Charles Pinon, 1996, USA, 54 min

A con artist is held captive by an unhinged cannibal family that ingests copious quantities of hallucinogenic, green fungal goo covertly harnessed from an otherworldly, sentient crystal housed in their third third floor apartment of horrors. Featuring a man who willfully chooses to be a dog, sexual stimulation via blowtorch, and a corpulent, nude and blood soaked Godzilla-sized Jesus; We Await is a shot on video, urban riff on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that slowly descends into a psycho sexual, drug-fueled, analog aurora borealis nightmare like no other. Starring director Pinion, adult filmmaker David Aaron Clark, visual artist Alyssa Taylor Wendt, and boasting a blistering soundtrack featuring music by Crash Worship, Neurosis, and Unsane. Special $15 double feature option!

Charles Pinion, 1993, USA, 69 min

After a vengeful sorceress is tortured and killed by a corrupt industrialist looking to harnass the spectral powers of Red Spirit Lake, her niece arrives in snow covered Angel Falls to settle her aunt's estate. A meditation on The Old Dark House replete with UFO abductions, castration, frank nudity, witchcraft, fatal fistings, and slughterous saunas; Red Spirit Lake is a cacophony of subversive hyper violence, psychotic surrealism, salacious sexual choas, and picturesque winter vistas featuring acting performances by a cavalcade of legendary Cinema of Transgression era artists and filmmakers including Richard Kern, Holly Adams, Kembra Pfahler, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, and Tommy Turner as well as an insurgent soundtrack featuring music by Cop Shoot Cop, Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin, and The Lunachicks. Special $15 double feature option!

Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia, 1964, 67 min

With this simultaneously harrowing and lyrical debut feature, Jan Němec established himself as the most uncompromising visionary among the radical filmmakers who made up the Czechoslovak New Wave. Adapted from a novel by Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night closely tracks two boys who escape from a concentration-camp transport and flee into the surrounding woods, hostile terrain where the brute realities of survival coexist with dreams, memories, and fragments of visual poetry. Along with visceral camera work by Jaroslav Kučera and Miroslav Ondříček—two of Czechoslovak cinema’s most influential cinematographers—Němec makes inventive use of fractured editing, elliptical storytelling, and flights of surrealism as he strips context away from this bare-bones tale, evoking the panicked delirium of consciousness lost in night and fog.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2002, Japan, 115 min // FREE SCREENING

Four by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Enigmatic Mamoru (Tadanobu Asano) lives alone with his poisonous but hauntingly luminous jellyfish that stings anyone getting too close. Mamoru’s intense antisocial behavior is echoed by his co-worker and sole friend, Yuji (Jô Odagiri). They also share a dislike for their excessively solicitous boss, Fujiwara. However, and inextricably, Mamoru takes matters to the extreme, murdering both Fujiwara and his wife. With Mamoru in prison awaiting execution, Yuji is entrusted with the care of the lethal jellyfish, becoming attached to the strange creature while continuing with Mamoru’s previous efforts to acclimate the saltwater animal to thrive in freshwater.

Martin Rejtman, 1999, Argentina, 92 min // FREE SCREENING

Latin American Film Festival of Dallas is proud to present the LAFFD Film Club. Once a month we will show a classic Latin American film!

Silvia Prieto sells soap to passersby in busy city squares, pores over phone books to find women who share her name, and won’t concede to settle down with either of the boyish men in her orbit. Rejtman’s radiant second feature, which follows Silvia (played by the singer Rosario Bléfari) for a short stretch of her life in Buenos Aires, is a comedy of details—the statue that supposedly resembles Silvia and passes from owner to owner; the blazer Silvia permanently borrows from a wealthy male admirer; the chicken she buys every night—and occasional, quiet epiphanies. Silvia Prieto is one of the jewels of recent Argentine cinema, and perhaps Rejtman’s most perfectly realized film to date.

