Vinegar Syndrome has revealed fourteen upcoming partner label releases. They are: The Bitter Ash (1963),
Bastards (2013), Night Caller (2022), Way Bad Stone (1991), Nuts! (2016), Mami Wata (2023), Nintendo Quest: The Most Unofficial and Unauthorized Nintendo Documentary Ever! (2015), Go Down Death (2013), Marcel Pagnol: My Father's Glory, My Mother's Castle (1990), Living a Zombie Dream / Kitty Killers (1996–2001), Femme (2023), Lost Prophet (1992), She's Allergic to Cats (2016), and Amanda and the Alien (1995).
FROM PARTNER LABEL CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL PICTURES:
"Larry Kent was a heroic figure for me... I loved him on the spot." – David Cronenberg
With a dead-end job and a potentially pregnant girlfriend jeopardizing his freedom, Des (Cathy's Curse's Alan Scarfe) spirals into bitterness, misanthropy, and fantasies of violent crime. While visiting a sick friend one afternoon, he crosses paths with the similarly jaded, even suicidal Laurie (Lynn Stewart), a young parent working as a waitress to provide for her child and struggling playwright husband (Philip Brown). Desperate to recapture a sense of vitality – and raise money for rent – this troubled couple invites Des and a group of local beatniks over for a hedonistic party that culminates in a series of shocking acts of violence and betrayal.
Made for just $5,000, The Bitter Ash is the first feature from celebrated independent filmmaker Larry Kent, a cinematic trailblazer cited as a key influence by countrymates David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan. Playing like a Canadian answer to John Cassavetes' Shadows, this first entry in Kent's seminal Vancouver Trilogy (followed by Sweet Substitute and When Tomorrow Dies) also flirts with the frank sexuality and other provocations of '60s exploitation cinema, which led to a series of censorship battles, dooming the film to decades of obscurity. CIP is thrilled to resurrect this groundbreaking classic with a new 4K restoration.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION from the original 16mm A/B negatives by Canadian International Pictures with sound transferred from the original 16mm magnetic final mix
New audio commentary featuring filmmaker and historian Stephen Broomer
Archival audio commentary featuring director Larry Kent and film professor David Douglas
New introduction to The Bitter Ash by Kent
Vancouver Memories (2024, 11 min.) – New interview with Kent
From the Outside In (2024, 13 min.) – New interview with star Alan Scarfe
After Ash (2024, 13 min.) – Scarfe reflects on his body of work
An Authentic Beat Film (2024, 22 min.) – New interview with Douglas
Fantasia Q&A (2023, 30 min.) – Post-screening discussion featuring Kent, Scarfe, and Douglas
Hastings Street (2007, 20 min.) – Kent and Scarfe's first film, shot in 1962 and completed 45 years
Acclaimed director Claire Denis's jagged, daringly fragmented and darkest film is a genuinely contemporary film noir inspired by recent French sex ring scandals involving men of wealth and power. Vincent Lindon (Denis's Friday Night) stars as Marco, a sea captain gone AWOL to avenge his brother-in-law's suicide and to rescue his estranged sister and his teenaged niece (Lola Créton, Goodbye First Love); Chiara Mastroianni (A Christmas Tale) is Lindon's married lover, who has sold her soul in exchange for the security of her young son; and the remarkable Michel Subor is her husband – a sleazy financier who is the very embodiment of an evil beyond comprehension. Denis takes the viewer into the very heart of darkness in her most unsettling film yet, an unforgettable and thrilling commentary on late capitalism.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
New audio commentary with film historian Samm Deighan
Adapting William Faulkner's Sactuary: a new video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicolas
Archival casting featurette featuring commentary by director Claire Denis
Telephone psychic Clementine Carter is pulled into a complex web of mystery when she receives a call from a serial killer. Predicting his murders before he commits them puts her into a terrifying game of cat and mouse. Enlisting the aid of her invalid father and clairvoyant co-worker, they must use their unique abilities to stay one step ahead of a maniac whose unspeakable acts in the present are nothing compared to his past and future.
