Description: When neighbors John and Levi witness supernatural events in their Los Angeles apartment building, they realize documenting the paranormal could inject some fame and fortune into their wasted lives. An ever-deeper, darker rabbit hole, their friendship frays as they uncover the dangers of the phenomena, the city and each other.
Description: Józef visits his dying father at a remote mental institutions, where time itself doesn't seem to exist, and the line between dreams and memories become indistinguishable.
Adapted from a selection of short stories from Polish-jewish writer Bruno Schultz, Wojciech J. Has's masterpiece of surrealist Polish cinema is a phantasmagoric look at the collective trauma of the Holocaust.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Introduction Notes on The Hourglass Sanatorium by Annette Insdorf, Film Professor at Columbia University, and author of books including "Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has"
Post Screening Notes on The Hourglass Sanatorium by Annette Insdorf
Discussion on The Hourgalss Sanatorium with Sebastian Smoliński, Film Critic
Description: Plainclothes officers Mike (Francis Ng) and Brian (Louis Koo) are on the trail of trigger-happy fugitive Dragon. Planning a stakeout, they commandeer the apartment of an elderly woman (Helena Law Lan) who mistakes them for her estranged grandsons. Their mission is further disrupted by wandering schoolgirl Yen (Michelle Saram) and Mike's nascent feelings for the neighborhood's laundress (Stephanie Lim) who complete the fortuitous family put at risk when Dragon and his goons come knocking.
Part of a winning trio of genre-benders bookended by Bio Zombie (1999) and Juliet in Love (2000), Bullets Over Summer showcases Hong Kong action auteur Wilson Yip (Ip Man, SPL) at his most playful and unpredictable. A cops-and-robbers film subverted by a warm sitcom premise, it culminates in the unlikeliest of hangout movies about fate, coincidence and finding one's chosen family. Toying with expectations for heroic bloodshed, and lensed by Fruit Chan's cinematographer Lam Wah-Chuen (Made in Hong Kong), Bullets Over Summer is a thrilling example of Hong Kong cinema's effortless cool.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Wilson Yip interview by Frédéric Ambroisine (10 mins, 2005)
Interview with Francis Ng (17min, 2022)
Interview with Matt Chow (12mins, 2022)
Commentary by film writer Valerie Soe and critic Kevin Ma
Booklet including archival interview with Wilson Yip and new writing by Ariel Esteban Cayer
Newly Translated English Subtitles
Cantonese Audio Description Track courtesy of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind
English subtitles
REGION-A "LOCKED"
FROM PARTNER LABEL UTOPIA DISTRIBUTION:
The Civil Dead
Description: A misanthropic, struggling photographer just wants to watch TV and eat candy while his wife is out of town, but when a desperate old pal resurfaces, his plans are thwarted, with spooky consequences.
Silver Bullets
An actress disrupts her relationship with an indie arthouse director when she takes a role in a more successful genre filmmaker's new werewolf project. Largely improvised and shot over several years, Silver Bullets draws inspiration from Chekhov 's The Seagull.
Art History
When a director becomes jealous of the budding relationship between his film's stars, his emotions threaten to sabotage his own production. Set entirely in one location over the course of a few days, ART HISTORY vacillates between Adam Wingard's long dreamy static takes and Swanberg's chaotic hand held camera work to create a mood of claustrophobia and mystery.
The Zone
A young engaged filmmaker couple and their actress roommate find themselves hosting a mysterious visitor. Over the course of the night and the following day he sleeps with all three roommates and then disappears, at which point the characters, and the actors playing them, attempt to figure out what just happened.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Stray Bullets, A short film that looks at Swanberg's process
28-page booklet includes an intro by Joe Swanberg, Cartoon by Kent Osborne, Interview with Swanberg by Josephine Decker, The Zone pitch letter, outline and a scene written by Kate Lyn Sheil
Description: From below the earth to the stars, The Great Basin is a documentary feature that builds a complex panorama of rural Nevada, in the Western United States, through a tapestry of characters who work, live, and play there. The Great Basin is the location of the "Loneliest Road in America" and can be seen as a microcosm of the economic, social, and ecological marginalization of 21st-century rural communities.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Audio Commentary with Producer / Director Chivas Devinck, Sound Recordist Xan Márquez Caneda and Director of Photography Yoshio Kitagawa
Q&A with Director Chivas Devinck and Artist Oscar Tuazon (Laemmle Monica Film Center)
Cedar Spring Water School - featurette examining Oscar Tuazon's art project and the importance of Cedar Spring to the indigenous people of Nevada
Description: Brad Tolan (Brent Bell) is a martial arts instructor who moves to DeSoto to open a karate school. He is framed by chief deputy George (Rick Rykart) and his partner officer Grady (William R. Johnson) for a murder he did not commit and is thrown in jail, uncertain if he will ever see a trial. With the help of a mysterious ninja (Ron D. White), Brad escapes from jail and must evade capture while he tries to clear his name.
