Welcome to the Spring Schedule for Other Cinema. We have a ton of neat stuff this season and we hope you will come often. A number of the films we are showing have video clips available for preview in Quicktime format. These clips are indicated by a projector icon in the applicable sections. If you don't have the Quicktime plug-in, you can download it for free at www.apple.com/quicktime.

Good Times

SAT. 2/14: MCCORMICK’S WHAT THE ‘70S LOOKED LIKE.


Our mercurial microcinema cousin from up the Coast, Matt (“Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal”) McCormick rolls his dune buggy in to the Mission to set off our Spring season with a raucous celebration of retro-cinema! Recently rescued from a Portland dumpster, this campy collection of funky clunky commercials, tacky TV news spots, and old-school PSAs will be projected in its original 16mm format. From the classic iconography of the Marlboro Man to mercifully forgotten fashion duds, this major media-archaeological find is refreshingly, uh, unsophisticated. Free drinks for all those polyestered, while DJ Carpenter bumps the needle on vintage vinyl, from the Hustle to hard rock. Right on!

Click here for Quicktime Preview

   

 

 

 

 

 

Fat Man Chronicles

SAT 2/21: DAMON PACKARD'S REFLECTIONS OF EVIL

Yes, it’s true. The awesome prospect looms. This larger-than-life character, the stuff of legend, doth grace our humble gallery with the SF premiere of his magnum opus, Reflections of Evil. This 2-hr obsessively excessive urban nightmare, with Packard himself starring as an unkempt, obese, sugar-addled watch-peddler swaddled in twisted knots of shirts and headphones, achieved cult-status after its mysterious appearance on thousands of Hollywood doorsteps. The hilariously over-the-top psychodrama details his tortuous navigation of LA streets and theme parks, our anti-hero trudging through a self-created purgatory of extreme hostility, humiliation, and failure. Mr. Packard personally introduces a half-hour sampling of shorts - including a world premiere! - and treats us to free junk food.

 

For additional info.: http://www.fakemonster.com/reflections/

 

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Industrial Jeopardy

SAT. 2/28: PRELINGER PRESENTS HELL'S HIGHWAY

The ruling guru of archival cinema takes the mic to introduce two visual histories of industrial-film genres. Bret Wood’s Hell’s Highway (in which Rick appears) examines the particulars of the Driver’s-Ed movie-production of the ‘60s, which exploited real car-crash footage of bloody, mangled bodies with taped screams and melodramatic voice-over, sensationalized like a Coney Island spook ride. Supporting the feature is Abel Klainbaum’s homage to Dr. Heimlich, The History of Choking. PLUS: An assemblage of mid-century auto-accident oddities, set to the Bullitt track! ER nurses on stand-by with alcohol and hypodermic needles.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

 

 

 

Thought Police

 

SAT. 3/6: THE MIND CONTROL SHOW

 

As Director of the Institute of Applied Autonomy, Richard Pell works to illuminate the dark corners of psychological slavery. The West Coast premiere of his half-hour masterwork, Don’t Call Me Crazy on the 4th of July, narrates the martyrdom of Bob Lansberry, a quixotic conspiracy-theorist whose claims of foul play are buttressed with voluminous psy-ops research. The dozen-plus other briefs on this buffet of brainwashing draw from military-industrial propaganda (GNN), religious rants (Russ Forster’s Christian Rock trailer), Positive-Thinking pitches (Glen W. Turner!), subliminal messaging (Davy Force), and Manchurian neuro-psychomanipulation. PLUS: A Short Message from Mike Z, and the debut of Tony Gault’s (tentatively in person) 16mm Not Too Much Remember.

 

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Peforming The Perfs

SAT. 3/13: LAITALA’S MUSE OF CINEMA + COSTABILE + LOCKHART +

Here are three artistes whose work springs from physical gesture and actual projection process in situ. Kerry Laitala’s 35mm Muse… turns a hand-cranked mechanical apparatus into a marvelous personal exploration of early cinema’s celluloid artifacts. A similar interactivity is showcased in the evening’s second half, when Sue Costabile steps to the stage with her closed-circuit digital camera, copystand, and random-access pool of abstract patterns. AND Sarah Lockhart’s dual-projection, collage-positive Colonized Pleasure. PLUS: Melinda Stone in person with her “California Tour” report, Viewmasters, and the Circus Family filmstrip experience.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roasting The Pigs of War

SAT. 3/20: KAVANAGH’S WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION + BRECKE +

