Escalation

La Chinoise

August 1967 •French

Paris, 1967. Disillusioned by their suburban lifestyles, a group of middle-class students, led by Guillaume (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Veronique (Anne Wiazemsky), form a small Maoist cell and plan to change the world by any means necessary. After studying the growth of communism in China, the students decide they must use terrorism and violence to ignite their own revolution. Director Jean-Luc Godard, whose advocacy of Maoism bordered on intoxication, infuriated many traditionalist critics with this swiftly paced satire.

Godard Mon Amour

June 2017 •French

In 1967, during the making of “La Chinoise,” film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 19-year-old actress Anne Wiazemsky and marries her.

May Fools

January 1990 •French

An eccentric family is re-united during the 1968 general strike in France, after the death of the grandmother.

Stolen Kisses

September 1968 •French

The third in a series of films featuring François Truffaut's alter-ego, Antoine Doinel, the story resumes with Antoine being discharged from military service. His sweetheart Christine's father lands Antoine a job as a security guard, which he promptly loses. Stumbling into a position assisting a private detective, Antoine falls for his employers' seductive wife, Fabienne, and finds that he must choose between the older woman and Christine.

The Howl

May 1970 •Italian

A young bride escapes her wedding ceremony with a stranger and together they set off on an epic journey though increasingly bizarre lands. They encounter talking animals and mournful exhibitionists, converse with a discoursing rock, journey through a surrealist's psychedelic hotel, instigate a prison riot, escape from naked cannibals living in a tree and battle a wind-up midget dictator!

Getting Wasted

January 1980 •English

An uptight military school gets a dose of hippie-infused rebellion when a group of students gather in support of the 1960s uprising going on around them. When a few students decide to bring the more liberal, artsy side of the revolution onto campus, they face opposition from much of the school's staff.

Guess What We Learned in School Today?

May 1971 •English

Parents in a small, conservative community don't think that the sex drive is a normal thing for children to experience. So much so, that they label education in that regard as a communist plot. The group of prudes is led by an impotent alcoholic and a gay policeman.

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future

April 1985 •English

While trying to expose corruption and greed, television reporter Edison Carter discovers that his employer, Network 23, has created a new form of subliminal advertising (termed "blip-verts") that can be fatal to certain viewers.

Into the Flames

January 2021 •English

Two robbers flee from a robbery into a neighborhood where they seek safety. Spotting two guys arriving to a house, the robbers pull into the driveway and use a car cover to hide. Inside the house, they discover that it's a gathering of cannabis entrepreneurs. In short , their robbery is discovered. And now the robbers make them eat edibles while they hold them hostage. Chaos ensues.

Theodore of the Absurd

May 2012 •English

A surreal musical comedy set in a world where the avant-garde and the mainstream are reversed.

The Last Big Thing

September 1998 •English

From a bland tract house on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Simon Geist (with occasional help from his platonic girlfriend Darla) wages war against all of modern American popular culture. Geist starts up a magazine called "The Next Big Thing", which he uses to confront and insult upcoming actors, comics, models and rock bands. As Geist's mysterious Underground Agenda escalates, will he become the "last big thing", or be co-opted by the very forces he is railing against? Written by Van Film Fest

The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes

Invalid date •English

In 1967, strait-laced exploitation movie king Roger Corman embarks on a life-changing attempt to capture the psychedelic world of LSD on film by taking a "trip" himself, abetted by Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.

Rid of Me

November 2011 •English

A scathing black comedy of embarrassment that charts the emotional breakdown and rebirth of a woman ripe for self-discovery.

Gold

May 1972 •English

Uptight killjoy square cop Captain Harold Jinks doesn't approve of the local hippies in an Old West-style rural community romping about naked, so he zealously enforces various strict laws to ban public nudity. It's up to loopy long-haired rebel Hawk to save the townspeople from Jinks' oppressive reign.

Mama Casserole

July 2023 •English

Hippie Dippy Julien's doped up antics have gone too far. His moonshine glugging hick fam are sick of his silly shit and want his ass out, leaving poor little Julien lost, stoned and lonely. Until Mama Casserole sets her beady eyes on him. Take a trip with Julien into Mama's world of Bigfoot, bikers, love, rockstars, magic, child-like wonder and all things unfathomable

Yippie

December 1968 •English

The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a radically youth-oriented and countercultural revolutionary group opposed to war and the status quo of American culture. Known for using theatrics and humor to advocate social change, several Yippies were notably on trial as the Chicago 7. Primarily consisting of footage from the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago which sparked massive demonstrations that were met by violence and hysteria caused by the police. This film also includes found newsreel footage as well as Pigasus - the pig the Yippies advanced as a candidate for President of the United States.

End of the Road

February 1970 •English

Moments after receiving his graduate diploma, Jacob waits at a train station. The future lies ahead, but life abruptly intervenes. Images flash in Jacob's mind: of war, injustice, assassination, protest, the entire spectrum of 1960s angst and anger - sending Jacob into a catatonic state. What follows during his bizarre rehab and its aftermath will be another form of madness.

Screen Test: Jackie

January 1967 •English

Andy Warhol directs The Factory regular Louisa "Jackie" Foster for a screen test.

Mudflat

August 1980 •English

Years ago, artists would walk around the muck at the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Emeryville, and build loads of sculptures out there on the flats, created from driftwood and found objects that drivers would enjoy as they motored south on the old Highway 17 (known in numerous radio ads as 'Highway 17, The Nimitz'). Grabbing material off someone else’s work was considered fair game and part of the fun, and contributed a kinetic dynamic to the ongoing display. Now the place is a park, and the sculptures are gone, but you can see what it used to be like in this neat and funny documentary by Ric Reynolds, augmented by Erich Seibert’s wonderful musique-concrète/time-lapse sequences. The flashback circus sequence includes Scott Beach and Bill Irwin. Sculptors interviewed include Walt Zucker, Tony Puccio, Robert Sommer, Ron & Mary Bradden, and Bob Kaminsky.

De Gaulle, le géant aux pieds d'argile

June 2012 •French