WHAT IS LIFE WITHOUT THE LIVING?

*Updated*(something of an update whilst I'm being boring in Spain. There are a few upcoming events of note. Two screenings to be held in LA in mid-September, one (September 12th) of the Ludlam films 'Museum of Wax' and 'Gooseflesh' at the X-TRA launch event and the following day (September 13th) I will screen from a program I've devised entitled 'What is Life without the Living?' WILWTL will see a San Francisco screening co-hosted by the wondrous writer Kevin Killian at Artists Television Access on September 23rd with a New York screening Envoy Enterprises in October! Keep checking in, dear reader...)

WHAT IS LIFE WITHOUT THE LIVING?

Monday September 13, 8:00 – 10:00pm
Mandrake Bar 2692 S La Cienega Ave LA, CA 90034

Thursday, September 23, 8:00 - 10:00
Artists Television Access 992 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110

Program:
David Scheid, Margot Kidder 2005, 13 min, video
Luther Price, A 1995, 60 min, B&W and Color Super8mm (screened on DVD)
This Los Angeles screening is free (in SF a mere $6) and will be accompanied by a complimentary publication of images, illustrations, an essay, and artist writings.

The program title misremembers the opening lyric to the theme to Imitation of Life. The tune hauntingly floods Luther Price’s A (1995). Alongside David Scheid’s video, Margot Kidder (2005), these works reconstruct Hollywood from a space of queer fantasy, creating private narratives from popular fiction. The event is curated by moving-image scholar Bradford Nordeen.

Named one of the top-20 living avant-garde filmmakers in Film Comment’s recent poling, Boston-based super-8 filmmaker Luther Price has been frequently likened to Jack Smith, Karen Finley and Matthew Barney for his raw, visceral cinema. In 'A' Price concocted the most narrative tale of his 25-year career: a cyclical feature in which a faded starlet (Edie) courts suitor after suitor and fades into an alcoholic Lassie-laden haze. Price portrays the heroine as she spirals deeper into destructive delusions, turning on her lovers like an amped-up Jeanne Dielman. Edie is also a ghostly, childhood memory, based on Price’s mother and her obsessive viewing of woman’s pictures.

David Scheid is a video artist whose work addresses pathology and obsessive compulsive disorder. 'Margot Kidder' meticulously reconstructs 3 films from the actress’ golden period to illuminate Kidder’s peculiar personal narrative. Scheid infers that Kidder’s infamous downfall was present all along in these fragile performances. 'Margot Kidder' throws these clues into plain view, presenting a dismaying decoding of these otherwise commercial films. Like Price’s work, the film also serves as an intimate portrait of a male fan’s obsession with a female star. The 13-minute found-footage film is an alarming depiction of the filmmaker’s arousal, disdain, compassion and compulsion towards the eponymous subject.

“Roses and Red, Blood is Black…A is a relentlessly rancid alcoholic and drug-induced journey through which Edie, a washed-up and broken movie starlet finds herself alone and ugly with only glittering memories of her silver past.” Luther Price via Canyon Cinema