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WTO/99 + WHISPERED MEDIA +

This immersive archival documentary takes viewers to the streets of Seattle in 1999 for massive protests that have heavily influenced the current political and protest climate. WTO/99 brings four days in late 1999 back to life and provides insights into the world we live in today. The film shows the results of tens of thousands of people occupying the streets of downtown Seattle to vocalize their concerns about the existence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its impact on the environment, economy, human rights, and labor. Hoping to dissuade world leadership from continued support of the WTO, the protesters were met with extreme violence by a militarized police force. The protests strived to focus the public’s attention on the kind of future the WTO would bring forth—the future we live in today. Created from more than 400 hours of never-before-seen footage, WTO/99 is an immersive visual artifact that reanimates a week that still reverberates over two decades later. PLUS: Introduction by members of that rad media collective Whispered Media, also sharing some of their own WTO clips!

MIKE KUCHAR’s THE SECRET OF WENDEL SAMSON + JACK SMITH’s NORMAL LOVE

Despite it all! Yes, in the very midst of our national horror-scape, OC has decided to open its doors, for its 40^th season! And join up with good ol’ cupid for a Valentines evening dedicated to the redemptive values of LOVE – both its erotic pleasures and its attendant psychological complexity/problems. In fact, we’ll have a pair of legendary 60’s rarities and arguably a veritable prince of Camp in the person of underground icon Mike Kuchar with his oh so prescient Wendel Samson! Pop Artist Red Grooms stars in this larger-than-life and oh-so-lurid melodrama that sees Groomsgrappling with sexual identity issues in this low budget but wildly inventive mise-en-scenographyof this half-hour underground masterpiece, way ahead of its time! CO-BILLED is Jack Smith‘s very rarely screened Normal Love starring Mario Montez and a giggling gaggle of 1963 Downtown Manhattan queers, here set loose in the “Nature of a Connecticut Woodside”… to tease, cavort, and combine be-wigged bodies in every which way in a quite/rather long plot- and language-less parade of early gay gestural play. Smith‘s Flaming Creatures had provoked theater closures and court cases a year before, tho this ethical proto-Warholian pillow-party can be understood as another enactment of this visionary outsider aesthetic, formally marginalized but here unashamed and indeed celebratory despite its rock-bottom budget and production values. Free champagne. $11

ATA’s free community film/video show welcomes short format work or (15 min or less) from all genres. An open forum for independent filmmakers to show their work, we hold screenings the first Thursday of the month at 8:00 pm. Entries must be received by 7:00 pm on show night.

Submissions: To submit a digital file, email openscreening@atasite.org. For physical media, label all tapes with name, contact info, title, and length, and mail to: Open Screening, 992 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110. 1–2 weeks advance submissions recommended. If not, just walk in before the show.
Maximum length: 15 min.
Formats: Digital file (PC or Mac), DVD, miniDV/DV-cam, VHS, beta, 8 mm, and 16 mm. For 8 mm and 16 mm films give us advance notice.

Doors at 7:30 pm, show at 8:00 pm, FREE