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In 1966, as the underground film wave was sweeping the country, a Boston off-shoot of New York City’s Film-Makers’ Cinematheque opened at a performance space at 53 Berkeley Street. Underground films were shown on weeknights, while on the weekends the space transformed into a music venue called The Boston Tea Party.

The Cinematheque and the Tea Party were founded and run by a controversial figure named Mel Lyman, a harmonica player and the leader of a hippie commune in Boston’s Fort Hill neighborhood. Lyman has also been considered a cult leader on par with Charles Manson, except Lyman’s followers never actually murdered anyone. According to the book Apocalypse Culture, Lyman claimed to be an extraterrestrial and was seemingly obsessed with “ruling” the country’s underground culture.

Whatever Lyman’s background, the Cinematheque showed some cool films, according to the actual flyers from that time period below. Click each poster...

The second annual Chicago Underground Film Festival was held in 1995, at multiple locations in the city, from Thursday, July 20 to Sunday, July 23.

The festival opened on July 20th at the International Cinema Museum with the film What About Me?, directed by Rachel Amodeo. Other highlights included a retrospective of the work of Kenneth Anger, who attended the fest and screened Fireworks (1947), Scorpio Rising (1963) and Kkk (Kustom Kar Kommandos) (1965) at the Congress Hotel, 520 S. Michigan, on Friday, July 21. Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin also attended and screened films on July 23; while the Reverend Ivan Stang of the Church of Subgenius screened films on July 22.

Also, Charles Pinion screened the world premiere of his feature film Red Spirit Lake, which was preceded by the short film The Operation, directed by Jacob Pander and Marne Lucas. Other short films that screened were Desktop and a preview of Monday 9:02 am, both directed by Tyler Hubby.

Scorpio Rising by Kenneth Anger. Completed in 1963.

The film opens with a title card of Anger’s production company. It reads “Puck Film Productions”, along with the tagline “What fools these Mortals be!” The film’s title appears about a minute and a half into it, which is studded onto the back of a man’s motorcycle jacket. Beneath the studded title is the filmmaker’s name, Kenneth Anger. The film concludes with the word “End” on a man’s belt, followed by the same opening Puck Film Productions title card.

While none of the on-screen participants are credited on the film, the booklet accompanying Fantoma’s DVD restoration of the film gives these credits:

Bruce Byron (Scorpio); Johnny Sapienza (Taurus};Frank Carifi (Leo); John Palone (Pinstripe); Ernie Allo (The Life Of The Party); Barry Rubin (Pledge); Steve Crandell (The Sissy Cyclist)

The DVD booklet also gives a release year...

What's out on DVD today and which will you be watching?

Sherlock, Dr. Watson and tag-along Jenny. She likes older men, y'see.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

I pray that Jason Lee is doing charitable things with the money. Did this make money or were the gods merciful and there'll be no Threequel which is a less offensive word than Squeakquel you must admit

An Education

Time to find out what all the 2009's Mulliganza! was all about if you didn't catch this coming of age breakout the first time around. If you did, enjoy the detailed supporting work the second time around. How the hell does Emma Thompson pack so much punch into her every line?The Baader Meinhof Complex

Germanic movie star roll call ahead. The German Oscar nominee hits DVD so you can find out if it deserved to lose to Japan's Departures. You can already 'watch instantly' on Netflix.

And we go from the bounty of last week's home video releases to the near famine of March 30th, where the pick of the week is without question I Sell the Dead. Although, based on its cover alone, the DVD I'm most curious about is 1951's The Tiger's Claw (Der Tiger Akbar) from West Germany.

This week sees the Blu-ray debut of fan favorite lesbo vamp flick Vampyres, and who can resist another Bigfoot film? We also finally get to see if the quirky horror-comedy Smash Cut lives up to its promise, and the final chapter of Godkiller: Walk Among Us hits the streets in advance of the full feature's release in May.

Some of the rest of the batch are a bit on the fringe of horror but seem to have enough of a connection to warrant being included here. In particular Kenneth Anger's short film collection entitled The Complete Magick Lantern Cycle,...