Electric Sheep at EEFF: Alucarda

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Alucarda

Alucarda

Screening date: Saturday 14 June 2014

Time: 3pm

Venue: Masonic Temple, Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street, London

Part of the East End Film Festival, 13-25 June 2014
Director: Juan López Moctezuma

Writers: Alexis Arroyo, Tita Arroyo, Juan López Moctezuma, Yolanda López Moctezuma

Original title: Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas

Based on the short story ‘Carmilla’ by: Sheridan Le Fanu

Cast: Tina Romero, Claudio Brook, Susana Kamini, David Silva, Tina French

Mexico 1978

74 mins

East End Film Festival website

Electric Sheep is proud to present an afternoon of orphans and dark magic with a screening of Alucarda at the amazing Masonic Temple, Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street, London, on Saturday 14 June, as part of the Magic and the Macabre weekend at the East End Film Festival. Acclaimed writer and festival programmer Kier-La Janisse, author of House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (FAB Press), will introduce the screening.

Loosely based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’, extravagant, sumptuous, macabre Alucarda hails from the golden age of Mexican horror. Raven-haired orphan Alucarda has been brought up in a convent to shield her from the evil influence of her diabolical father. But the devil in her blood cannot be suppressed and she draws the newly arrived Justine into her world. Thereon ensue copious amounts of nudity, wild-eyed hysteria, repressed desires, hints of lesbian love, religious exaltation, levitation, exorcism, self-flagellating nuns and unholy rituals, most of it set in a womb-like convent with nuns dressed in what looks like bloodied bandages. Part of the Panique movement co-founded by Alejandro Jodorowsky, director Juan López Moctezuma shared his interest in creating a magical and ritualistic kind of spectacle that would shake up audiences’ perceptions. He certainly succeeded with this astounding, surreal, eye-popping stunner.

review_moonbird

+ The Moon Bird (Brothers McLeod, UK 2010, 15 minutes)

A dark animated fairy tale in black and white, about an orphan girl kidnapped by a witch who wants her tears for a magic potion.

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Masonic Temple at Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street

Co-curated by Strange Attractor Press, this special weekend of EEFF screenings at the Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street’s Masonic Temple includes witches, ghosts and devilish mermaids, taking you from Wicca to haunted Mexican convents, and from British classics to a special evening with Dave McKean. Full schedule below.

Saturday 14 June

DAYTIME TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS
EVENING TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS

12:00 Witchumentary Double Bill + Discussion
with Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor) and William Fowler & Vic Pratt (BFI Flipside)

Legend of the Witches
Malcolm Leigh | UK | 1970 | 72 mins

Featuring Alex & Maxine Sanders, the spirit of the late 1960s magical revival is captured in this exploration of the currents of English witchcraft.

Secret Rites (in association with BFI Flipside)
Derek Ford | 1971 | Derek Ford | 47 mins

A rarely seen mondo-esque documentary sees a young West London hairdresser join a Notting Hill coven in a spectacular nightclub rite.

15:00 Alucarda
Juan Lopez Moctezuna | 1978 | Mexico | 74 mins

Alucarda has been brought up in a convent to shield her from her father’s evil influence, but the devil in her cannot be suppressed.

The Moon Bird
Brothers McLeod | 2010 | UK | 15 mins

An orphan girl is kidnapped by a witch in this dark animated fairy tale.

18:00 Possession Double Bill

Invocation of My Demon Brother
Kenneth Anger | 1969 | USA | 12 mins

Part of Anger’s Magick Lantern series with a soundtrack by a Moog-wielding Mick Jagger.

Night Tide
Curtis Harrington | 1961 | USA | 86 mins
+ post-screening discussion with Will Fowler (BFI Flipside) & Mark Pilkington (Strange Attractor)

Seaman Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) falls for Mora (Linda Lawson), who believes she’s descended from the sirens.

20:30 The Last Winter
Larry Fessenden | 2006 | USA/Iceland | 107 mins

Oil company employees, led by Ron Perlman, are building an ice road in the remote Arctic. When a member of their team is found dead, fears arise that nature may be striking back.

Sunday 15 June

DAYTIME TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS
EVENING TICKET: £13.00 | BUY TICKETS

12:00 British 60s Double Bill

Eye of the Devil
J. Lee Thompson | 1966 | UK | 92 mins

Vineyard owner (David Niven) returns to his castle, where he and wife (Deborah Kerr) are confronted by a witch, calling for a blood sacrifice.

14:00 Night of the Eagle
Sidney Hayers | 1962 | UK | 87 mins

A psychology professor discovers that his wife has been practicing witchcraft and presses her to stop. Then things begin to go horribly, supernaturally wrong.

16:00 Audrey Rose
Robert Wise | 1977 | USA | 113 mins – 16mm Screening
A young Anthony Hopkins is unnervingly obsessed with the idea that Ivy Templeton is the reincarnation of his daughter.

19:00 An Evening with Dave McKean

Illustrator and designer Dave McKean has created books and graphic novels of The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) and The Homecomeing (Ray Bradbury), worked with Richard Dawkins and Stephen King, designed characters for Harry Potter, and exhibited across the world. Join us for an evening with a truly unique artist, where Dave will discuss his work, and offer an exclusive first look at footage from his upcoming feature Luna. His other work can be seen on www.keanoshow.com

Mirrormask
2005 | USA/UK | 104 mins + Shorts + Dave McKean in conversation with SF Said

A collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Mirrormask is a dizzying journey into a complex fantasy world. 15-year-old circus worker Helena finds herself in a landscape filled with giants, monkeybirds and dangerous sphinxes. The mysterious Mirrormask is her only hope of escape.

The Week Before
1998 | UK | 23 mins

A card game between God and the Devil, inspired by jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

[N]eon
2002 | UK | 28 mins

Bruised from a failed marriage, a man wanders around Venice finding old books, memories, and a momentary ghost.