Justice Ninja Style was Filmed in DeSoto Missouri on a tiny budget but had the entire town passionately behind it helping make it. The result is one of the most entertaining Ninja movies ever made. VHSHITFEST is proud to present this soon to be cult classic for the first time on disc!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC SET
Audio commentary with DeSoto natives Cody Terry & Steven Francis
Ninja The Ultimate Warrior [Extended cut of the film transferred from the original master tape] (86 min)
The Ninja Speaks: The Story of Ron D. White documentary (58 min)
Locations then & now (10 min)
News coverage shot during Justice Ninja Style's production (2 min)
Raw footage from Ninja The Ultimate Warrior (37 min)
Bonus feature: How to Become a Ninja (60 min)
Six Flags Ninja Media Day (44 min)
Trailer for How to Become a Ninja (2 min)
Trailer for Justice Ninja Style feat. James Earl Jones (2min)
Trailer for Ninja The Ultimate Warrior feat. James Earl Jones (9min)
Description: When children are left at Grandma's without smartphones they're bored to tears. That is until Grandma finds them loads to do. She also tells them about a magical creature named Kratt that'll do whatever its master says. When they stumble upon an instruction manual on how to build one, they don't hesitate. All they have to do now is buy a soul from the devil...
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Behind the Scenes Featurette
Trailer
English SDH subtitles
REGION-A "LOCKED"
FROM PARTNER LABEL AMERICAN GENRE FILM ARCHIVE (AGFA):
Description: She makes the bad guys bleed! Written and produced by exploitation demigod Renee Harmon (FROZEN SCREAM) and directed by the legendary James Bryan (DON'T GO IN THE WOODS), LADY STREET FIGHTER is the story of Linda (Harmon), a tough-as-nails karate cop on the trail of the ruthless scumbags who murdered her twin sister. From the outrageous fight scenes to Harmon's incredible outfits, this is a joyous blast of no-holds-barred chaos from one of the most unheralded women filmmakers in the history of American cinema. AGFA is thrilled to bring LADY STREET FIGHTER to Blu-ray, complete with drop-kicking extras and REVENGE OF LADY STREET FIGHTER—Harmon and Bryan's unreleased sequel.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Preserved from the only known 35mm theatrical print in existence
Commentary with director James Bryan and the AGFA team
Street-fighting trailers from the AGFA vaults
Booklet with writing by Annie Choi of Bleeding Skull
Bonus movie: REVENGE OF LADY STREET FIGHTER (1990, 90 mins),restored from the original 35mm camera negative
Commentary with director James Bryan and the AGFA team
Description: Set against the backdrop of a futuristic New York City besieged by acid rain and populated with mutated insects and flying cars, bartender Adam (Adam Plotch) repeatedly encounters a mysterious and enchanting young woman (Talia Rubel) who leaves behind a tooth on the subway, triggering an obsession that quickly disrupts the overall banality of his day to day existence. This enigma slowly begins reappearing in different aspects of Adam's life; as a prospective roommate, during a graveyard tryst, and eventually as his long lost sister who's recently awoken from a coma after being presumed dead in a car wreck ten years prior. Oddly, this new found revelation of sibling kinship does not bring a stop to the couples' lustful impulses and sexually charged mind games, eventually leading to a blood soaked climax fueled by repressed familial abuse, fast food foreplay, and the ever watchful eye of the ominous DNA 21 Corporation.
