DIRTY LOOKS ANNOUNCES A MONTH-LONG LINEUP FOR FIRST L.A. PRESENTATION OF “DIRTY LOOKS: ON LOCATION”
-A festival celebrating L.A. queer history in the streets that wrote it-
– Local curators, artists and promoters, playing with venues and meeting places that defined queer life in Los Angeles: 31 spaces across the 31 days of July, charting a progression of culture(s) using one month’s time.
July 1 – July 31, 2018
(Los Angeles, CA) – Ours is a distinct urban sprawl – there is no city that feels quite as diverse, vast or chaotic as L.A. We have also witnessed the erasure of many queer communal spaces, a byproduct of gentrification, apps and online culture or the AIDS crisis. Our festival celebrates thriving spaces while also paying homage to the lost lesbian bars, bookstores or significant storefronts from which political activism once erupted. Through fun summer screenings and shows featuring local musicians and artists, we look back to move forward with a deeper understanding.
Dirty Looks On Location 2018 schedule:
****QUICKLY POINTING OUT FRIDAY, JULY 6th, AT THE MASQUE – LA’S FIRST PUNK CLUB, WHICH HAPPENS TO BE IN THE BASEMENT OF WORKD OF WONDER!****
(The WOW basement is an amazing space where so many legendary punk bands got their start: The Dead Kennedys, The Circle Jerks, The Germs, The Go-Gos – and so much of the original graffiti is still on the walls! Definitely come to WOW Presents Space to hear about the history of the basement!)
From the press release:
Launching July 1 with a 50th Anniversary of L.A.’s first homosexual film festival held in the summer of ‘68 – the sexploitation-centric Park Theater (on Alvarado, next door to Langer’s Delicatessen) swapped out its calendar of hetero cheesecake for a boundary-pushing slate of male-only content. Kicking off that seismic wave was “A Most Unusual Film Festival” — a summer-long parade of the Sixties’ queerest underground hits. Echoing this emphasis on historical subterfuge, screenings of Hollywood titles like The Pirate, The Night Is Young, or Myra Breckenridge showcase the now-you-see-it nature of queer labor in tinseltown.
Local queer artists take center stage throughout the month, including the first-ever survey of short films and performance documentation by Zackary Drucker screening at REDCAT. Programs focused on artists Aimee Goguen, Cyclona, Fred Halsted and photographer Laura Aguilar configure some of more our immersive explorations.
Haunting shuttered venues is a central part of the On Location programming model; 2018 sees the return of lesbian bars to Los Angeles: Boyle Heights’ Redz, El Sereno’s Plush Pony and North Hollywood’s Moonshadow re-open, for one night only. The Woman’s Building, the Hanged Man, Jewel’s Catch One, punk venue The Masque, CUFFs and Circus of Books Silverlake are all recalled with nightly revisitations. In preparation of the eventual closure of the West Hollywood Circus of Books, we will host a discussion with its owners and screen selections from the work-in-progress feature documentary chronicling its legacy.
But all is not lost! Celebrating the staunch spaces that remain, programs will fill queer coffeeshop Cuties, Akbar, Silver Platter, Plaza, Studs Theatre and the Future Ladies of Wrestling will take to the rink this July 4th for a special skatacular victory lap at Moonlight Rollerway, who has maintained their queer skate night for over 20 years. On our closing night MASSIVE will introduce Gengoro Tagame’s longtime connection to the Tom of Finland Foundation while screening the VHS pornorgraphic output that inspired his gay erotic practice in the foundation’s many rooms and vestiges.
Participating artists include: Laura Aguilar, Gregg Araki, Lauren Bousfield, Johanna Breiding, Jibz Cameron, M.Cay Castagnetto, Rick Castro, San Cha, John Christopher, Mar Citlani, Chris Cruse, Harry Dodge, Zackary Drucker, Deanna Erdmann, Gaylord Fiend, Future Ladies of Wrestling, Joe Gage, Aimee Goguen, Fabian Guerrero, Fred Halsted, Ray Harrison, Sebastian Hernandez, Xandra Ibarra, Michael Interiere, Cole Jupiter James, Jonesy, Andre Keichian, Bruce La Bruce, Rachel Mason, T. Michael, Vincente Minnelli, Naomi Mitchell, Dudley Murphy, Mutant Salon, Ramon Novarro, Barbara Peeters, Alex Pelly, Anna Luia Petrisko, Poor Impulse Width Modulation, Suavitel Paper, Brontez Purnell, Elliot Reed, Jill Reiter, Michael Robinson, José Rodríguez-Soltero, Guadalupe Rosales, Gabriela Ruiz, Michael Sarne, Sister Mantos, Martin Sorrondeguy, Gengoro Tagame, Kyla Tange, Karen Tongson, travisd, Shinya Tsukamoto, VisionVision, Nick Wafle, Andy Warhol + Xina Xurner.
Curated by: Marvin Astorga + Young Joon Kwak, Bret Berg, Coaxial Arts Foundation, Raquel Gutiérrez, Suzy Halajian, Darin Klein, Ryan Linkof, Massive, Nacho Nava, Bradford Nordeen, Joe Rubin + The Women’s Center for Creative Work. Produced by Bradford Nordeen + Paolo Singer.
The program was selected from curator proposals by the curatorial advisory committee, comprised of multi-faceted historians Ron Athey, Vaginal Davis, Jennifer Doyle + Lanka Tattersall.
