What Is It?

Jan 22 - Jan 24, 2011

(Crispin Hellion Glover, USA, 2006, 35mm, 72 min)

A limited number of tickets will be available for purchase at the door before each screening (please arrive early!)

Preceded by Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show Part 1

Crispin Hellion Glover returns with What Is It? and It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine, the first two installments of a nearly completed trilogy, for an intimate screening of the two in the comforts of our big cinema.The first is a mythic, visionary film. Glover spent nine years making an amazing piece of experimental cinema, acting as writer, director, producer, star and sole financier. If asked what the film is about, he would say, “It’s about the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe and how to get home. He’s tormented by a hubristic, racist inner psyche.” Most of the cast has Down Syndrome, and the acts in which they engage will have you squirming in your seats. Glover leaves no taboo untouched in this whirlpool of wild and weird images.

The second film is a mind-bending foray into unexplored territory that will challenge expectations and defy conventions. The screenwriter, Steven C. Stewart, is also the star (Stewart had cerebral palsy and passed away shortly after filming). The film begins in a nursing home, with our "hero" lying helpless on the floor. While he is being carried back to his bed, the world shifts into one where his charms are recognized and the ladies swoon, leading to a series of torrid sexual conquests. But the man's years of frustration at being an outcast have planted a dark and evil seed. Soon his actions take a morbid turn. Glover uses his visionary cinematic skills to bring to life the graphically explicit psychosexual fantasy world of a man shunned by women and society who lusts after intimacy, acceptance, and a full head of long hair.
 
“Absolutely the most uncompromising and original thing I've seen. People try to compare it to the likes of surrealist hero Luis Buñuel and trailblazer Werner Herzog, but I say Glover has transcended even them. " —Kelly O, The Stranger
 

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