About This Show
The Lower West Side Film Festival will screen a total of 66 films, focusing on short format, experimental, animation, sexy, and avant-garde filmmaking and covering themes such as politics, war, technology and gender bending.
LWSFF explores the intersection of art, performance and film, and features special performances by artists The Ill Clan, Daniel Barrow, Zoe Beloff, Catherine Hourihan, Feedback Galore and Dub Gabriel, among others. The full schedule is available at www.lwsff.org.
Festival Schedule
Friday, April 22, 2005 @ 8:00pm
Opening Night Feature Film
PICKUP’S TRICKS (Gregory Pickup, 1973, 110 minutes), $15
Shot in San Francisco between 1971 and 1973, Pickup’s Tricks is a beat documentary of Hibiscus and the Cockettes, psychedelic drag queens and pioneers of San Francisco’s underground queer theater in the early ’70s. The film includes a rare screen appearance by Allen Ginsberg, clean-shaven and costumed in “acute drag” as a Yiddish Mama
OPENING NIGHT PARTY immediately following featuring FEEDBUCK GALORE AND DUB GABRIEL at M1-5, 52 Walker Street.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
5:00pm Drawn, Spliced & Quartered (Animation), $7
A collection of animated shorts ranging from humorous fun to serious indictments of corporate malfeasance. Films by animators Virgil Widrich and Signe Baumane, among others. LIVE PERFORMANCE WITH THE ILL CLAN DURING SCREENING.
7:30PM Great Performances: Masters Of Film Performance, $7
Featuring select films and performances by Daniel Barrow & Zoe Beloff.
Zoe Beloff presents SHADOW LAND OR LIGHT FROM THE OTHER SIDE (2000, 32 min) a 3D-film based on the 1897 autobiography of Elizabeth D’Espérance, a materialization medium who could produce full body apparitions.
THE FACE OF EVERYTHING (2002, 45 min) is a “live animation” that tells a story based very loosely on the life experiences of some of Liberace’s most notorious boyfriends. “Hillbilly” is a poor, dejected teenager, who travels to the “big city” (mid-1970s Las Vegas) to discover love, vision and identity in a much older, outrageously superficial nightclub entertainer named “Devo Brunette.” Directed, written, animated and performed by Daniel Barrow
10:00PM SEXY, SENSUAL & SINFUL, $15
Hot or Not Hot? Guys Gone Wild? This program mainstream’s attention deficits take on sex. We prefer the frisson and Jouissance supplied by Ephebes et Courtisanes, the polymorphous body-mod Rub-ing of Jerking (even girls do it!), and if there are any 100% hetero men left, well, we only have to ask, Is your wife a secret lesbian? And if the films aren’t enough, stay for the after party hosted by the Pleasure Collective. C:U is located in the former space of a notorious strip club, so you know what to expect–a gyrating hot and sticky mess! Sexy, Sensual & Sinful is sponsored by Mypleasure.com.
LIVE PERFORMANCE BY CATHERINE HOURIHAN
Sunday, April 24, 2005
3:30PM I KID YOU NOT, $7
A collection of films about children but, alas, is only suitable for New York City’s sophisticated children. Films by Ben Cooney, Jeremiah Kipp and Cecelia Condit, among others.
6:00PM WASTELAND: We Interrupt This Broadcast…., $7
In 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minow described television as a vast wasteland. Considering the relatively tame content of the day, one can only imagine what he would have to say about it today. We expand upon Minow’s definition with a selection of video works that serve as a critique of all that surrounds us.
8:00PM Surprise Screening – location TBA during the festival
Monday, April 25, 2005
6:00PM Open Film Slam, $7
Bring your ten-minute and under film on NTSC DVD, VHS, 16mm and Super 8 only and we’ll screen it on a first come first served basis. Sign up at 5:45.
8:00PM Circuit City, $7
From the simplest persistence of the vision toy to the most sophisticated high-definition digital camera, the world of moving images has been defined by the technology of the time. Science fiction and science fact combine as we present a jumble of old wires, patch bays, and retro toys we’d like to find at Circuit City, from clunky robots and imagined cyborgs to politicized action figures struggling to remake the world.
TeslaMania – Live Performance by Gecko featuring Manhattan’s Largest Tesla Coil
10:00PM QUALITY OF LIFE: Films About The Urban Condition, $7
Urban decay, abandoned autos, vagrants, and imploding buildings–this is what the Lower West Side used to be made of…. But since it’s been gentrified, we are forced to screen films about such things. Next year we’re moving to the Bronx–remember when that was burning? Films by Mark Street, Andre Hereford and Lauren Madow, among others.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
7:00PM I Am Not Entirely Myself, $7
A dark & visceral selection of self-directed performances from the last two decades including live performances by Ian Caskey & Tommy Turner, presented in conjunction with The Robert(a) Beck Memorial Cinema. Curated by Bradly Eros.
9:00pm Big Bang: America’s Uncivil Wars, $7
From survivalists preparing doggedly for imminent invasion to an alien dildo attack on earth woman’s sexuality, these films are not offered as a creed against impeachable offenses, but as thoughtful and intensely personal perspectives on the realities of war, combat, readiness and devastation. Featuring films by Alexandria Searls, Michael Galinsky and Ricardo Costa
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
9:00PM Best of the Fest, $15
A select collection of films will be presented on closing night. This evening will feature the best films in the festival selected by the audience and Closing night party.