those articles I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy, but they’re really great suggestions. Since the year ended, there are, of course, lots of lists going around. First, In These Times has a round-up of the 10 Best Political Documentaries, which covered some pretty big issues. R. Emmet Sweeney of TCM’s Movie Morlocks has his Top 10 Genre Movies of 2010, of which I’ve only seen The Crazies and thought was great as well. SF360 has a mess of Top 10s in its annual survey of Bay Area critics. This is notable particularly since Jonathan Marlow of the S.F.
This week’s must read is a fine list of resolutions for filmmakers put together by Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker Magazine. This is one of those articles I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy, but they’re really great suggestions. Since the year ended, there are, of course, lots of lists going around. First, In These Times has a round-up of the 10 Best Political Documentaries, which covered some pretty big issues. R. Emmet Sweeney of TCM’s Movie Morlocks has his Top 10 Genre Movies of 2010, of which I’ve only seen The Crazies and thought was great as well. SF360 has a mess of Top 10s in its annual survey of Bay Area critics. This is notable particularly since Jonathan Marlow of the S.F.
- 1/2/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Woo-hoo! Bad Lit’s Underground Film Timeline finally reaches the modern era! Or, at least, up until 2005.
I recently just finished adding data — film titles and significant events — from Jack Sargeant’s always awesome book, Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground. Of course, Sargeant only covers one aspect of the underground film movement in this book, i.e. the Cinema of Transgression, but I’m really thrilled to have at last incorporated this time period into the timeline.
It is a bit distressing that the most serious chroniclers of underground film history typically consider the movement ending sometime in the early ’70s. Sargeant is one of the few who is connects broad swatches of history, from the ’60s to the ’00s in Deathtripping as well as in Naked Lens. And maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. I know there’s a bunch of books I still have yet to check out.
I recently just finished adding data — film titles and significant events — from Jack Sargeant’s always awesome book, Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground. Of course, Sargeant only covers one aspect of the underground film movement in this book, i.e. the Cinema of Transgression, but I’m really thrilled to have at last incorporated this time period into the timeline.
It is a bit distressing that the most serious chroniclers of underground film history typically consider the movement ending sometime in the early ’70s. Sargeant is one of the few who is connects broad swatches of history, from the ’60s to the ’00s in Deathtripping as well as in Naked Lens. And maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. I know there’s a bunch of books I still have yet to check out.
- 12/11/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
What’s brand new, big and British? Why, it’s the first annual London Underground Film Festival, which will run at the infamous Horse Hospital underground screening room on Dec. 4-10.
Seven full days and nights is an exceptionally aggressive schedule for a first time out, but it’s even more impressive once you dig into the variety of films and programs being offered, including lectures, installations and live performances mixed in with feature length films and short film programs.
To help out with such an ambitious project, the London Underground has asked a couple of festival big guns to help them out. First, underground film historian and Program Director of Australia’s Revelation Perth International Film Festival Jack Sargeant has curated a full day of films for Sunday, Dec., all of which have played at Revelation under his watch.
The films Sargeant has picked are Kevin Barker’s The Family Jams,...
Seven full days and nights is an exceptionally aggressive schedule for a first time out, but it’s even more impressive once you dig into the variety of films and programs being offered, including lectures, installations and live performances mixed in with feature length films and short film programs.
To help out with such an ambitious project, the London Underground has asked a couple of festival big guns to help them out. First, underground film historian and Program Director of Australia’s Revelation Perth International Film Festival Jack Sargeant has curated a full day of films for Sunday, Dec., all of which have played at Revelation under his watch.
The films Sargeant has picked are Kevin Barker’s The Family Jams,...
- 12/1/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Sorry, this week is the very abbreviated holiday link post. Just didn’t have that much this week. Just hope my American readers had a good holiday. (I was very happy to have the time off.)
This week’s Must Look — as opposed to the usual Must Read — is actual celluloid strips of Stan Brakhage’s Anticipation of the Night being restored by the Motion Picture Academy, courtesy of Phil Solomon. Be sure to click through for the large images. First, there’s the hand-written title sequence and frames from the main part of the film, including visible tape splices, if you look closely enough. So then, the Must Read is Electric Sheep’s write-up of Lewis Klahr’s Prolix Satori series that screened recently at the 54th BFI London Film Festival. Haven’t seen them myself, but they sound amazing. Rhizome has a video example of the Paik/Abe Raster Manipulator,...
This week’s Must Look — as opposed to the usual Must Read — is actual celluloid strips of Stan Brakhage’s Anticipation of the Night being restored by the Motion Picture Academy, courtesy of Phil Solomon. Be sure to click through for the large images. First, there’s the hand-written title sequence and frames from the main part of the film, including visible tape splices, if you look closely enough. So then, the Must Read is Electric Sheep’s write-up of Lewis Klahr’s Prolix Satori series that screened recently at the 54th BFI London Film Festival. Haven’t seen them myself, but they sound amazing. Rhizome has a video example of the Paik/Abe Raster Manipulator,...
