BLUE SUNSHINE is Montreal’s newest psychotronic
film centre, and as you've probably guessed, is named after the seminal
1978 film by Jeff Lieberman. Somewhere at the junction of trash and art,
we’re an intimate space devoted to the relentless enjoyment of good,
weird cinema in all its forms - through production, exhibition,
educational programs and publications. We are the new home of the
Miskatonic Institute of Horror
Studies where established horror writers, directors and programmers/curators
can offer their experience to a young generation of horror fans through
workshops and masterclasses.
BLUE SUNSHINE
est le tout nouveau centre de cinéma psychotronique de Montréal. Comme vous
l’avez probablement deviné, il fut nommé d’après le film phare de Jeff
Lieberman de 1978. Quelque part entre l’art et la bêtise, nous sommes un espace
intime dévoué à l’appréciation continue de bon cinéma bizarre sous toutes ses
formes – à travers des productions, des expositions, des programmes éducatifs
et des publications. Nous sommes le nouveau chez-soi pour le
Miskatonic
Institute of Horror Studies, où des écrivains, réalisateurs et
programmeurs/conservateur peuvent offrir leur expérience à une jeune génération
de fans d’horreur à travers des ateliers et des cours de maîtres.
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Upcoming Events:
2012-02-05,
2012-01-18 - 2012-02-22
This six week course will examine the recent history of horror theorizing starting in the early-1980s through some of the most influential writings on the genre. From Linda Williams’ essay on women and looking, Barbara Creed’s monstrous-feminine, Tania Modleski’s terror of pleasure, Carol Clover’s final girl, Steven Shaviro’s cinematic bodies, through to Cynthia Freeland’s dread-centred experience of horror, this course will discuss these genre theorists in conjunction with the “major” thinkers that influenced them, such as Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva, Karl Marx, Laura Mulvey, Gilles Deleuze, and Nöel Carroll. Every session will be taught by a different instructor. A film screening will accompany each session.
Read more … Miskatonic Institute: THEORIZING HORROR
2012-02-09
Richard Pryor was probably the funniest man who ever walked this planet. He left a mark on every comedian who followed in his wake, presenting the truth as he saw it in a hyperkinetic, expletive-laced, free-form style, ripping through life on the streets, the drug culture, sex, and race relations, while spearing his personal problems - seven tumultuous marriages, setting himself on fire while freebasing cocaine, you name it. This BBC documentary uses clips from Pryor's shows and TV appearances as well as interviews with family, friends and comedian fans to trace his amazing life and career.
Read more … LIFE OF PRYOR: THE RICHARD PRYOR STORY!
2012-02-10
BLACULA director William Crain delivers another humorously titled 70's Black cast fright flick that's a lot better than you expect, starring Bernie Casey as the titular character (actually, “Dr. Pryde”!), a well-to-do doc catering to Los Angeles' troubled Watts neighborhood. Pryde unwisely tests an experimental cell regeneration serum on himself and turns into a white-skinned, light-eyed, hooker-murdering lunatic! 16mm Print!
Read more … DR. BLACK, MR. HYDE - 16mm Print!
2012-02-11
Detailing the birth, life and death of America's first major urban housing project in St. Louis, Chad Freidrichs' The Pruitt-Igoe Myth counters certain untruths that arose from the widely publicized detonation of the Pruitt-Igoe project, which the political right used to support a blanket dismissal of similar future projects, and a visual tool to criticize government programs of the 1970s in favour of Reagan-era welfare cuts. Editing is gloriously musical at times, cut in perfect tempo to Benjamin Balcom's resonantly moody score.
Read more … THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH: AN URBAN HISTORY
2012-02-16
This outstanding 1984 BBC doc traces the rise of rapping, scratching, breaking, and graffiti born from the gang culture of New York’s South Bronx. The great DJ/producer/electro-funk pioneer Afrika Bambaata is the main through line, arriving from outer space to wax nostalgia over old gang turf, while ‘Renegades of Funk’ is recorded in studio. Other highlights include: hip hop forefather DJ Kool Herc - inventor of the breakbeat – cruising in a convertible with HUGE speakers, and Malcolm McLaren describing his first mind-melting exposure to hip hop culture.
