Unapologetically sensual, explicit, and controversial, this program features an incendiary short by provocateur Nick Zedd and a long-lost film about forbidden desire and sexuality from Charles Henri Ford.
Johnny Minotaur (Charles Henri Ford, 1971): Surrealist artist, poet, photographer, and filmmaker Charles Henri Ford’s experimental film Johnny Minotaur explores topics like incest, intergenerational desire, and pansexuality among other taboos through ancient Greek mythologies. Based on the tale of Minotaur—a half-man/half-bull who lived in a labyrinth and devoured humans to satiate his hunger and is often seen as a symbol of virility and strength—the film, which Ford dreamt of while in Crete, is a film-within-a-film and brings together Grecian characters as well as modern mythological ones like Count Dracula and Frankenstein, combining surrealist symbol with erotic kitsch punctuated by moments of cinema verité. Johnny Minotaur was lost for two decades before the New American Cinema Group was able to restore this forgotten classic. [80 min; experimental; English]
Whoregasm (Nick Zedd, 1988): Nick Zedd’s short film Whoregasm is a controversial and disturbing film with a barrage of hardcore sex loops interspersed with found footage. The sex scenes, most of which were old 8mm stag reels, are edited in a way that makes the sex look almost impersonal and mechanical. Zedd, a filmmaker, artist, and painter based in Mexico City, coined the term "cinema of transgression" in 1985 to describe the group of like-minded filmmakers and artists who used shock value and black humor in their work. Whoregasm was seized by Montreal Customs in 1988 and banned by the Ontario Film Review Board but was shown a year later at the Toronto Festival of Festivals. [20 min; experimental; English]
"Johnny Minotaur is about the abandonment of standards, the giving up of self to luxury, pleasure, and physical desire. It is revealing as a study in corruption." — Tom Seligson, Evergreen Review
"Nick Zedd makes violent, perverted art films from Hell—he’s my kind of director!" — John Waters, filmmaker
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
