Find 'Looking for Johnny' Monday at Anthology Film Archives

Via the EVG inbox…

Directed by Danny Garcia ("The Rise and Fall of The Clash"), "Looking For Johnny" is the definitive documentary on New York legendary guitar player Johnny Thunders.

In 90 minutes, this film covers Johnny Thunders career from his beginning in the early 70's to his demise in New Orleans, where he died under mysterious circumstances in 1991.

Here's an earlier trailer for the film …



You can find the new trailer and more info at the film's Facebook page.

And "Looking For Johnny" has its NYC premiere Monday at the Anthology Film Archives. Find those details here.

Finally, here's an anecdote that New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain shared with us about Thunders back in March 2013:

Johnny Thunders had an apartment on Avenue A. His closet was like — everything would be pressed and dry cleaned. He had a real unique way of dressing and picking this and this and that and putting it all together.

When we were picking names for the band, he called me, well, he called Ricky Corvette, and run names by me. 'What do you think of Johnny Thunder?' I'd was like Yeah, that's pretty cool Johnny. The phone would ring five minutes later. What about Johnny Thunders?

Here is the Anthology Film Archives as the 27th Precinct

The exterior is converted to film a scene for the TV pilot "Ironside," as noted earlier today...

[Thanks to EVG Facebook friend Maud Dinand for the photo]

Anthology Film Archives becoming the 27th Precinct — for the 'Ironside' TV pilot

EVG reader Marjorie Ingall notes that crews will be in the neighborhood today filming part of the pilot for an "Ironside" remake with Blair Underwood in the Raymond Burr role ... as the police detective in a wheelchair...

(Side note: Don't fuck with "Ironside"!)



Apparently the show will be set in NYC and not San Francisco like the original... as part of the shoot, the exterior of the great Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue and East Second Street will be transformed into "the 27th Precinct," according to one of the crew members...

Lordy, this all sounds so April Fool's Dayish. It is not.

Anyway, here's the show's opening credits ... from 1967...

Annual Anthology Film Archives benefit happening Monday night

From the EV Grieve inbox...


[Bush Tetras photo by Laura Levine via the Anthology]

Anthology Film Archives will hold its Annual Film Preservation Honors and Benefit on Monday June 25, from 7-10 pm at The Standard, New York in the High Line Room + Terrace, 848 Washington Street at West 13th Street

The benefit will feature cocktails, hors d'oeurves, and a performance by the Bush Tetras with special guests Richard Barone and Felice Rosser. The event also includes raffle to win prizes including a visit to the set of BOARDWALK EMPIRE; VIP tickets to the COLBERT REPORT; and a private screening at Anthology. Winners will be announced at the event; ticket purchasers do not need to be present at the event to win the raffle!

Ticket information right here.

Each year Anthology Film Archives honors those who have made important contributions to our collective film heritage at its Film Preservation Honors and Benefit, which also supports Anthology’s ongoing film preservation and public screening programs.

For its honorees this year, Anthology is very pleased to honor Cinetech, The Women’s Film Preservation Fund, and Richard Pena for their work in the field of film preservation.

All proceeds from the benefit support Anthology Film Archives, which has been dedicated to preserving, presenting, and promoting independent, non-commercial, and avant-garde cinema for over 40 years.

'My Mars Bar Movie' opens Friday at the Anthology Film Archives

"My Mars Bar Movie," the 87-minute documentary directed by Jonas Mekas, the filmmaker-poet-writer-curator, had its "world theatrical premiere" last October at the Greenpoint Film Festival.

This weekend, the film will play at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue and Second Street. Per the Anthology website:

Anthology is overjoyed to present this new film by Jonas Mekas, a tribute to the dear, departed Mars Bar. Our neighbor ever since we moved to the Second Avenue Courthouse building in 1988, the Mars Bar represented an undiluted blast of the old East Village, keeping alive the punk sensibility and anarchic attitude that’s increasingly a thing of the past in this part of the city. Destined to be replaced by yet another glass condo building, and taking a piece of our heart with it to the grave, the Mars Bar nevertheless lives on through Mekas’s lens!

And an excerpt...



Find the bio for Mekas, the Anthology Film Archives artistic director and co-founder, here.

