Nottingham Contemporary

No Shadow Between the Thighs: A Ridykeulous Film Programme

A delicious meander through classic, cult and unknown films of Queer Cinema

This season of The Screen we conspired with our exhibiting artist-curators Ridykeulous (Nicole Eisenman & A.L. Steiner, with Sam Roeck) to deliver a selection of art house queer film.

To accompany our current exhibition, Ridykes’ Cavern of Fine Inverted Wines and Deviant Videos which features a broad selection of short moving image works, we conceived some films intended to be viewed full length in a cinema setting. From an expansive list across 1970s’s exploitation, Queer New Wave and contemporary cinema, we chose a selection of artist's moving image, feature films, shorts, fiction, documentary and experimental titles presented in four chapters that represent a slice of lesser-known queer cinema. Films that inspired and excited the Ridykes and filmmakers that have influenced them, collaborated with them or who they just think are "kind of cool".

Part One. Come Dance With Us: An opening party with Gasleak Mountain

FLAMING EARS Ursula Püerrer, A. Hans Scheirl, Dietmar Schipek (1992) 84 min
Friday 22 September 9 pm. 18+ Free
As our season kicks off, join us on a wild trip to the post-apocalyptic city of Ache in the year 2700. Flaming Ears is bonkers pop sci-fi that boasts revenge plots and sabotage, sex parties and aliens, all rendered with a steampunk aesthetic. Followed by live performances and DJs curated by Gasleak Mountain.

Part Two. Do something to someone ... some classic queer films

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS
Harry Kümel (1971) 100 min
Tuesday 31 October 6.30 pm. Cert 18. £6
Our Halloween special sees a newly-wed couple spend the night at a seaside hotel in the dead of winter, where the only other guest is a beautiful mysterious countess and her assistant. Things quickly become strange. A heady mix of surrealism, expressionism, and 1960s European cinema makes this a stylistic treat. A psycho-sexual trip of a lesbian vampire film that deserves its status as a true cult horror Queer classic.

NOWHERE Gregg Araki (1997) 85 min with THE YO-YO GANG GB Jones (1992) 30 min
Thursday 9 November 6.30pm. Cert 18. £6
In the third part of Gregg Araki’s infamous Teen Apocalypse Trilogy we follow a bunch of college kids down a delicious rabbit hole, looking for love, salvation, and the meaning of life. Led by 90s alt-heartthrob James Duvall, the cast also boasts a ton of other soon-to-be Hollywood stars (Rose McGowan, Denise Richards, Ryan Philippe…and more!) delivering quotable lines in iconic looks. Nowhere is a key film of the influential New Queer Cinema, a glorious, sexy fairytale on acid, and a darkly comic, sexy existential crisis for the MTV generation.

Proceeded by a short film The Yo-Yo Gang. Two lesbian rival gangs The Yo-Yo Gang and Skateboard Bitches start a gang war in this no-budget grainy Super 8 cocktail. Expect sex, fights and your favorite Riot Grrrl and Queercore Bands in this punk feminist bite of a short film.

Note: scenes of rape and sexual violence

Part Three. Cool For You: A Ridykeulous Triple Bill Inspirers, conspirators and collaborators of Ridykeulous

Saturday 9 December 2 pm. 18+ screening (ID will be checked at the door). Tickets £6

THE TRIP, Eileen Myles, 17 mins, (2019)
Poet Eileen Myles cruises through Texas, chatting with her passengers: a dog… and some puppets. Myles’ charming trip is an homage to the counter-culture tradition of the road movie, whilst lightly poking fun at it. Irresistibly fun and self-aware, with charmingly lo-fi visuals and lyrical, witty storytelling.

THE NAGEL INCIDENT, Steve Hall & Cathee Wilkins (2002) 16 min
A zippy, camp film that has airs of John Waters. A bizarre whirlwind of aerobics, kidnap, hairspray, cocaine, and a fragrance called Abduction!

COMMUNITY ACTION CENTER A.K. Burns + A.L. Steiner (2010) 69 mins
Ridykeulous’ own A.L Steiner directs this exploration of a community, sex, and art, in which warm bodies of varying gender identities intertwine. With a star turn from artist A.K. Burns, this groundbreaking film is sexy and playful, and always political. Whilst some of its themes are now the norm in mainstream contemporary culture, Community Action Center laid much of the groundwork for today’s conversations. This is a film that welcomes us to sit in a space of erotic communion that's radical, expressive, and at times familial.

Note: contains explicit nudity and sexual acts.

Part Four. Eccentric & Bizarre.. rare and unknown films presented with our Youth Programmer and local creatives (with interventions in between)

Saturday 6 January 1-8pm, £10 all day. 18+ screenings

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK Harry Dodge & Silas Howard (2001) 98 min
Shy is a transgender man who leaves his small town for better things after his father dies. Along the way he meets Valentine, who is in search of his birth mother, and these unlikely friends quickly become partners in crime. With nods to American New Wave and the cultural connotations of the open road, this sweet and warm film is a lesser-known gem of New Queer Cinema.

SHINJUKU BOYS Jano Williams & Kim Longinotto (1995) 53 min
We delve into the world of the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo, Japan where women enjoy the attention of their charismatic hosts: three transgender non-binary men (or onabe) who run the club. An intimate look into a space where radical modes of sexuality, relationships, and self-expression are explored in Japan. Longinotto handles it all with her signature tenderness, and captures some truly beautiful moments.

SHAKEDOWN Leila Weinraub (2018) 82 min
A creative nonfiction film documenting a groundbreaking Los Angeles underground strip club where performers and clients were free to be Black, Queer, and expressive. Director Weinraub was the club’s resident videographer, and as an insider was able to paint an intimate portrait of this unique space. Made from 400 hours of footage, Shakedown is an intoxicating and visceral watch. It's perhaps the only film to be distributed via Pornhub as well as shown at film festivals and galleries, and we are excited to show this unique film.

OPEN Jake Yunza (2010) 93 mins
A cast of genderqueer characters explore new possibilities of love and identity in the twenty-first century, including Pandrogeny, by which two lovers grow to resemble each other via gender-affirming surgeries. With actors playing versions of themselves, Open blurs the lines between fact, fiction, and dream as it traces the travails of its pioneering protagonists.