Lupe
Available for sale: Digital file, DVD NTSC
Stills
About
Strangely neglected for way too long, José Rodriguez Soltero's Lupe is an underground classic of the stature of Flaming Creatures, Scorpio Rising, Hold me While I'm Naked, or The Chelsea Girls.
It is ostensibly a biopic of Lupe Velez inspired by Kenneth Anger's sketch of the Mexican spitfire in Hollywood Babylon and, stylistically, by Von Sternberg's Marlene Dietrich vehicles. Rodriguez Soltero takes some liberties with the facts and produces a color-saturated, gorgeous dime-store baroque that tells of Lupe's rise from whoredom to stardom, her fall into fractured romance and suicide, and her ascension into the spirit world. It is consistently inventive and surprising, and wrapped in a dense soundtrack that combines, Elvis, Cuban boleros, Spanish flamenco, The Supremes, and Vivaldi. It features some of the main players of the Ridiculous Theatrical Playhouse (Charles Ludlam plays a keen lesbian seducer and Lola Pashalinsky, Lupe's maid). Mario Montez never looked better; no wonder this was his favorite film. Whether they know it or not, Pedro Almodavar, Vivienne Dick, and Bruce LaBruce have a grandfather in José Rodriguez Soltero. –Juan Suarez
Programs
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A two-night program of paradigm-shifting queer shorts and features in honor of Pride month, curated by Matt McKinzie
In honor of Pride month, join us at the FMC Screening Room (475 Park Avenue South, 6th Floor) on Thursday, June 29th, and Friday, June 30th, 2023, at 7pm, for a two-night program of groundbreaking queer, experimental films by legendary filmmakers in our archive, curated by Matt McKinzie.
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Queer and Uncensored
A month-long series at MoMA, in honor of Pride, featuring over 30 titles from the FMC's collection
The Film-Makers' Cooperative is honored to collaborate with our former Executive Director, filmmaker and curator MM Serra, and FMC filmmaker-member Erica Schreiner, to feature over 30 films from our collection in the month-long series "Queer and Uncensored," screening at MoMA from May 28th to June 27th.
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The Motown Sound and the Queer Underground
A program of '60s queer avant-garde shorts featuring the "Motown Sound" at Spectacle Theater, part of the series "Sonic Visions: Experiments in Cinema and Music," curated by Matt McKinzie
Join us at Spectacle Theater on Friday, August 30th, 2024, at 7pm, for five queer avant-garde shorts from the 1960s featuring the "Motown sound," curated by Matt McKinzie, as part of our series SONIC VISIONS: EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA AND MUSIC.
