Los Angeles-based theater the Cinefamily is taking over a screen at the Hollywood Theatre for a series of special events this weekend. Unaware of what Cinefamily is all about? Here's a quick blurb from their website to catch you up to speed:
The Cinefamily’s mission is to foster a spirit of community and a sense of discovery, while reinvigorating the movie-going experience. Like campfires, sporting events and church services, we believe that movies work best as social experiences. They are more meaningful, funnier and scarier when shared with others.
The Cinefamily was founded in 2007 by brothers Dan and Sammy Harkham and Hadrian Belove, founder of Cinefile Video. We currently average 14 shows per week, many of which are enhanced with special guests, live music, dance parties, potlucks and other kinds of social fun. Last year, 53,352 patrons visited the Cinefamily in person, and 1.5 million were reached by the Cinefamily livestream.
Those wanting a more visual representation of the work being done by the organization could easily spend hours wading through the Cinefamily vimeo page.
Co-founder Hadrian Belove will serve as an ambassador of the theater's mission for the Portland events, bringing with him three unique presentations for PDX audiences to enjoy. First up on Friday night is a program called 100 Most Outrageous F-CKS. According to the press release:
A psyche-shattering presentation featuring the most outrageous clips of copulation across the history of film! Since its inception, the motion picture has titillated our collective senses in more ways than you can shake a…well, let’s just say in a lot of ways. From the shiny mainstream to the slimy underground, from the restrained to the risqué, from the prudish to the piggish, sexual images have soaked cinema with their uncanny ability to turn peoples’ heads, curl their toes and make them feel all funny inside — and since the Cinefamily truly believes in the Catherine Breillat-approved adage that “sex is comedy”, it’s time to get real funny. Tonight we celebrate the absolute finest in demented on-screen porkage, alongside every conceivable combination of limbs, lips, etc. Bring a date (or at least someone you need to broach certain topics with…)!
Also on Friday, Hadrian will present Lost in the Desert. It's "a South African kids’ movie sadistic to the point of absurdity, submitting its lone boy protagonist Dirkie, poor eight-year old Dirkie, to a cavalcade of traumas and tribulations punishing in their accumulation, and positively Christ-like in their extremity. This movie is either the bleakest of godless nightmares, or the blackest, most hilarious comedy ever concocted–and made for children, no less. Mel Gibson would flinch at what happens to this kid. And, unbelievably, the film was directed by the wee actor’s da. Stranded in the Kalahari without water, Dirkie biblically wanders the desert with his pet terrier where he is harassed by hyenas, repeatedly injured, sleep-deprived, psychologically tortured, and finally left passed out and half-buried in the sand looking like an image from an Arrabal film. Disturbing and relentless right up to its oblique, ambiguous and haunting last shot…and, oh, those dead puppies in the sand…dead puppies in the sand…"
Saturday evening brings an even more playful side of Cinefamily to town when Mr. Belove will lead Portland in a round of the 5 Minutes Game. Need a lil' more info? Here it is:
We’re firm believers in “Every movie is interesting for at least its first five minutes”, those fascinating moments when you’re still entering the new world a film presents you, and trying to figure out what the hell’s going on. What we’re gonna do is choose fifteen movies you’ve likely never seen before (with most, if not all the films unavailable on DVD), line ‘em up, and only show you the first five minutes of each, not counting their opening credits. After all that, you, the audience, gets to vote on which film out of the fifteen we all then watch in its entirety.
NSFW!! 100 Most Outrageous Fucks (trailer) from Cinefamily on Vimeo.
The Cinefamily presents:
100 Most Outrageous F-CKS at the Hollywood Theatre on Friday, July 13th at 7:30pm. More info available here.
Lost in the Desert at the Hollywood Theatre on Friday, July 13th at 9:30pm. More info available here.
5 Minutes Game at the Hollywood Theatre on Saturday, July 14th at 7:30pm. More info available here.
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