Armed with a $2,000 budget and a Canon GL1 camcorder, visionary Cuban born director (and recipient of the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship) Miguel Coyula (Memories of Overdevelopment, Blue Heart) lensed this button pushing, mind-bending, surrealist Sci-Fi arthouse masterpiece (the first of a proposed trilogy), shooting solely on weekends over the course of two years in New York while attending the Strasberg Institute. The winner of over 20 film festival awards (including the top prizes at the 2004 DIFF and Microcinema Fest), Red Cockroaches remains a triumph of DIY and micro-budget video filmmaking, notable for its striking visuals, unique film language, and stylistic nods to the modern surrealist masters like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Audio commentary with director Miguel Coyula and actors Adam Plotch & Jeff Pucillo
"The Making of Red Cockroaches" -archival featurette with director Miguel Coyula
"Discovering Genuius" -Filmmaker Jason Santo (Bent) on Red Cockroaches
Válvula de luz aka Light Valve -1997 video short directed by Miguel Coyula (47 min.)
Deleted scenes
The Front Row TV review
Trailers
Reversible cover art
English & Spanish SDH subtitles
REGION-FREE
FROM PARTNER LABEL CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL PICTURES:
Hotel employee Lisa (The Sweet Hereafter's Arsinée Khanjian) develops an obsession with her co-worker Lance (Dog Park's Michael McManus), a struggling actor who has appeared in several films as an extra. With the help of a local video store, Lisa carefully investigates Lance's body of work, as he undergoes his own pursuit – of screenwriter Clara (The Stepfather's Gabrielle Rose) and a film role inspired by her late brother. As their connection grows, this production's ties to reality start to unravel… and so do our three protagonists.
One of the most singular and defining films from celebrated Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan (The Adjuster, Exotica), Speaking Parts mixes the all-consuming video addictions of Videodrome with an artfully perverse exploration of fractured inner lives. Produced in collaboration with Egoyan, this deluxe special edition also includes three of the filmmaker's early shorts and Sarabande, his little-seen 1997 film starring Khanjian, Yo-Yo Ma, Don McKellar, and Lori Singer.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM A 35MM INTERPOSITIVE
New audio commentary featuring Atom Egoyan and actress Arsinée Khanjian
Archival audio commentary featuring Egoyan
Scoring Parts (2022, 22 min.) – New interview with composer Mychael Danna
A Different Breed (2022, 20 min.) – Former TIFF CEO Piers Handling reflects on Egoyan in the '80s
Archival interview with Egoyan (1989, 6 min.)
Deleted scenes with commentary (2002, 7 min.)
Afterword featuring Egoyan and Khanjian (2022, 18 min.)
Sarabande (1997, 56 min.)
Sarabande introduction by Egoyan (1998, 2 min.)
New Sarabande audio commentary featuring Egoyan and Khanjian
Egoyan student shorts:
Howard in Particular (1979, 13 min.)
Peep Show (1981, 7 min.)
Open House (1982, 26 min.) with new introductions by the filmmaker
Booklet featuring an essay by professor/author Ron Burnett
Description: An ode to the rivalry between men and nature, Taming the Garden is the story of how a powerful man indulges in an unusual hobby by having century-old trees uprooted in communities along the Georgian coast and transplanted to his private garden.
Description: Finnish director Risto Jarva's fascinating, futuristic sci-fi mystery is set in a dystopian, Pop Art-designed world of gleaming white towers, Sony video monitors and inflatable furniture, where the beautiful inhabitants all dress as Edie Sedgwick-like pixie sprites or medieval page boys out of LOGAN'S RUN. A historian of late 20th century culture - "before class boundaries were abolished" – named Raimo (Arto Tuominen) is researching the death many years earlier of a free-spirited erotic model named Saara (Ritva Vepsä) who died under mysterious circumstances. (She caused a public scandal by asking three of her wealthy, powerful lovers to pay for an abortion). Raimo finds Saara's identical double – an earthy, uninhibited engineer named Kisse (also played by Vepsä) -- and tries to convince her to re-enact Saara's life and death for TV. Director Jarva was one of Finland's most acclaimed fiction filmmakers and documentarians before he was tragically killed in an auto accident returning from a screening in 1977. His fabulously quirky vision of Future World, with its fragmented & abstract political conversation and semi-orgies (all waving hands and sitar music!) would have delighted both Andy Warhol and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
RISTO JARVA, TYÖTOVERINI (RISTO JARVA, MY COLLEAGUE), 1984, 59 min., dir. Antti Peippo – a rarely-seen Finnish TV documentary featuring archival interview footage of Jarva and clips from his films
Two of Jarva's brilliant, unconventional short films from the 1960s:
"Pakasteet" (Frozen Foods), 1969, 15 min. - his wildly satirical deconstruction of TV advertising
Mod / Pop Art-influenced documentary "Computers Serve" (Tietokoneet palvelevat), 1968, 14 min. (Both in Finnish with English subtitles.)
