Matchbox Cineclub unveil Weird Weekend film fest
The Glasgow cinema crew announce details of a weekend of avant-garde, gross-out and delightfully weird cinema at CCA this June
Hot on the heels of their Cage-a-rama festival celebrating all things Nic Cage, Matchbox Cineclub have done it again with Weird Weekend, a celebration of some of the odder segments of the cinema world. Alex Winter's directorial debut Freaked – the tale of a chemical spokesman who winds up embroiled with a freak show starring Mr T and Winter's Bill and Ted cohort Keanu Reeves – heads up the festival, with Winter joining the Matchbox crew for a Skype Q&A to discuss the film.
Also on the programme is Anatomical Gunk, a programme of the neon-coloured, impeccably-framed, body-horror-adjacent short films of The Skinny Short Film Competition winner Bryan M Ferguson. Ferguson's 2016 cult-inspired pairing of Caustic Gulp and Flamingo both screen, as does his brand new short Toxic Haircut – there's also a Q&A with Ferguson following the screening.
Saturday's programme concludes with a screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's sacreligious, psychedelic masterwork The Holy Mountain. The Chilean-French director's 1973 film remains one of the wildest visual concoctions ever put on celluloid, and was once described by our film editor as "making Salvador Dali look like John Constable." So, y'know, a fun Saturday night feature.
Sunday features the Scottish premiere of action TV mocumentary Top Knot Detective, telling the story of a director "who couldn’t act, fight or write a TV show" but used underworld connections to get ahead (co-directors Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce will be on hand for a Skype Q&A), and John Paizs' rediscovered comic masterpiece Crime Wave. Weird Weekend comes to a close with The Crazy Family – Sogo Ishii’s provocative, oddball satire which hasn’t screened in the UK for 30 years – and a Scottish premiere of the newly-restored The Astrologer, Craig Denney's "autobiographical" tale of a carnival con man who discovers he has genuine psychic powers.
An eighth film to complete the line-up will be announced shortly. All screenings take place at the CCA in Glasgow on 2 & 3 June; a full programme can be found below.
Matchbox Cineclub's Weird Weekend programme
Freaked + Alex Winter Q&A, Sat 2 Jun, 2pm, £5
Anatomical Gunk: Bryan M Ferguson shorts + Q&A, Sat 2 Jun, 4pm, £5
The Holy Mountain, Sat 2 Jun, 8.30pm, £5
Top Knot Detective, Sun 3 Jun, 2pm, £5
Crime Wave, Sun 3 Jun, 4pm, £5
The Crazy Family, Sun 3 Jun, 7.30pm, £5
The Astrologer, Sun 3 Jun, 9.30pm, £5