Read more … BEAT THIS! A HIP HOP HISTORY
2012-02-17
Tougher than Shaft and smoother than Superfly! Larry Cohen’s sequel to his own high-voltage BLACK CAESAR is a tribute to classic 30’s gangster films, with Fred Williamson returning as Tommy Gibbs, a fearless, bulletproof tough guy who blasts his way from the gutter to become the ultimate street boss. Driven by always-on-the-move handheld camera work, machine-gun editing and Edwin Starr's funky score, Hell Up in Harlem is two big fists of reckless attitude. 16mm Print!
Read more … HELL UP IN HARLEM - 16mm Print!
2012-02-18
African-American documentarian William Greaves explores the conflicts of the Black middle class against the backdrop of the political revolution of the 1960s. Narrated by legendary writer/director/activist Ossie Davis, this was the first Black-produced doc to ever receive an Emmy nation, and speaks with Dr. Percy Julian, Julian Bond, and St. Clair Drake, among others. An important, rarely screened work by one of the greats.
Read more … William Greaves' STILL A BROTHER: INSIDE THE NEGRO MIDDLE CLASS - 16mm Print!
2012-02-23
Raw, jagged, and explosively angry, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a landmark in American independent cinema. Melvin Van Peebles directed, wrote, produced, edited, scored, and stars as Sweetback, a passive bouncer raised in a brothel, who becomes the target of a manhunt for killing two cops who beat up a young black activist. Shot guerilla style, edited with Godard-style jump cuts and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, Sweetback essentially spawned the blaxploitation genre.
Read more … SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG: "Rated X by an All-White Jury" - 16mm Print!
2012-02-24
After pairing together for the TV series I SPY, Robert Culp and Bill Cosby tried the big screen for Hickey & Boggs. With Cosby top-billed and Culp behind the camera as well in front of it, Hickey & Boggs (with a script by Walter Hill) mixes a nihilistic view of the world with its indifferent citizens, sadistic villains, and innocent human lives that aren’t worth a plug nickel, with two laconic do-gooders wondering if risking their lives is really worth all the bullets, blood, and bruises for a few measly dollars.
Read more … HICKEY & BOGGS - 16mm Print!
2012-02-25
“Nobody ever told you there were Black Cowboys.” This Wattstax-like documentary covers the first ever all-Black rodeo in Harlem, New York, 1971, where confused but curious spectators look on as brothers bust bronco, rope cattle, ride bulls, and wrestle steers – among them Muhammed Ali, who rides a horse down 125th Street. Narrated by Spaghetti Western veteran Woody Strode, who discusses the forgotten history of the Black Cowboy, and featuring music by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Lee Dorsey and more!
Read more … BLACK RODEO
2012-02-29,
2012-02-29 - 2012-03-14
An icon of B-movies and master of marketing stunts, William Castle has left a lasting impact on the horror film industry. This course takes a look at Castle’s body of films and their historical relevance as well as the various gimmicks that made him the legend he is today. / Un véritable maître des coups de marketing, William Castle a marqué l’industrie du cinéma d’horreur dans les années 50 avec les nombreuses ‘attractions de foire’ créées afin de maximiser l’effet de ses films. Ce cours étudiera l’influence de ses œuvres ainsi que l’héritage qu’il nous a laissé.
Read more … Miskatonic Institute: SCARING THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF YOU: THE FILMS OF WILLIAM CASTLE
2012-03-01
Joe Swanberg’s highly reflexive “werewolf movie” - definitely a genre film inasmuch as it stars indie director Ti West (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers), Larry Fessenden (briefly), and is about the process of making films and the impact it can have on one’s relationships - poetically uses various formats (most notably 8mm and a VHS tape playing on a television), uncharacteristic non-diegetic music, and is entirely improvised. A moving self-“horror” effort that definitely invites self-examination - culminating in the stunningly ironic artificiality of the film’s final frame.
Read more … Joe Swanberg's SILVER BULLETS
2012-03-02
Could there be a more "Canadian" way to smuggle a fortune in stolen diamonds than inside a hollowed out hockey puck? Not only does this excellent family-friendly chase flick features Canadian locations and Canadian actors, but the plot - two orphans from Chicoutimi fleeing one-step ahead of bungling crooks in a desperate attempt to alert the authorities - weaves through the Quebec Winter Carnival, and climaxes at the Montreal Forum during a Canadiens vs. Bruins game!
Read more … THE MYSTERY OF THE MILLION DOLLAR HOCKEY PUCK - 16mm Print!
