Ask Any Buddy

We’re back at @ifccenter on Thursday, April 30th with a 40th anniversary screening of Juliet Bashore’s masterpiece KAMIKAZE HEARTS. Tickets available at the link in our bio. ⁣ ⁣ Sex, drugs, and cinema all collide in Juliet Bashore’s searing documentary—or is it?—about San Francisco’s porn scene and the intense romantic relationship between superstar Sharon Mitchell and innocent newcomer Tigr. An unflinching examination of performance, identity, and cinema’s blurring of the real and the reel, KAMIKAZE HEARTS is a love story like no other.⁣

We’re back at @ifccenter this Monday with a rare screening of Jack Deveau and Tom DeSimone’s seminal (pun intented) gay XXX documentary GOOD HOT STUFF — tickets available at the link in our bio. This screening is in tribute to Robert Alvarez — cofounder and editor for Hand in Hand Films, who passed away late last year.⁣⁣ Take a peek behind the curtain – and beneath the sheets – of New York’s first gay film studio, the legendary Hand in Hand Films, in Jack Deveau and Tom DeSimone’s THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!-esque documentary-cum-compliation feature GOOD HOT STUFF. Featuring clips from the studio’s iconic early films like LEFT-HANDED(1972), THE EROTIC FILMS OF PETER DE ROME (1973), and DRIVE (1974), interviews with the filmmakers and stars; and the only footage that was ever shot for James Bidgood’s uncompleted PINK NARCISSUS follow-up, GOOD HOT STUFF is a fascinating and supremely entertaining look back at the peak of porno chic decadence. It’s also, well… good… and hot.. and…⁣

We’re back at @ifccenter on March 16th with a tribute to Robert Alvarez — co-founder and in-house editor for the legendary Hand in Hand Films, New York’s first gay film studio — who passed away at the end of last year. Tickets at the link in our bio.⁣ ⁣ Take a peek behind the curtain (and beneath the sheets) of the legendary Hand in Hand Films, in Jack Deveau and Tom DeSimone’s THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!-esque documentary-cum-compilation feature GOOD HOT STUFF. Featuring clips from the studio’s iconic early films like LEFT-HANDED (1972), THE EROTIC FILMS OF PETER BERLIN (1973), and DRIVE (1974), interviews with the filmmakers and stars; and the only footage that was ever shot for James Bidgood’s uncompleted PINK NARCISSUS follow-up, GOOD HOT STUFF is a fascinating and supremely entertaining look back at the peak of porno chic decadence. It’s also, well… good… and hot.. and…⁣

We’re back at @ifccenter TOMORROW with Monika Treut’s seminal 80s lesbian film VIRGIN MACHINE — tickets available at the link in our bio.⁣ ⁣ Dorothee Müller (Ina Blum) is a German journalist researching an article about the nature of romantic love—something she desperately needs, given her dysfunctional relationships with former lover Heinz (Gad Klein) and brother Bruno (Marcelo Uriona). In the Oz of San Francisco, Dorothee finds exactly what she was looking for—and then some—thanks to the help of lesbian strip show barker Susie Sexpert (Susie Bright), drag king Ramona (Shelly Mars), and her mysteriously kinky neighbors (Cleo Dubois and Fakir Musafar). When Dorothy surfaces like a dazzled tourist on the wilder shores of the city’s thriving lesbian community, she has discovered her true sexuality…and left some illusions behind.⁣ ⁣ Part German Expressionist satire, part sapphic travelogue, Monika Treut’s VIRGIN MACHINE (DIE JUNGFRAUENMASCHINE) is a seminal—and fiercely controversial—work of lesbian cinema.

We’re back at @ifccenter on Monday, February 9th with the recent restoration of Monika Treut’s seminal — and scandalous! — 80s lesbian comedy VIRGIN MACHINE. Tickets at the link in our bio.⁣ ⁣ Dorothee Müller (Ina Blum) is a German journalist researching an article about the nature of romantic love—something she desperately needs, given her dysfunctional relationships with former lover Heinz (Gad Klein) and brother Bruno (Marcelo Uriona). In the Oz of San Francisco, Dorothee finds exactly what she was looking for—and then some—thanks to the help of lesbian strip show barker Susie Sexpert (Susie Bright), drag king Ramona (Shelly Mars), and her mysteriously kinky neighbors (Cleo Dubois and Fakir Musafar). When Dorothy surfaces like a dazzled tourist on the wilder shores of the city’s thriving lesbian community, she has discovered her true sexuality…and left some illusions behind.⁣ ⁣ Part German Expressionist satire, part sapphic travelogue, Monika Treut’s VIRGIN MACHINE (DIE JUNGFRAUENMASCHINE) is a classic of lesbian cinema.

The late @rosa_von_praunheim_estate on an episode of In the Life to promote his film I AM MY OWN WOMAN — which plays at @ifccenter next Tuesday. Tickets at the link in our bio.

