Mismantler (2025)

Lensface

After encountering Lensface at the 2019 Unnamed Footage Festival, Filmmaker Travis Z. (Cabin Fever 2016, The Midnight Man) became obsessed with the voyeuristic cryptic, and spiraled into madness, leaving only this bizarre collection of surreal and horrific footage.

Global Groove

Global Groove was a collaborative piece by Nam June Paik and John Godfrey. Paik, amongst other artists who shared the same vision in the 1960s, saw the potential in the television beyond it being a one-sided medium to present programs and commercials. Instead, he saw it more as a place to facilitate a free flow of information exchange. He wanted to strip away the limitations from copyright system and network restrictions and bring in a new TV culture where information could be accessed inexpensively and conveniently. The full length of the piece ran 28 minutes and was first broadcasted in January 30, 1974 on WNET.

Frank Zappa: The Torture Never Stops

Halloween, New York City, 1981 Live at The Palladium with Ray White, Steve Vai, Bobby Martin, Tommy Mars, Ed Mann, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman

Plague Mass

A conceptual live concert by Diamanda Galás, "Plague Mass" continues the themes of the suffering and misery of the infected found in her "Masque of the Red Death" trilogy.

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

A Caverna

A bunch of spectators trapped in a cinema theatre.

Progressive Touch

Sex as dance and comedy: in Progressive Touch Portnoy studies and expands the relationship between sex, choreography and composing music. He introduces complex compositions from progressive rock and math metal during sex, thereby combating the ostensible simplification of rhythm in human movements and gestures. A group of actors perform the new moves in three slapstick-like scenes. Worth trying at home.

Madhouse Mitchel

Creeping from the halls of the maze brain, corruption and terror is woven by devils born from the denied errors of mankind.

Weightless Bird In A Falling Cage

A faceless protagonist witnesses the alienation of gentrification as his home is overtaken by development. the forces behind it are demanding him to leave, but also consequently push him further and further into his not-home.

Santa Sangre

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

Mettle

An experimental film shot with the purpose of trying to create a hostile alien environment using only shots of nature, color correction, and sound design.

Frank Zappa – Summer '82: When Zappa Came to Sicily

In the feature documentary, Summer 82 – When Zappa Came to Sicily, filmmaker and Zappa fan Salvo Cuccia tells the behind-the-scenes story of Frank Zappa's star-crossed concert in Palermo, Sicily, the wrap-up to a European tour that ended in public disturbances and police intervention. Cuccia had a ticket to the concert but never made it. Thirty years later, collaborating with Zappa's family, he re-creates the events through a combination of rare concert and backstage footage; photographs; anecdotes from family, band members, and concertgoers; and insights from Zappa biographer and friend Massimo Bassoli. The story is also a personal one, as Cuccia interweaves the story of Zappa's trip to Sicily with his own memories from that summer.

Cremaster 2

CREMASTER 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.

Everlasting Love

Each day after work, Carlos, a language school teacher, frequents the heady surroundings of his local cruising ground. One evening he encounters a teenage boy from his class named Toni, and the two engage in a brief sexual tryst. As the relationship between teacher and student begins to develop, some dark truths emerge about the young man and his mysterious group of friends.

Dream of a Summer Night

Rock musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Witch's Cradle

The surrealist film shows repetitive imagery involving a string fashioned in a bizarre, almost spiderweb-like pattern over the hands of several individuals, most notably an unnamed young woman and an elderly gentleman. The film also shows a shadowy darkness and people filmed at odd angles, an exposed human heart, and other occult symbols and ritualistic imagery which evokes an unsettling and dream-like aura. Considered an unfinished film.

Light From the Tower

A costume designer is sent to the Catskills for an interactive theatre piece set in the 1920s. When she arrives things seem dark, strange and off. She soon realizes she is part of a student film.

Luz

Luz, a young cabdriver, drags herself into the brightly lit entrance of a run-down police station. A demonic entity follows her, determined to finally be close to the woman it loves.

