Whoops this was meant for a similarly named local list, otherwise I would have specified that this is in Chicago.
Still, Chicago, Milwaukee, Iowa City, other nearby folks hope you can come! (Maybe I should say ³attend² in this case?). pf On 1/17/13 3:19 PM, "Patrick Friel" <[email protected]> wrote: > > White Light Cinema Presents > > > Fred Halsted¹s L.A. PLAYS ITSELF > 1970¹s Gay Experimental-Porn Classic in an Ultra-Rare Version > > New High Definition Transfer of the Complete Uncut Film! > > > Two Screenings! > > Saturday, January 26 8:00pm > At The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.) > Co-Presented by The Nightingale > > Sunday, January 27 7:00pm > At Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.) > Introduced Via Skype by William E. Jones Author of Halsted Plays Himself > (see bio below) > > > > L.A. PLAYS ITSELF (1972, 51 min, New High Definition Transfer of 16mm) by Fred > Halsted > > > ³Fred Halsted clearly is the Ken Russell of S&M homoerotica.² (Variety) > > ³This film breaks all the stereotypes! I recommend it for all audiences.² > (William S. Burroughs) > > ³New information for me² (Salvador Dali) > > > > > White Light Cinema is pleased to begin its fifth year with a very rare > presentation of a new high definition transfer of the complete and uncut > version of Fred Halsted¹s famed and infamous 1972 gay porn film L.A. PLAYS > ITSELF. Although a part of the permanent film collection at the Museum of > Modern Art in New York, this rare version has never been released on home > video and has been screened publicly less than half a dozen times in the past > 30 years. > > The film was released at a rarified time in the history of x-rated cinema. > Pornographic films had only been legal to screen publicly for a couple of > years and both gay and straight variants had been looking to ³legitimize² > themselves through consciousness artistic flourishes. Wakefield Poole¹s Boys > in the Sand (1971) and Bijou (1972) led the way for gay adult films and Gerard > Damiano¹s Deep Throat (1972) exemplified the short-lived ³porno chic² era in > heterosexual porn that L.A. Plays Itself attempted to capitalize on, though > Halsted¹s film was conceived of and in production well before any of them. > Halsted hired a publicist for the film, held VIP advance screenings, and had > remarkable success for a low-budget, gritty, and very graphic gay porn film. > It was even screened at the Museum of Modern Art in 1974. > > Part of the success of the film, and part of its controversy, is Halsted¹s > unflinching portrait of the leather and S&M scene in Los Angeles in the second > half of the film. But, like the Poole films and the straight porno chic > straight films of the time, the film also had artistic ambitions. The first > half is a lyrical ode to lesser-seen sections of Halsted¹s beloved Los Angeles > and the surrounding ³countryside,² which was rapidly disappearing to > development. The film can be viewed almost as a city-symphony of sorts, a film > of landscape and cityscape, a film heralding some changes and lamenting > others. Throughout, it is also a film that plays with formexperimenting with > structure, editing, and sound in particular. While Halsted was not a trained > filmmaker and the film has a definite roughness, it is a roughness that > amplifies its themes and content, that functions like a queer art brut rather > than simply as poor craftsmanship. Hasted was too smart for that. He knew his > limitations and worked with them. > > > > > > ³In 1972 Fred Halsted released--perhaps unleashed is more apt--his hardcore > gay S&M porn film L.A. Plays Itself, a pioneering work of the genre and one > that surprisingly crossed over to achieve some mainstream attention and > acclaim for its aesthetic vision (it even screened at the Museum of Modern > Art). While L.A. is still known and discussed among scholars and cinephiles, > it is virtually impossible to see, apart from bootlegs of an out-of-print and > incomplete VHS release. For most people, it resides in distant memory or > speculative imagination.² (Patrick Friel, Afterimage) > > > > ³One of the only gay porn films acquired by the Museum of Modern Art's > permanent collection, Fred Halsted's L.A. PLAYS ITSELF marked a special moment > in early gay liberation, arriving before the commercial porn industry > eliminated traces of the avant-garde from its films. But make no mistake - the > film is hardcore - featuring hot and heavy graphic S&M sex scenes. Halsted > stars as a rough loner in a fast car, driving through Los Angeles stopping > along the way to hook up with hot hustlers, rough trade and sexy studs. At one > New York screening, Salvador Dali left the theater muttering new information > for me.¹² (Outfest) > > > ³Born in Long Beach in 1941 and raised all over the state of California, Fred > Halsted rarely left his adopted city of Los Angeles. Capturing the city as few > other films could, L.A. Plays Itself (1972), Halsted¹s first film, has come to > be regarded as a classic within the genre of gay porn. Its images of beautiful > young men in sylvan Malibu Canyon and boy hustlers on the mean streets of > Hollywood gained for Halsted the kind of celebrity than simply isn¹t possible > today. Fred Halsted never held a regular job; he didn¹t teach; he had no > gallery representation; he had no agent; he didn¹t shoot commercials or > advertising campaigns; he didn¹t even have a social security number. He made > films and performed in them, published a magazine (Package), ran a sex club > (Halsted¹s), and became a legendary sex radical and provocateur.² (Light > Industry) > > > > The Sunday screening will be introduced via Skype by William E. Jones: > William E. Jones is an artist and filmmaker born in Ohio and now living and > working in Los Angeles. He has made two feature length experimental films, > Massillon (1991) and Finished (1997), the documentary Is It Really So Strange? > (2004), videos including The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography > (1998) and many installations. His work has been the subject of > retrospectives at Tate Modern (2005), Anthology Film Archives (2010), the > Austrian Film Museum and Oberhausen Short Film Festival (both 2011). His > group shows include the 1993 and 2008 Whitney Biennials, the 53rd Venice > Biennale (2009), and ³Untitled (Death by Gun)² at the 12th Istanbul Biennial > (2011). He has published the following books: Is It Really So Strange? > (2006), Tearoom (2008), Selections from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert > Burton (2008) Heliogabalus (2009), ³Killed²: Rejected Images of the Farm > Security Administration (2010), and Halsted Plays Himself (2011). > > > > > 2K transfer created by Joe Rubin of www.processblue.tv > <http://www.processblue.tv> . > > > > > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > Admission: $7.00-10.00 sliding scale each night. > > > Website: www.whitelightcinema.com > > > > > > _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
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