We’re back at @ifccenter on January 20th for a special tribute screening of the late @rosa_von_praunheim_estate ’s trans masterpiece, I AM MY OWN WOMAN. We hope you’ll join us — tickets at the link in our bio.⁣ ⁣ East German trans icon Charlotte von Mahlsdorf guides filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim through the retelling of her incredible life story in this biopic that blurs the lines between traditional narrative and documentary. As much about the joys of collecting antique furniture as it is Mahlsdorf’s role in fostering and protecting queer community in East Berlin, I AM MY OWN WOMAN is one of the few trans biopics to truly feel as radical and as original as its subject.

BUDDIES star Geoff Edholm interviewed on a 1985 episode of the Manhattan Cable series GAY MORNING AMERICA. You can catch BUDDIES tomorrow night at @ifccenger with special guests star David Schachter and @bressanproject ’s Jenni Olson and Roe Bressan. Tickets at the link in our bio.

Coming up at @ifccenter on Monday! A 40th anniversary screening of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s groundbreaking BUDDIES — the first American narrative feature about AIDS — with special guests star David Schachter and @bressanproject ’s Roe Bressan and Jenni Olson. Tickets at the link in our bio!⁣ ⁣ David (David Schachter) is a twentysomething gay yuppie who volunteers to be a “buddy” to older AIDS patient Robert (Geoff Edholm). Initially put off by Robert’s very 70s gay lib sensibilities and political consciousness, David soon finds himself growing closer to his new friend—and becoming changed in the process. The first American theatrical feature film about AIDS, Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s BUDDIES is a devastating, yet bittersweet drama and a pioneering work of queer independent cinema that’s every bit as powerful 40 years later.

We’re back at @ifccenter on Monday, December 15th for a 40th anniversary screening of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s groundbreaking BUDDIES — the first American narrative feature about AIDS — with special guests star David Schachter and @bressanproject ’s Roe Bressan and Jenni Olson. Tickets at the link in our bio!⁣ ⁣ David (David Schachter) is a twentysomething gay yuppie who volunteers to be a “buddy” to older AIDS patient Robert (Geoff Edholm). Initially put off by Robert’s very 70s gay lib sensibilities and political consciousness, David soon finds himself growing closer to his new friend—and becoming changed in the process. The first American theatrical feature film about AIDS, Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s BUDDIES is a devastating, yet bittersweet drama and a pioneering work of queer independent cinema that’s every bit as powerful 40 years later.

We’re back at @ifccenter tomorrow for the NYC premiere of @kani.releasing ’s new restoration of Akihiro Suzuki’s experimental pink film classic LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL. Tickets available at the link in our bio. ⁣ Mostly seen on the gay pink circuit and recently restored by its director to its rightful place in the Japanese arthouse canon, Akihiro Suzuki’s debut takes the death of a young gay porn performer named Takachi as its starting point. LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL follows Shinpei and Reiko as they process their friend’s disappearance, their memories coalescing into a bold exploration of grief set against the backdrop of a nostalgic, blue-hued city shot in a variety of filmic formats. As the viewer begins to piece together Takachi’s story, laden with desire for another boy named Sorao, between the cities of Tokyo and Kochi (“where the boys look like angels”), a powerful free-associative beauty emerges from a unique work described by Suzuki himself as “neither straight, gay, queer, bisexual, asexual or pornographic, but [rather] anti-heterosexist” — a film completely free of dogma and convention.⁣ ⁣ “At the time, I felt a sense of rebellion against the heterosexual-dominated world, and wanted to portray sexuality and identity through an ambiguity that cannot be categorized,” says director Akihiro Suzuki. “I wanted to make a 35mm film like an 8mm film, mix various visual media, and include people of diverse sexualities around me in it.”

We’re back at @ifccenter on Tuesday, 11/25 with the New York premiere of @kani.releasing ’s gorgeous new restoration of Akihiro Suzuki’s LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL! Tickets at the link in our bio. ⁣ ⁣Mostly seen on the gay pink circuit and recently restored by its director to its rightful place in the Japanese arthouse canon, Akihiro Suzuki’s debut takes the death of a young gay porn performer named Takachi as its starting point. LOOKING FOR AN ANGEL follows Shinpei and Reiko as they process their friend’s disappearance, their memories coalescing into a bold exploration of grief set against the backdrop of a nostalgic, blue-hued city shot in a variety of filmic formats. As the viewer begins to piece together Takachi’s story, laden with desire for another boy named Sorao, between the cities of Tokyo and Kochi (“where the boys look like angels”), a powerful free-associative beauty emerges from a unique work described by Suzuki himself as “neither straight, gay, queer, bisexual, asexual or pornographic, but [rather] anti-heterosexist” — a film completely free of dogma and convention