Time, Ago!

"Time, forward!" - two orchestral suites by George Sviridov, published for the first time in 1968 (first suite) and in 1977 (second suite). The suites were created on the basis of music for the film "Time, Forward!" By Mikhail Schweitzer (based on the novel of the same name by Valentin Kataev, shot in 1965, released in 1966), dedicated to the construction of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine. From the first suite, the most famous part is "Time, forward!". Subsequently, it was used in a number of films, in television and radio programs, documentary films about the first five-year plans, industrialization, and post-war reconstruction. Sergei Oskolkov composed his suite: "Time, back!" The film is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the revolution in Russia.

The Granny's Apocrypha

Saw and imagined in the children's fantasy the story of grandmother of Christ and the Apostles a little girl. Today few people remember that just a few decades ago in the village houses next to the icons you could still see the popular prints on religious themes. They finally disappeared from use only in the 60-ies of the last century. Of course, their creators were not professional painters or connoisseurs of theology. Drew, as best they could, she felt, not knowing neither rules nor laws. Simple uneducated people, nuggets, sought to glorify God with their creativity, that resonates in the hearts of those of peasants or artisans as they are.

Phantoms of White Nights

Black people, red dwarfs, idols on bronze steeds, shadow of geniuses and heroes. This is not story about Hades from an ancient history textbook. This is Sankt-Petersburg In mystical literary tradition such as he is. A pomposity, an open space and - deathness. There is no gleam in the sky, Neva looked like poured by a lead, a crude air presses and can not pass through lungs, which are already struck by bacillus Kochii, and there are around ominous frights, threatening to punish for an unknown offence. And even white nights are bad. It looks as if you can meet phantom of a Poet which was tortured at thirtieth years of any of the last centuries. Be careful with monuments. They fond of walk along town quays (as told us Poushkin - he brings luck!). And do not trust this Neva prospectus. City - phantom, evolved from a bog which is refuge of evil spirits. Brilliant St.-Petersburg.

Lost Footage

How would a found footage film look if the footage was never found? This conceptual art experiment questions the very nature of film and cinema while serving as an ironic tribute to the found footage horror pop culture. The found footage format provides the narrative justification for such a film to exist: the non-existence exists because the footage existed yet it was lost and never found.

The Lone

The loneliness of man before nature. Loneliness in the urban environment. Loneliness as a way of life. Alone in front of myself - The film is dedicated to the artists of "Silver age" or "Fin de Siecle". This dedication applies primarily to Kazimir Malevich, and Edvard Munch.

Sombre

A serial killer stalks a woman he befriended after her car broke down.

Sonic Youth: Live at Soundstage

Quintessential alternative rockers, Sonic Youth, celebrate free-form experimentalism while reinforcing their performance-art driven tradition in this Soundstage performance, recorded on May 7, 2003 at WTTW Grainger Studio in Chicago. The band, which settles just outside the realm of definition, delivers a part rock, part free-form noise, part avant-garde punk performance which features a new song "Sympathy for the Strawberry."

Penance

All day of St. Petersburg bohemia in 4 minutes of the film.

Helicopter String Quartet

One morning, the late Karlheinz Stockhausen awoke from a dream that told him to take to the sky. Stockhausen envisioned four helicopters swirling in the clouds, with each of a quartet’s members tucked inside his own chopper, communicating through headsets, stringing away in sync to the rotor-blade motors. He immediately set forth to make that dream a reality. In 1995, Dutch film director Scheffer followed Stockhausen in the days leading up to the premiere performance of his Helicopter String Quartet in Amsterdam. The resulting film offers a rare glimpse of Stockhausen as he patiently dictates every agonizingly detailed measure to the Arditti Quartet.

ACT

Several fragments of one day in Leningrad in the autumn of 1989, refracted in the imagination of the artist.

RUMBA

Lumiere's The Arrival Of A Train in Russian.

