THU AUG 25, 2022 7:30 PM SHORTBUS $10.00 (member) ; $15.00 (general admission) Aero Theatre | Q&A with filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell. New restoration, courtesy of Oscilloscope. Introduction by guest programmer Brandon David Wilson. Part of the ‘Shock and Awe: The Films of the Dubya Years’ series, curated by filmmaker and educator Brandon David Wilson and co-presented by the Pickford Film Center. Tickets are no longer on sale for this event.
ABOUT THE FILM: Five years after turning his iconic rock musical into a feature film, John Cameron Mitchell released his follow up film that in his own words was “everything we needed to get through a second term of George W. Bush.” SHORTBUS, which was developed through workshops for years before it was shot, is the kind of film directors dare themselves to make but, at some point in the process either lose their nerve or compromise into oblivion. The film’s title refers to an underground salon in New York City that features art, song, and pansexual orgies. Like one of Robert Altman’s ensemble films, the characters are a disparate group of young New Yorkers who find themselves drawn to this space. The sex scenes are unsimulated which at the time of its release got a lot of attention. But unlike other films that seek to break the taboo of unsimulated sex, SHORTBUS didn’t use sex to shock or even titillate. The scenes of intimacy instead contribute to a bracing honesty. The sex merely reveals the characters the way musical numbers do in a good musical. Ultimately, it is only one element in a film that is an anthem for living and feeling deeply, even in the darkest of times. -Brandon David Wilson, guest programmer. FORMAT: DCP DISTRIBUTOR: Oscilloscope