July 23 - 29

BALTIMORE CONFIDENTIAL: TWO FILMS BY JOHN WATERS

Female Trouble

Dir: John Waters
1974, USA / Color, 35mm / 97min

Next in the G.I.’s salute to John Waters we bring you one of the sleaziest films of his career! Female Trouble follows the trials and tribulations of dejected teenager Dawn Davenport (Divine). When her parents don’t buy her a pair of “cha-cha” heels for Christmas, Dawn goes on a sh*t-kicking rampage: beating her parents and then running away from home. Soon after she is raped (in one of the weirdest scenes in movie history as Divine basically rapes him/herself!), Dawn becomes a single mother and career criminal. Her daughter spends most of her time staging fake car wrecks in their living room while Dawn becomes a famous model with the help of a hair dresser couple who believe that her acts of criminality are a thing of artistic beauty. Eventually Dawn’s fame inspires jealousy in a rival criminal (Edith Massey) who throws acid in her face. Regardless of her now ruined face, Dawn’s criminal beauty lives on… right up to the moment that she’s strapped into the electric chair.

"Camp is too elegant a word to describe it all." Variety

July 23 & 24 - Late Night!

Where The Air Is Cool And Dark

Dir: Brion Rockwell
1997, USA / Color, 35mm / 80min

Clean and sober, Emmett LeClere returns home to the Olympic Peninsula to shoot a film about the endangered rain-forest. But old habits die hard, and soon Emmett is back at work as a caretaker to his friend’s marijuana crop. Worse, he rekindles a relationship with an ex-girlfriend that leads him back to hard drugs and booze. As Emmett’s self-destructive ways threaten to bring down everything that he’s worked so hard for, he discovers the Feds are closing in… Featuring a soundtrack by members of the legendary Seattle band The Walkabouts.
The truly initiated cinephile will know that it was this film that put the lovely town of Forks up on the silver screen almost fifteen years before its residents' recent demise at the hands of rabid “Twi-tards”.

"Drugstore Cowboy meets Five Easy Pieces… independent moviemaking at its best!" Alternative Cinema

"Portrays a dark, introspective world of desperation and drug induced escapism…" Anchorage Daily News

July 30 - August 5

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

Dir: Jessica Oreck
2009, USA-Japan / Color, Video / 90min

Sold live in vending machines and department stores, plastic replicas included as prizes in the equivalent of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and the subject of the No. 1 videogame, MushiKing, from the smallest backyard to the top of Mt. Fuji, insects inspire an enthusiasm in Japan seen nowhere else in this world. Working backwards through history, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo explores the mystery of the development of Japan’s love affair with bugs. Using insects like an anthropologist’s tool kit, the film uncovers Japanese philosophies that will shift Westerner’s perspectives on nature, beauty, life and even the seemingly mundane realities of their day-to-day routines.

"Bristles with kinetic energy. A film to be heard as well as seen." Film Comment

"Remarkable. Quietly spellbinding." Variety

July 30 & 31 - Late Night!

We Found It in the Basement: 16mm Extravaganza!

Dir: Various
Various, USA, UK, Canada, Spain / Color-B&W, 16mm / 80min

Hidden deep under the Grand Illusion is a strange, claustrophobic cavern filled with all sorts of bizarre stuff. On a recent journey into the bowels of the G.I.’s vault, our brave volunteers returned with a stack of 16mm film reels filled with some of the most awesomely bizarre films ever committed to celluloid. Join us as we take you into the intense world of white, middle-class crack smokers in a Disney produced anti-drug film. Astound as British office workers risk life and limb in the most dangerous office in the world. Amaze as an artsy foot fetish film turns into a nightmare of potentially toe- mangling dangers. All this weirdness and more! Plus real scientists teach really stupid kids how stepping on a crack will not actually break your mother’s back and Saul Bass’ Oscar winning Why Man Creates.

August 6 - 12

Behind the Burly Q

Dir: Leslie Zemeckis
2010, USA / Color, Video / 97min

Burlesque and vaudeville acts were America’s most popular form of live entertainment in the first half of the 20th century… until cinema drove them from the mainstream. To add insult to injury, the art of burlesque became vilified and misunderstood, and was largely left out of our cultural history. By telling the intimate and surprising stories from its golden age through the women (and men!) who lived it, Behind the Burly Q reveals the true story of burlesque, even as it experiences a new renaissance. Featuring: Alan Alda, Dixie Evans, Lili St. Cyr, Tempest Storm, Kitty West, Lou Costello, Rita Grable, Blaze Starr and many more!

