US 1982, D: Stephen Sayadian, A: Andrew Nichols, Paul McGibboney, Michelle Bauer, 73′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
“Able to exist, to sense…to feel everything – but pleasure. In a world destroyed, a mutant universe, survivors break down to those who can and those who can’t. 99% are Sex Negatives. Call them ‘erotic casualties’. They want to make love, but the mere touch of another makes them violently ill. The rest, the lucky one percent, are Sex Positives, those whose libidos escaped unscathed. After the Nuclear Kiss, the Positives remain to love, to perform…And the others, well, we Negatives can only watch…can only come…to…CAFÉ FLESH…”
CAFÉ FLESH’s initial release as a hardcore film failed but the film was later rediscovered as a cult film on the midnight-movie circuit, breaking the house record at LA’s Nuart Theatre and replacing audience favourite PINK FLAMINGOS.
Restoration by Peter Blumenstock.
| Fri 04 Oct | UT Connewitz |
| 8 pm | Followed by a talk with Daniel Bird (author and curator) € 7 (6 reduced), together with DR. CALIGARI € 12 (10 reduced) |
US 1989, D: Stephen Sayadian, A: Madeleine Reynal, Fox Harris, Laura Albert, 80′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
As sexually deranged as it is stylistically unhinged, this psychedelic surrealist neo-noir reworking of the 1920 German expressionist classic features Laura Albert as Mrs Van Houten, a woman whose libido is dangerously out of control. With eye-popping set design from Stephen Sayadian, a luscious synth score courtesy of Mitchell Froom, not to mention acid-tongued dialogue written by Jerry Stahl, DR. CALIGARI drops a dirty bomb on Reagan era family values. Mining high art in bad taste, it parodies both mass media and pop culture through a roll call of staged citations and quotations as exquisitely framed as they are sexually charged.
| Fri 4. Oct | UT Connewitz |
| 10 pm | Followed by a talk with Daniel Bird (author and curator) € 7 (6 reduced), together with CAFÉ FLESH € 12 (10 reduced) |
Out with the horns!
Streamers!
Pop the corks!
Sip some champagne!
It’s GEGENkino’s special birthday!
10 years full of distinctive to offbeat cinema, daring film soundtracks, insightful conversations with you and our numerous guests, extravagant performances, parties, cigarettes and visual experiments beyond the classic screen. Well, if that’s not a reason for a slap on the back?! Well, perhaps very briefly. So it has been 10 years with us and the festival – a rose wedding, so to speak. A small milestone. Our relationship, however, is not centred around a homey twosome, but rather we are a network of (not so) many people who think about and work on GEGENkino almost all year round. THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved in any way so far – sponsors, venues, people, audience – we are delighted that we exist!
So. Now for the anniversary edition. This year, too, we are celebrating GEGENconceptions with relish. For example, the mangy punk poets from PISSE are live scoring the visionary 70s gay erotica classic BIJOU especially for us. In keeping with this, our series BAD GIRLS GO TO HEAVEN takes a look at female-influenced US genre and exploitation cinema from the 1960s to the 1980s, with works by Roberta Findlay, Doris Wishman and Stephanie Rothman flickering across the screen. Besides, we will be focussing on the multifaceted work of German filmmaker and cinematopraher Rainer Komers in PLACES, WORDS, RHYTHMS and will be devoting an evening to the impressive film experiments of Peruvian-French artist Rose Lowder. Both will be guests in Leipzig to present their films in person. As always, we try to show the historical works as analogue copies in 16 or 35mm whenever possible. Our carte blanche to the feminist Kinothek Asta Nielsen, based in Frankfurt am Main, offers another analogue filmstrip treat. Lou Deinhart will present a short film reel specially compiled for us. With the programme OUR SCREENS, we are jumping into the digital age, interested in the interactions between film and computer game worlds: in addition to a short film programme curated by us, we will be showing the animated documentary KNIT’S ISLAND.
As always, we flank our programmes with unconventional gems from the current international festival scene. Gathered around the anniversary cake are an overworked Romanian content producer, a Tehran drug taxi courier, a queer-feminist prison musical from Argentina, a charismatic murderous Austrian billionaire, the often decelerated everyday life of left-wing struggles, a jazz musician bidding farewell to Addis Adeba, a snotty women’s clique in Sardinia, a hibernating humanity, a father-son relationship between Leipzig and Aleppo and a Brazilian re-education guru. What? That is not enough? Then off to Milieu Kino stationed in Rabet park! Just like last year, we are hosting the converted cinema truck from Vienna and projecting a selection of cartoons for the little ones and subculture classics alongside sexy camp flicks for the older ones. If that is still not enough for you, an erotic double feature awaits you shortly after the festival.
