OCN Distribution has quite a few theatrical film delights coming out on Blu-ray. The big title is The Tune by animation icon Bill Plympton. You might remember his shorts that were shown on MTV back when the channel ran music videos. Speaking of music, Sex and Broadcasting: A Film About WFMU goes into the legendary New Jersey radio station. Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary goes into fans who are really into the Tim Allen movie. There are even more great films for keeping you warm as we get into the deep of winter. Here’s the press release from OCN:
| We’re starting the new year off with a dozen stellar releases, including the first titles from two brand new partner labels, several important restorations, and genre outings to please both the arthouse and the hardcore crowds. Please join us in welcoming Bleeding Skull, long-time connoisseurs of the bizarre, and Film Movement Classics, a wing of the well-established brand devoted to restorations of auteur and international works, whose full blu-ray library is now listed on vinegarsyndrome.com. As always, be sure to check out our Going Out of Print selection. This month, we’ve added a number of Altered Innocence titles, many of which can still be ordered with limited edition slipcovers—though stock is running low… SHOP HERE 👇 |
| Going Out of Print |
THE STRANGLER (Altered Innocence)
A rare French take on the giallo from 1970, directed by the criminally underknown auteur Paul Vecchiali, about a tender-hearted serial killer who knits, the disappointed dissident cop on his trail, and a lonely woman hoping to be the next victim. “‘Peeping Tom’ meets one of Dario Argento’s giallo joints, but slathered in a coat of melancholic malaise,” per a New York Times write-up of this restoration’s recent and well-received theatrical release. Sure to become a canonical queer and genre classic, and a must-have for arthouse collectors.
GAY USA: SNAPSHOTS OF 1970S LGBT RESISTANCE (Altered Innocence)
A seminal documentary from Arthur J. Bressan, Jr., famed filmmaker and queer pornographer best known for Passing Strangers and Buddies. Gay USA captures a pivotal moment in the gay rights movement, with indelible footage of pride parades across the country taking place in the face of vociferous conservative backlash—as moving and inspirational as it is visually beautiful. Accompanied by four shorts, from Wakefield Poole, Ronald Chase, lesbian activist Lilli Vincenz, and Sharon Hayes and Kate Millett, this is an essential release for queer and non-fiction audiences.
CRACKING UP (Art Label)
Art Label’s sophomore release with OCN is, in essence, a sequel to its first: all-around-performer and filmmaker Matt Mitler’s feature film follow-up to the Movie of the Month Club productions collected on the Surf Reality blu-rays. Mitler stars as a comedian whose life is as extreme and chaotic as his stand-up routine. A compelling exploration of the twinned relationship between self-promotion and self-destruction, Cracking Up is also a one-of-a-kind time capsule of 1994 New York, from the real-life locations to the many artists who make memorable appearances.
BLONDE DEATH (Bleeding Skull)
For their first release with OCN, new partner label Bleeding Skull brings a legendary shot-on-video freak-out to blu-ray. Made for a mere $2,000 by the late writer of transgressive queer fiction, James Robert Baker (aka “James Dillinger”), Blonde Death is a low-budget Bonnie and Clyde story set behind the curtains of a sunny LA suburb, featuring violence, sex, and pitch black humor, as well as a sequence shot surreptitiously in Disneyland. A must-have for SOV fans and collectors of queer, controversial, and genre films, with enough meat to satisfy viewers new to the original format.
ONE MAN (Canadian International Pictures)
The debut feature film for prolific Canadian actor Len Cariou, this 1977 paranoia thriller (in the vein of The Parallax View or The China Syndrome, from the same decade) received a hefty number of Canadian Film Awards following a limited theatrical release, before essentially fading from view. Reporter Jason Brady fights to publicize the birth defects, sometimes lethal, caused by pollutants from a major manufacturer, despite death threats against himself and his crumbling family. This brand new restoration, featuring five of director Robin Spry’s short films, a number of newly-recorded interviews, and more, is a welcome introduction for Canuxploitation connoisseurs and New Hollywood fans.
