A film screening series focusing on adventurous works of cinema from yesterday and today, presented by Love's Devotee and curated by Herb Shellenberger. This is a self-funded, roving series which is open to partnerships and collaboration, and will evolve over the course of 2024. 

Please subscribe to the mailing list at the bottom of the page or follow @lvcinemaclub on IG to keep up with the latest events. 

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P A S T

Sci-Fi 16mm Backyard Screening

Saturday October 12, 2024 at 7:00pm (films start at 7:30pm)
Bethlehem, PA – email for address
Free admission

LV Cinema Club brings the cinema to our friends' backyard in Bethlehem, PA for a fun screening of sci-fi short films from the 1920s–1970s, projected right onto the side of a freshly painted garage. While we are keeping the lineup a surprise until the evening, you can expect some vintage European animation, an inventive silent-era sci-fi and even an unclassifiable oddity produced right here in Eastern Pennsylvania. All films will be projected from 16mm prints! 

Join us for a fun, casual screening — send over an email and we'll share the address. Folks will start gathering around 7pm and we will start the projection at 7:30pm. The program will be 60-70 minutes long. Bring a chair, a blanket, snacks. 

• A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune), Georges Méliès, 1902, France,  16mm, 15’
• A Visit from Space (Posjet iz svermira), Dušan Vukotić & Zlatko Grgić, 1964, Yugoslavia, 16mm, 11’
• No. 00173, Jan Habarta, 1966, Poland, 16mm, 9’
• Paris qui dort aka The Crazy Ray, René Clair, 1925, France, 16mm, 18’
• Mission Third Planet: Creatures of the Land, Don B. Klugman, 1979, US,  16mm, 13’

Thank you to Amy Schaefer & Bill Schaefer, and to Lightbox Film Center (Jesse Pires) and The Secret Cinema (Jay Schwartz) for loaning film prints for this screening. 

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Friday, September 13–Sunday September 15, 2024
Lehigh Valley Cinema Club presents Séance Film Festival 

Theatre 514 (Civic Theatre of Allentown), 514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

New dates! A weekend film festival celebrating cinema as séance and portal to the afterlife, and the parallels between film projection and reincarnation. Combining contemporary and archival short and feature films, live soundtracks and performance, the first Séance Film Festival will be an utterly unique, one-time-only, unrepeatable cinematic event.

Tickets: $10 per night
Weekend pass: $18
Supporter pass: $40

(Note: all previously purchased tickets and passes are valid for the new dates. If you cannot attend the rescheduled dates, contact lehighvalleycinemaclub at gmail dot com and we can arrange a refund.)

Séance Film Festival – Opening Program

Friday, September 13, 2024 at 7:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104 

Lehigh Valley Cinema Club presents the first Séance Film Festival, a weekend film festival (Friday, September 13 – Sunday, September 15, 2024) celebrating cinema as séance and portal to the afterlife, and the parallels between film projection and reincarnation.

This opening program contains seven short films made between 1907 and 2023, will feature an introduction by filmmaker Jill Yapsuga (Absolution) and two films with live musical accompaniment by Sailcloth (Alex Luquet). Programmer Herb Shellenberger will introduce the program and project the 16mm film prints. 

– Absolution, dir. Jill Yapsuga, 2023, digital, 3'
– Black and White Trypps Number Three, dir. Ben Russell, 2007, 16mm, 12'
– Outer Space, dir. Peter Tscherkassky, 1999, 16mm, 10'
– La maison ensorcelée, dir. Segundo de Chomón, 1907, digital, 6', live musical accompaniment by Sailcloth
– My Name is Oona, dir. Gunvor Nelson, 1969, 16mm, 10'
– Eugene Atget, dir. Harold Becker, 1964, 16mm, 10', live musical accompaniment by Sailcloth
– Snow White, dir. Dave Fleischer, 1933, digital, 7'

Total running time: 58'

Séance Film Festival – Man Ray: Return to Reason

Friday, September 13, 2024 at 9:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

This program contains new restorations of the four short films made by Man Ray between 1923 and 1929—masterpieces of avant-garde filmmaking—paired with new recorded soundtracks by SQÜRL, the drone-rock project of filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and producer Carter Logan. Programmer Herb Shellenberger will introduce the program. 

