Lamplightings/Sunday Showcase
Six Restored Films of Heather McAdams

Sunday, June 22, 3 pm CINEMA+

Free, first come, first served

Heather McAdams (b. 1954) never set out to pursue a tidy career. When touring with her films in the 1980s and ’90s, McAdams often described herself as “a part-time cartoonist, performance artist, film instructor, junk salesperson, sculptor, painter, movie star, and ardent supporter of the Woolworth’s lunch counter.” This nomadic scavenger sensibility guides her filmmaking. Working primarily with found footage from her own extensive collection of 16mm prints, McAdams has produced a funny and ferocious body of work, much of it assembled from the detritus of American popular culture and refracted through an antic feminist lens. Her films exist at the accessible intersection of avant-garde cinema, underground comix, and gonzo documentary filmmaking.

This selection of recently restored films explores the range of her creative output, featuring scratch animation (The Scratchman), absurdist collage (You, All Fucked Up, Holiday Magic), as well as gonzo portraiture (The Lester Film). A highlight of the program is Meet … Bradley Harrison Picklesimer, McAdams’s anarchic glimpse into the life of the titular owner of Club LMNOP, a dada drag bar located in downtown Lexington, KY. 1980-95, U.S., 16mm, approx. 70 minutes.

CINEMA+ with a post-screening discussion with Heather McAdams and Bradley Picklesimer.

The Scratchman

Constructed from ransacked and mutilated found footage, The Scratchman was one of McAdams’s earliest calling cards and “a reflection of my sophomoric silliness” according to the artist. 1980, U.S., 16mm, 3 minutes.

You

Set to the propulsive rhythm of Brian Eno’s “King’s Lead Hat,” You is an exhilarating montage of countdown leader, hand-colored cats, leader ladies, and various scraps of “junk film” that are revealed to be anything but disposable. McAdams recalled deep dissatisfaction with another film she was making to the point of preferring a roll of scrap leader, which then began shaping into You. An ecstatic engagement with a lifetime of celluloid, You plays like a teenage projectionist’s dream. 1983, U.S., 16mm, 4 minutes.

All Fucked Up

A caustic send-up of adolescent anxiety, as seen through a barrage of clips from sex ed and social hygiene films of the 1950s and ’60s, chopped up, scratched up, and drawn anew. 1983, U.S., 16mm, 8 minutes.

Holiday Magic

Holiday Magic is an audio-visual collage of discarded material, with 16mm hair care and beauty product commercials overlaid with sound from a promotional record extolling Holiday Magic, a multi-level marketing scheme that hawked cosmetics. 1985, U.S., 16mm, 7 minutes.

Meet … Bradley Harrison Picklesimer

McAdams recalled the film’s origins in her notes for the Film-Maker’s Coop catalog: “In 1982, when I first moved to Lexington to teach at the University there, the first thing I remember hearing was ‘you have to meet Bradley Picklesimer!’ Little did I know that I would devote the next three years of my life to making a movie about this Bradley Picklesimer.” 1988, U.S., 16mm, 32 minutes.

The Lester Film

An experimental profile of Chicago painter, rock musician, art therapist, and drag performer Lester Brodzik, aka Lestushka. Brodzik recounts his Chicago childhood (with a special emphasis on the locally famous hot dog stand Superdawg) and his evolving relationship to gender as a cross-dressing, straight-identifying man, which placed him on the margins of multiple communities. Co-directed by Heather McAdams & Chris Ligon. 1995, US., 16mm, 14 minutes.

Meet . . . Bradley Harrison Picklesimer preserved by Chicago Film Society through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. All other films preserved by Chicago Film Society with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.