USA

  • Lynn Hershman-Leeson – Teknolust (2002)

    2001-2010DramaLynn Hershman-LeesonSci-FiUSA

    Anxious to use artificial life to improve the world, Rosetta Stone, (Tilda Swinton), a bio-geneticist creates a Recipe for Cyborgs and uses her own DNA in order to breed three Self Replicating Automatons, part human, part computer named Ruby, Olive and Marine (also played by Tilda Swinton). The SRA’s act as ‘portals’ on the internet, helping users to fulfill their dreams. The SRA’s are nourished through touch. Because they were bred only with Rosetta’s DNA, they need the balance of an X chromo or male sperm to survive. Read More »

  • Frank Capra – Mr. Deeds Goes to Town [+commentary] (1936)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyFrank CapraScrewball ComedyUSA

    Synopsis:
    Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life – including playing the tuba in the town band. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow picks up his tuba and moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone from the greedy opera committee to the sensationist daily newspaper. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. Babe is a hot-shot reporter who figures the best way to get close to Deeds is to pose as a damsel in distress. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.Read More »

  • Ernst Lubitsch – Ninotchka (1939)

    USA1931-1940ClassicsComedyErnst LubitschScrewball Comedy

    Synopsis:
    Ninotchka is a stern, straightlaced Communist Party member sent to Paris to finish the sale of Grand Duchess Swana’s jewels for the Soviet government. But, while studying the frivolous materialism of Paris, Ninotchka meets Leon, Swana’s lawyer and sometime lover, and the two become enamored with one another — without knowing each other’s identity. The Grand Duchess, in the meantime, is suing the USSR for ownership of the jewels. What follows is a delicate web of intrigue and deception as Swana tries to blackmail Ninotchka into leaving Paris. Soon the two lovers have to overcome political hurdles and cross borders just to be together.Read More »

  • Sheldon Rochlin – Signals Through the Flames: The Story of the Living Theatre (1984)

    1981-1990DocumentarySheldon RochlinUSA

    Quote:
    “I CALL FOR A THEATRE IN WHICH THE ACTORS ARE LIKE VICTIMS BURNING AT THE STAKE, SIGNALLING THROUGH THE FLAMES.” – Antonin Artaud

    Julian Beck and Judith Malina picked up the torch from Artaud and carried it into the theaters and streets of the world for more than 40 years. Their Living Theatre inspired the off-Broadway movement in the 40’s and 50’s and the radical theatre in the 60’s and 70’s. This tale of social and esthetic breakthrough weaves excerpts from their most controversial productions with on-the-road interviews with Beck and Malina, who define their lifelong commitment to a revolutionary art in which politics and theatre are inseparable.Read More »

  • Christopher Makoto Yogi – August at Akiko’s (2018)

    2011-2020Christopher Makoto YogiDramaUSA

    Armed with just his suitcase and a sax, cosmopolitan musician Alex Zhang Hungtai (from the band Dirty Beaches) returns home to the Big Island of Hawaii having been away for nearly a decade. Hungtai, playing a fictional version of himself, takes refuge in a Buddhist B&B with a woman named Akiko (Akiko Matsuda, playing herself). Alex’s experimental free jazz music at first collides with the bell sounds of Akiko’s meditation, but as the film evolves and a friendship develops, the two harmonize.Read More »

  • Jack Deveau – Drive (1974)

    1971-1980EroticaJack DeveauQueer Cinema(s)USA

    Synopsis/Background wrote:
    Synopsis: The title refers both to the male sexual drive and to the fact that the hero of the movie is always tooling around Manhattan in a Lamborghini; and a villainess drag queen who tries to rid men of their sex drives! Sounds amazing, with a screenplay by Christopher Rage (who also, in drag, plays the villainess Arachne) with over 50 people in the cast – Read More »

  • Tim Kincaid – El Paso Wrecking Corp. (1978)

    1971-1980CultEroticaQueer Cinema(s)Tim KincaidUSA

    Quote:

    The second in director Gage’s masterful “working men” trilogy still stands to this day as one terrific gay porn. Think of this one as the Empire Strikes Back of gay porn. This classic is the second part of Gage’s legendary trilogy (Part 1 is Kansas City Trucking Co. and Part 3 is L.A. Tool & Die) and an essential addition to any gay porn aficionado’s library. The glory hole scene is a textbook classic example of deeply slobber-filled oral and facial cumshots galore. Again, some footage from it’s initial release is missing, as the trilogy passed through many hands over the years. It makes you want to reach out and smack someone – namely studio chiefs. Still, it’s a must-see and a must-own. May the heavy-duty tissues be with you.Read More »

  • John Ford – Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

    1931-1940DramaJohn FordPoliticsUSA

    Synopsis:
    Few historical figures are as revered as Abraham Lincoln, and few director-star pairings embody classic American cinema as perfectly as do John Ford and Henry Fonda. In Young Mr. Lincoln, their first collaboration, Fonda gives one of the finest performances of his career as the young president-to-be struggling with an incendiary murder case as a novice lawyer. Compassionate and assured, this indelible piece of Americana marks the beginning of Ford and Fonda’s ascent to legendary status.Read More »

  • Howard Hawks – His Girl Friday (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyHoward HawksScrewball ComedyUSA

    Synopsis:
    Having been away for four months, Hildy Johnson walks into the offices of the New York City based The Morning Post, where she is a star reporter, to tell her boss, editor Walter Burns, that she is quitting. The reason for her absence was among other things to get a Reno divorce, from, of all people, Walter, who admits he was a bad husband. Hildy divorced Walter largely because she wanted more of a home life, whereas Walter saw her more as a driven hard-boiled reporter than subservient homemaker. Hildy has also come to tell Walter that she is taking the afternoon train to Albany, where she will be getting married tomorrow to staid straight-laced insurance agent, Bruce Baldwin, with whose mother they will live, at least for the first year. Read More »

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