A Richard Kern retrospective tonight and tomorrow at the Anthology Film Archives

From the EV Grieve inbox .... from the Anthology Film Archives ... Richard Kern will be there tonight for both the 7 and 9 screenings...

Richard Kern’s controversial, unconventional, and darkly comedic short films earned him immediate distinction in the 1980s underground film circuit. A prime figure in the “Cinema of Transgression” group of that era, Kern is likely more recognized today for his erotic photographs, books, and videos. Looking back it is clear that Kern’s Super-8 films were an attack on the entrenched avant-garde and a close-up examination of highly subversive behavior. Starring the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Henry Rollins, and Kembra Pfahler, featuring original soundtracks by musicians such as Foetus and Sonic Youth, and widely distributed on VHS during the burgeoning days of alternative and punk music, Kern’s films remain shocking, sexy, disturbed, debauched, violent, and really quite wonderful. These eye-opening works still rattle the senses.

In conjunction with a group show featuring his photographs at the gallery Maccarone (630 Greenwich Street), opening on September 9, and to celebrate Anthology’s preservation of a number of his works, we present this two-program survey of Kern’s most notable films. Along with a few surprises!

[Lydia Lunch in "Fingered"]

To be screened:

PROGRAM 1 at 7 p.m.:
GOODBYE 42ND STREET (1983, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Kern films the storefronts of famous 42nd Street: the fast-food stands, the sex shops, the grindhouse and porn theaters, and interrupts the visit with random acts of violence.

THE KING OF SEX (1987, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Nick Zedd. Music by Killdozer.
A man demonstrates his virility.

YOU KILLED ME FIRST (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Featuring Karen Finley, David Wojnarowicz, and Lung Leg.
During Thanksgiving dinner, a young woman recalls family milestones that helped shape her outlook on life.

THE EVIL CAMERAMAN (1986/90, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jap Anne and Jackie O. Music by Foetus Corp.
Radical change in Kern’s cinema. The filmmaker tries to manipulate his models who suddenly show unexpected resistance.

THE SEWING CIRCLE (1992, 7 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Kembra Pfahler.
Kern films the extreme piercing operation made on performance artist and singer of TheVoluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Kembra Pfahler.

X IS Y (1990, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jackie O and Cristina. Music by Cop Shoot Cop.
A bunch of sexy women play with the preferred toys of primal dominant males: the automatic weapon.

THE BITCHES (1992, 10 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Music by Jim Coleman.
Two women, one man, three bitches. Or how to surprise the average porn watcher.

Plus one secret movie!
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.
–Friday and Saturday, September 23 & 24 at 7 each night.

PROGRAM 2 at 9 p.m.:
MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES (PARTS 1 AND 3) (1985, 18 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
“Stray Dogs” (Part 1): The thwarted and destructive loves of an art lover facing his idol. Featuring David Wojnarowicz and Bill Rice. Music by J.G. Thirlwell.
“Thrust In Me” (Part 3): This provocative film probably shows the synthesis of the Cinema of Transgression by illustrating the worst taboos. Featuring Nick Zedd and others. Music by The Dream Syndicate.

SUBMIT TO ME (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Lydia Lunch and others. Music by Butthole Surfers.
A series of decadent portraits in which sex, bondage, blood, and violence collide.

PIERCE (1986, 9 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Audrey Rose.
A bored young woman decides to let a friend pierce her nipples.

FINGERED (1986, 22 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Featuring Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, and Marty Nations.
The misadventures of a sex phone operator after she meets a sexually depraved psychopath.

MY NIGHTMARE (1993, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Susan McNamara. Music by Joe Budenhauser.
Kern ironically makes fun of the photography profession and the advantages it provides with women.

Plus one secret movie!
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.
Friday and Saturday, September 23 & 24 at 9 each night.

Breaking mews (sorry, you'll realize how corny this headline is when you read the post...)

At the Anthology Film Archives tonight and tomorrow night: The Cat Art Film Festival. Includes a screening of the original "Pink Panther."

V.A. Musetto, taking a break from interviewing Asian film starlets, has a feature on the festival in the Post.

FLicKeR

"FLicKeR" looks interesting...playing this weekend at the Anthology Film Archives.