Mid-week Film Club

12/26/25 was a Caterwaul-curated freeform screening of oddball seasonal videos and movies, mashing up material from K. Gordon Murray,  Solvognen, Everything is Terrible!, Bryan Konefsky, Twilight Zone, Damon Packard and feature Rare Exports (2010, Finland).

Tonight's main feature is too sweet and nostalgic to keep a secret - Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, the folksy, 1977 Jim Henson TV Christmas special nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and still leaving viewers with a happy glow each year. This screening will be accompanied by a few mystery short films that round out the vibe.

Tonight's film is a meandering, late-90s indie gem set in (and based on writings about) an early-70's Iowa slacker/drug scene. By turns gut-wrenching and absurd, it transcends the "junkie drama" genre as an ultimately life-affirming character study, and features an incredible, star-studded cast and cameos.

Documentary, art film, and social commentary rolled into one. A group of women gather at a healing cabin in the Northern European wilderness, where secrets and communion unfold. Content Warning: non-sexualized nudity, universally common subjects such as body dysmorphia, cancer and sexual abuse.

Experimental, deconstructed horror and other short films curated by Caterwaul. 

Content Warning: these will contain a bit of everything, including disturbing imagery, gore, strobe effects, media piracy, and confusion.

An almost 2hr, high-octane grossout horror comedy from Spain, featuring bankrobbers and a coven of witches. A potentially feminist subtext filtered through a machismo lens just adds to the narrative spice.

Tonight's film is another animated sci-fi, an esoteric Japanese treasure that somehow eluded canonization. This epic fever dream utilizes avant-garde edits remixing the aesthetics of Metropolis with punk, Pop Art, electronica, and a heavy dose of Thomas Pynchon.

     This time around, we're deviating from the feature film format, screening several shorts that are connected by a focus on street performance and movement art. From documentary to loose narrative to excerpt, from puzzling to poignant to panic attack, and with a total running time of about 100mins.

Regarding the upcoming film - a heady take on the viral/zombie genre, this taut 2008 film brings to life the William S. Burroughs adage, "language is a virus".

A cozy/claustrophobic comedy in a personal favorite genre - a small number of people in a restricted space with lots of crackling dialogue, very much like a stage play, from which this flick was adapted to little or no distribution. It was the final film by a director responsible for scores of wild and woolly satires across 3 decades.

Shifting gears drastically from our previous screening, this week's film is an overlooked, gritty, urban drama from 2018, about lifelong friendship, gentrification, gun violence, and cultural erasure. Funny, perceptive, action-packed and scathing.

The first "test run" screening! We're kicking things off with a classic of international animated sci-fi from the '70s. Expect a dreamy, cerebral trip, that some of you might even remember from late-night cable binges!