Blog

  • Indocumentales / Undocumentaries: The US/Mexico Interdependent Film Series

    AL OTRO LADO
    Dir. Natalia Almada, US/Mexico, 2005, 66 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.
    Like many in Sinaloa, the drug capital of Mexico, 23-year-old Magdiel faces two choices to better his life: trafficking drugs or crossing the border into the United States. Yet Magdiel has a special talent that could be his ticket out: composing corridos – ballads about the narcotics underworld and undocumented immigrant life. For over 200 years corridos have been Mexico’s musical underground newspaper and the voice of those rarely heard outside their communities. From Sinaloa, Mexico, to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the world of drug smuggling, immigration and the corrido music that chronicles it all. Featuring Los Tigres del Norte, Jenni Rivera, Jessie Morales, among other acclaimed musicians, Natalia Almada’s debut feature film is “a glimpse of art running parallel to daily life.” (The New York Times).
    Discussion with special guests follows screening.
    Presented by what moves you?, Cinema Tropical and the Center for Latin American Studies (CLACS) at New York University, in partnership with Cine+Mas SF
  • Periwinkle Cinema Presents: SELF-REFLEXIVE

    Navigating queer desires has never been a walk in the park. Okay, maybe sometimes it consists of cruising in the park. Whatever. Senses of radical queer self-hood don’t just catalyze themselves, they take some serious nurturing. That nurturing can take a lot of forms — a sassy critique of ‘heterosexual values,’ a serious conversation about the gaps between theory and lived experience, or just some good old-fashioned masturbating. These are just a few of the strategies of this month’s filmmakers. It takes more than a haircut to disrupt systems of oppression — it takes self-reflection, an examination of how our selves are implicated in those systems, and sometimes it takes being kind of shameless. Get ready for some feelings talk with a dash of sacrilege, and yeah, of course — an exciting lineup of (some old, some brand new) queer experimental shorts!

    LINEUP:

    “DIY Queer Learning Lab” by Kehontas Rose. 4 min, 30 seconds, 2010

    Byline: Queer is a word that is now meant to be all inclusive but in some ways, because of the loss of meaning in words through translation of people, places, time, space, race, identity can simultaneously be isolating.

    Cut and Paste” by Alexis McCrimmon, 2007, 8 minutes

    byline: An eye-catching and playful autobiographical documentary that explores the historical contexts of racial stereotypes, gender identity and sexual agency i.e: what it meant for one little girl who dared to be Black, Queer and Kinky.

    “Shari Shapiro’s Slumber Party” by Samara Halperin, 4 min, 30 seconds, 1998

    Byline: A short film about betrayal, reconciliation, Cheetos and Joan Jett.

    “The Terrorist She Freaks of Texas” by Bug Davidson, 24 minutes, 30 seconds, 2005

    Byline: A fake public service announcement about the newest and most threatening danger to heterosexual values in Texas, the Terrorist She Freaks.

     

    INTERMISSION

    “The Back of My Head” by Emily Wingren, 3 minutes, 30 seconds, 2012

    Byline: My friend walked by yodeling. I was a human in a t shirt, sitting in a cold field on some dead grass. Suddenly I had an epiphany, though my realization was not associated with any words. This video extrapolates on that feeling. An interview with the person inside my brain-cave.

    “Bolex Study” by Malic Amalya, 2 min, 2008

    Byline: Andy Warhol’s 1964 film Blow Job is a 35 minute shot of a man’s head and shoulders as, the title suggests, he receives a blow job. Confined to the Bolex’s spring-wound clockwork motor and a 100ft roll of film, Bolex Study #1 supplies the missing half of Warhol’s film.

    “Body Work” by Parke Ballantine, 2 min, 2012

    Byline: Time told through the physical. Body trauma. Disembodiment. Body healing and exploration.

    “Banana Split Boy” by Lindsay Laven, 5 min, 30 seconds, 2012

    Byline: Banana Split Boy is the story of ice cream indulgence and banana curiosity.

    “But I’m a Genderqueer” by Lauren Soldano, 11 min, 30 seconds, 2011

    Byline: The story of one person’s journey through the scary but also magical land of identity crisis, and a story about queer self-love triumphing over all obstacles.

    “Diamonds at the Meeting” by Emily Y. Wang, 15 min, 2012

    Byline: A group of college-age queer womyn and genderqueer folks speak up about sex and fucking.

     

     

  • STREETOPIA: National Disgrace

    STREETOPIA (RE)COVERED POETRY WAGON TOUR

    Booklyn artist Marshall Weber is doing a 72-hour poetry recitation on the streets of San Francisco as part of the Streetopia Exhibition at the Luggage Store Gallery.

    Weber will walk around the city reciting poetry matching the locations he ends up at, a little Gregory Corso near his old apartment at 2004 Taylor Street, a little Alphonso Texidor in front of La Boheme, you get the drift.

    A featured event of the performance the National Disgrace reunion poetry and music show-down will be held on – 

    Monday May 21st at 7:30PM to 9:00PM

    at – ATA at 992 Valencia Street near 21st Street, San Francisco.

    Email Marshall Weber at mweber@booklyn.org for more details.

    The event will feature National Disgrace founders Kit Young, Fred Rinne and Andy DeGiovanni provided musical back-up for a medley of ATA associated poems chosen from the early 1980’s and onward and recited vigorously by Weber.

    Click for more about Streetopia.

    poetrycart2web.jpg

    STREETOPIA (RE)COVERED POETRY WAGON ROUTE

    Sunday, May 20, 2012 at noon – roll-out at the corner of Capp Street and 21st Street.

    6:00PM – Tenderloin National Forest/509 Cultural Center (509 Ellis Street, S.F.) during the Ryder Cooley performance.

    Monday May 21, midnight – City Lights bookstore.

    Early morning – San Francisco Art Institute, stopping by Weber’s first home in SF at the corner of Taylor and Filbert.

    7:30PM – ATA at 992 Valencia Street for a National Disgrace reunion poetry and music show-down.

    Midnight – through the Haight to Golden Gate Park.

    Tuesday May 22

    Journey to the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Wednesday May 23

    Midnight – back to the Mission.

    The Streetopia (Re)Covered Poetry Wagon was constructed by the founders of the recently re-united National Disgrace performance art group/urban folk music band: Kit Young, Fred Rinne and Andy DeGiovanni.

    Weber will rely on the kindness of friends and strangers for food, drink and security.

    =================
    The poetry covered wagon (modeled after a Donner Party type / shopping cart hybrid) was constructed by the recently re-united National Disgrace performance art group/urban folk music band. Core group members and founders Kit Young, Fred Rinne and Andy DeGiovanni came together upon the request of parasitic sub-member Marshall Weber (also known as “Sprayboy” during his tenure in the band.) Weber’s divisive influence degraded the band down into an offensive series of spectral reflections of the original group ranging from the generously hated Jefferson Toilet Bowl, to the wrongly acclaimed Bringdowz (consult Bananafish for verification.)