- 11/28/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Having heard the arguments on both sides of the online piracy debate for years, my own personal feelings — for the most part — fall on the anti-piracy side.
The debate really came to a head in the underground film world a few weeks ago after the non-profit site UbuWeb was hacked. UbuWeb is a website that started by hosting orphaned and out-of-print films and videos, embedding them for free to watch.
My own feelings about UbuWeb are mixed. First thing, I don’t consider them to be a piracy site. Also, I’m generally supportive of their efforts, which allows for otherwise impossible-to-see films and videos to be viewed. For example, Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures, one of the most influential underground films of all time, will probably never get a proper DVD release thanks to all kinds of rights issues. Other than random arthouse theater screenings, UbuWeb is really the...
The debate really came to a head in the underground film world a few weeks ago after the non-profit site UbuWeb was hacked. UbuWeb is a website that started by hosting orphaned and out-of-print films and videos, embedding them for free to watch.
My own feelings about UbuWeb are mixed. First thing, I don’t consider them to be a piracy site. Also, I’m generally supportive of their efforts, which allows for otherwise impossible-to-see films and videos to be viewed. For example, Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures, one of the most influential underground films of all time, will probably never get a proper DVD release thanks to all kinds of rights issues. Other than random arthouse theater screenings, UbuWeb is really the...
- 11/26/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
On Thursday, Australian authorities raided the home of Richard Wolstencroft, director of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, looking for a copy of L.A. Zombie, the controversial Bruce Labruce hardcore gay pornographic film that Muff screened back on August 29.
Prior to fest, in July, the government Classification Board refused to grant an exemption to the film so that it could be screened legally in a public setting. In defiance of the ruling, Muff went ahead and held a “secret” screening of the film that was publicly announced as pre-planned, but exact details of the location and time weren’t given out until the day of on Facebook.
Australian newspaper The Age reports that about 200 people attended the screening. Authorities never appeared at the screening and Australian society failed to crumble in the screening’s wake. But, three months later, three detectives brandishing a warrant swept through Wolstencroft’s home looking for...
Prior to fest, in July, the government Classification Board refused to grant an exemption to the film so that it could be screened legally in a public setting. In defiance of the ruling, Muff went ahead and held a “secret” screening of the film that was publicly announced as pre-planned, but exact details of the location and time weren’t given out until the day of on Facebook.
Australian newspaper The Age reports that about 200 people attended the screening. Authorities never appeared at the screening and Australian society failed to crumble in the screening’s wake. But, three months later, three detectives brandishing a warrant swept through Wolstencroft’s home looking for...
- 11/12/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
It’s been awhile since I promoted Bad Lit’s Underground Film Timeline, but I finally finished inputting all the data culled from my secondary reference source, David Curtis’ book Experimental Cinema. Since it’s been so long between updates, I’ll provide some background info on what this project is again.
The Underground Film Timeline is a year-by-year list of every significant film and event in underground film history from 1909 to, currently, 1970. I’m pulling data to include in the timeline strictly from books, not from other websites. The first book I referenced was Sheldon Renan’s An Introduction to the American Underground Film and the second book, as I wrote above, is Curtis’ Experimental Cinema.
In certain instances, data from both books do not agree with each other. The books mostly contradict each other regarding the completion years for specific films, usually giving dates that are a year or two off.
The Underground Film Timeline is a year-by-year list of every significant film and event in underground film history from 1909 to, currently, 1970. I’m pulling data to include in the timeline strictly from books, not from other websites. The first book I referenced was Sheldon Renan’s An Introduction to the American Underground Film and the second book, as I wrote above, is Curtis’ Experimental Cinema.
In certain instances, data from both books do not agree with each other. The books mostly contradict each other regarding the completion years for specific films, usually giving dates that are a year or two off.
- 11/8/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
These first two links to the website Cineflyer I had on the site earlier in the week, but I want to make sure they get read. One is an interview with film curator Brett Cashmere about his new series investigating Canada’s little-known Escarpment School movement. And the other is an interview with Escarpment School member Philip Hoffman. And, by the way, Bad Lit’s Screening section has all kinds of interesting information, so please check out those posts even if you don’t live in the city in which those Screenings take place. Searching for “underground film” articles every week sometimes brings up interesting results in ways I don’t typically think of the term. Anyway, doing so this week led me to this piece on Donna Magazine about the “green movement of Iran” being celebrated at the 10th International Diaspora Film Festival. Jack Sargeant reprints his nifty profile...