Shot for $2000 on video in the enchanted forests of Florida, WAY BAD STONE is the unofficial Dungeons & Dragons adaptation that you've been waiting for. The story follows Aladar, a wizard seeking revenge against a gang barbarians—and one demon—who stole a magic stone. Directed by Archie Waugh and co-produced/written by Jan and Janne Skipper, this bewitching passion project features raucous Ren Faire dialogue, splattery violence, and a powerful dungeon synth soundtrack. It's the perfect complement to your next regularly scheduled LARP campaign.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Preservation from the original S-VHS master
50-minute commentary with director Archie Waugh
38-minute commentary with writer/producer Janne Skipper
Photo gallery
Short: V-SQUAD (1994) from Archie Waugh
Short: THE MAIDEN (1989) from Jan and Janne Skipper
Bonus movie: IONOPSIS (1997), a "spiritual sequel" to WAY BAD STONE from Jan and Janne Skipper, preserved from the original VHS master
NUTS! recounts the unbelievable true story of John Romulus Brinkley, a Kansas doctor who in 1917 discovered that he could cure impotence by transplanting goat testicles into men. From there, the story only gets more bizarre.
Mixing hand-drawn animated reenactments, interviews, and archival footage, NUTS! traces Brinkley's rise from poverty and obscurity to the heights of celebrity, wealth, and influence.
Filmmaker Penny Lane (HAIL SATAN?) has skillfully borrowed a page from her subject - charming viewers into believing the unbelievable, building their trust and excitement, until the final chapter bares the painful truth and reveals the doctor for what he truly was…
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Original Trailer
The Brinkly Archive:
Address To Patients
Making A Record
Rejuvenation Through Gland Transplanting
Brinkley Family Home Movies
Optional English, Chinese (Traditional), French, Korean, Polish, Portugese (Brazilian), Spanish (Latin American), German, Japanese, French (Canada) subtitles
In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe's devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical protégé Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper (Emeka Amakeze), a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
C.J. "Fiery" Obasi's potent modern fable deploys vivid monochromatic black-and-white cinematography, rich sound design, and a hypnotic score in a folk-futurist style both earthy and otherworldly. Obasi depicts a pitched battle between opportunistic militants promising technological progress and a matriarchal spiritual order living in fragile harmony with the ocean. Mami Wata transports us to a place that seems both suspended in time and perhaps running out of time, as the threats of modern life wash up on its shores.
Nigerian submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film 2024
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Audio Commentary with Writer / Director C.J. 'Fiery' Obasi
Defying Genre: C.J. 'Fiery' Obasi on Mami Wata
Making Mami Wata
Mami Wata Scoring Sessions
Outtake
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer
Director's Statement
Booklet Essay
Optional English & French subtitles for the main feature
Follow video game rock star and fanatic collector, Jay Barlett over 10,000 miles as he pursues his dream to own a complete library of original Nintendo games. There's just one catch: he has to do it in 30 days, with no online purchases.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Extended Interviews
9-Episode Follow-Up Series, "Nintendo Quest: Power Tour"
Go Down Death is a wry, sinister realization of a strange new universe, a cross-episodic melange of macabre folktales supposedly penned by the fictitious writer Jonathan Mallory Sinus. An abandoned factory in Brooklyn stands in for a decrepit village haunted by ghosts, superstition and disease, while threatening to buckle under rumblings of the apocalypse. Soldiers are lost and found in endless woods, a child gravedigger is menaced by a shapeshifting physician, a syphilitic john bares all to a young prostitute and a disfigured outcast yearns for the affections of a tone-deaf cabaret singer.
Highlighted by offbeat narrative construction, stunning black-and-white 16mm cinematography and immaculately detailed production design, Go Down Death is a distinctively original film informed by American Gothic, folk culture and outsider art.
Based on the bestselling memoirs of French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (the acclaimed author of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring), MY FATHER'S GLORY and its sequel MY MOTHER'S CASTLE recount the nostalgic memories of Pagnol's youth growing up in Provence at the turn of the twentieth century. During one idyllic summer, 11-year-old Marcel (Julien Ciamaca) discovers friendship and wonder amid the rocky peaks surrounding his family's countryside home while learning new respect for his gentle and caring schoolmaster father Joseph (Philippe Caubère). Upon his return to Marseilles, Marcel longs to escape back to his beloved hills and is granted his wish when his adoring mother Augustine (Nathalie Roussel) devises a plan that allows them to visit the cottage more frequently.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Heritage and Nostalgia video essay by Ludovic Cortade, Associate Professor in French Literature, Thought and Culture at New York University
A Question of Tribe featurette with director Yves Robert's son Jean-Denis Robert, grandson Martin Drescher, and cinematographer Robert Alazraki
16-page booklet with new essay by filmmaker, producer and writer Kat Ellinger
Saturn's Core presents a double feature of SOV features from visionary Springfield, Missouri based writer / director Todd Reynolds. A vital component in the Borderline Entertainment film collective, Todd consistently applied a unique, incongruous, and often absurdist approach to the conventions of whichever genre he chose to explore. Boasting the frequent collaboration of producer / editor Ronnie Sortor (Sinistre, Ravage) and special FX artist Mike Strain Jr. (Vile 21), Reynolds represents a singular voice from the '90s video underground that's ripe and rightful for rediscovery.
