Part of the year-long 69 series.

Northwest Film Forum
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
8:00 PM

16mm (original format) / 71 min.

A selection of landmarks in avant film from 1969, featuring classic short works by many of the year’s greatest pioneering artists. Featuring classic “analog” films and examples of the birth of digital cinema, with early video art and even some of the first digital computer animation ever made.

Watch streaming video and more info about the artists and films

Invocation of My Demon Brother
Kenneth Anger, with synthesizer soundtrack by Mick Jagger
His last film for 21 years.

Our Lady of the Sphere
Larry Jordan
Surreal cut-out animation by a master

Moon 1969
Scott Bartlett
Mesmerizing video/film art

Le Labyrinthe
Piotr Kamler, with electronic score by Bernard Parmegiani
created for Pierre Schaeffer’s ORTF in Paris

Binary Bit Patterns
Michael Whitney
Pioneering digital computer animation

Beatles Electronique
Electronic Moon no. 2
Jud Yalkut and Nam June Paik
Visionary video art

Hermann Nitsch: An Introduction to the O.M. Theatre
Stephen Gebhardt
A shocking documentary of the ground-breaking Aktionist performance artist and composer

Part of the year-long 69 Series.

Northwest Film Forum
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
8:00 PM

16mm (original format) / 88 min.

A schizoid sampling of the incredibly diverse underground documentary and newsreel film scenes in 1969. The Black Panthers meet Pentecostal Christians amidst the psychedelic ruins of Chicago’s Democratic Convention Riots. Plus, a rarely-shown early interview with the legendary Kuchar Brothers.

Just added: Fallout Shelter Analysis by Computer Graphics, a Dept. of Defense instructional film for what was then a cutting-edge computer interface using a “light pen” stylus.

Testimony
Brian Patrick
A group of Pentecostal Christians in Athens, Ohio

Mayday!
California Newsreel
A “Free Huey” rally held by the Black Panthers in San Francisco, on the May 1 international labor holiday. Crypto-commie perennial Bob Avakian makes an appearance at the microphone as well.

Legendary Epic Yarns and Fables, Part 4: The Kuchar Brothers
Stephen Gebhardt
A no-holds-barred interview with the legendary underground exploitation filmmakers

Leo Beuerman
Gene Boomer
An Oscar-nominated look at the life of a severely handicapped man in Lawrence, Kansas

Campaign
Tom Palazollo
The 1968 Democratic Convention and its aftermath as seen through a local experimental lens

Just added!
Fallout Shelter Analysis by Computer Graphics
University of Utah Computer Center, for ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), US Dept. of Defense

Grand Illusion Cinema
Friday, October 30, 2009

Carnivorous Cartoons, Shocking Shorts, Asphyxiating Animation, Terrifying Trailers, Putrescent Previews…and Real Live Mayhem!

Do you dare to witness the ultimate onslaught of MONSTER MAYHEM as the Grand Illusion Cinema is overrun with creeps, spooks, ghouls, and fiends? Join us on our journey into the strange, dark world of the SUPERNATURAL as we try to make contact with the other side and invite the diabolical denizens of the spectral realms into our theater. You will see a GHOST! But you may not SURVIVE! Be there on October 30th and behold as the phantoms take over the screen for a night of the most unbelievably SHOCKING, THRILLING, and AMAZING fright films ever to scream their way into your rapidly melting mind. Can you survive the GRAND ILLUSION SPOOK-SHOW SPECTACULAR? See if you have what it takes!!

Poster for 'Zorro's Fighting Legion', 12 chapter movie serial

It’s official — The Sprocket Society will be curating Secret Sunday Matinee II at the Northwest Film Forum this spring, March 1 – May 24, 2009!

Now at a later time — 3 PM (by popular demand).  Each show will be a full two hours of classic and rare movie entertainment.  Series passes will be available.

Our movie serial this time will be Zorro’s Fighting Legion (1939), one of the all-time classics from the legendary Republic Studios, packed with literally non-stop action and featuring legendary stunt work.

The Secret Features — dating from the 1920s through the 1950s or so — will lean toward westerns, adventure, and swashbucklers, but we’ve got some curveballs in mind to keep you on your toes.  There will be two all-silent film programs (except for the serial, of course), and the return of the 13th Episode Show, a series-finale cavalcade of extra-special surprises.

The shows will remain family-friendly (suggested for ages 10 and up), but we’ll be aiming for a slightly older audience this time — sort of a kiddie matinee for grown-ups.

No self-respecting weekend matinee would be caught in public without its shorts, and there are even more surprising and rare treasures in store this time around — silents and sound, cartoons, comedies, music, trick films, experimental animation, and the just plain odd.

Watch this site for more info soon…