An all-evening anti-war canteen! Marchers from today’s protest can find camaraderie in our gallery lounge, with the proceeds from every (pork and tofu) hot dog sold going to MoveOn.org. Doors open as early as 7pm for the (free) screening of Robert Greenwald’s Uncovered…, followed by Indymedia’s …In Time of War. Or come at 8:30pm for a curated program of media-art pieces and eye-witness testimonies about the human catastrophe in Iraq. Mark Brecke returns from his two trips there with a slide-essay on the current state of affairs. Anti-military missives by Eli Elliott, Caroline Koebel, Greg Berger, and Keith Sanborn precede the world premiere of Mike Kavanagh’s (in person) monumental compilation, culled from thousands of hours of Al-Jazeera and other satellite sources.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Old Films, New Remixes\

SAT. 3/27: KYRON/ANGER’S INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME + HANS GRÜSEL +

 

Our most popular theme night is reprised with a jewel-box of brilliant pebbles and two magic mountains of musical majesty. For the 50th anniversary of Kenneth Anger’s oneiric Inauguration…, Kyron (J.C. Mendizabal) re-scores this lysergic Bacchus rite with a dark-wave of sonic shamanism, whilst Koyote performs a live Thelemic ritual! Hans Grüsel’s Kränkenkabinet’s dramaturgical noise suffuses General Motor’s 1936 corporate anthem, Master Hands. PLUS Vanessa Renwick’s Britton SD, Eric Salter’s Dupe and Destroy, Tari Abranovich’s Wall of Noise, and other ingenious “re-compositions.”

 

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

 

 

 

 

Obsessed Outsider

SAT. 4/3: BRUCE BICKFORD PRESENTS MONSTER ROAD +

Monster Road is an intimate look at the wildly fantastic worlds of Bruce Bickford, the legendary underground clay animator best known for the psychedelic shorts he made with Frank Zappa in the ‘70s. This compelling portrait (Slamdance’s “Best Doc”) traces the origins of Bruce’s idiosyncratic sensibility, moving between his filmic and personal dimensions to appreciate the bizarre animations he creates at a frenetic rate. Bickford is slated to bring in from Seattle some of his 16mm rarities to precede the feature-length profile, produced by Brett Ingram and Jim Havercamp (of Armor of God fame).

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Dirty Tricks

SAT. 4/10: NOEL LAWRENCE ON J.X. WILLIAMS’ PEEP SHOW +

As per the OC mission, we’re thrilled to announce the momentous rediscovery of the lost 16mm prints of the notorious cult director, J.X. Williams. Independent film scholar Noel Lawrence has been working with the Williams Archive to restore and re-present this much-discussed but rarely-seen portfolio of anomalous artifacts. Featured in Mr. Lawrence’s lecture-demo is the erstwhile missing centerpiece of the Williams cinematic legacy, the quintessential film maudit Peep Show. This 1965 noir confessional uncovers a secret history of the Kennedy Administration, revealing a Mafia plot to hook Frank Sinatra on heroin! Also explicated are the auteur’s Psych-Burn, Satan Claus, and Virgin Sacrifice. Complimentary cocktails, but no guns please!

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

 

 

Wrecked Tech

SAT. 4/17: EVOLUTION CONTROL COMMITTEE + OPTIC MULTIPLICATOR +

Here’s an extraordinary opportunity to witness the sonic genius of the Ohio-based Mark Gunderson, whose thimbletronics use those original “digital” means to trigger electronic musical effects in real-time. Co-billed is Optic Nerd & Multiplicator (Max Godino, Liz Albee, and Jason Stamberger), who jerry-rig (underwater!) contact mics, reprocess trumpet noise, and manipulate multiple projectors to generate themes of urban decay and self-destruction (what else?). PLUS edgy A/V bits from Forcefield, Conglomco, Cinematechnique, et al.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Low-Res Hi-Jinx

SAT. 4/24: GERRY FIALKA’S PXL THIS FEST 13

The lucky 13th edition of this enlightened and long-running DIY initiative comes to town by way of OC’s southern cousin, Gerry Fialka, who promises to personally patter, pun, and propagandize for McLuhan in his inimitable shaggy-dog introductions. Made with the Fisher-Price PXL-2000 toy camera, this new and groovy body of first-person cinema features Joe Gibbons’ The Stepfather, Eli Elliott’s Asscroft, and John Humphrey’s Pee Wee Goes to Prison. ALSO snap, crackle, and popping off our funky screen are a pair of pieces from 8-year-old Juniper Woodbury; Denny Moynahan, the Ernie Kovacs of Pixelvision; & Robert Dobbs' Double-Duty Interrobang, among others.