Deleted scene and original song "The Swallow Tower" (Pääskytorni) performed by Otto Donner cut from TIME OF ROSES
Original trailer
New commentary by film critic, professor and programmer Olaf Möller
New essay by filmmaker and critic Ville Suhonen of the Risto Jarva Association
Newly translated extracts from Risto Jarva's writings
Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion
Description: The vinyl record renaissance over the past decade has brought new fans to a classic format and transformed our idea of a record collector: younger, both male and female, multicultural. This same revival has made buying music more expensive, benefited established bands over independent artists and muddled the question of whether vinyl actually sounds better than other formats.
VINYL NATION digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided? What does vinyl say about our past here in the present? How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other?
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Exclusive booklet featuring interviews with industry professionals
Description: Henri is a frustrated teenager living with his parents in a provincial French coastal town. When they drag him to the train station to bid adieu to his sister, Henri sneaks off to a secluded bathroom and interrupts a hustler named Jean satisfying the masochistic desires of an older male client. Henri falls desperately in love with the sexy criminal, but Jean evades Henri's affections. Undeterred, Henri shadows Jean as he traverses the dark and dangerous underbelly of their sleepy village. But as he descends deeper and deeper into Jean's world, there may not be an easy way out. Patrice Chéreau's 1983 drama is a revelation: an amazingly accomplished work that genuinely channels the transgressive, unsanitized sensibility of Jean Genet, boasting a breakout lead performance by young Jean-Hugues Anglade and a script that took co-writers Chéreau and legendary gay French author and activist Hervé Guibert six years to perfect. The result is a rich, strange, and sumptuous film leading us to exhilaratingly mysterious and unfamiliar spaces both physical and psychological.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
"The Wounded Man and the Paradox of Queer Visibility": A Video Essay by Robert Payne
"Out of the Shadows: Criminalization of Sex Work in L'homme blessé": A Video Essay by Tom Gittings
A 32-page booklet edited and introduced by Hedi El Kholti of Semiotext(e) containing:
"The Red Heels" - A newly translated piece about the film by co-writer Hervé Guibert
"The Wounded Man" - A story by Abdellah Taïa
"Texting on L'homme blessé" - A conversation between Wayne Koestenbaum & Bruce Hainley
New Restoration Trailer
Other Trailers
English subtitles
REGION-A "LOCKED"
FROM PARTNER LABEL AMERICAN GENRE FILM ARCHIVE (AGFA):
Description: This is the only horror movie in history that was made explicitly to catch a serial killer. Directed by Tom Hanson, who had previously owned a chain of Pizza Man restaurants, THE ZODIAC KILLER reimagines the crimes of the then-active Zodiac Killer in hopes of luring the madman out of hiding. That plan didn't work. Instead, we got the most outrageous and compelling "tabloid horror" vortex on the planet. And beyond. During theatrical screenings, Hanson constructed in-theater traps to catch the killer. These included the use of an ice cream freezer filled with rent-a-cops and a raffle with a motorcycle as a prize. You won't get insight like this by watching David Fincher's ZODIAC. But you will get it while watching THE ZODIAC KILLER.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Preserved from one of the only known 35mm prints in existence
Interview with director Tom Hanson and actor Manny Nedwick
Commentary with Tom Hanson, Manny Nedwick, and the AGFA team
Booklet with writing by Chris Poggiali of TEMPLE OF SCHLOCK
Tabloid-horror trailers from the AGFA archive
Bonus movie: ANOTHER SON OF SAM (1977, 72 mins), preserved from a 35mm print