Oddball Films and guest curator Jeff Giordano present Seduced and Abandoned in Florida featuring the San Francisco Premiere of early Ross McElwee documentary Space Coast (1979). Rarely screened and not available on DVD, Space Coast pairs oddball documentarian Ross McElwee, legendary for directing the offbeat, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning doc Sherman's March (1986), with Michele Negroponte (I'm Dangerous with Love) for a portrait of 1970s Cape Canaveral Florida. In true offbeat fashion, Negroponte and McElwee follow three residents of Cape Canaveral, Florida -- several years after the phasing out of Apollo moon missions: a salty newspaper reporter who has witnessed 1,600 consecutive launches; an out-of-work maintenance man who now leads a motorcycle gang; and the owner of a small construction company who sidelines as the clown-host of a local kids television show. Negroponte and McElwee transcend the “God, guns, and family” clichés of small town America in this emotionally complex, novelistic portrait of people living in hard times. Space Coast will be preceded by two fabulous vintage Florida shorts, The World Parade: Fun In Florida (1950's) will refresh you on everything tourists love in Florida: Historic St. Augustine, snarly alligator farms, exotic sea animals, succulent Palm Beach, shuffleboard, the world's largest trailer camp (at the time) in Sarasota, and many more locales and creatures and see Florida through the eyes of a sick chimp in Mr. Chimp Goes South (1950's). It's one rare evening of fascinating Florida fun.
"Space Coast has the evocative sub-kitsch clutter of an Edward Kienholz tableau or Vernon Zimmerman’s Unholy Rollers."
- Village Voice
Date: Friday, October 19th, 2012 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Space Coast (Color, 1979)
This
rare documentary follows three characters who lived in Cape Canaveral, Florida
since the 1940's. When the space program was deactivated in the 1972, the
entire region was stricken by an economic depression. Many residents left
the Cape, leaving it as an abandoned ghost town, but Mary Bubb, Papa John
Murphy, and the Reverend Willie Womack remained. All offer their wisdom on the
landscape changing around them: the declining economy, closing of launch pads,
and frustrations of the community.
Co-directors Ross McElwee and Michel Negroponte traveled from Cambridge,
Massachusetts to Florida and captured their lives at the brink of collapse. Predating
reality television by 20 years, if Space Coast were made today
it would surely be a much different portrait.
“Here’s
me in pink stretch pants,” notes Mary Bubb. She’s a space reporter in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, at the moment sharing some of her
memorabilia with filmmakers Ross McElwee and Michel Negroponte. She
smiles as she remembers a friend telling her, “Not everybody has their pink ass
on the cover of Newsweek.”
The film
follows two other residents of the Space Coast, Papa John Murphy and the
Reverend Willie Womack. Papa John keeps himself distracted by wrestling
with his daughter Diane and serving as president of the Saints motorcycle
club. “Jesus had to have been an extremely rugged individual,” he submits,
“He lived the life of a fisherman, he wasn’t no pansy.” Willie owns a
construction company, hunts "gopher" with his sons in swamps, and
freelances as a clown on local television.
Each scene in the film offers poignant images of struggling life,
resulting in the reshaping of a culture, built on ambitions unmet and
options unknown -- not too far from our country's current social climate.
About Ross McElwee:
“For the
past twenty-five years, Ross McElwee has given new meaning and flair to
first-person non-fiction cinema. Always wise and irreverent, ever the
unreliable narrator, McElwee makes the grandest themes of human comedy
his artistic province: love and death, chance and fate, memory and denial,
the marvelous and the appalling.”
-The Museum of Modern Art
“A
documentary by Ross McElwee could be made by no other. Since his hilarious
autobiographical breakthrough Sherman's
March (1986), the
profound artist-philosopher has been using his own life as a springboard to
examine humankind's biggest issues, and tiniest.
McElwee
makes movies the way life might, ideally, be lived.”
-Entertainment Weekly
About Michel Negroponte:
Michel
Negroponte is an award winning filmmaker who has been making feature
length documentaries for more than 30 years. His documentary films include
the award-winning Jupiter's Wife (1994), No Accident (1996), W.I.S.O.R.
(2000), Methadonia (2005) and most recently, I'm Dangerous with
Love (2009).
Also Featuring:
Mr. Chimp Goes South (B&W, 1953)
A 16mm bizarre tale of a sick chimpanzee who gets sent to Florida for
some R&R. We experience Florida through the chimp's perspective as he
squeezes in tours and fun in the famous Florida sun all while
recuperating, proving that Florida is the best place to get back on your feet. Not exactly
politically correct, but rest assured –- this chimp had a great adventure down
South!
The World Parade: Fun In Florida (B&W, 1952)
This 16mm gem will refresh you on everything tourists love in Florida: Historic St. Augustine, snarly alligator
farms, exotic sea animals, succulent Palm Beach, shuffleboard, the world's
largest trailer camp (at the time) in Sarasota, and many more exotic locales and
creatures. Relish in the lush beauty of
Florida’s national treasures and discover a new appreciation for the sunshine
state.
Curator’s Biography:
Jeff M. Giordano is a UNC: School of the Arts – Film
School graduate. He is an award-winning
documentary filmmaker and has curated over 50 films. Jeff has directed 7 independent films and
resides in the Bay area. Giordano is a
Pre-Screener for the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival and also
Programmer at SF IndieFest. Visit his website at: www.jeffmgiordano.com