Andrew’s Video Vault 2015
FREE Screenings Continuous From 8 PM
on the Second THURSDAY of Every Month!
This program is made possible through the generous support of the
Cinema Studies Program and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania.
April 9
TBA Aki Kaurismäki Directed Movie
and
AMERICAN JOB (1996 / 90 minutes)
Writer/director Chris Smith’s (1999′s American Movie) debut is a hilariously straight-faced dark comedy about labor in the U.S. It follows the stork-like mumbler Randy as he undergoes training and orientation at a variety of low-paying, low-skilled jobs. The fictional film’s stark documentary style gives the boredom of modern work a strange urgency in this unique indie film.
Guest Host and Curator: Dan Buskirk of Phawker.com
May 14
DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER [DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER – EIN BILD DER ZEIT] (1922 / 271 minutes)
The most complete version of Fritz Lang’s two-part allegory, about a criminal mastermind who is both the cause (and product of) economic free-fall and social decadence in Weimar-era Berlin.
June 11
Two daring comedies that use blackface/whiteface to comment on race relations.
SOUL MAN (1986 / 104 minutes) New World Pictures high concept teen comedy about a white kid (C. Thomas Howell) who dons blackface in order to get a minority scholarship to Harvard would be completely reprehensible if it weren’t such an accurate snapshot of 1980s America. James Earl Jones slums it as a college professor, and stars Rae Dawn Chong and Howell would marry after working together on this film. Directed by Steve Miner.
WATERMELON MAN (1970 / 100 minutes) Melvin Van Peebles became the second African-American to direct at a Hollywood studio when he made this film about a bigoted white man (Godfrey Cambridge—in whiteface) who wakes up one morning to discover he has turned Black. Panned upon its initial release, it has became a true cult classic.
Guest Host and Curator: Mike Dennis of Reelblack Cinema
July 9
CHAMELEON STREET (1989 / 94 minutes) Writer/director/actor Wendell B. Harris Jr’s first and only feature tells the true story of con man Douglas Street, a bored and ingenious African American male who passes himself off to white society as a journalist, doctor and scholar. A wicked and tragic satire on being black and brilliant in America.
UFOria (1985 / 93 minutes) Writer/Director John Binder’s satiric look at the Southwestern U.S. and religion follows a Waylon Jennings-loving drifter (Fred Ward) hooking up with a faith healer (Harry Dean Stanton) and a cashier who has visions of a UFO communion.
Guest Host and Curator: Dan Buskirk of Phawker.com
August 13
TIE XI QU: WEST OF TRACKS: PART ONE: RUST (2003 / 240 minutes) In part one of his three-part, nine hour documentary, Wang Bing hypnotically charts post-industrial decay and its effects on impoverished workers who live in northeast China. [Tie Xi Qu: West of Tracks part two, Remnants, and part three, Rails, will screen at subsequent seasons of Andrew’s Video Vault at the Rotunda.]
September 10
TO BE ANNOUNCED
Guest Host and Curator: Dan Buskirk of Phawker.com
October 8
THE INNOCENTS (1961 / 100 minutes) Perhaps the most beautifully photographed black & white horror film ever made, this suspenseful masterwork of Gothic atmosphere is an exquisite adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw featuring gripping performances by adult and child actors alike. An unforgettable tour-de-force of supernatural terror and psychological repression.
THE SEVENTH VICTIM (1943 / 71 minutes) The sense of dread is palpable in this moody and nightmarish tale of urban devil worship from producer Val Lewton. Kim Hunter stars (in her debut performance) as a young woman searching for her missing sister on the menacing streets of 1940′s New York City, with plenty of striking chiaroscuro lighting.
Guest Host and Curator: Mike Zaleski
November 12
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937 / 91 minutes) Heart-rending in its truth and emotional beauty, Leo McCarey’s masterpiece and most personal film was created both as a love letter to his recently deceased father and as an exposé of what can happen to elderly Americans without the support of Social Security (or their children). Orson Welles said of the film: “It would make a stone cry.”
EVERYBODY’S FINE [STANNO TUTTI BENE] (1990 / 118 minutes) Marcello Mastroianni gives one of his best performances as an elderly widower who traverses Italy to visit his distant offspring, each of whom had given him an impression of their life which turns out to be very different from the actuality. A powerful and beautiful rumination on the relationship between elderly parents and their adult children.
Guest Host and Curator: Mike Zaleski
December 10
PERMISSIVE (1970 / 90 min) At the end of the hippie era, a broke young woman arrives in London and is initiated into the counter-culture and the seedy sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll lifestyle of a groupie. Psychedelic soundtrack by Comus and Forever More.
DUFFER (1971 / 75 minutes) Joseph Despins and William Dumaresq’s off-beat and lyrical character study of a British teenage boy shuttlecocking between a sadistic old man and motherly prostitute.