Event

LA Plays Itself

Co-presented by Henry Hanson and The Front Row

Fred Halsted was a legend in his own time. His self-created public persona that of the leather-clad sadist instantly made him both feared and revered as one of the first openly gay sex symbols. And his taboo-shattering films broke new ground in the gay erotic cinema for their portrayal of sadomasochism and other forms of polymorphous perversity. These works sent a shockwave throughout the fledgling gay liberation movement and the art establishment alike, leading to their eventual acquisition by the Museum of Modern Art. But despite their significant cultural importance, these films have long been available only in neutered form, if at all.

The Sex Garage (1972, Fred Halsted, 35 min) DCP

"Grittily shot in black and white, the film follows a progression of erotic imagery, from heterosexual sex to homosexual sex to fetishization, culminating with a leather biker memorably coupling with the exhaust pipe of his motorcycle. The Sex Garage was a very early instance of bisexuality (or trisexuality in Halsted's words) infiltrating gay pornography, a remarkable transgression that Halsted aggressively pushed. The film also dallies with gender expectations, as a pair of panties becomes a signifier in a traditionally hypermasculine tableau." - MOMA

L.A. Plays Itself (1972, Fred Halsted, 55 min) DCP

"Halsteds elliptical, evasive anti-narrative begins in the lush greenery of the natural world before being literally bulldozed into the center of a grimy, feverish Sodom that deconstructs and erodes the human spirit through vivid sadomasochistic catharsis. Constructed almost entirely in the editing room, Halsted's film is a dream-porn masterwork that would be analyzed, criminalized, and investigated for decades to come." - MOMA