Rite of Guerrilla Theater

Emergency: The Living Theatre

September 1968 •English

a 32-minute color film by Gwen Brown, featuring precious footage of Living Theatre productions “Mysteries” and smaller pieces, “Paradise Now” and “Frankenstein.” “The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” – Andrew Wilson (Artist’s Access Television)

99 days

September 2022 •

Two instants separated by 99 days conflict with each other.

A Scenic Harvest from the Kingdom of Pain

June 1984 •English

Documentation of three Survival Research Laboratories events, 1983-1984. Meet Stu, the SRL guinea pig, and see him training to operate the 4-legged Walking Machine, see 10-barrel shotguns, hear the "Stairway to Hell".

Survival Research Laboratories - Ten Years Of Robotic Mayhem

May 2004 •English

1 A Bitter Message Of Hopeless Grief 2 The Will To Provoke 3 The Delusions Of Expediency 4 The Pleasure Of Uninhibited Excess 5 A Scenic Harvest From The Kingdom Of Pain 6 Virtues Of Negative Fascination 7 Seven Machine Performances

Paradise Now

March 1970 •English

At least forty films have been made about the Living Theatre; it remained to the American underground filmmaker Sheldon Rochlin (previously responsible for the marvellous Vali) to make the 'definitive' film about one of the most famous of their works, Paradise Now, shot in Brussels and at the Berlin Sportpalast. Made on videotape, with expressionist colouring 'injected' by electronic means, this emerges as a hypnotic transmutation of a theatrical event into poetic cinema, capturing the ambiance and frenzy of the original. No documentary record could have done it justice.

Paradise Now: The Living Theater in Amerika

January 1969 •English

A harrowing, gorgeous, in-your-face-and-mind 45-minute black-and-white film by Marty Topp, produced by Ira Cohen for Universal Mutant. “Marty Topp’s beautiful film of ‘Paradise Now’ reveals how the theories of revolutionary change and the experience of sexual liberation are not separate paths to the beautiful nonviolent anarchist revolution. Practiced together they are a single thrust, encompassing both political action and sensual joy, leading to the dreamed-of terrestrial paradise.

Untitled (Without Sound)

Invalid date •English

A highfalutin art movie crumbles into a meta-fictional disaster that betrays its director’s incompetence in real time, and it’s all on film.

Desperate Measures

January 1998 •English

San Francisco police officer Frank Connor is in a frantic search for a compatible bone marrow donor for his gravely ill son. There's only one catch the potential donor is convicted multiple murderer Peter McCabe who sees a trip to the hospital as the perfect opportunity to get what he wants most: freedom. With McCabe's escape, the entire hospital becomes a battleground and Connor must pursue and, ironically, protect the deadly fugitive who is his son's only hope for survival.

Paint Job

May 2009 •English

Daniel is a street painter. He just paints straight lines on the streets. Dotted, solid, white or yellow. Until Ruby, a strange wanderer enters his life and shows him the full palette of colors and shapes that he misses in his life.

El Topo

December 1970 •Spanish

El Topo decides to confront warrior Masters on a trans-formative desert journey he begins with his 6 year old son, who must bury his childhood totems to become a man.

The Bedford Incident

October 1965 •English

During a routine patrol, a reporter is given permission to interview a hardened cold-war warrior and captain of the American destroyer USS Bedford. The reporter gets more than he bargained for when the Bedford discovers a Soviet sub and the captain begins a relentless pursuit, pushing his crew to breaking point.

Alison Spittle: Wet

February 2023 •English

Alison loves to do star jumps in the water. She also likes to watch people fight in chip shops. Her two worlds collide as a fight breaks out in aqua-aerobics and she's never felt so alive. When the foam settles, Alison realises she's an outwardly nice person who lives for confrontation.

X_X

February 2024 •English

Following the discovery of a cryptic photo, the relationship between two best friends shatters, leading to a spiral of revenge, betrayal, and a fatal confrontation that unravels buried secrets.

Flesh and Bone

November 1993 •English

Haunted by memories of his father murdering a family, Arlis Sweeney prefers to keep to himself, focusing his energy on his work. One day, the traumatic past that eats away at him returns when he meets Kay Davies, a woman connected to the bloody event. Against all odds, Arlis and Kay fall in love; however, when his father, Roy, reappears in his life -- with the coldhearted Ginnie in tow -- Arlis must deal with his past demons.

When Did You Last See Your Father?

October 2007 •English

The story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father.

Après la Passion selon Sade

January 1968 •French

Love and Anger

May 1969 •Italian

Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.

The Walking Dead

March 1936 •English

Down-on-his-luck John Ellman is framed for a judge's murder. After he's convicted and sentenced to death, witnesses come forth and prove his innocence. But it was too late for a stay to be granted and Ellman is executed. A doctor uses an experimental procedure to restore him to life, though the full outcome is other than expected.

Off Purpose

April 2021 •English

Alex is a broke college student whose family is under constant financial strain due to his late mother's medical bills. So, when his friend tells him about a group of guys with a supply of ecstasy, Alex decides to steal it in hopes to sell it all in a huge one-time deal.

Fight for Your Life

October 1977 •English

A minister dispenses justice on three convicts who take his family hostage.