2012-03-03
In Noel Black’s feature debut, Anthony Perkins continues the typecast set in motion by Psycho, playing a recently-released mental patient. He soon spies local schoolgirl Sue-Ann (Tuesday Weld) and decides to woo her by pretending to be a CIA operative in need of her help. Sue-Ann is the perfect lip-smacking sex kitten, beautiful, bubbly and seemingly dumb; it’s not until the halfway point that we realize Sue-Ann is sociopathic herself, and sees her new CIA gig as a means of getting away with matricide...
Read more … Trash Palace Presents: PRETTY POISON - 16mm Print!
2012-03-08
If you’re old enough to remember punk rock, then you certainly remember Quincy. And if you care to remember punk rock, then you’ve never forgotten the Quincy Punk Rock episode, "Next Stop Nowhere". The term “Quincy Punk” became part of the vernacular almost overnight - join us as we celebrate the bastardization of punk rock by clueless TV executives, with a dazzling array of clips from the CHiPS punk episode, the Afterschool special ‘The Day My Kid Went Punk’, Degrassi, Square Pegs, CPO Sharkey, Sledge Hammer - and the legendary Quincy episode that started it all, in its entirety.
Read more … I WAS A TEENAGE QUINCY PUNK!
2012-03-09
Eli Wallach and Julie Harris play the Masons, high-strung suburbanite parents of acid-dealing musician Artie (Canadian cult actor Stephen McHattie) and his naive sister, Maxie (Deborah Winters). After a big family fight, Artie gives sis her first LSD trip and her parents later find Maxie's blown her mind in a closet, opening the door on adulterous affairs and debauched drinking among the adults! The film refuses to take the easy demonizing route of other cautionary acid tales and also features in the cast Rue McClanahan, Hal Holbrook, and Don Scardino of Squirm - 16mm Print!
Read more … THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR - 16mm Print!
2012-03-10
Equal parts drama, horror, true-crime anthology, this grim life-cycle piece presents three tales of alienation and woe in suburbia. Starring indie regular Pamela Stewart (100 Proof, Amateur) and TV mainstay Albie Selznick (24, Suddenly Susan) alongside stunning newcomers Alice Cannon and Darcy Miller, this triptych of suburban decay will leave you questioning just how well you know your neighbors, recalling the work of fellow New York indie director Douglas Buck (Cutting Moments). Plays with Garrett’s short film BEATING HEARTS.
Read more … MORRIS COUNTY - with director Matthew Garrett + live set by David Kristian & Marie Davidson!
2012-03-15
Within days of Negativland’s U2 EP release, Island Records descended upon the band with a battery of lawyers intent on erasing the piece from the history of rock music. Sonic Outlaws explores the pre-internet artist culture of appropriating images, culture jamming and defying copyright, meshing brilliantly with director Craig Baldwin’s cut-and-paste collage-essay style. / Sonic Outlaws explore le mouvement artistique pré-internet de réappropriation des images, de « culture jamming » et des entorses au droit d’auteur, un sujet tout à fait en accord avec le style de collage expérimental du réalisateur Craig Baldwin.
Read more … Craig Baldwin's SONIC OUTLAWS
2012-03-16
One year after William Friedkin's The French Connection made a splash with its take-no-shit cops and intense street action came The Seven-Ups, directed by French Connection producer Philip D'Antoni, and featuring its star Roy Scheider as Buddy Manucci, leader of a group of hard-line, renegade New York cops who strictly target criminals with crimes that warrant at least seven-year stretches in prison (hence the nickname, "The Seven-Ups”). The sleazy locales, weary detectives and hair-raising chase sequences make it a worthy pseudo-sequel to Friedkin's masterpiece – especially an incredible car chase from New York to New Jersey.
Read more … Roy Scheider Weekend: THE SEVEN-UPS - 16mm Print!
2012-03-17
Featuring a trance-like score by Tangerine Dream and a visceral, astonishing performance by Roy Scheider, William (The Exorcist) Friedkin's reinterpretation of Clouzot’s 1953 masterpiece Wages of Fear is perhaps the best remake of all time and among Friedkin’s most daring works. Three sequences alone – a chaotic car crash in Boston, the unloading of charred bodies, and the explosives laden trucks crossing a rickety storm-blown bridge – render Sorcerer an undisputable classic.
Read more … Roy Scheider Weekend: SORCERER - 16mm Print!