Because: after GEGENkino is before GEGENkino. The underground never sleeps. Even if, at the tender age of 10, we are not allowed to see our own programme ourselves and can only furtively press our noses against the advertising windows of UT Connewitz or try to catch fleeting glimpses of light through a gap in the cinema truck with reddened cheeks: We’re up for it. Come on people, celebrate with us!
ES 2024, D: Anna Cornudella, A: Clara Muck Dietrich, Demetrius Hollimon, Jane Hubbell, 90′, English OV, DCP
“To speculate” comes from the Latin word speculari, which means to catch sight, scout, observe or watch furtively. In THE HUMAN HIBERNATION, media artist Anna Cornudella uses a speculative research project as a basis to create a memorable world full of deformed social behaviour. The eponymous hibernation brings humans closer to the animal kingdom, changing habits, biology and belief systems. With its subtle, ambiguous narrative, the film invites us to think about ideas further, but also to let its images and sounds affect us in an immediate way. The fall from the crown of creation harbours the unknown. Let’s watch it.
| Sun 8. Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 5 pm | € 7 (6 reduced) |
Live Score | Pisse
It’s about to get sleazy. In his classic all-male-adult film, Wakefield Poole recounts the experiences of a construction worker labelled as “straight” and his journey into unknown desires. We follow the nameless man with a moustache, flannel shirt and hard hat as he walks home from his shift through the streets of New York. On a street corner, a woman is hit by a car and her handbag flies at his feet. He grabs the bag, in which he later at home finds a lipstick – the first and by no means last phallus in the story – and an invitation to Club Bijou which he accepts without the slightest hesitation. During his visit, he wears no underwear under his denim. What follows is a dense sequence of flesh and colour: sex driven surrealism, in which our protagonist appears less as an active participant than as a reserved, possibly guilt-ridden, supporting character.
BIJOU
US 1972, D: Wakefield Poole, A: Bill Harrison, Robert Lewis, Peter Fisk, Cassandra Heart, 75’, no dialogue/projected silently, DCP
Despite the low production budget – the club scenes were shot within four days in the director’s flat – Poole, who worked as a cameraman and editor in addition to directing, pulls out all the stops on a visual level: split screens and multiple image overlays convey the protagonist’s world of thought to the viewer. There are also cabinets of mirrors and a highly expressive use of colour and light, while the spatial setting remains limited to the essentials. Despite all the concentrated “man on man action”, BIJOU is a highly avant-garde contribution to gay erotica – the perfect introduction to the genre for heteros.
Whether you are new to the genre or not, the post-punk band Pisse will sweeten the deal. In a work commissioned by GEGENkino, they are dedicating themselves to a new soundtrack for BIJOU. Like the construction worker in the film, Pisse have been surrounded by an aura of mystery and aloofness since their formation over ten years ago. The members of the band from Saxony, which has since become known throughout Germany and even the world, deliberately spread unreliable information about themselves. They consistently reject the commercial music business and, in addition to releasing their albums in vinyl editions, always make them available as downloads, where you can determine the price you pay for them yourself. The daily newspaper taz compares Pisse to the sarcastic punk of the early Goldenen Zitronen. Critics from other music magazines are also enthusiastic about their sound: Musikexpress voted the album “Mit Schinken durch die Menopause” one of the 50 best punk albums of all time in 2023.
It will be interesting to see how the band, whose instrumentation with a theremin is already rather unusual for a punk band, will deal with BIJOU’s series of images: whether they will orientate themselves on the structure of the original film score – evocative, atmospheric compositions and loops by Gustav Holst and Alan Hovhaness, interrupted by a pinch of Led Zeppelin. Whether they might incorporate text fragments or scraps of speech, as the Pisse lyrics are unrivalled and it is almost a shame without them. Whether they might put more emphasis on synthesiser and theremin. Or whether they work with samples and electronics. We don’t know. Ulrich Gutmair also writes about the band in the taz: “For all their filthiness, Pisse are washed in the waters of the avant-garde.” So much for Gutmair. The band’s official promo text, on the other hand, states: “Whipped by disgust, Pisse play low music for a dishonourable audience.” We look forward to aesthetic moments of friction between image and sound. It will be a celebration.
| Fri 13. Sept | UT Connewitz |
| 8 PM | With introduction by Marco Siedelmann € 15 |
| Sat 14. Sept | UT Connewitz |
| 8 PM | Additional Show € 15 |