In Living a Zombie Dream, a man discovers his brother is having an elicit affair with his girlfriend. After a heated confrontation, he witnesses his brother being captured and disemboweled by a flesh-eating psychopath. After murdering the maniac, he begins suffering from violent and perplexing hallucinations. Both his brother and the killer return from the dead amidst a horde of zombies and their desire to consume the flesh and blood of the living soon compels the man to follow in their footsteps. A Lynchian, analog meditation on life and death rife with shocking gore, bleeding handguns, and static filled TV sets, Reynolds' arresting debut feature boldly bears the hallmarks of both an experimental art film and a homespun SOV zombie gore epic.
In Kitty Killers, a gang of eccentric, working class hitmen are ordered to torture and hold hostage the duplicitous business rivals of their psychotic, wheelchair bound boss Mr. Hill. Things go haywire once the junior hitman falls for an innocent coffee shop poet named Kitty and his rampant narcissism leads to a chaotic crossroads of exploding squib hits, zen meditation, human flesh tic-tac-toe, and gluttonous doughnut consumption. A hyperviolent, post-Tarantino crime caper with self-reflective, transcendental underpinnings, Kitty Killers remains a predominant illustration of Reynolds' idiosyncratic approach to genre storytelling.
Living a Zombie Dream (1996)
Newly restored director's cut
New 2023 audio commentary with director Todd Reynolds
New 2023 audio commentary featuring writer / director Todd Reynolds & producer / editor Ronnie Sorter
Archival behind the scenes footage
Photo gallery
Trailer
Todd Reynolds short films:
"Always the Griever" (2:27)
"The Forest" (5:18)
"I Need to Pee" (2:06)
English SDH subtitles
REIGON-FREE
Kitty Killers (2001)
Newly restored director's cut
New 2023 audio commentary featuring writer / director Todd Reynolds & producer / editor Ronnie Sorter
Original VHS cut
Archival commentary with writer / director Todd Reynolds
Archival audio commentary featuring writer / director Todd Reynolds, producer / editor Ronnie Sorter, and actors Dan Rowland, Frank Alexander, & Mike Smith
"Kitty Killers in the Multiverse" -rare early footage featuring an alternate cast
Jules' life and career as a drag queen is destroyed by a homophobic attack. But when he re-encounters his attacker, the deeply-closeted Preston, in a gay sauna, he is presented with a chance to exact revenge. Unrecognizable out of his wig and make-up, Jules infiltrates Preston's life, and in doing so, discovers power in a different kind of drag..
Awakening a captive to his dreams, James Burton struggles to survive in the wilderness of his mind. A distant mansion draws the dream-vagabond down the dark terrain of a New Age witch, punks, and a psychotic killer. Playing with self-destruction and death, the "Lost Prophet" faces his subconscious enemy with passive, child-like fascination.
Michael de Avila's film is an intense mood piece that adeptly seduces the viewer into a hypnotic state to experience the random curiosities and terrors of the mind. VHSHITFEST could not be happier to rescue this film from obscurity with a beautiful brand new film transfer that captures the breathtaking and spooky visuals.
Special Fetaures and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION from the original 16mm camera negative
Commentary with director Michael de Avila
Lost Prophet original 1991 Cut transferred from the original BetaSP
"Lost Prophet Found": An Interview with Michael de Avila
If CLUELESS was zapped into a movie where Gen X icon Nicole Eggert (BAYWATCH) falls in love with a body-snatching extraterrestrial, it still wouldn't be enough to describe the mindwarping charm of AMANDA & THE ALIEN. Amanda (Eggert) is an artist who leads a quiet life. That is, until she falls in love with a hunky alien who can only survive by swapping human hosts every few days. This bizarro sci-fi comedy is an explosion of 1990s nostalgia, featuring navel rings, CGI morphing effects, an indie rock soundtrack from Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos and Sparks, and an unforgettable sex scene involving paprika. A smash hit when it premiered on Showtime in 1995, AMANDA & THE ALIEN has been newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative.
Special Fetaures and Technical Specs:
RESTORED FROM THE ORIGINAL 35MM CAMERA NEGATIVE
Commentary with director Jon Kroll and AGFA's Bret Berg
Video essay by film critic and author Willow Catelyn Maclay
Audio essay by writer Danielle Burgos
Out-of-this-world 35mm trailer reel from the AGFA vaults