FAMILY PORTRAITS: A TRILOGY OF AMERICA & THE ACCIDENT – 35MM + Q&A

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR: Douglas Buck
CAST: Sally Conway, Larry Fessenden, Beth Glover
Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America (2003, 103MIN) From acclaimed director Douglas Buck comes an unflinching, disturbingly beautiful look at the underbelly of American family. Three separate narratives (including the shocking film festival favorite “Cutting Moments” as well as “Home” and “Prologue”) combine to create a unique trilogy of life today that will leave you devastated… and begging for more.

The Accident (2011, 11MIN) a mother and young daughter drive along a mountain road and come upon a fatal collision between a motorcyclist and a deer.

Q&A with Douglas Buck following screening.

SISTERS – 35MM + Q&A

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10 8:00 PM
DIRECTOR: Douglas Buck
CAST: Chloë Sevigny, Stephen Rea, Lou Doillon
A reporter witnesses a brutal murder and becomes entangled in a mystery involving a pair of conjoined twins who were separated at birth, one of them forced to live under the eye of a watchful, controlling psychiatrist.

CONTEMPLATING THE MYRIAD DISCONNECTS THAT HAVE LED MODERN SOCIETY ASTRAY

An attempt to reset the national conversation through
the defiant naïveté Fessenden employs in his horror movies;
For if we shy away from idealism, we have no mechanism to make change.

Whoever wins this election, we cannot respond if we don’t have principals
with which to find common cause or build resistance.

Elegy

Day of The Dead

I was speaking to my Mom who is 97 and who gets so upset and emotional about the upcoming election, I have to make sure not to talk about it too close to her bed time. Luckily, the other night she texted that her heart was beating so hard watching the television. I put two and two together that there must be something going on. I tuned in and after chit chat that might make you want to turn your TV back off, Kamala gave a great speech. Well, I thought it was pretty great. I thanked my Mom for getting me to tune in.

This isn’t a think piece. It may well be an elegy. I can’t help but see another Trump presidency as just another extended, ongoing natural (unnatural) disaster. However it was also interesting reading how Republicans and Democrats hold a similar view of each other’s complete incompetence. So this is democracy – the will of the people will be expressed in whatever dysfunctional way the electoral college allows.. Que sera, sera. Live by the ballot or swing state, die by the ballot/ swing state.

I pine for the wise words of Noam Chomsky who has issued a consistent message ever since the sixties and now has trouble speaking due to a stroke – a man revered in other nations for his wisdom on intellectual thought and the moral responsibility to speak against injustice and clearly antidemocratic agendas. I relisten to George Carlin on Instagram and realize he was an angry, funny, caustic, very smart and enlightend man. I heard it when he was alive and I laughed and I nodded. I hear it now, and I’m like this guy was tapped into an understanding I didn’t fathom back then that only certain really smart outsiders have. They see the patterns, the absurdity, the inside job.

On the other hand, a ton of people really like Trump, and when I think of the masses voting for him, I’m upset. But when I think of a few individuals I know who I really like that I suspect will vote for him, that are lovely people that  I might give a kidney to, I feel like, que sera, sera. 

But I really do hope he doesn’t come for your neighbors, friends, family, or you, due to being or formerly being, a suspected non-resident alien, or whatever classification he comes up with. 

Or that he doesn’t keep a list of every woman’s reproductive activity as if this was now a responsibility of the government to safeguard the life of a fetus, nor that he imprisons a woman who does not follow the said guidelines.

I also hope you or your neighbors don’t happen to get arrested while being black, brown, asian, latino, south asian, filipino or only whiteish, (you get the drift) because due process of law is going to be up for grabs and the guy had swastikas hanging in Madison Square Garden.  That is the opposite of virtue signaling. 

He’s coming for you. And that’s who ever he chooses, whenever he chooses it. That’s who you’ve chosen to have in power. Crazy, no checks and balances, totally disinhibited, openly states he wants to be a dictator, that elections are stolen and he likes Putin. He might wake up and want to round up people who like candy or those who smoke cigarettes, or maybe just the women who are lactating, or maybe just the people eighty and older who can’t walk so well. 