With directors Matt Peterson & Malek Rasamny in attendance for an introduction and Q&A following the screening. This screening is held at 901 Fort Worth Ave, Dallas, Texas 75208. Free but suggested $10-$15 donation at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds!

Shot between 2014 to 2017, SPACES OF EXCEPTION observes and juxtaposes the communities and struggles of the American Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp. It visits reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota, as well camps in Lebanon and the West Bank, “places defined by their historical and spiritual resistance” in order to “understand the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.” The film compiles interviews with members of the American Indian Movement, the Mohawk Warrior Society, and Diné families resisting displacement on Black Mesa, as well as members of Fatah, Palestinian environmental and media activists, autonomous youth committees, and the families of political prisoners and martyrs. Directed by Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny, it is an attempt to understand the significance of the land—its memory and divisions—and the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty. While the histories are distinct, dispossession and loss unite these communities in solidarity, and the alternating stories highlight both their unique tragedies and their revolutionary commonalities. Mostly eschewing archival footage, SPACES OF EXCEPTION showcases the present, in which each day lived is itself an act of resistance.

Ester Krumbachová, 1970, Czechoslovakia, 72 min

She is in her forties – or near them –  and life isn’t at all what she expected. Maybe a trip down memory lane could help? In her younger days there had been a splendid young man, Bohouš Čert whom she fancied and who had also seemed interested in her. And so, she looks for and finds Bohouš Čert, who is now Engineer Čert. He has become pretentious, arrogant, self-involved – a nightmare. And still, she thinks it has to be this cretinous creature who will lead her to the altar.

Murdering the Devil remains the sole directorial effort of art director and costume designer Ester Krumbachová.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999, Japan, 103 min // FREE SCREENING

Masquerading as an ecological thriller, Kurosawa’s fascinating philosophical study of the self is fractal-like in its complexity and elegance. After botching a high-profile hostage negotiation, Goro Yabuike is forced to go on vacation. After missing his bus, he encounters a rare tree specimen that one seeks to destroy, another who would protect at all costs, and government goons who seek to kill and preserve it.

Four by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

A double feature from Texas collective dontwatchtheclock! Followed by a post-screening live Q&A.

CAN WE TALK?

Mark Lopez, 2023, USA, 11 minutes

Personal Issues and ideological differences, during a fifteen minute break, push a film production to the verge of collapse.

"HALF TAB"

William Zamaripa & Natan Makonnen, 2023, USA, 46 minutes

Synopsis: After not seeing him for seven years, Amir goes to New York to meet his childhood best friend, Nike, in hopes of convincing him to take acid to reconnect.

Local Texas collective Dontwatchtheclock Texas Shorts Showcase featuring a live Q&A with the directors // Total runtime: 120 min

"HOMEWORK": A house full of irritable twenty-somethings and their obnoxious shih tzu navigate through a typical Friday, meandering around in search of something to break the boredom.

"DAILIES": After throwing a party the night before, Abiy and Joseph decide to abandon their obligations and spend a peaceful Sunday together.

"BEST WORK YET": Ignoring their struggle to make rent, three kleptomaniacs travel to a punk show across town, pissing off Austin locals every step of the way.

“Can We Talk” Personal Issues and ideological differences, during a fifteen minute break, push a film production to the verge of collapse.

Carol Mansour, 2023, Lebanon, 72 min // FREE SCREENING

Aida (the director’s mother) struggles with Alzheimer’s and loss of memory, frequently “returning” to Yafa of her youth, until her eventual final return. It is a tribute to the past and an attempt to restore individual and collective memory of Palestinians prevented from return, even after death.

Khaled Jarrar, 2012, Palestine, 70 min // FREE SCREENING

A visceral Road Movie that chronicles the daily travails of Palestinians of all backgrounds as they seek routes through, under, around, and over a bewildering matrix of barriers.

Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977, Japan, 88 min

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet.

