Co-presented by Joseph A Gervasi

While it is, in many respects, a horror film (and certainly a horrific film), Possession is as much an exploration of psychological extremes. Isabelle Adjani leaves her family for an unspecified reason. Husband Sam Neill is determined to find out the truth and starts following her. At first he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he discovers strange behavior and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.

The stark West Berlin location photography by Bruno Nuytten only adds to the characters’ (and the viewer’s) sense of displacement. Possession barely arrived on American shores in the early 1980s in a truncated form that attempted to sell it as a conventional horror film. In the UK, Possession was banned for many years as a “video nasty.”  Here is a rare opportunity to see this caustic underground classic in a newly-struck, uncut, and pristine 35mm print.

Preceded by:
Three short films from Philadelphia talents. Featuring Isaac Williams’ Simon Says and works by Eric Bresler (Cinedelphia) and Justin Miller (V/H/S). All three should serve to erode your mind before you are well and truly crushed by the main feature.

Collector Jeff McGivney will display some of his international Possession posters and lobby cards and treats can be purchased from the Blowfish Bakery.

Lionel Rogosin’s 1959 powerful classic Come Back, Africa is one of the bravest and best of all political films. After witnessing firsthand the terrors of fascism as a soldier in World War II, Rogosin vowed to fight against it wherever and whenever he saw it reemerging. In an effort to expose “what people try to avoid seeing,” he travelled to South Africa and secretly filmed Come Back, Africa, which revealed the cruelty and injustice suffered by black and colored peoples under apartheid.

Before beginning the production of the film, Rogosin spent several months touring Africa, becoming accustomed to the way of life in South Africa and acquiring a sense of the apartheid government’s sensitivity to anti-government “conspiracies” – such as the very film he wished to create.

Co-presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the exhibition First Among Equals

Director Wu Tsang in person.

Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, Wildness is a documentary portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar in the MacArthur Park neighborhood that has been home for Latin LBGT immigrant communities since 1963. With a magical-realist flourish, the bar itself becomes a character. When a group of young artists create a weekly performance art/dance party (called Wildness), organized by director Wu Tsang and DJs NGUZUNGUZU & Total Freedom it explodes into creativity and conflict. What does “safe space” mean, and who needs it? And how does it differ among us? At the Silver Platter, the search for answers to these questions creates coalitions across generations.

Wildness first premiered at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight and has screened as an official selection at the SXSW Film Festival and as part of the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

Free admission. Presented in our Courtyard; please bring chairs or blankets; rain or shine.

12 Sketches on the Impossibility of Being Still
dir. Magali Charrier, UK, 2010, digital video, 8 mins, color

12 Sketches on the Impossibility of Being Still is a collection of experiments in animation and editing exploring the spaces where nothing happens: the threshold that exists between you and me, between here and there, sound and silence, movement and stillness.

Haru no shikumi (The Mechanism of Spring)
dir. Atsushi Wada, Japan, 2011, digital video, 4 mins, color

Everybody is excited to see the arrival of spring. This film tries to depict the thrill spring brings.

The Renter – Grand Prize for Best Student Animation
dir. Jason Carpenter, US, 2011, digital video, 10 mins, color

In this painterly 2D computer animation by CalArts grad Jason Carpenter, a young boy in the care of an elderly woman during the day is unsettled by the strange man who rents a room in her house.

Joyz ‘Electropia’ – Best Music Video
dir. Noriko Okaku, UK/Japan, 2011, digital video, 5 mins, color

In a music video for Japanese band JOYZ, a girl journeys into a chaotic world of Electropia in this mix of cut-out and 2D computer animation.

Blanche Fraise
dir. Frédérick Tremblay, Canada, 2011, digital video, 17 mins, color

A couple tries to survive in a forest that kills in this puppet-animation film from award-winning Quebec animator Frédérick Tremblay.

I’m Fine Thanks – Best Graduation Animation
dir. Eamonn O’Neill, UK, 2011, digital video, 5 mins, color

Cited at Ottawa for its “strong visuals, brutal honesty, and unique voice,” this short was produced at the Royal College of Art in London.

Det Siste Norske Trollet (The Last Norwegian Troll) – Honorable Mention/Narrative Short
dir. Pjotr Sapegin, Norway, 2010, digital video, 13 mins, color

Puppet animation and poignant storytelling relate the tale of Norway’s very last Troll, the sole survivor of his once-common species.

Moxie – Grand Prize for Best Independent Short
dir. Stephen Irwin, UK, 2011, digital video, 5 mins, color

Ottawa’s top prize went to Brit animator Stephen Irwin, a rising international talent, for this film noir-like tale of a pyromaniac bear who misses his mother.

The Goat and the Well
dir. Ben Cady, UK, 2010, digital video, 5 mins, color

The determination of a little goat causes endless problems for a grumpy milkmaid. A comic minimalist exploration of the strained relationships between man and beast.  Ben Cady makes visually minimal, performance-based short films.

On April 2, 2011, LCD Soundsystem played its final show at Madison Square Garden. LCD front-man James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career. The instantly sold out, near four-hour extravaganza did just that, moving the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with New York Magazine calling the event a “marvel of pure craft” and TIME magazine lamenting “we may never dance again.” Shut Up and Play the Hits is simultaneously a document of a once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of Murphy as he navigates both the personal and professional ramifications of his decision.