And he doesn’t really like Social Security and Medicare because it smacks of socialism despite the fact you paid into it your whole fucking working life. You see, he’d like to cut the tax burden a bit more so the companies could rape and pillage the country a bit more thoroughly with even fewer taxes while the poor and working class die by the dozens. You know, because that’s how it was in the good old days. And he’s making America great again. Racist. Radically polarized between rich and poor. Attempting a new ethno-cleansing despite the pesky problem of America being a country of immigrants (rats), so he has to toe that line carefully.

And as in the days of old, raping of the land is also back in vogue, so have at it in anyway you see fit to fuck, suck, and felch the earth. Environmental protections will be eliminated, drilling, fracking, deforesting, dumping, release of sewage, nuclear waste, animal waste, will be rampant. Earth probably has less than five years. 

So, this is the guy to close the show – final act – last looks every one – he is apparently what the populous wants. That and lower bread prices. So eat up, butter cup. 

I mean, soon prices are really going to drop. Hope you have a big appetite. It’s going to be clearance, long time. Everything must go. 

Including you. Bye Bye.

And while Trump is doing all this crazy shit and there is a ton of yelling and screaming, also from the people that voted for him who are now upset and want their money back, do you think the country, the economy, our position in the world, our environment, anything, is going to be better? More money in your pocket? More jobs for hard working Americans? More lube for the ass fucking? That he’ll give ya.

It will all be putting out fires because the guy is a fucking nightmare, like trying to guide Godzilla through the Louvre – but I guess that’s why many people vote for him. He’s so fun to watch. He’s the wrestler (or green lizard) in the ring that makes you laugh and keeps you engaged. Stokes outrage and releases dopamine. It is a bit like the Twilight Zone where part of “US(A)” has slipped inside the Entertainment Box and is no longer truly cognizant of the difference between what we see on screens and what is actually real.

Trump is a hologram, a logo, a hat, a bumper sticker, a decal, a meme, a video clip. He’s vapor. But I still don’t get the con. Or maybe it’s a performer/audience love fest that has no center except self interest and self adoration, entertainment and self satisfaction. However, clearly the Donald has nailed the connection with his audience who will seemingly forgive him anything.

Personally, I don’t understand that because instinctively I see the bully in him and believe every woman who has come forward saying he raped/assaulted them. I believe humility is an admirable quality and that braggarts are never people you want to be around. Lastly, I used to always assess people by who you’d want to go on a hiking trip with. Nothing elaborate, just a basic couple of days in the mountains, but it can rain, you have to get fire wood, there’s limited food, people get blisters, etc. And there are people that really suck to have on camping trips. Donald Trump would be one of them. A simpering, entitled pile of a human being.

Now to be fair, initially, I think Kamala might be a little annoying on the camping trip; too perky, too talkative, maybe too much of a “know it all”. But she’d end up being a “go-to” or should I say, the person you were “going to”; kind of the natural leader; and you might be sharing a cigarette and a swig from the flask around the campsite with her too. Unlike some fools, she’s disciplined with that stuff, so keep a confidence.

A week from today maybe we’ll know the outcome. I think what is painful is feeling like you and some of your other fellow citizens have come to such a different judgement call given basic facts. The irony of a democratic country electing a president who plainly states he wants to be a despot, a king, despite the USA ousting British royalty 250+ years ago and establishing its own independence, seems like a stunning display of amnesia. 

And yet it feels like it’s done with a shrug of the shoulders. Come, kiss the godfather’s ring and he’s gonna take care of “your problem”. But what you learn, is this is just the beginning of a very bad deal. It’s not kindness, relief or mercy. It’s opportunity. For him. In your moment of weakness or deference or god forbid, belief in the Donald, where you buy his bullshit, the three card monty, you will now pay for that paycheck loan in perpetuity.

I suppose a handful might profit before the earth caves in. Elon is already planning to live on Mars, that fucking wombat. Have you seen pictures from Mars? And A/B’d them with Earth? Does that seem like a place anyone would want to go to? 

Can you imagine Elon and the Donald on Mars together? They’d be dead in three hours. Donald would insist on going for a walk to survey for building sites, too impatient to be outfitted with any gear, and Elon’s space suit would only be Gen 3 and fail as he tried to rescue Trump’s freeze dried body pulling him back onto the Mars pod. I guess it would be a robot that would finally recover them from that deliciously freezing, inhospitable, rocky and sandy surface.

