FLEXfest 2009
Click here for full details

The 2nd Biennial FLEX Invitational Festival
Our biennial curated short film showcase returns. Click here for full details

Cinema under the Stars:
Robert Altman's CALIFORNIA SPLIT

Cinema under the Stars:
Luis Buñuel's LOS OLVIDADOS

Cinema under the Stars:
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's MEMORIES of UNDERDEVELOPMENT

Cinema under the Stars:
Jean-Luc Godard's MASCULIN FEMININ

Cinema under the Stars:
Jean Vigo's ZERO for CONDUCT
and Jean Lamorisse's lovely WHITE MANE (CRIN-BLANC).

Cinema under the Stars:
Peter Watkins' THE WAR GAME
preceded by Jodie Mack's WWII-themed animation, LILLY.

Cinema under the Stars:
Bryan Forbes' SEANCE on a WET AFTERNOON

Cinema under the Stars:
Ingmar Bergman's HOUR of the WOLF

Cinema under the Stars:
Roman Polanski's CUL de SAC

Cinema under the Stars:
Akira Kurosawa's THRONE of BLOOD

Experimental Karaoke
featuring Diana Arce's POLITAOKE
followed by BUFFY-OKE

An evening of experiments in karaoke.
Artist Diana Arce in attendance!

International Animation Day: Mickey Mouse meets the Avant Garde

Trash and Treasures from the 16mm Archive

Wizard People, dear readers
-Brad Neely

Silent Film/Loud Music:
Local musicians score silent films
A FLEX FAVORITE
Films include: Harold & the Purpole Crayon, Ballet Mecanique, Un Chien Andalou, Spills & Chills, Cops (Buster Keaton), and The Reproductive Behavior of the Guppy

FLEX Presents:
Georg Koszulinski's Cracker Crazy
Gainesville premiere of a new documentary about Florida's often unseemly history. 12,000 years of racism, murder, and exploitation. Fun!

Bill Daniel 2fer!
Bill Daniel, one of FLEX's favorite fellow travelers, returns to Gainesville to deliver a mighty one-two punch. First, at 8pm, Bill unveils his Punk Rock Photo Show. Then, at 9pm, stay tuned for an encore screening of Who Is Bozo Texino?, his hobo graffiti documentary that was 20 years in the making.

Cinema under the Stars:
SUNSET BOULEVARD and HIS GIRL FRIDAY
C.u.t.S. returns (by popular demand) with a doubleheader of silver screen classics. The show starts with the oddball noir of Sunset Boulevard and continues with the ratatat dialogue of Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday. Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell. And that's just the top of the bill. All presented, as always, in GLORIOUS 16MM FILM.

Cinema under the Stars:
SLAPSTICK and the AVANT GARDE
Summer C.u.t.S. gets underway with a dialogue between Silent Hollywood and the European A-G scene. Films include Easy Street (1917, USA) with Charlie Chaplin, Ballet Mécanique (1924, France) by Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, Cops (1922, USA) featuring Buster Keaton, and Un Chien Andalou (1929, USA) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Always, always in GLORIOUS 16MM FILM.

Cinema under the Stars:
VISIONARIES: DREAMS and MEMORIES
Summer C.u.t.S. continues with an offering of oneiric masterpieces. Films include Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, USA), Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962, France) and Sally Potter's Thriller (1979, England). Did we mention that they're in GLORIOUS 16MM FILM?

Cinema under the Stars:
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR
Yet more Summer C.u.t.S., this time Alain Resnais formalist chef d'oeuvre, made in collaboration with renowned French novelist Marguerite Duras. In 16MM, that's how we roll.

Cinema under the Stars:
APUR SANSAR (THE WORLD of APU)
FLEX invites you to enjoy the final installment of Indian master filmmaker Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy," perhaps his most beloved film. (Don't worry if you haven't seen the first two parts--it works as a stand-alone film.) We're gonna show this one in 16MM too, okay?