Nikos Nikolaidis, Greece, 1990, 111 min

Safe Word

On a dark and stormy night, Mother and Daughter, a wealthy pair of psychopathic killers with a penchant for murdering their servants, happen upon a badly injured man laying dying in the mud. Bringing him back to their opulent villa, they begin nursing him back to health before subjecting him to every manner of torture imaginable. But as each of the twisted duo develops their own unique interest in their mysterious victim, a perverse love triangle begins to unfold that will lead to shocking revelations. As staggeringly beautiful as it is notorious, Nikos Nikolaidis' acclaimed SINGAPORE SLING is a grotesque, sensual, and altogether unforgettable genre cinema gem from one of Greece's key arthouse auteurs. New 4K restoration from Vinegar Syndrome!

Join us for this nonsensical double feature of the 20th anniversary of Ryan Trecartin's A Family Finds Entertainment paired with Dylan Mars Greenberg's epic fantasy nightmare Spirit Riser! Stay tuned for a virtual Q&A with Spirit Riser's director Dylan Mars Greenberg

The double feature will be 140 min (total)

Ryan Trecartin’s film A Family Finds Entertainment is a camp extravaganza of epic proportions. Starring Trecartin’s family and friends, and the artist himself in a plethora of outrageous roles, A Family Finds Entertainment chronicles the story of mixed up teenager Skippy and his adventures in ‘coming out’. In this over the top celebration of queerness, Trecartin’s film mines the bizarre and endearing in an unabashed pastiche of ‘bad tv’ tropes. Cheesy video special effects, dress-up chess costumes, desperate scripts, and ‘after school special’ melodrama combine in the fluency of youth-culture lingo, reflecting a generation both damaged and affirmed by media consumption.

Two sisters are thrown out of their isolation and onto opposite coasts of America by a terrifying cosmic entity. While one sister suffers from memory loss and the other is too young to understand her own past, the girls discover they possess supernatural powers as they are pursued by the mysterious and unearthly being hell–bent on their destruction. Spirit Riser is a genre-bending fantasy with elements of horror, comedy, action, surrealism, and martial arts from rising New York City filmmaker Dylan Mars Greenberg.

Cleo Uebelmann, 1986, Switzerland & Italy, 53 min

Safe Word

A lesbian art film by the Swiss filmmaker Cleo Übelmann. In black and white, Mano Destra (Italian for “right hand”) is a study of erotic objectification which depicts one woman tying up another woman in a lengthy act of consensual bondage.

Iván Zulueta, 1979, Spain, 115 min

ARREBATO’s dimension-shattering blend of heroin, sex, and Super-8 is the final word on cinemania. This towering feat of counterculture was the final feature of cult filmmaker and movie poster designer Iván Zulueta - is a film without genre, and is Pedro Almodóvar’s favorite horror film!

Horror movie director José is adrift in a sea of doubt and drugs. As his belated second feature nears completion, his reclusive bubble is popped by two events: a sudden reappearance from an ex-girlfriend and a package from past acquaintance Pedro: a reel of Super-8 film, an audiotape, and a door key. From there, the boundaries of time, space, and sexuality are erased as José is once more sucked into Pedro’s vampiric orbit. Together, they attempt the ultimate hallucinogenic catharsis through a moebius strip of filming and being filmed.

Takeshi Kitano, 1997, Japan, 103 min // FREE SCREENING

Four by Kitano

Feeling responsible for the shattered lives of his loved ones, beleaguered police detective Nishi (Takeshi Kitano) takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With his wife suffering from leukemia and his partner paralyzed from a brutal gangster attack, Nishi borrows money from a yakuza loan shark and then robs a bank to clear his debt. The yakuza, however, are not so easily bought off, sending Nishi down a road paved with nihilism and violence. Considered Kitano's first true cinematic masterpiece, HANA-BI demonstrates the auteur's immense talents both in front of and behind the camera.