The Animal

A man meets a woman at a deserted railroad station somewhere in northern New England. It is the middle of winter; snow is falling. The two drive to a remote farmhouse. Two strange children, who never speak, appear at the window; an old woman calls them away.

Without Words

Attempt of the artist's detached view of what is happening in the world.

Magick Lantern Cycle

Cinematic magician, legendary provocateur, and author of Hollywood Babylon, Kenneth Anger was a unique figure in post-war American culture. His iconic short films are characterised by a mystical-symbolic visual language and phantasmagorical-sensual opulence that underscores the medium’s transgressive potential. Anger’s work fundamentally shaped the aesthetics of 1960s and 1970s subcultures, the visual lexicon of pop and music videos and queer iconography. These nine films form the basis of Anger’s reputation as one of the most influential pioneers of avant-garde film and video art. Fireworks, 1947, 14 min Puce Moment, 1949, 6 min Rabbit's Moon, 1950/1971, 16 min Eaux d'Artifice, 1953, 13 min Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, 1954, 37 min Scorpio Rising, 1964, 28 min Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1965, 3 min Invocation of My Demon Brother, 1969, 11 min Lucifer Rising, 1981, 27 min

Time Piece

Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this 9-minute experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson. Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, "Time Piece" enjoyed an eighteen-month run at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award for Outstanding Short Subject.

HOLGER

Described as 'a fairytale with its roots in the worlds of dadaism and surrealism'.

The Saxophone

A man stumbles upon a saxophone.

Tales from the Gimli Hospital

While their mother is dying in the modern Gimli, Manitoba hospital, two young children are told an important tale by their Icelandic grandmother about Einar the lonely, his friend Gunnar, and the angelic Snjofrieder in a Gimli of old.

#MerrittXanadu44

An obsessive Vine star goes down a road of surreal imagery, as his obsession with the application develops into murder.

KOCHAB

A road movie shot in Morocco, KOCHAB also serves as a long-form music video. It features five tracks from Kahimi's latest album, NUNKI.

Hypnosis Display

Exploring impressionistic, emotional and sensory environments found within the vast natural and urban landscapes of America. Neither image nor sound takes precedence: the two interact and combine preserving a raw sense of the discovery that field recordings and in-camera edited film rushes often yield.

Good Morning, Mr. Orwell

In his book "1984", George Orwell saw the television of the future as a control instrument in the hands of Big Brother. Right at the start of the much-anticipated Orwellian year, Paik and Co. were keen to demonstrate satellite TV's ability to serve positive ends-- Namely, the intercontinental exchange of culture, combining both highbrow and entertainment elements. A live broadcast shared between WNET TV in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, linked up with broadcasters in Germany and South Korea, reached a worldwide audience of over 10 or even 25 million (including the later repeat transmissions).

Frank Zappa: Does Humor Belong in Music?

Frank Zappa and his band in a digitally recorded live performance at "The Pier" in New York, NY on August 26, 1984.

Crazy Town

Incredible phantasmagoria of merry-go-round people, who are usually called the dregs of society . The clip of the band "Holy Hares" ("Inflatable pistol"). Vocalist Slava Martov.

Frank Zappa: The Freak Out List

On the liner notes to Freak Out!, the 1967 debut album by Zappa's original band the Mothers of Invention, Zappa listed some seventy-two names on the liner notes and cited them as influences. The Freak Out List intends to explore who these artists are and what influence they had on Zappa's music. This listing encompasses all sorts of music, from classical composer Edgar Varese to R&B star Johnny "Guitar" Watson to jazzman Eric Dolphy to flamenco guitarist Sabicas. You can hear for instance, how the esoteric classical influence of Varese shaped Zappa's long-form epics like "Lumpy Gravy" or how Dolphy's instrumental prowess led Zappa to incorporate jazz-fusion on albums like Weasels Ripped My Flesh! (1970), which even included a song titled "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue." Interviews with various Zappa biographers and music historians as well as musicians George Duke, Ian Underwood, and Don Preston, all of whom played in the Mothers at one time or another, help add additional context.