- 11/7/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Happy Halloween! If I can start off on a scary — albeit a bit self-serving — note, if you’re looking for some spooky, creepy, frightening and sometimes a bit disgusting films to watch today, please visit Bad Lit’s short horror movie index page. Some great stuff in there if you click around. Now onto our regular links: If short horror movies are my “must see” link of the week, then my absolute Must Read link is j.j. murphy’s review of Andy Warhol’s recently preserved and unleashed Face, which focuses on the beautiful face of Edie Sedgwick. This film has sadly been out of circulation for 40 years. The Phantom of Pulp took a time out while making a documentary in Australia to take some awesome photos of a cemetery. Ella thinks that Kanye West is a filmmaker who should be considered on the same level as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali.
- 10/31/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
I usually link to Making Light of It in these posts — when Jacob’s not disappearing on me — but I really want to make sure people look at Jacob’s most recent article, so I’m listing him first this week. Jacob’s scanned a bunch of covers of old Film Culture magazines that are really sweet looking. I don’t recognize everybody’s picture, but I see Stan Vanderbeek, Harry Smith, Robert Breer and more. And, I think Jacob has the second only photo ever of Ron Rice on the Internet, after mine. Fangoria conducted a fascinating interview with one of Bad Lit’s favorite people, C.W. Prather of the Spooky Movie Festival, which is currently going on. Funniest thing I saw this week — hell, funniest thing I’ve seen in months! — was the Twitter stream of Ted Nope, a parody of indie film producer Ted Hope’s airless Twitter musings.
- 10/24/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The list is a little brief this week, but that’s all that was out there. However, the first three items thrill me so much, it sort of makes up for the overall brevity.
I have to say that I’m really thrilled to see Jack Sargeant blogging more lately, both re-printing older articles he’s written for others and new stuff. Sargeant is one of the most vital writers and historians of underground film we have today. And he has some great ones this week. First, there’s this fascinating profile of Samantha Sweeting, whose films sound so strange and lovely. And he has a nice overview / defense of UbuWeb, which originally appeared in FilmInk. A couple weeks ago, I publicly admitted my love of looking at old underground film flyers, posters, brochures, etc. To add to that jones, Landscape Suicide posted up an old flyer for a two-day...
I have to say that I’m really thrilled to see Jack Sargeant blogging more lately, both re-printing older articles he’s written for others and new stuff. Sargeant is one of the most vital writers and historians of underground film we have today. And he has some great ones this week. First, there’s this fascinating profile of Samantha Sweeting, whose films sound so strange and lovely. And he has a nice overview / defense of UbuWeb, which originally appeared in FilmInk. A couple weeks ago, I publicly admitted my love of looking at old underground film flyers, posters, brochures, etc. To add to that jones, Landscape Suicide posted up an old flyer for a two-day...
- 10/17/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Alessandro Cima wrote a new article inspired by my old “What’s an Underground Film, Anyway?” post. In it, Cima argues that the definition of “underground film” should include “a requirement of hostility.” I like what Cima is saying and I get where he’s coming from, but I haven’t decided if I totally agree with him yet. While I certainly like a little hostility in my underground films, the problem is that sustained hostility can a) get tiring; and b) leads to burnout. But, good stuff to contemplate in the article. (P.S. Driving or walking by a row of StarWagons never gets not-exciting to me.) Donna k. muses on why more filmmakers don’t tour with their films like Brent Green does. For what it’s worth, here’s my short answer: Most filmmakers don’t create the ancillary product that would make touring profitable. Green has it all: Music,...
- 10/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
So, I’ve been doing these links posts for awhile now and it’s been very encouraging that they’re some of the most viewed articles on the site every week. However, even more exciting and inspiring is that I’ve had several bloggers/writers contact me lately to tell me that my linking to them provides a bit of a bump in readers for them. It really makes me happy that my readers are actually clicking through and reading these fantastic articles on other people’s websites. I mean, obviously that’s the whole point of this project, but I didn’t know the actual result until recently. It’s nice to hear. That said, on with the show:
This week’s Must Read is an oldie, but a goodie. And by “oldie” I mean almost 50 years old. It’s Stan Vanderbeek’s 1961 manifesto “The Cinema Delimina” (careful: that...
This week’s Must Read is an oldie, but a goodie. And by “oldie” I mean almost 50 years old. It’s Stan Vanderbeek’s 1961 manifesto “The Cinema Delimina” (careful: that...
- 9/26/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Mike Rollo has just started a new series on old theaters in Saskatchewan. I’m very excited about this, especially based on his first profile of the Majestic Theatre in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Also starting a new blogging series is animator Patrick Smith of Scribble Junkies. He’s teaching “Animation 101″ online and, again, has an excellent first post about sacks of flour. (Sounds like I’m joking, but I’m not.) Plus, one excellent and one horrendous Bakshi movie poster. Smith’s blogging partner Bill Plympton has a horrifying story of when self-distribution goes awry. (At least it all worked out in the end.) P.S. Words of advice: When starting a filmmaking competition, be sure to remember that your email is working. Dolphins, space whales and Stan Vanderbeek, oh my! Andrea Grover on the collision of science, sea creatures, space and the universe. Film Studies for Free has compiled a...
- 9/19/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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