LOADING
obsessions
a static vision festival
Directed by Gregg Araki | 79+83+83 minutes | R 18+ | Retrospective
6.45pm, Friday, 2nd February | Buy Tickets | Buy Passes
Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere... director Gregg Araki's iconic and wildly influential Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy presented complete and uncut, back to back for the first time in Melbourne.
Another homo movie by Gregg Araki... screening from a newly restored, director-approved 2K scan.
Gay, alienated Los Angeles teens have a hard time as their parents kick them out of their homes, they don't have money, their lovers cheat, and they are harassed by gay-bashers. Shot on 16mm film without permits, with virtually no crew, director Gregg Araki operated the camera himself, accompanied by only a sound person and producer/PA, and the cast. Araki's breakthrough fourth feature, the first installment in his Teenage Apocalypse trilogy and a seminal entry into the New Queer Cinema canon, premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival.
"A rag-tag story of f*g-and-d*ke teen underground... a kind of cross between avant-garde experimental cinema and a queer John Hughes flick."
- Gregg Araki
A heterosexual movie by Gregg Araki... screening from a newly restored, director-approved 4K scan.
Jordan White (James Duval) and Amy Blue (Rose McGowan), two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red (Jonathon Schaech). Together, the threesome embarks on a sex and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts. Premiering at the 1995 edition of the Sundance Film Festival and attaining near-instantaneous cult status, the second entry in Gregg Araki's Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy has long been marred by studio intervention, with only a heavily cut, heavily compromised version of the film available worldwide. No longer, as the film has recently been restored in its full, uncut form, with a fresh, gorgeous new scan of the original elements.
"A major artistic leap forward... a twisted pastiche of science fiction, nihilistic road movie and teen angst filtered with dead pan comedy and unique commentary on the depravity of modern America... [Rose McGowan] steals the show as the foul mouthed, morally aimless femme fatale on crystal meth and Diet Coke."
- Ricky da Conceicao, Sound on Sight
Let the love feast begin...
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith (James Duval), his bisexual girlfriend Mel (Rachel True), her lesbian lover Lucifer (Kathleen Robertson) and their shy gay friend Montgomery (Nathan Bexton) plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds. Described by Araki himself as "Beverly Hills 90210 on acid" and featuring turns from a number of young celebs on the cusp of stardom (including Ryan Phillippe, Mena Suvari and Denise Richards), Nowhere completes Gregg Araki's infamous cult-classic Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy.
"Sexy, psychedelic, dementedly funny, with a sensational soundtrack... it's like Clueless with nipple rings."
- Dennis Dermody, Paper
Country: USA
Year: 1993/1995/1997
Language: English