–Le retour à la raison, Man Ray, 1923, digital, 19'
–Emak-Bakia, Man Ray, 1926, digital, 19'
–L’Étoile de mer, Man Ray, 1928, digital, 17'
–Les mystères du château du dé, Man Ray, 1929, digital, 28'

Total running time: 70'

The four films Man Ray directed between 1923 and 1929, Le Retour à la raison, Emak-Bakia, L'Étoile de mer and Les Mystères du Château du Dé represent a high watermark of early European avant-garde cinema, a seminal nexus of experimental technique, surrealist narrative, and playful abstraction as suffused with dark eroticism. In these films Ray began discovering the limitless possibilities of montage as well as the direct application onto celluloid of objects such as salt, pepper, pins, and thumbtacks. Juxtaposing undulating geometric patterns, a twirling fairground ride, and a female nude, among other striking images, Ray finds subconscious correspondences among seemingly incongruous materials and figures. In celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Le Retour à la raison, the Jim Jarmusch-Carter Logan combo Sqürl present Man Ray: Return to Reason, with a newly-recorded drone rock soundtrack for that title as well as the three other Ray films. The band’s cosmic sounds complement Ray’s work by conjuring the beautiful, ineffable, haunting, and sublime.

The restoration process was led by Womanray and Cinenovo sourcing original prints from various parts of the world, in partnership with La Cinémathèque française, the Centre Pompidou, the Library of Congress, the French CNC and Cineteca di Bologna.

Séance Film Festival – Soda Jerk / Herb Shellenberger / Garden Gate

Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 7:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

This program features the work of three artists: 

Soda Jerk, the renegade remixologists of film, present their series of works titled Séance Fictions, which stage an encounter between the younger and older selves of a deceased screen star—River Phoenix, Judy Garland and Bette Davis—using sampling as a means of re-animating the dead.

Herb Shellenberger presents Barn Talk, the world premiere of a performance which combines archival audio and projected subtitles alongside film and slide projection to stir up the ghosts of Olde New England, one bawdy tale at a time.

Garden Gate, the North Country, New York project of artist/musician Timmi Meskers, presents the world premiere of They Walk With Us, an original video collage and live experimental electronic music performance. 

Soda Jerk's Séance Fictions
–The Phoenix Portal, dir. Soda Jerk, 2005, US, digital, 5'
–After the Rainbow, dir. Soda Jerk, 2009, US, digital, 7'
–The Time That Remains, dir. Soda Jerk, 2012, US, digital, 12'

Herb Shellenberger
—Barn Talk, live performance, vinyl records, shellac records, digital projection, 35mm slide projection, 30 minutes

Garden Gate
—They Walk With Us, live performance, digital video collage with live music, 30 minutes

Total running time: 100'

Séance Film Festival – Morgiana 

Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 9:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

This program contains a new restoration of the 1972 feature film Morgiana, a gem of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Programmer Herb Shellenberger will introduce the film. 

–Morgiana, dir. Juraj Herz, 1972, Czechoslovakia, digital, 97'

Total running time: 97'

Part fairy-tale, part Gothic horror, Morgiana is a full-blown hallucinatory experience, a twisted take on Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat with delirious visuals conjured by cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera (Daisies). Director Juraj Herz (The Cremator) presents the story of twin sisters, Klára and Viktoria who live a life of decadent opulence, somewhere in the late 19th century. Klára is auburn-haired and beautiful, whilst Viktoria is wicked, sadistic, bursting with hate and jealousy. She hatches a terrible revenge by slowly poisoning her more popular sister. As the poison takes hold, Klára begins to lose grip on her sanity... 

Séance Film Festival – Nature Intended the Abstract: Films by Célia Hay and others

Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 7:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

This program is a retrospective of French artist-filmmaker Célia Hay, whose body of work made over the last decade is comprised of a number of bold, uncompromising and unpredictable short and mid-length films. Often following actors who traverse urban and rural locations, Hay collaborates with composers like Frederikke Hoffmeier and Kali Malone in creating works that synthesize sound, image and time into emotional landscapes that the viewer travels along with. 