Cinema under the Stars:
SHERMAN'S MARCH
Ross McElwee, one of the most unique voices in self-reflexive documentary, got a grant to make a film about William Tecumseh Sherman's trail of destruction during the Civil War. Instead, he made this movie about how hard it is to fall in love with a camera on your shoulder (hence the subtitle: "A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons"). Shot in 16mm. Presented in 16mm. This is a RARE treat to be able to see this film in its original format.

Cinema under the Stars:
SUNA NO ONNA (WOMAN in the DUNES)
An incredibly strange premise for a film--a woman falls into a hole in the sand and is unable to escape--produces an incredibly strange and effecting film. This is not your run of the mill samurai flick...

Cinema under the Stars:
La CIOCIARA (TWO WOMEN)
Summer C.u.t.S. rolls on with Italian Neo-Realist Vittorio de Sica's oft-overlooked classic Two Women, featuring an unforgettable performance by Sophia Loren. Adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia, the writer who also provided the foundation for Godard's Le Mepris (Contempt) and Bertolucci's Il Conformista (The Conformist). 16mm, yo!

Cinema under the Stars:
PERSONA
Get your bug spray ready, because you will not want to miss Ingmar Bergman's most intensely stylized film, Persona. The opening sequence will forever be emblazoned in your mind, and the rest of the film doesn't let up much from there. If you're not yet on the Bergman bandwagon, now's your big chance. No video projection for us--16mm of pure celluloid.

Cinema under the Stars:
EARLY POLANSKI: From POLISH to ENGLISH
Summer C.u.t.S. ends with a bang (or at least a laugh followed by a long, painful scream) with two early films from Roman Polanski. Starts with 14 minutes of Polish slapstick in the early short Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958) followed by 104 minutes of Catherine Deneuve slowly losing her mind in Repulsion (1965). Really good stuff. Really real film. SIXTEEN MILLIMETERs of ENTERTAINMENT. (That's more than it sounds like it'd be.)

Silent Films/Loud Music: BRENT GREEN and SIN ROPAS
Experimental animator Brent Green comes to Gainesville to present a program of his short films, followed by a set by the band Sin Ropas. Green's films--amazing d.i.y. cell animations--have screened at Sundance, the Getty Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, the IFC Center in NYC, etc. He's collaborated more than once with indie-rock stalwarts Califone and will be accompanied at this show by Sin Ropas, like Califone one of the bands formed by the former members of Red Red Meat.

Hollis Frampton:
• Zorns Lemma
• hapax legomena 1 (nostalgia)

FLEX Celebrates Black History Month:
70s educational film called "The Prejudice Film" narrated by David Hartman screening with "Famous Irish Americans" by Roger Beebe

Silent Films/ Loud Music:
Kent Lambert performs a live score for Carl Th. Dreyer's Vampyr, plus a screening of his videos followed by a set by his one-man band, Roommate.

Sex & Drugs:
Screening of 16mm educational films about with sex & drugs including:
• "LSD: Insight or Insanity"
• "Sex for Sale"
• "Assertiveness Training for Women, Part 2"

Jim Finn:
• INTERKOSMOS

The Ice Capades:
• A touring show of Chicago filmmakers' work

Silent Films/Loud Music
• local bands, including members of Cyne, Beat Buttons, Fiya and more, score silent films (and sound films with the sound turned off) including "Doom of Dracula" and "Dream of the Wild Horses"

Cinema under the Stars:
• NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
It's never too early to gear up for Hallowe'en!

back by popular demand:
• WIZARD PEOPLE, dear readers
(Brad Neely's amazing tweaked Harry Potter)

FLEXFEST 06!!!
• (you're looking at the wrong page. see the link on the homepage.)

Silent Films/Loud Music:
• MORE LOCAL BANDS! MORE SILENT FILMS!
live scores to "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" plus bonus shorts