hot nasty special: a 16mm experimental film screening September 21, 2007

hot nasty special: a 16mm experimental film screening curated by Dominic Angerame, presented 7:30 p.m., September 21, 2007 at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center, $8 admission.

Canyon Cinema and the Ninth Street Independent Film Center present hot nasty special, a program of short, erotically themed works from Canyon Cinema’s historic collection of 16mm avant-garde films. Rarely screened gems by Tom Palazzolo (“Hot Nasty”), Carolee Schneeman (“Fuses”), Carl Linder (“Womancock”), Stephanie Beroes (“Light Sleeping”), Herbert Jean de Grasse (“Film Watchers”), Anne Parker Severson (“Riverbody”) and Dominic Angerame (“Consume”) will be presented.

The body erotic is territory that has long been transversed by avant-garde cinema, and this program explores the borders of these sensual nether regions in both content and form. Tom Palazzolo’s “Hot Nasty” reveals the human element through the interior of a Chicago “massage” parlor, while “Fuses” combines low-angle sensuality with direct filmmaking, exposing the film to nature’s elements. Through representational and more poetic forms, these films reclaim sexuality from the pornographic; they are suffused with humanity and spiked with humor. Many films from Canyon Cinema’s collection are not available elsewhere, and so this screening is a rare treat for those interested in experimental cinema and in seeing these works projected on 16mm celluloid film.

Canyon Cinema is an organization of filmmakers, which supports, promotes, distributes and preserves independent cinematic works of art. Canyon Cinema has been distributing motion picture films from the Bay Area to exhibition venues around the world for the past 45 years. During this time period Canyon has become the world's premiere distributor of independently produced avant-garde and experimental film. Our inventory includes more than 3000 motion picture films and videotapes, and traces the history of the experimental and avant-garde filmmaking movement from the 1930's to the present. Many Canyon Cinema filmmakers have received Guggenheim Awards and the films of Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Chick Strand, Oskar Fischinger, and Les Blank are included in the National Registry of Films in the Library of Congress.

Official Website: http://www.canyoncinema.com