2012-03-22
From the editor of fanzine ‘8-Track Mind’, So Wrong They’re Right chronicles a 10,000 mile journey around the U.S. in search of “trackers” – fanatical collectors of 8-Track tapes, those funky clunky pre-recorded plastic cartridges from the 70s. Russ Forster and Dan Sutherland capture over 20 interviews, brimming with reminiscences, rants, political diatribes, fantasies, fix-it tips, sales pitches, and everything else that defines the skeptical yet inquisitive mind of the 8-Track enthusiast.
Read more … SO WRONG, THEY'RE RIGHT - The 8-Track Documentary!
2012-03-23
Bollywood returns to Blue Sunshine! COOLIE delivers all the deadly gunfights, cliffhanging action, funky tunes, and spontaneous song & dance you crave, and features mega-star Amitabh Bachchan as a Muslim coolie (train porter), raised by a Hindi old man and in love with Julie, a Christian girl. Bachchan suffered a life-threatening injury while filming a fight scene, causing India to literally come to a halt. The footage remains in the film and abruptly freeze-frames with the insane inter-title: "This is the shot in which Amitab Bachchan was seriously injured." Spinning Bollywood funk hits before and after the film!
Read more … Blue Sunshine goes Bollywood: Amitabh Bachchan in COOLIE!
2012-03-24
Forever Falling Apart is an eclectic mix tape of animated film and video shorts from the 1960s onward, curated by Emily Pelstring and Brandon Blommaert + installation by Philippe Blanchard. Included are the works of Bruce Bickford, Vince Collins, Kathy Rose, Sabrina Ratté, Yoshi Sodeoka, Andrew Benson, Peter Burr, Jesi the Elder, Stuart Hughes, and Paperrad!
Read more … FOREVER FALLING APART - Animated short film mixtape!
2012-03-24,
2012-03-24 - 2012-03-25
A classically trained, consummate character actor with a career spanning seven decades on stage, screen, television and radio, Vincent Price is perhaps best remembered as one of the world’s most beloved horror icons. Cinephobia Radio’s Stuart Feedback Andrews will take us on a two-day journey through the history of Vincent Price’s life and career. Armed with an arsenal of film clips, slides, interviews and a couple of surprise guests, we’ll examine Vincent’s evolution as a horror legend.
Read more … Miskatonic Institute: THE HORROR FILMS OF VINCENT PRICE
2012-03-29
Two docs on the madmen of Boone County! THE DANCING OUTLAW is the original PBS special that propelled Appalachian weirdo Jesco White to cult stardom (later the subject of The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia and bio-pic White Lightning)! Meanwhile, the original one-man-band maniac from Boone County, West Virginia gets his own documentary, THE WILD WORLD OF HASIL ADKINS - featuring rockabilly, mobile homes, redneck bars, and a fantastic cat-fight scene by the local "ladies" while Hasil's on stage performing!
Read more … Boone County Chaos! THE WILD WORLD OF HASIL ADKINS + Jesco White in THE DANCING OUTLAW!
2012-03-30
A crime heist classic starring three of French cinema’s biggest names – cold-blooded killer Alain Delon, police inspector Lino Ventura, and Jean Gabin as the patriarch of a Sicilian crime family plotting to hijack an airliner with $50 million in jewels. Henri Verneuil’s The Sicilian Clan, based on a novel by Auguste Le Breton (Rififi and Bob le flambeur) ups the pace on Melville’s films by adding excellent action set-pieces to feel more like an Italian crime film... helped in no small part by Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack - undoubtedly one of the maestro’s finest ever.
Read more … THE SICILIAN CLAN - 16mm Print!
2012-03-31
This surreal and visually arresting oddity by Jean-Christophe Averty is a film version of Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi, a pioneering work in the theatre of the absurd. Ubu Roi is a Shakespearean pastiche, filled with scatological humor and farce, taking stabs at literature, politics, and the ruling classes. An unpredictable, disorientating, whacked-out dada classic, where often three, four, six different mini-scenes will unfold onscreen at once.
Read more … UBU ROI - Theatre of the absurd!
2012-04-04,
2012-04-04 - 2012-04-25
The figure of the prostitute has long been depicted (and understood) to be unfeminine, irredeemable and polluting – a source of corruption and contagion. Thus, she becomes a monster — both in terms of fears about women’s sexuality and assumptions about ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ gendered behaviour. This course will parallel the extreme treatment of, and presentation of, the Monster in films with the representation of prostitutes and sex workers. This juxtaposition makes the underlying cultural constructions and fears at play in both contexts both more complicated and compelling.
Read more … Miskatonic Institute: TERROR AT THE MARGINS: THE PROSTITUTE AS OTHER
