"Curt McDowell was a San Francisco treasure. The openly gay filmmaker spent much of his short life making bizarre underground films which pushed the boundaries of cinema and of onscreen sexuality." - David-Elijah Nahmod, SF Weekly

Join us January 21st as we celebrate one of the Tenderloin’s most interesting residents, director Curt McDowell. Curt McDowell was a filmmaker, actor, visual artist, and writer who resided in the Tenderloin and shot many of his films here. He arrived in San Francisco in the mid-1960s, studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute then quickly changed course to become a filmmaker to work with George Kuchar. His era of San Francisco witnessed the Summer of Love, gay liberation, and the onset of AIDS, to which he succumbed at the age of forty-two.

Join us for an introduction to Curt’s work, featuring several short films:

George Kuchar on Curt McDowell (rare)
Confessions
Ronnie
Visit to Indiana
Boggy Depot
Thundercrack trailer

Melinda McDowell, his sibling, was an actor in many of his films and will be present for Q&A. McDowell is represented by [2nd Floor Projects] San Francisco. A slide show featuring art by Curt McDowell will proceed and follow the screening.

More on Curt:
Curt McDowell (1945–1987) is the author of numerous films that recast the American dream of plenty in pansexual terms. Thundercrack (1975) his well-known feature was co-written with George Kuchar. He directed over 30 films, such as Confessions (1971), Weiners and Buns Musical (1972), Loads (1980), and Sparkle’s Tavern (1985), celebrating sex as well as genre riffing and autobiographical narratives that bear the influences of Jack Smith’s lush, DIY camp aesthetic, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s explosive melodrama, and Nan Goldin’s glimpses of countercultural bohemia.

Reception at 6:30pm, Program at 7pm
$5