Another option for those who love to mine the oddities of recent-ish history for inspiration: Tonight Church of Film is hosting a double feature of films that paint a portrait of the underbelly of ’70s and ’80s Berlin, 1985’s Berlin Now and 1979’s Ticket of No Return.
If that doesn’t mean anything to you, that’s part of the fun, but here are some words on Berlin Now:
A rare document of the punk underground, featuring inset video pieces with Matador, Blixa Bargeld, Einsturzende Neubauten, and a half dozen other bands from Germany’s punk/post punk scene!
And Ticket of No Return, which looks particularly amazing:
by feminist art, fashion and film genius Ulrike Ottinger, who constructed a carnivalesque madcap of lesbianism, feminine rebellion, couture and alcoholism on a wild bar-hop through the seedy underbelly of the fractured German capital. A woman only described as “She” (played by model Tabea Blumenschein) leaves her life of luxury and privilege in La Rotunda, and purchases a one-way ticket to Berlin to pursue her life’s goal: a drinking binge to end them all. Merry-making and self-destruction at its finest and best-dressed! Featuring Eddie Constantine, Magdalena Montezuma, a young Nina Hagen, and the a who’s who of the German avant-garde — it’s a towering achievement of renegade film art!
If that doesn’t compel you, peep the trailer for the program, which starts tonight at 8 pm at the North Star Ballroom and is 100% free to attend:
I’m totally blown away. Bravo!