Sarah Jacobson, 1996, United States, 98 min

The punk-spirited films of Sarah Jacobson combine B-movie aesthetics, riot grrrl feminism, and the DIY ethos of the 1990s zine scene into unfiltered and subversive looks at female rebellion. MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, Jacobson's only feature film, is a vibrant and vital antidote to every phony Hollywood teen picture, bringing lo-fi authenticity to the coming-of-age genre as a young woman (Lisa Gerstein) navigates the less-than-glamorous realities of love and sex with a frankness rarely seen on-screen.

50% of ticket sales donated to Is It Real? Contemporary Artists Address Reproductive Freedom

Agnès Varda, 1977, France, 121 min

Agnès Varda’s unsung feminist anthem is both a buoyant chronicle of a transformative friendship and an empowering vision of universal sisterhood. When seventeen-year-old Pauline helps struggling mother of two Suzanne procure the money for an abortion, a deep bond forms between the two, one that endures over the course of more than a decade as each searches for her place in the world—encountering the dawning of the women’s movement, dreamy boho musical numbers, and an Iranian adventure along the way. Initially divisive for its sunny, idealized view of female liberation, One Sings, the Other Doesn’t now seems all the more radical—and all the more vital—for its unabashedly utopian spirit.

50% of ticket sales donated to Is It Real? Contemporary Artists Address Reproductive Freedom

Sapphics And Lesbians Alliance present Jennifer's Body!

Karyn Kusama, 2009, USA, 102 min

When a demon takes possession of her, high-school hottie Jennifer (Megan Fox) turns a hungry eye on guys who never stood a chance with her before.

FREE SCREENING with sliding scale donation of $2-$10

• Zelle: 972-363-5897

• Cashapp & Venmo: springbreakers

Takeshi Kitano, 1993, Japan, 94 min // FREE SCREENING

Four by Kitano

In SONATINE, the filmmaker and star (under his acting name Beat Takeshi), plays a middle-aged yakuza gangster named Murakama who is considering retirement. Reluctantly, he accepts an assignment from his mobster boss to go to Okinawa to settle a dispute between two rival factions. With his lieutenant, Takahashi (Kenichi Yajima), he enlists a bunch of brash young thugs to accompany him. Once they reach Okinawa, Murakama begins to suspect that he himself is in danger of being murdered by rivals eager to appropriate his turf.

Scooter McCrae, 2024, USA, 85 min

Join us for the Dallas premiere of underground auteur Scooter McCrae's latest transgressive vision, BLACK EYED SUSAN, the director's first feature in 25 years which sees him abandoning the shot-on-VHS haze of Shatter Dead & Sixteen Tongues in favor of lucious 16mm film. Features a brand new score by the legendary Italian composer Fabio Frizzi (The Beyond, Gates of Hell, The Psychic, Blastfighter).

Takeshi Kitano, 1990, Japan, 97 min // FREE SCREENING

Four by Kitano

In enfant terrible Takeshi Kitano’s explosive second feature film, Masaki (Yûrei Yanagi) is an unassuming gas station attendant and amateur baseball player for underdog team The Eagles. After he enrages a local yakuza, setting off a feud between the gangsters and his coach, Masaki heads to Okinawa on a haphazard quest for guns with his friend Kazuo (Dancan). There they are befriended by the uber-eccentric yakuza boss Uehara (played by Kitano), who initiates them into the strange and brutal world of organized crime.

Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977, Japan, 88 min

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet.

Luis Buñuel, France, 1967, 100 min

Safe Word

Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her after­noon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.

Takeshi Kitano, 1989, Japan, 103 min // FREE SCREENING

Four by Kitano

In his explosive directorial debut Japanese renaissance man-cum-comedian-extraordinaire Takeshi "Beat" Kitano plays vicious rogue homicide Detective Azuma who takes on a sadistic crime syndicate only to discover widespread internal corruption in the police force. Facing criminal charges for his unorthodox "Dirty Harry" type methods, Azuma finds himself caught in a web of betrayal and intrigue that sends him on a bloody trail of vengeance. But when his sister is kidnapped by a sadistic drug lord, Azuma’s tactics escalate towards an apocalyptic climax.