This screening, titled "Nature Intended the Abstract" (named after a song by Young Marble Giants) interweaves Hay's films with the work of other artists—Linnea Nugent, Craig Scheihing and Alex Tyson—who are also creating work that pushes at the boundaries of cinematic convention. Célia Hay is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Texas in Dallas, and will be present for a Q&A with curator Herb Shellenberger following the screening.

Tickets: $10 per night
Weekend pass: $18
Supporter pass: $40

Nature Intended the Abstract: Films by Célia Hay and others
–Poem-film for everything we’ve lost, dir. Célia Hay, 2024, US, digital, 2.5'
–in the fishtank, dir. Linnea Nugent, 2023, US, digital, 2.5'
–Does Spring Hide Its Joy, dir. Célia Hay in collaboration with Kali Malone, 2022, UK, digital, 10'
–may 10th, dir. Craig Scheihing, 2023, US, digital, 4'
–Wake for a Horse, dir. Célia Hay, 2023, UK, digital, 39'
–Cataboum, dir. Alex Tyson, 2023, US, digital, 2'

Total running time: 60'

Séance Film Festival – Closing Program

Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 9:00pm
Theatre 514, Civic Theatre of Allentown
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104 

This closing program contains four short films made between 1927 and 2021, will feature a Q&A with filmmaker Daniel Paashaus (Katabasis) and two films with live musical accompaniment by Sarah Schimeneck & Jesse Sparhawk. Curator Herb Shellenberger will introduce the program.

–Prelude, dir. Castleton Knight, 1927, UK, digital, 7', live soundtrack by Sarah Schimeneck & Jesse Sparhawk
–Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales 2.0, dir. Stanley Schtinter, 2021, UK, digital, 13'
–Katabasis, dir. Daniel Paashaus, 2011, US, digital, 18'
–Witch’s Cradle, dir. Maya Deren, 1944, US, digital, 13', live soundtrack by Sarah Schimeneck & Jesse Sparhawk

Total running time: 52'

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Warm Blood

Wednesday, May 29, 2024 at 7:00pm
Emmaus Theatre
19 South 4th Street, Emmaus, PA 18049

Warm Blood, dir. Rick Charnoski, 2022, US, 86 mins, DCP

followed by Q&A with filmmaker Rick Charnoski
and live performance by Wipes

Tickets: $10, via Emmaus Theatre

Inhabiting the fringes of Modesto, California in the toxic haze of the 1980’s, Warm Blood is a politically subversive, searing collage of sound, narrative, documentary and trash B movie meta-narratives, hand stitched by filmmaker Rick Charnoski in his debut feature. We are overjoyed to welcome the filmmaker for a Q&A in his hometown of Emmaus, PA, part of Warm Blood's cross-country tour. 

Red is a driven young runaway who returns to her hometown to track down her wayward father. As she wanders the streets selling stolen drugs to finance her next mission, she reflects on her early teen life through reading a journal that she finds in her old bedroom. Tom, a young drifter—possibly a figment of Red's imagination—continues to reappear in his '73 Duster and scoop her up after she runs away over and over again. There may be an ominous conspiracy about a chemical induced sickness that threatens their entire town. Is this a dream or is this just what a town full of corruption and dishonesty looks like when you leave and come home two years later and two years older?

Shot on 16mm film by renowned cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt (First Cow, Emma, Night Moves) and nine years in the making, Warm Blood weaves jagged textures of old photos, scrawled letters found in the trash, interviews done in the midnight gloom under bridges, fake news broadcasts and random audio samples together like a freaky quilt. Warm Blood is an inverted vision of two lost souls shot in the same town as George Lucas‘s American Graffiti; a distress flare of a film shot into the night sky... a kaleidoscopic hitchhiker's guide to the underbelly of America.

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Wipes is a noise-rock trio from the Lehigh Valley comprised of Michael Dumoff, Ben Roysdon and Ray Gurz, former members of Tile, Bad American and Gods & Queens. In a recent review, Hex Records says, "They can take a very simple riff and then just beat it to death through tons of distortion and feedback to the point where you're just as honked off as they are." Just off a short tour of the Pacific Northwest and with a new cassette release on Avarice Records, WIPES represent the best of Emmaus, Pennsylvania's forward-thinking, skateboard-influenced punk music scene. 

