2220 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90057
Dirty Looks is thrilled to team up with 2220 Arts + Archives to bring the OG enfant terrible to L.A. – Bruce LaBruce! Here to present new HD restorations of his first two feature films, Bruce will be joined by illustrious interviewers and celebrate the launch of his new book, The Revolution Is My Boyfriend. Each screening will be preceded by a surprise short film plucked from the annals of BlaB’s queercore yesteryear! Two exclusive and officially sanctioned tees, designed by DL’s Bradford Nordeen, will be available available at the screening only!
June 27
No Skin Off My Ass, super8mm to 16mm blow-up on HD video, black and white, 73min., 1991
Plus surprise short!
Bruce LaBruce stars as a punk hairdresser who falls hopelessly in love with the Neo-Nazi skinhead brother (Klaus von Brücker) of lesbian underground filmmaker, Jonesy (G.B. Jones). She attempts to play matchmaker during the stolen moments when she’s not shooting footage for her epic doc about the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Produced on super8mm on a budget of $14,000 as part of the Toronto Queercore scene that Jones and LaBruce mobilized through their seminal zine J.D.’s, the film is a queer retelling of Robert Altman’s A Cold Day in the Park, and was cited by Kurt Cobain as his favorite film.
Afterparty featuring DJ set by Neon Music
June 28
Super 8 1/2, 16mm + super8mm, black and white, 99min., 1994
With respondent Vera Drew (The People’s Joker)
Bruce LaBruce stars as Bruce in this Warholian parody of the life of a pornographer. As his professional life sinks deeper into his has-been era, along comes Googie, a lesbian experimental filmmaker who aims to transform Bruce’s personal worst into exploitation gold.
A meta-narrative shot on grainy 16mm and Super 8mm, Super 8 1/2 spins out LaBruce’s encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, with references to films, like Frank Perry’s adaptation of Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays, Fellini’s 8 ½, and Daniel Mann’s Butterfield 8. Also featuring Vaginal Davis an early pegging proponent with her bottom, underground film auteur, Richard Kern.
Afterparty featuring DJ set by Noise Pup
Bio: Bruce LaBruce is a filmmaker, photographer, writer, and artist based in Toronto but working internationally. Along with numerous short films, he has written and directed fourteen feature films, including Gerontophilia, which won the Grand Prix at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal. As a visual artist he has had numerous gallery shows around the world including one called Obscenity, a photography exhibit, which caused a national ruckus in Spain in 2012. His feature film L.A. Zombie was notably banned in Australia in 2010. His movie, Saint-Narcisse, was named one of the top ten films of 2021 by John Waters in Artforum. His new porn feature, The Affairs of Lidia, from Erika Lust Films, was released in 2022, and his experimental feature The Visitor premiered at the Berlinale in 2024.
LaBruce has written and directed three theatrical works at the Hau Theater in Berlin, including a production of Arnold Schoenberg’s avant-garde piece Pierrot Lunaire at the legendary Hebbel am Ufer Theater. He turned this latter project into an experimental film, incorporating footage from the stage production combined with additional material shot on location in Berlin, which won a Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2014. He has also directed theatrical works at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, Switzerland, and he participated as a director in the Hau Theater’s ambitious X-Homes project in Johannesburg, South Africa.
LaBruce has written a premature memoir called The Reluctant Pornographer, and another called Porn Diaries. He has had two books published about his work: Ride, Queer, Ride, from Plug-In Gallery in Winnipeg, and Bruce(x)ploitation, a monograph from the Italian distributor, Atlantide Entertainment. His photo book Death Book was published by Baron Books in 2020, who also published his books Photo Ephemera Vols 1 &2 in 2022. His latest photo book, entitled The Revolution Is My Boyfriend, will be released by Baron Books in 2024. He has also recently published a book of his writing translated into Spanish called Contra La Culturea, from Cantico Publishing.
LaBruce has contributed to a variety of international magazines, newspapers and websites as both a writer and photographer, including index magazine, for which he also acted as a contributing editor, Vice, The National Post, The Guardian UK, Honcho, Purple Fashion, Numero, Dazed and Confused, Tank, BlackBook, Bon, Fantastic Man, Man About Town, Bomb, and many others.
Additionally, LaBruce has directed a number of music videos, two of which won him MuchMusic Video Awards in Canada, and won Best Gay Director and Best Gay Film at the internationally recognized XBIZ porn awards for his film Fleapit.
The Visitor, his latest feature film, premiered at the Berlinale in 2024.