Crosstown Arthouse Film Series

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)!

David Byrne makes his directorial debut with TRUE STORIES, a movie loosely based around drawings Bryne had made about tabloid stories. Byrne is the main narrator as he traverses through the town of Virgil, Texas, as they prepare for the “Celebration of Specialness.”  With Spalding Gray (Swimming to Cambodia!! Farmer’s Daughters!!) and Pops Staples!!!

You know that story "Little Red Riding Hood"? You know that girl who works over at the City Thrift on Summer? The one with the creepy stepdad and the mom who hooks up by Tee Jay’s? The one who’s always talking about blowing Memphis to go live with her me-maw in a trailer park in […]

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Jane Fonda (Cat Ballou, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, Barbarella) stars as a groovy call girl and wannabe actress who may or may not be connected to a dead john (who ran a chemical company by day). Donald Sutherland (MASH,  The Kentucky Fried Movie) plays the title character Klute, a detective brought in by a chemical company executive to find out what really happened. Co-starring Roy Scheider (Jaws, Jaws II) as Jane Fonda’s pimp. Also co-starring the super-fun and sleazy NYC of the 1970s. Klute won a lot of Oscars, but don’t hold that against it. IT IS A GREAT MOVIE ANYWAY!! 

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** The event is postponed until further notice.

Tokyo Knights  is about a boy named Koji who is good at, well, everything. Koji’s pop passes, and Koji goes home to take over his family's “construction business,” crush it at school, and get the truth as to what happened with his daddy. The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
It's probably enough just to say "David Lynch," but let’s hit on some of Wild at Heart's high points, like the stars of the movie: Laura Dern (Foxes; Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains); Nicolas Cage (Valley Girl); Thrashers Powermad playing Elvis Presley; Diane Ladd (Laura Dern’s real-life mother) manically covering her face with lipstick; Crispin Glover (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, River’s Edge) as Jingle Dale; Laura Dern’s cousin, who wants Christmas to be all year long and puts cockroaches in his own underwear; Harry Dean Stanton (Alien, Repo Man, Red Dawn) as Diane Ladd’s pathetic lover; Sherilyn Fenn (The Wraith, Two Moon Junction) in one the best and most traumatic Lynch car wreck scenes ever put to screen; Willem Dafoe (Streets of Fire, The Last Temptation of Christ) as Bobby Peru; a cameo by Laura Palmer herself (Sheryl Lee) as the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz; Koko Taylor singing a song written by Lynch and composed by longtime collaborator Angelo Badalamenti; and CJack Nance (Eraserhead!!) as a random crazy dude with an invisible dog in a trailer park. The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning documents African-American and Latinx drag culture in 1980s New York City. Focusing on ballroom competition culture, Paris is Burning introduced the rest of America to voguing. Beautifully shot in 16mm,  the film told the stories of gay and trans people of color and how, after being rejected by their families and straight society, they managed to find accepting family units and ways to survive (which sometimes included shoplifting and sex work). Paris is Burning was the inspiration for the television show Pose. The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.