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Gabbeh

Gabbeh, dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996, Iran/France, 75 mins, digital

Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 7:00pm
Landis Cinema (Buck Hall), Lafayette College
219 N 3rd St, Easton, PA 18042

Lehigh Valley Cinema Club and Lafayette College's Department of Film and Media Studies present a screening of Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 1996 feature Gabbeh. 

Tickets: free with registration

A poetic, dreamlike vision from one of Iran's most celebrated filmmakers, Gabbeh portrays the traditionally nomadic Qashqai people of Southern Iran. Makhmalbaf Film House describes the film's narrative: "On the banks of a stream, an old woman and her husband are washing their Gabbeh [a type of traditional Persian rug]. From this carpet comes forth a beautiful young woman—aptly named Gabbeh—who shares her epic tale: she is desperately in love with a mysterious horseman who follows her clan from [behind]. Though her father has agreed to let her marry the man, season after season, the horseman follows Gabbeh—always present, always waiting, howling songs of love after nightfall."

Winner of awards at Tokyo and Singapore International Film Festivals, as well as the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Gabbeh is a visual feast of color and a masterful example of cinematic tableaux. Makhmalbaf effortlessly merges the rural and traditional setting with a visionary cinematic perspective, resulting in an unforgettable and stunningly beautiful work of film art. 

Thanks to Bret Berg (American Genre Film Archive), Drew Swedberg and the faculty and staff of the Department of Film and Media Studies, Lafayette College

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Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, dir. Ryan Daly & Will Oldham, 2023, US, 47 mins, 16mm-to-DCP

Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 7:30pm
Theatre 514 (Civic Theatre of Allentown)
514 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104

Tickets: free with registration

Lehigh Valley Cinema Club presents the Pennsylvania premiere of Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, the visual album of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's 2023 album of the same name, a collaboration between filmmaker Ryan Daly & musician Will Oldham.

We go to the cinema to see movies. Can we also go to hear records? This is what Will Oldham and film/visual artist Ryan Daly are eager to explore with this special presentation of Bonnie Prince Billy’s newest album Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You. The album was recorded in the winter of 2022–23 and is composed of songs which date back to the harrowing lockdown year of 2020. Many of us experienced an unprecedented focus of intention and energy during this period, and Oldham found a way into distilling songs and presenting them with newfound clarity and candor.

Echoing the spirit and themes of the album, Ryan Daly utilizes his vast archive of 16mm film prints—working in the avant-garde tradition of ‘found footage’ film making—to assemble a tour de force visual juxtaposition of Will Oldham’s new album. Drawing from the techniques and theories of Soviet montage, Daly’s footage recalls, re-imagines, and suggests an alternative, timeless counterpoint to the era of the most recent pandemic.

About the filmmakers

As an actor, Will Oldham (born 1970 in Louisville, KY) has worked with a diverse scope of directors including John Sayles (Matewan, 1987), Harmony Korine (Julian Donkey Boy, 1999), Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, 2006 & Wendy and Lucy, 2008) and David Lowery (A Ghost Story, 2017). As a songwriter, Oldham has released over 20 albums—first as Palace and since 1998 as Bonnie “Prince” Billy—throughout his nearly thirty-year career. He has received praise from The New Yorker, New York Times, American Songwriter, NPR and Rolling Stone, to name a few. His most recent album, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, was released on August 11, 2023 via Drag City Records, and he recently completed tours with Quebecois singer-songwriter Myriam Gendron and Welsh musician Jon Langford.

As an archivist, Ryan Daly (born 1979 in Louisville, KY) maintains a vast collection of 16mm film prints. His library consists of rare, often one of a kind, ephemeral home movies, newsreels, television commercials, educational and industrial film prints. Having been the source of several 16mm prints for leading national archives, Daly turned to digitizing his collection prior to the pandemic. As a filmmaker, Daly's understanding of the history of filmmaking, provides unique insight to magic of montage. Having graduated from Pittsburgh Filmmakers in 2003, Daly was among the last of a generation to learn the craft of filmmaking on celluloid.

Thanks to Drag City Records (Kathryn Wilson, Bailey Davis, Sue Ng), Civic Theatre of Allentown (Drew Swedberg), Ryan Daly and Will Oldham. 

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