Crosstown Arthouse Film Series

Lee Moses (1941-1998), a music prodigy, is considered one of the greatest unknown musicians among Baby Huey or Sixto Rodriguez (Sugar Man). He was part of a soul scene in Atlanta between the '60s and the '70s. His one album, Time and Place (1971), did not take off. During his time in New York, Moses played with greatest, including Jimi Hendrix and James Brown. His music has now garnered a community of appreciation. Songs such as “Bad Girl” was used in the 2014 French film House of Tolerance, and “If Loving You Is A Crime” was used in 2013 American film The Teacher. What makes his story remarkable is there’s not much to be found on Lee Moses. Even in his hometown of Atlanta, there are no physical traces of him. The locations where Moses once performed no longer exist. TIME AND PLACE aims to connect the time of Lee Moses with the place Atlanta is becoming now.

In John Waters’ POLYESTER (JOHN WATERS/1981/86 minutes), Divine is a suburban housewife who turns to the bottle when life gets too hard. She has a husband who runs a porno theater and two lousy children with serious problems of their own. Teen pregnancy, murder, cocaine, booze, Edith Massey the egg lady as Cuddles Kovinsky!, Stiv Bators (RIP!). From the Dead Boys as Bo-Bo Belsinger, dogs dead by apparent suicide, macrame (the craft!), and TAB HUNTER AS TODD TOMORROW (!!), THIS MOVIE IS TOO GOOD TO MISS!!  We are still unsure as to whether or not we will be able to present this film in its original format complete with Odorama, but we can assure viewers that there will be smells.

WITH A PIECE IN HIS HAND, HE TAKES ON THE MAN! The epochal cultural moment that first brought reggae to the international stage, made Jimmy Cliff a star, and demonstrated how music can change the world. Fifty years on, THE HARDER THEY COME is still electric with the feeling of discovery. This SCARFACE-y blend of crime drama and musical tracks Cliff’s country-boy-in-search-of-fame through Jamaica under the guises of laborer, recording artist, convict, ganja dealer, and outlaw folk hero. Before THE HARDER THEY COME, the collective perception of a “foreign film” was limited to the Bergmans and the Kurosawas of the world. This game-changer forever blew those doors off — and it still hasn’t lost a drop of its cool, its edge, or its way of making you dance.

BLUE COLLAR was Paul Schrader’s debut as a director, and making the movie reportedly literally drove him insane. BLUE COLLAR is a caper about three auto workers (Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto) who rob their union and unexpectedly uncover an illegal loan operation and ties to organized crime. BLUE COLLAR is about corruption, the impossible grind of the working class, powerlessness, and most definitely, the use of racial difference as a weapon by the oppressors against the oppressed.  

Directed by Otto Preminger and based on an Oscar Hammerstein musical, in turn based on the opera Carmen, CARMEN JONES tells the story of Carmen Jones , who works in a parachute factory in North Carolina during WWII.  Carmen is arrested for fighting with a co-worker who reported her for arriving late for work. Foreman Sgt. Brown assigns young soldier Joe to deliver her to the authorities, much to the dismay of Joe's fiancée Cindy Lou, who had agreed to marry him during his leave.  Carmen Jones features a Saul Bass title sequence and Diahann Carroll (Dominique Deveraux in the hit television show Dynasty)!