On October 26th, Other Cinema programmer Noel Lawrence will curate an evening of experimental horror film at Aurora Picture Show. Films to be included:
Psych-Burn (dir. J.X. Williams, 16mm, 1968, 3:00) ^ “I used to collect old 16mm films, especially anything with psychedelia or smut, preferrably both. I had to make Psych-Burn because I couldn’t find it in a dumpster. I had to create this film because I couldn’t find it.” ^ — J. X. Williams
Selbstverstummelung (Self-Mutilation) (dir. Kurt Kren, 16mm, 1965, 6:00) ^ “Kren’s 10/65: SELF-MUTILATION is developed from a Gunter Brus ‘action.’ What the film emphasizes is the surrealistic drama of symbolic self-destruction that Kren drew out of Brus’s action, pacing out each gesture so that one gets a tense, iconoclastic revelation of a man covered in white plaster lying surrounded by razor blades and a range of instruments looking as if they have been taken from an operating theater. The blades, scissors and scalpels are gradually inserted into him in a ritualistic self-operation.” ^ — Stephen Dwoskin, Film Is
Trial of Set (dir. Sean Owens, 16mm, 2002, 8:00) ^ Very Kenneth Anger-like adaptation of the Egyptian myth. Set commits murder and his trial takes him through three stages of the netherworld, where he collects the instruments of his punishment.
Helleskellevision (dir. Martha Colburn, 16mm, 2002, 10:00) ^ The scabrous animator brings her virulent vision back to the screen with an orgiastic mix of flickering skeletons, 1-800 Sex ads, dancing girls, and extreme evangelism. A Chicago Underground Film Fund recipient.
Boogie Woogie Man (dir. Shamus Culhane, 16mm, 1943, 7:00) ^ “Very entertaining short – I got to see it screened along with “Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat” which I liked a little bit more, but the imagery of the ghost town and the spirits inhabiting it until daybreak was a lot of fun, and the music was also. I found myself wondering if R. Crumb had ever seen this film – one of the “old” ghosts with a long beard sure looked like “Mr. Natural” – Crumb does have a fascination with old music …” ^ — Dennis Nyback
Satan Claus (dir. J.X. Williams, 16mm, 1976, 3:00) ^ A Christmas tragedy for the whole family. Synthesis of found footage from a 1950’s Mexican Christmas Film and Dario Argento’s “Deep Red”.
Le Vampire (dir. Jean Painleve, 16mm, 1945, 8:00) ^ Funny, yet creepy documentary on that icon of horror lore, the vampire bat. Set to music by Duke Ellington!
Evil of Dracula (dir. Martha Colburn, 16mm, 1997, 2:00) ^ A Hypno-Psycho-Vampiric spazzm of fanged advertisements with money-hungry, blood-thirsty grins. This animated film in FANGTASTIC color is enough to cause a line-up at your local Blood Bank. Made with home-spun special effects of funnel-vision and hand-colored film. With a Blood Drainin soundtrack by the legendary Lyrical Monster Song Master Jad Fair and musical madman Jason Willett.
The Fear (dir. Angel Nieves, 16mm on video, 2001, 15:00) ^ Footage from an unfinished horror feature, somewhere circa 1980, reconfigured into this mini supernatural short. Winner Best Short Film NYUFF 2002.
Case of the Stuttering Pig, The (dir. Frank Tashlin, 16mm, 1943, 8:00) ^ “In this amazingly directed horror-parody, the mystery elements work well enough to be taken seriously. All shot composition and editing represent a cartoonization of a James Whale or a Tod Browning gothic.” — Dennis Nyback
Show starts at 8pm and admission is $5.
For more information, visit the Aurora Picture Show website.