Mayday Mayhem

SAT. 5/1: GANDINI/ZERZAN’S SURPLUS + WHIRL-MART +

Here’s a provocative program of brave blows against the Empire on this International Worker’s Day. Featured is Erik Gandini’s powerful yet lyrical essay against globalization, with commentary by John Zerzan. Setting things off is a battery of broadsides against the grinding forces of corporate capitalism and consumer culture: Whirl-Mart’s Diesel Action, Rev. Billy’s Stop Shopping Tour, Robbie Conal’s Guerrilla Etiquette, Ivy McLelland’s Surveillance, Greg Berger’s Gringothon. PLUS more street actions from Children's Studio, Tom Borden, Eli Elliott, Bryan Konefsky, the Yes Men, et al.

(For more info on Surplus, please visit: http://www.atmo.se/)

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Cinco De Mayo

SAT. 5/8: THE LOST REELS OF PANCHO VILLA + LERNER

Los Rollos Perdidos follows Mexican maker Gregorio Rocha on his quest for Mutual’s long-lost actualités of Villa’s 1914 revolutionary battles. Rocha searches through archives and garages, from Durango to Amsterdam, New York to El Paso, cobbling together celluloid relics in a thought-provoking assemblage of media archaeology, “staged” documentary, and personal essay. ALSO: Jesse Lerner’s hour-long journey to the Yucatan, the 16mm American Egypt, explores the historical role of the US on that peninsula, and connects the history of silent cinema with the emergence of America’s first socialist government, the suffragette movement, and early stirrings of globalization.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

 

Outlaw Nomadology

SAT. 5/15: BILL DANIEL' S SUNSET SCAVENGER + WEDDING TRAIN

Back in the Bay Area for a Headlands gig, roaming ethnographer Daniel dares to raise billowing screen-sails on his gaff-rigged ‘65 Chevy sailvan in his Valencia Streetside installation on water squatters, car campers, and RV cowboys. During the 7:30 to 8:30 installation-viewing, we’ll be screening in our gallery Saul Rouda’s 1971 Waldo Point, the classic doc on hippie houseboaters. At our regular 8:30 showtime, our screen will commence to reflect the double-projections of Daniel’s itinerant exploration of outsider survivalism, Soul’s Harbor, from anarchist boat-builders to Doomsday-declaiming street-preachers. Closing the show is Dan Leighton’s harrowing, hardcore Wedding Train, an utterly brutal joyride with dysfunctional gutterpunks catching freights and losing connections in the no-zone under the overpasses.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Doggie Diner Take-out

SAT. 5/22: LAW/FLEUDUJON’S HEAD TRIP +

Join SF’s favorite roadside attraction, the Doggie Diner Dogheads, as they travel cross-country on their way to a Laughing Squid gig at CBGB’s in NYC! Accompanied by the Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, the Mime Troupe’s Ed Holmes, and this doc’s fearless producers John Law and Flecher Fleudujon, these three benign mascots of Bay Area merry-pranksterism burned a puzzling path of vernacular surrealism across the States last summer, and here’s the hour-plus tour diary. From their kindred busts at Rushmore to the Washington Monument to Coney Island to Times Square, they have managed to poke a hole in consensus reality…and out come the freaks! ALSO: Fleudujon’s earlier Chasin’ the Train (jug bands on Kesey’s bus) and Bigfoot sightings.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

 

Avant to Live

SAT. 5/29: NEW EXPERIMENTAL WORKS

As always, our season is consummated by a flaming cavalcade of recent pieces that celebrate personal expression and radical cinematic form. Among the titles, many premiering, are Dale Hoyt’s Don’t Be Cruel, Deborah Stratman’s Energy Country, Rebecca Barten’s Boleraquarium, Dave Alvin’s Awake, Roger Beebe’s Stripmall Trilogy, Julie Murray’s Untitled (light), Jonathan Roy’s Ecchoing Green, and Keith Sanborn’s Kritik. ALSO new work from David Sherman, Yin-Ju Chen, Bijan Yashar, and Ben Folstein’s Heracles, with live score by Bougerelli.

Click here for Quicktime Preview
   

Click here to see last season's schedule