Metamorphosis

A film-parable about the eternal movement of mankind from the Stone Age to self-destruction.

Let Her Know

A lyrical story about love and death, realized as a message.

Bodyguard

Speaking upon the release of ‘Bodyguard’, Black Dahlia said: “Bodyguard is a theatrical exploration of gaining a new body but your soul remains. It is a sonnet to your past physical body in this realm and the new union that will inevitably be formed. A harsh and gentle celebration of your capabilities, your limits, and your destiny.” As well as being the Director for the music video, Black Dahlia was also Producer, Art Director, Choreographer, and Concept creator for the project. Donning various characters, Black Dahlia embodies performance art and its mediums such as contortion, mime, surrealism, Dada, the avant-garde, and body horror. ‘Bodyguard’ follows Black Dahlia in various theatrical forms and her journey to transformation through reanimation that looks reminiscent of a John Waters film. It also features cameos from Melbourne-based artists, Bura Bura as Dr Barget Hower, Manda Wolf as Dr Avanti and Cong Josie as Dr Cong.

Non Plus One

A young writer struggling to create a good story meets a cute waitress and imagination and fantasy blossom.

Classic Albums: Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (') Over-Nite Sensation

This episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye

An intimate, affecting portrait of the life and work of ground-breaking performance artist and music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV +) and their wife and collaborator, Lady Jaye, centered around the daring sexual transformations the pair underwent for their 'Pandrogyne' project.

Emotion

Experimental short film depicting the life, perhaps real, perhaps a dream, of a young girl named Emi. Emi travels to the city where she encounters her counterpart, Sari, and falls in love with…a vampire?

Endless

A lonesome man at the threshold of death finds himself trapped in a place called the Endless.

CHASE

A short film following a young woman as she's pursued by a mysterious stranger in the woods.

Frank Zappa: We Don't Mess Around

Tracklisting: 1. Pound for a Brown 2. Baby Snakes 3. Deathless Horsie 4. Dancin' Fool 5. Easy Meat 6. Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me 7. Keep It Greasey 8. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? 9. Sofa #2 10. Vinnie's Seal Call Fusion Music 11. Bobby Brown 12. Conehead 13. Dead Air/I'm On Duty 14. St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast 15. Father Oblivion 16. Rollo 17. Bamboozled Outro

Moonlight People

Two young men and two girls on a moonlit night confess to each other in their strange fantasies and loves that go beyond the usual standards.. The impetus to making the film was the book of the same name by the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov, who died 100 years ago. His treatise was devoted to the study of sexuality and its denial in Christianity. The film was made in the style of experimental films of the 1920s with a non-linear narration full of strange surrealistic images. He is black and white and devoid of dialogue. Filmed on film 16 mm of firm "Svema", released in the USSR. This added to his exoticism. The image was put to the music of Alexander Scriabin “The Poem of Ecstasy” (1907).

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

Utilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into Frank Zappa’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.

Pig-Chicken Suicide

Pig Chicken Suicide is a veritable assault on the senses, mixing violent images of animal slaughter, racial strife, and surrealism to tell the story of two Koreans living in Japan whose love is destroyed due to overwhelming racial discrimination. In explicit abattoir photos and much symbolism, Matsui tells about the struggles of ethnic Koreans in Japan. A butcher's love affair and his relationship with the animals he kills frame the story.

Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella

Songs for Drella is a concept album by Lou Reed and John Cale, both formerly of The Velvet Underground, and is dedicated to the memory of Andy Warhol, their mentor, who had died unexpectedly in 1987. Drella was a nickname for Warhol coined by Warhol Superstar Ondine, a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella, used by Warhol's crowd. The song cycle focuses on Warhol's interpersonal relations and experiences, with songs falling roughly into three categories: Warhol's first-person perspective (which makes up the vast majority of the album), third-person narratives chronicling events and affairs, and first-person commentaries on Warhol by Reed and Cale themselves. The songs on the album are, to some extent, in chronological order.