THE TUNE (Deaf Crocodile)
A delightfully surreal animated musical, The Tune incorporates a number of beloved artist Bill Plympton’s shorts—featuring, among others, an Elvis-impersonating dog and a dancing duo of hamburger and fry—into a story about a songwriter struggling to complete a new love song under the crushing weight of financial pressure. With Plympton’s signature wry humor and singularly bizarre transformations of the human form, this is an ideal edition for fans and newcomers alike; another animated gem, newly restored, from Deaf Crocodile.
NEVER SURRENDER: A GALAXY QUEST DOCUMENTARY (Enjoy the Ride Media)
By Grabthar’s hammer! Created for the film’s 20th anniversary, Never Surrender captures the filmmaking process and reception of 1999’s Galaxy Quest, exploring the devoted fandom for a work made in homage to old-fashioned science fiction and its own fandom—most particularly the Star Trek TV series, actors from which, including Brent Spiner and Wil Wheaton, appear as talking heads. A must-have for Galaxy Quest fans, trekkies, and sci-fi collectors.
SEX AND BROADCASTING: A FILM ABOUT WFMU (Factory 25)
Rarely does a local independent radio station have a passionate nationwide following, nor boast the fandom of the likes of Matt Groening, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, and Bradford Cox of Deerhunter. Each of these feature in this documentary about New Jersey’s WFMU, revealed throughout to be an institution providing employment for an outsider with big, lasting dreams; community for loners and loveable freaks; a platform for creative thinkers on the rise; and, of course, good listening. Captured at a David-and-Goliath moment of dire fundraising, this is a film for audiophiles, non-profiteers, and fans of arts non-fiction.
THE EARLY FILMS OF ASGHAR FARHADI: DANCING IN THE DUST + BEAUTIFUL CITY (Film Movement Classics)
Film Movement Classics joins our partner label ranks with a momentous release: the first two films from Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi, whose A Separation (2011) and The Salesman (2016) won the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, restored and on blu-ray for the first time in North America. Dancing in the Dust (2003) and Beautiful City (2004) both follow the coming-of-age of two young men—one, an aspirational snake catcher, the other recently released from juvenile detention—caught within a web of ethical quandaries, moral imperatives, judicial requirements, financial need, and love. Powerful, haunting films on their own, they effectively prefigure Farhadi’s better-known films, and are essential masterpieces of international and arthouse cinema.
CLEANERS (Kani Releasing)
A visually stunning, heartrending work of nostalgia and the feature debut of Filipino filmmaker Glenn Barit. Set in the early-aughts, Cleaners anthologizes climactic moments in the lives of a group of high school students, from a disastrous dance performance to an act of public self-mutilation. The film’s singular appearance was derived by physically highlighting portions of the film frames and rescanning them, resulting in a handmade look and stop-motion feel—a remarkable artistic feat that serves the overall sensation of memories come to life. Ripe for discovery by fans of arthouse and Asian cinema.
AGE OF DEMONS (Saturn’s Core)
Shot on video madness from filmmaker Damon Foster, with Tokusatsu-style monsters, martial arts, a malfunctioning robot, and a trio of sexy satanists. Said coven kidnaps a local rock and roll clairvoyant to help raise a demonic force; his college-student brother must use his kickboxing skills and a school project gone rogue to forestall the coming of the apocalypse. What it may lack in narrative coherence and budget, Age of Demons makes up for with bawdy humor, outrageous practical effects, and nudity. A singular SOV outing for the hardcore fans
DOGS DON’T WEAR PANTS (Yellow Veil Pictures)
A unique take on trauma with whips, chains, and open heart surgery. When widower surgeon Juha takes his teenage daughter to get her tongue pierced, he discovers a dominatrix’s dungeon, a doorway into the depths of his own grief over his wife’s accidental death, and, perhaps, love. As tantalizing as it is, ultimately, inspiring, this Finnish drama screened in the Directors’ Fortnight program of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and is more than ready for a broader audience. For genre collectors and fans of art horror.
