Tag: Crosstown Arthouse Film Series

Crosstown Arthouse presents THE QUEEN (1968)

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

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

More than 40 years before RuPaul’s Drag Race, the ground-breaking documentary THE QUEEN is about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes us backstage to kiki with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas in the lead-up to the big event. Organized by LGBTQ icon and activist Flawless Sabrina, the competition boasted a star-studded panel of judges including Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, and Terry Southern.. But perhaps most memorable is an epic diatribe calling out the pageant’s bias delivered by Crystal LaBeija, who would go on to form the influential House of LaBeija, heavily featured in Paris Is Burning (1990). A vibrant piece of queer history, The Queen can now be seen in full resplendence thanks to a new restoration from the original camera negative.

Crosstown Arthouse presents A Face in the Crowd

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

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

A FACE IN THE CROWD chronicles the rise and fall of Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith), a boisterous entertainer discovered in an Arkansas drunk tank by Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), a local radio producer with ambitions of her own. His charisma and cunning soon shoot him to the heights of television stardom and political demagoguery, forcing Marcia to grapple with the manipulative, reactionary monster she has created. Directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Budd Schulberg, this incisive satire features an extraordinary debut screen performance by Griffith, who brandishes his charm in an uncharacteristically sinister role. Though the film was a flop on its initial release, subsequent generations have marveled at its eerily prescient diagnosis of the toxic intimacy between media and politics in American life.

Crosstown Arthouse presents Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

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

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am is an artful and intimate meditation on legendary storyteller Toni Morrison. It examines her life, her works, and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career. Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, history, America and the human condition.

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Grindhouse Features: SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

BRAND-NEW 4K RESTORATION! Included in MoMA’s permanent collection and considered to be among the most significant features ever by an African-American filmmaker, SWEET SWEETBACK is a brutal and shocking story of survival and is credited as one of the first blaxploitation films.

Director/writer/producer/editor/composer Melvin Van Peebles stars as a black orphan raised in a brothel and groomed to be a sex show performer. Set up by his boss and two corrupt cops for a murder he didn’t commit, Sweetback escapes custody and is thrust into an increasingly hallucinogenic world of violence and bigotry where no one can be trusted, and the possibility of death lurks at every corner…Cos Featuring a rousing score from a nascent Earth, Wind, & Fire, as well as surrealist visuals from stalwart genre cinematographer Robert Maxwell (THE CANDY SNATCHERS), Van Peebles creates an unforgettable study of perseverance in the face of racism.

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Avant-Garde Cinema: ERASERHEAD

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

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

This is it — David Lynch’s 1977 avant-horror masterpiece, ERASERHEAD.  Henry (JACK NANCE!) finds out he has a child with someone he isn’t quite sure he has been with.  Henry invites his girlfriend and the baby to come live with him in his apartment. Dad, mom, and baby bring to life every nightmare you have ever had — on the big screen. Come for the monster baby, and stay for the lady in the radiator singing the great Peter Ivers’ “In Heaven.”

Crosstown Arthouse Presents Women in Horror: THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features. This week: THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE

Films begin at 7:30 pm sharp.
Tickets are $5 (at the door only)

Amy Holden Jones turned down an editing job on E.T. to direct this movie. She made the right choice! Rita Mae Brown wrote the screenplay of THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE sometime between when she wrote the classic lesbian coming-of-age tale Rubyfruit Jungle and her long series of cat mystery novels. SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE was intended to be a commentary on the inherent sexism of the slasher genre but was filmed completely straight. THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE is a terrific inside joke that also delivers the goods as a skid row photocopy of HALLOWEEN, complete with a killer who’s figuratively castrated when the tip of his power drill is hacked off.  With its stylized photography, plot points involving pizza and an endlessly cool homemade synth score, THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE is a drop-dead masterpiece of subversive trash-horror.