"Charming, entertaining… a delight!" NY Times

August 6 & 7, 13 & 14

Amazon Women on the Moon

Dir: Joe Dante, John Landis, Carl Gottlieb, Robert K. Weiss
1987, USA / Color, 35mm / 85min

In the tradition of such films as Kentucky Fried Movie and The Groove Tube, Amazon Women on the Moon spoofs all things great and small that occurred on TV when the medium wasn’t the wasteland of “info-mercials” and reality TV that it is today. Centered around a 50’s sci-fi cheapie called Amazon Women on the Moon in which a Capt. Nelson saves Queen of the Moon Sybil Danning from an exploding volcano and man- eating spiders, Amazon Women features parodies of commercials, other films and a few weird skits that don’t really fall into any of those categories. Like when Arsenio Hall is “attacked” by all his electrical appliances. With a huge star-studded cast featuring the legendary Russ Meyer, Andrew Dice Clay, Slappy White, B.B. King, Penthouse Pet Monique Gabrielle, Phil Hartman, Lou Jacobi, Michelle Pfeiffer, Griffin Dunne, Forrest J. Ackerman, Henry Silva, Rip Taylor, Henny Youngman, Steve Allen, Kelly Preston, Howard Hessman, Ed Begley Jr. as a naked “Invisible Man”, Steve “The Gute!” Guttenberg and many, many, many more!

Portland Grindhouse Film Festival Presents: Old School Kung-Fu Double Feature

On Saturday August 7th at the Grand Illusion Cinema, the Portland Grindhouse Film Festival presents an OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU DOUBLE FEATURE.  The only known 35mm prints of two of the greatest kung fu movies ever made will be shown: INVINCIBLE POLE FIGHTER (at 7pm) and THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING (at 9pm).  Grindhouse Film Festival organizer Dan Halsted will be on hand to talk about his attempts to save this unjustly maligned genre on 35mm, and his adventure last year unearthing the largest collection of these films in the Western Hemisphere.  See photos from this story here: http://salvagingshaolin.blogspot.com/ Find more information on the Portland Grindhouse Film Festival here: http://grindhousefilmfest.com/

August 7 - One Night Only!

Invincible Pole Fighter

Dir: Chia-Liang Liu
1984, Hong Kong / Color, 35mm / 98min / SCOPE!

A family of fighters is ambushed by invaders in a fierce battle that leaves the family's father and four of six brothers dead.  One of the remaining brothers (the Master Killer himself, Gordon Liu) swears revenge, and forces his way into the Shaolin Temple to master his pole fighting skills.  When his younger sister is kidnapped by the invaders, it's payback time.  After numerous jaw-dropping fight scenes, there is a massive, climactic battle that ranks among the greatest action scenes in movie history.  This film is directed by martial arts master Lau Kar Leung (36th Chamber of Shaolin), stars Gordon Liu (36th Chamber of Shaolin, Kill Bill) and features the last on-screen role of the great Fu Sheng.  This is an all-out kung fu masterpiece.

August 7 - One Night Only!

The Mystery of Chess Boxing

Dir: Joseph Kuo
1979, Hong Kong / Color, 35mm / 90min / SCOPE!

The original Ghostface Killer is on the loose!  A vicious villain with an unstoppable five-element technique, Ghostface is killing off all his old rivals.  Meanwhile, a young student tries to learn kung fu and is taken under the wing of an old chess master.  The basics of chess prove to be the same as the basics of fighting, and eventually the heroes will fight Ghostface Killer, who verbally insults his opponents as he annihilates them.  A true classic, and obvious favorite of the Wu Tang Clan, directed by Joseph Kuo (Seven Grandmasters).

August 13 - 19

Wah Do Dem

Dir: Ben Chase, Sam Fleischner
2009, USA / Color, Video / 76min

A young Brooklyn musician named Max (Sean Bones) decides to go on a Caribbean cruise alone when his girlfriend Willow (Norah Jones) dumps him cold two days before the trip. Once in Jamaica, Max quickly escapes the tourist zone for more "authentic" surroundings and in the process is robbed of his possessions and is stranded, and literally misses the boat. As Max sets out for the American Embassy in Kingston on foot, Jamaica is waiting to meet him with unexpected and extraordinary encounters, including a full-moon celebration with the legendary reggae group The Congos, and a dreamy stay with a Rasta prophet (Carl Bradshaw, The Harder They Come). With music and appearances by Sean Bones, MGMT, Yeasayer, Santigold, Mr. Lexx and Mykal Rose.

“Sublime and Awesome.” -Hollywood Reporter

“A slackers odyssey. Enjoyable.” -Time Out London