(Patrick McGuinn in person)
Valpurnis: SatURan (2017, 60 min. Color) Bellowing from the mind of creator Christ Opherstein, this surreal Desert Rock Opera (filmed in Tucson) hurls its politics and religion in your face along with the acid anger of those disenfranchised by society. Judas has sold Jesus to the Romans, and during the Last Supper, reflections of identity, guilt, entitlement and outrage, Judas’ ten songs take the audience hostage for a bumpy, blindfolded ride in the back of an open jeep. Gentle Jesus in various manifestations counters the rage with somber songs of resignation. Opening the filmed Opus is a pre-movie live 30 minute set of distinctly different pop songs, amounting to a highly unusual night of music assault. Brace yourself for the blood of Christ! Afterwards, join cast, crew & director for a Q&A

(GIRL CRUSH SERIES)

Top off the month with this hard-hitting independent film about three young Navajos striving to escape hardship on the reservation: a young man whose life is entwined in gang violence, a young woman who was adopted by a white family as a child, and a two-spirit sex worker struggling to survive in a transphobic world. Director Sydney Freeland, herself a Navajo trans woman on the rise in Hollywood (see her beautiful 2016 web series Her Story), will be there in person for a Q&A.

(GIRL CRUSH SERIES)

A beautiful American spy (played by the fabulous Chesty Morgan) can murder men by smothering them with her enormous breasts. This trashy 70s sexploitation film, directed by the legendary Doris Wishman, is a feminist cult classic. Enjoy Wishman’s bizarre experimental cinematography, far-out plot twists and wild 1970’s camp! With special opening performance by local queer trans* lesbian woman of color stripperformance artist Rambo Reza!

(GIRL CRUSH SERIES is co-presented with The U of A’s School of Theatre, Film and Television; Women’s Resource Center; Student Affairs; Institute for LGBT Studies; Gender & Women Studies; Hanson Film Institute)

Start Women’s History Month off right by joining us for Cheryl Dunye’s brilliant and self-reflexive speculative documentary about her quest to find queer black women’s film history – it’s also, amazingly, the first Black-woman-directed film ever to receive a wide theatrical release.

(GIRL CRUSH SERIES is co-presented with The U of A’s School of Theatre, Film and Television; Women’s Resource Center; Student Affairs; Institute for LGBT Studies; Gender & Women Studies; Hanson Film Institute)

Start Women’s History Month off right by joining us for Cheryl Dunye’s brilliant and self-reflexive speculative documentary about her quest to find queer black women’s film history – it’s also, amazingly, the first Black-woman-directed film ever to receive a wide theatrical release.

Pasolini’s  Salo, 120 Days in Sodom w/ live sound by Jasper Avery of Sunfucked + Luther Price’s Sodom.

It’s been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . it’s also a masterpiece! Tucson electronic muse Sunfucked accompanies the Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film, Salò. Set in 1944 Fascist Italy, this transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and degradation in 1944’s fascist Italy remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in. Opening the show is Luther Price’s 15 minute Super-8 masterpiece Sodom (1989), a brutal assemblage of gay porn footage, dumpster dived from behind buildings in Boston’s Combat Zone. Not only does Price mash up scenes of hardcore sex with footage from biblical films and shots of flames, he also punches holes in the film strip, taping shots of heads or penises back into them and drawing more attention to the surface, the materiality of the film itself. As film critic J. Hoberman put it succinctly, Sodom “could be the illumination of Jerry Falwell’s unconscious.”

It’s been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . it’s also a masterpiece! Tucson electronic muse Sunfucked accompanies the Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film, Salò. Set in 1944 Fascist Italy, this transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and degradation in 1944’s fascist Italy remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in. Opening the show is Luther Price’s 15 minute Super-8 masterpiece Sodom (1989), a brutal assemblage of gay porn footage, dumpster dived from behind buildings in Boston’s Combat Zone. Not only does Price mash up scenes of hardcore sex with footage from biblical films and shots of flames, he also punches holes in the film strip, taping shots of heads or penises back into them and drawing more attention to the surface, the materiality of the film itself. As film critic J. Hoberman put it succinctly, Sodom “could be the illumination of Jerry Falwell’s unconscious.”

(Dane Haiken in Person)

Program Director of Chicago’s Full Spectrum Films, Dane Haiken returns to his hometown Tucson with CHICAGOLAND SHORTS VOL 2.  This new collection of award-winning short films made by women, people of color and people in the LGBT community spans genres of narrative, experimental, dance, and documentary and represent some of the most original and innovative voices in Chicago. These include up-and-coming talents as well as established auteurs, whose award-winning films have screened at festivals nationally and internationally including Cannes, Tribeca, Sundance, Berlin, Vienna, Rotterdam, and Chicago International. Featuring: Jennifer Reeder’s Girls Love Horses,  Shiri Burson’s Ayinde’s Video Game,  Eunhye Hong Kim’s The Fever  and more!!

A true cult classic that has shocked, excited and amazed audiences worldwide! Witness if you dare, the world’s only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla. Ecstasy so great that all heaven and hell becomes just one big old Shangri-La!…Not recommended for those with tender sensibilities,Thundercrack! fully exposes itself with trash-noir lighting through which to peer at the pickles, the puke and the polymorphs. Thundercrack! is a poly/homo/heterosexual XXX black comedy directed by Curt McDowell and written by legendary underground filmmaker George Kuchar. On a dark and stormy night, a group of strangers find themselves stranded at a remote mansion, so they soon indulge in swapping bizarre personal stories – and bodily fluids. Channeling the rambunctious sexual anarchy coursing through the SF’s  underground milieu of the ’70s and crass, sick and hilarious, this no-budget b&w feature is filled with the essence of pure, undiluted cinematic derangement. This film is for mature audiences only!

(Barbara Hammer in person) $10, $6 with U of A id

We are thrilled to host Barbara Hammer who is perhaps the greatest and most prolific living “first generation” lesbian experimental filmmaker. Uncompromising and innovative,  a visual artist working primarily in film and video, Barbara Hammer has made over 80 moving image works in a career that spans 40 years. Tonight we will screen a program of Hammer’s films that sample her trailblazing political and aesthetic practice from the 1970’s to the present. Films will include Dyketactics, No No Nooky TV, Sanctus, Maya Deren’s Sink and more.