FLYIN' CUT SLEEVES (1993); DVD
Documentary/Gang violence DVD
FLYIN' CUT SLEEVES, completed in 1993, portrays street gang presidents in the Bronx. The project grew out of the experiences of Rita Fecher, the film's co-producer, who taught in a South Bronx school in the late 1960's and early 1970's, became intimately involved with the gangs, their leaders, and the leaders' families and began to document their lives. Their world was the streets, set against a backdrop of uprooted families, cultural alienation, drugs and violence. Neighborhood teenagers responded by organizing into street groups known to the members as "families", but labeled in the most alarming terms as violent gangs by the press. In fact, the "families" had a stabilizing effect, enabling the youths to cope with their troubled environment. The political climate at the time, movements of national liberation and such organizations as the Black Panthers and Young Lords Party influenced the young gang leaders to aspire to be more than warriors and to become, to some degree, a positive...
THE KILLING OF AMERICA (1981); DVD
Documentary/Shockumentary/Cult DVD
Documentary featuring footage of some of America's most well known murders and assassinations. It's filled with a lot of statistics and done with a very serious tone giving it a sort of newsworthy 'importance'. (If narrator Chuck Riley's voice got anymore resonate of stern you'd swear he'd have to be a robot.) Yet it offers no real solutions and after ninety minutes of almost complete carnage does it only briefly mention the issue of handgun registration. Thus despite it's pretensions it's really at home with the rest of it's mondo/exploitation brethren which were made simply to cash in on the shock value of it's content. Just the way we like it....
GRAPHIC NOVELS! MELBOURNE! (2014); DVD
Art/Documentary DVD
Graphic Novels! Melbourne! uncovers an energetic, diverse and productive comics culture on the streets of Melbourne. It investigates the life and work of four graphic novelists in particular: Pat Grant, Nicki Greenberg, Mandy Ord and Bruce Mutard. There are also interviews with four international comic book luminaries: Scott McCloud, Shaun Tan, Dylan Horrocks and Paul Gravett, all of whom lend their perspective to the development of comics culture in Melbourne. Graphic Novels! Melbourne! is the definitive introduction to the Melbourne comics explosion!
BENJAMIN SMOKE (2000); DVD
Cult/Documentary DVD
This highly unorthodox documentary follows the crooked path of Benjamin (no last name). He lives in a hidden neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia called "Cabbagetown." Drag-queen, speed-freak, all-around renegade, Benjamin left the straight (in every sense of the word) world behind a long time ago.
SHUT UP LITTLE MAN (2011); DVD
Cult/Documentary/Art DVD
In 1987 San Francisco, Eddie Lee Sausage and Mitch Deprey began recording the squabbles of their stranger than fiction neighbors, the bigoted Raymond Huffman and the out and proud Peter Haskett. The recital of the pair's outrageous reality quickly took on a life of its own. This darkly funny documentary chronicles the history of Raymond and Peter, as well as what happened to former slackers Eddie and Mitch, who paint a picture of not only their outrageous neighbors, but also of San Francisco's Lower Haight neighborhood in the late 1980s. Interviews with others who were influenced by the recordings document their broad influence on a variety of artists, near and far.
THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS/THE PLUMBER Peter Weir Double Feature; DVD
Art/Australian/Cult DVD
Here on one disc are two apprentice-era offerings by Australia's most consistently successful international director, Peter Weir. On this disc are Weir's first offering as director, 1974's The Cars That Ate Paris, clocking in at a neat 84 minutes, and The Plumber from 1978, running at an even neater 74 minutes.
Cars is an exercise in surrealistic black comedy, about a small New South Wales country town which survives on carnage. The townsfolk arrange smashes of innocent folk driving by in their Holdens, Falcons or even Jaguars. If the drivers are dead, they're buried and forgotten. If they survive, they're quickly given power-drill lobotomies and treated quite fondly as the town's vegetables.
The Plumber is a very well structured thriller with elements of black comedy - it's very Pinteresque in that the suspense and drama come through its words and atmosphere, not through explicit action. Plumbing maintenance turns into psychological and class warfare. White-collar confronting blue-collar across a chasm of sinks and sewerage. The ending is both surprising but somehow inevitable in this little bathroom-sink drama. Excellent!
SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964); DVD
SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964); DVD
DVD, Used
Martians, upset that their children have become obsessed with TV shows from Earth which extol the virtues of Santa Claus, start an expedition to Earth to kidnap the one and only Santa. While on Earth, they kidnap two lively children that lead the group of Martians to the North Pole and Santa. The Martians then take Santa and the two children back to Mars with them. Voldar, a particularly grumpy Martian, attempts to do away with the children and Santa before they get to Mars, but their leader Lomas stops him. When they arrive on Mars, Santa, with the help of the two Earth children and a rather simple-minded Martian lackey, overcomes the Martians by bringing fun, happiness and Christmas cheer to the children of Mars.....Pack me another cone will ya?
PORNO HOLOCAUST Joe D'amato (1981); DVD
Horror/Porn DVD
A group of castaways wash ashore on a deserted island in this Italian sex/gore movie. They are unaware that a sex-crazed radioactive monster is also on the island. He attacks and rapes several of the women, who die horrible deaths because of course his sperm is radioactive. The survivors must find a way to either escape the island or kill the monster. Another Joe D'amato classic roughie....
DISINFORMATION: THE COMPLETE SERIES; DVD
Documentary/Underground Culture, 2 X DVD
Really underground TV from the Sci Fi channel, hosted by Disinformation co-founder Richard Metzger. Satanism, Extreme Pornography, weird conspiracy theories, mind-controlled sex slaves, time travel, outsider music, Painter Joe Coleman, comics genius Grant Morrison, Genesis P-Orridge, Kembra Pfahler, lots more.
"Incredibly well produced and presented in a straightforward manner... The results are bust-a-gut funny" -- Los Angeles Times, July 2003
Special features
The complete series intended for the Sci-Fi Channel
PIGSTY (PORCILE) Pier Paolo Passolini (1969); DVD
Arthouse DVD
Two stories form the whole: 1) one young man (Pierre Clementi) who has killed his parents and ate their flesh walks around from village to village after being sentenced to perish in the vast desert. The only thing he'll be able to do is to kill whoever show up on his way and then eat them too. That's the story of the young cannibal, marvelously presented without words (he only has one spoken line repeated towards the ending). Beautiful cinematography, scary and thrilling sequences in it. 2) this story, very talky and quite messy brings Jean-Pierre Léaud (who was also in "Week End") as the son of an German industrialist who can't connect with people, preferring the company of the pigs ("Porcile" translates to "Pigsty"). He tries some involvement with a girl (Anne Wiazemsky) but with no luck. And there's his father (Alberto Lionello) business deals with a former Nazi of name Herdhitze (Ugo Tognazzi) also businessman but a rival of his, who hasn't aged through the war years after successful plastic surgeries. Foggy speeches about life, politics, mankind are dissolved into this other story and it's very hard to form a whole idea.
COMBAT SHOCK (1984): DVD
'TROMA' DVD Rated R, Used
Combat Shock (1986) was a low budget film about a battle scarred veteran who just cannot erase the memories of his horrific experinces in Viet-Nam. He's also having a hard time adjusting to civilian life. The economy is in the dumps and unemployment is at an all time high in his area. With a family to support and no hope, the surrounding environment and his family's fianancial problems begin to take a toll upon his sanity and well being. Buddy Giovinazzo has created a grim and gritty look about life in the inner city and for those veterans who were one of the few to escape from the bloody jungles of Viet-Nam seemingly unscathed. But he has wounds that are not visible to the naked eye. Abandoned by society and the government that he served, he represents a lot of people who were ignored when they returned back to the "world". This is very strong stuff. It has no budget but that somehow suits the story - it's totally gritty and real, no gloss whatsoever. Very bleak and depressing cult film.
SKINNED ALIVE (Skate Documentary 2006); DVD
Skate/Tattoo/Documentary (DVD); Used
The expressive and creative underworlds of skateboarding and tattoos collide in this cult classic documentary! Take an inside look at the history and interrelationships of the two lifestyles, professionally as they’ve grown and become intertwined over the last few decades of respect. Find out how many of these top names have made the cross-over from one way of life, to the other. Back in the 80’s, you could not buy the skater look in the mall, and punk-rock bands with trendy tattoos weren’t plastered all over Mtv. Like it or not, this is a 1st and definitive film.
