WITCHCRAFT, DRUGS & ROCK'N'ROLL

Two nights of 16mm mondo-weirdo cinema supplied & introduced by American film writer Jack Stevenson Friday 9th June 2006 Doors 7.30pm, tickets 7UKP/5UKP Early slot - Witchcraft Through the Ages (75 min. plus introduction) Late Slot - The Birth of Rock 'n' roll (90 min) plus introduction Sunday 11th June Doors 7.30pm, tickets 7UKP/5UKP Movies With Roots In Hell - The Effects of Drugs on American Cinema for further film details please click here :

WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES This macabre 1922 masterpiece stands as the most extreme and controversial work of silent cinema - and one of the most visionary. A perennially revived cult favorite, it often materializes around Halloween and still manages to enchant modern viewers. It was a work of obsession created in mysterious circumstances and its Danish director Benjamin Christensen led a life that was almost equally as mysterious. The introduction to this film is based on a book Stevenson (A Danish resident) has just completed about Christensen which draws on research into original Danish source material and brings to light heretofore unexamined aspects of the story. Note: We will be showing the shorter 1967 "Sound" version of the film which was created by legendary London film booker and beatnik, Anthony Balch who persuaded William Burroughs to do narration and Jean-Luc Ponty and Daniel Humair to cut a soundtrack. This led to a much celebrated UK revival of the film in 1968 - after decades of banishment. Film time 75 minutes, plus introduction. PLUS THE BIRTH OF ROCK & ROLL (AKA ATTACK OF THE STRINGED INSTRUMENTS) This historic, exciting, up-tempo compilation of trailers, shorts, jukebox movies & TV show outtakes sidetracks into various genres such as jazz, pop, soul and novelty acts, but the main focus is on rock 'n' roll - it's birth and its snotty younger years when it was still an amateur teenage phenomenon and when all the top rocks could be brought together on one TV sound stage instead of a football stadium. Along the way we meet the likes of Buddy Rich, Les Paul and The Temptations (and many others) although the primary focus falls on a young Elvis Presley casting his twitchy black magic voodoo spell on a late -50's American public from various TV sound stages. The program in it's entirety draws some compelling connections between the early hit-makers of the 30's and 40's and the new generation of 50's/60's rock rebels, probing some strange cul-de-sacs of America's pop-culture past in the process. PART ONE: EARLY ELVIS TV APPEARENCE REEL - from 1957, b/w 24 minutes of chat and song performances from the very start of his career include All Shook Up, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, Love Me, Peace in the Valley, Hound Dog and more.., These extracts were taken from the Charles Laughton and Ed Sullivan TV shows.. an over-powering dose of early Elvis magic. BRIEF INTERMISSION PART TWO - MIXED FEATURE LENGTH SHOW: includes about 20 rare items from the archives that include a nameless Chinese guy screeching out 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby' back in 1926 while abusing his Ukulele ... EDDY PEABODY sets the girls on fire with his 'rock 'n' roll Banjo' and ADALE GIRARD strokes a blues tune out of her stand-up harp while a slinky gal dancer dressed as a sexy cat sashays about obscenely. Next BUDDY RICH beats hell out of his drum kit while VICTOR YOUNG & HIS HOT JAZZ ORCHESTRA give a wild rendition of 'Hold That Tiger.' ... Enter the father of the electric guitar, LES PAUL, who welcomes us into his kitchen and plays a tune as wife Mary Ford makes guacamole dip and sings along - 2 commercials about how to stop bad breath included. A young ELVIS then whips through YOU AIN'T NOTHING BUT A HOUND DOG while trailers to early rock 'n' roll feature films GO, JOHNNY GO and ROCK, ROCK, ROCK give glimpses of known stars like Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs and The Moonglows as well as obscure rock duds that no one ever heard of since. Sandy who?...The early rock theme continues with trailers to Elvis vehicles JAILHOUSE ROCK and KING CREOLE. Mid Sixties Motown groups now take center stage in a segment of the rock 'n' roll TV variety show, WHERE THE ACTION IS. Several performance numbers by THE TEMPTATIONS and (outdoors) MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS hearken back to a time before Rock-n-Roll became a slick, polished, billion-dollar-a-year "industry". In fact it's god-awful amateurish - in a wonderful way, and sounds great even if Martha and her group do fuck up the dance routines. Now comes high school garage band TOBINS MATTHEWS AND THE ALL-STARS to pound out various versions of The Twist in a short called TWIST CRAZE. The music is infectious and soon all the old geeks are up on the dance floor twistin' away. Goddamn teenagers are takin' over the fuckin' world - here confirmed in a trailer for MONDO TEENO. If you need more proof we've got trailers to THE BIG T.N.T. SHOW and THE T.A.IM.I. SHOW where you get prime glimpses of acts like Ike and Tina Turner, The Byrds, The Lovin' Spoonful, Donovon, Petula Clark, Joan Baez , The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, James Brown and The Flames, The Rolling Stones, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Lesley Gore and more. This was back when rock 'n' roll bands had cheerleaders. Next up: an oddball novelty scene plucked from the 1967 movie, THE TIGER & THE PUSSYCAT shows Ann Margaret withering on a bed and faking (we think) an orgasm as she watches an Italian rock band on TV while her worried 'old man' boyfriend looks on. How else to end this tour through the Anglo scrap-heap of pop culture than with Elvis swiveling his way through the title dance number in VIVA LAS VEGAS? Jello Biafra move over. 11/06 16mm, 90 minutes plus introduction MOVIES WITH ROOTS IN HELL - The Effects of Drugs on American Cinema A carefully selected series of rare shorts, clips, trailers & outtakes including scenes from Marijuana-Weed With Roots in Hell. Don't miss this mind-bending journey through 60 years of American drug-film hysteria: from the amazing 1916 slapstick drug comedy, MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH to 30's dance performances like THAT OLD REEFER MAN and SWEET MARIJUANA and 50's scare films like THE PUSHER. The second half quickly turns into a psychedelic meltdown as classic scenes from LSD -TRIP TO WHERE, LSD CASE STUDY and the underground film ROCKFLOW turn your mind inside out. The finale is provided by 14 year old Debbie Winters who freaks her parents out in scenes from 1970's THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR. See her naked hippie boyfriend pull a knife on dad, see her blown his mind (dad) by giving him a French kiss. She her flip her mom out by talking about sex.