It seems like it might be a better idea to preserve the much better place that we are destroying, namely the earth. And just saying “No”, to two year-old geniuses, future tech bros, entrepreneurs, narcissists, neurodivergents, spoiled brats, princesses, influencers, star performers, athletes. It might not be the worst thing. 

My bias is greatness is grounded in being completely average, being connected to the experience of the life around you and the people who live there.

I would hate for unchecked ego to be the downfall of the republic. I do think “old school” Republicans do not like Donald Trump. My Dad was a Republican for most of his voting life, but like my Mom, he would be appalled by Trump in every way imaginable. He would not care about the financial benefit, however alluring, and my Dad disliked taxes. 

I also think he may have been moved by Kamala’s speech the other night, especially near the end, where she said I’m going to be your President even if you don’t vote for me, I’m going to be working for you, because its about one country and not division, and something to the effect that I care deeply about this, I will fight for this, I’ll work hard for this. I’l work hard for all of you.

And that’s what it’s about. 

And that’s not what Trump’s about. 

I don’t think he’s ever used the words ‘work’ or ‘care’.

And the final point is, I think people know he isn’t going to work or care while in office, but they still will vote for him. I can only imagine this mirrors their experience of not working or caring about their prospects, their job, their future, their life, their town, their world. Call it a type of slow burn out, an American nihilism, but it’s no longer subtle.

This is becoming a choice for the dark side, however ill-defined. I just don’t know if the reality of this choice has truly set in. It’s like Trump devotees are pushing the button without having a firm idea about what the explosion will look like. 

I think they’ll be surprised about what gets set into motion, and like good audience members, they’ll watch in horror and fascination while taking zero responsibility for having helped create this monster.

Visit Tom Laverack at TomLaverack.com

Synchronized Brainwave Activity, the latest project from Wharton Tiers
(producer of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Glenn Branca, Just Desserts, Wharton Tiers Ensemble, etc)
performs live at Berlin / 25 Avenue A / NYC at 7PM
Fessenden joins on sax for a couple songs…

2024 brought two theatrical releases: Larry Fessenden’s werewolf drama BLACKOUT
and Chris Skotchdopole’s dazzling thriller CRUMB CATCHER.

GEP also ushered to the screen PRETTY UGLY, a raucous doc about the Lunachicks by Ilya Chaiken
and Joe Maggio’s BLISS, both coming to theaters in 2025.

And 2024 also brought you Glass Eye Toyz WENDIGO figures
in collaboration with Monsterpants Studios.

We look forward to bringing you more stuff you never knew you needed in the year ahead and
plan to have plenty of surprises for you if we make it to our 40th anniversary next year.

Thanks for knowing us!

Glass Eye Pix has tried to save the world before.
Our track record is not good; just look at us now.
But we’ve made a little art along the way.

In 2004 we endeavored to process the dumpster-fire
that was the George W. Bush first term in office and stave off
a repeat performance with a free comicbook chronicling the abuses.
An extraordinary use of the artistry of artist Brahm Revel
who illustrated daily blog posts by Fessenden, (check them out)
and the editing skills of James Felix McKenney.

We’ve made no such effort this election cycle
as contributing to the noise seems like its own form of
cultural collapse but we hope you’ll do your part
by engaging with the issues in a productive way.

Kinda a “nowhere to turn” scenario aint it?
Kinda why we make horror movies.

Still, stop mopin’ and get votin’

Ok, you get the picture. Good luck.

Animation by Beck Underwood

A Tales From Beyond The Pale Reading:
John Speredakos reads the short story by Edgar Allan Poe,
accompanied by a saxophone score by Larry Fessenden

“weird and wild… a truly subversive work of art.” — SHOCK CINEMA

We follow Marc (Don Wood) a homicidal maniac driven by demons buried deep within his soul,
and Wendy (Christine Spencer) Marc’s polar opposite who lives life fast and hard
without a second’s thought to the consequences.
Their separate paths will eventually cross, but will it be on the road to salvation or the highway to hell?

CAST:
Don Wood, Christine Spencer, Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister,
Debbie Rochon, Michael Berryman, Larry Fessenden

“A MASTERPIECE” —Satan