Welcome to the West Coast Underground
Welcome to the West Coast Underground
In the 1960s–1970s, the notion of “underground cinema” represented an incredibly varied film culture that sought to challenge, transgress, and thumb its nose at a mainstream media landscape that was seen as regressive and calcified, and definitely not representing the contemporary moment. Independent cinemas, alternative film societies, activist arts groups, campus film clubs, and numerous other venues and organizations propelled the phenomenon of underground cinema to the forefront of cutting-edge cinematic culture.
This program—inspired by the Academy Museum’s current exhibition Outside the Mainstream—is an all-16mm, all–West Coast snapshot of films that found a home in the experimental cinema underground, ranging from post-Beatnik tomfoolery to comic gender performance satire to a talking blues retelling of the life of Jesus. Poetry, humor, and irreverence abound, culminating in a Ben Van Meter film documenting his and Bruce Conner’s appearance on Art Linkletter’s show to explain how they’re not actually pornographers.
Programmed and note by Academy Film Archive Senior Film Preservationist Mark Toscano.
All films courtesy of the Academy Film Archive, Canyon Cinema, and the filmmakers.
Total program runtime: 73 min.
Odds & Ends
DIRECTED BY: Jane Conger Belson Shimané. 1959. 4 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
Bondage Boy
DIRECTED BY: Chris Langdon. 1973. 5 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
“X”
DIRECTED BY: Barbara Hammer. 1973. 8 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
I Change/I am the Same
DIRECTED BY: Alice Anne Parker. 1969. 1 min. USA. B&W. Sound. 16mm.
The Off-Handed Jape… & How to Pull It Off
DIRECTED BY: Robert Nelson & William T. Wiley. 1967. 9 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
Bondage Girl
DIRECTED BY: Chris Langdon. 1973. 5 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
The Last Supper
DIRECTED BY: Mike Henderson. 1970/73. 8 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
Schmeerguntz
DIRECTED BY: Gunvor Nelson & Dorothy Wiley. 1966. 15 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm.
A Night with Gilda Peck
DIRECTED BY: Curt McDowell. 1973. 10 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
Me & Bruce & Art
DIRECTED BY: Ben Van Meter. 1968. 6 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
Angel Blue Sweet Wings
DIRECTED BY: Chick Strand. 1966. 3 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
Theater accessibility accommodations available upon request. Learn more about our accessibility initiatives.
Back to Main Series
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Special guest: Post-screening conversation with filmmaker Mike Kuchar.
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Harry Smith’s Film #18, Mahagonny in 4K
Introduction by Hilary Staff, Harry Smith Archives.
