Always for Pleasure (U.S., 1978): Always for Pleasure: The Films of Les Blank

Film - Documentary | July 8 | 7 p.m. |  Tolman Hall

Speaker/Performer: Les Blank

Sponsor:

Always For Pleasure presents festivity as essential to the human spirit. In New Orleans, even a funeral procession ends with a raucous dance—“You take ‘em on out and you boogie back,” explains musician Allen Toussaint. Blank’s camera enters the heart of such jubilant celebrations—with drinking, dancing, and eating in the streets—from St. Patrick’s Day with revelers dressed in green to the Mardi Gras Indian Parade where African American “chiefs” compete in elaborate Native American–inspired feathered costumes. You will ache to participate; join us at 5 p.m. for a special prescreening dinner!

—Madeline Horn

• Sound by Maureen Gosling. (58 mins, 16mm, Courtesy Academy Film Archive)

Preceded by:

Running Around Like a Chicken With Its Head Cut Off (Les Blank with Gail Blank, Pieter Van Deusen, U.S., 1960). Blank’s first film is an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. (4 mins, B&W, 16mm, From Flower Films).

Dry Wood (Les Blank with Maureen Gosling, U.S., 1973). An intimate portrait of the slow rhythms of Creole life in rural southwest Louisiana, where the roots of family, food, and celebrations run deep, Dry Wood is set to the soundtrack of music by “Bois Sec” Ardoin. (37 mins, Color, 16mm, From Flower Films)

Total running time: 99 mins

Tickets: $5.50 BAM/PFA members and UC Berkeley students,  $6.50 Non-UC Berkeley students, senior citizens (65 & over), disabled persons, and young adults (13-17),  $9.50 General admission

Event Contact: 510-642-0808