1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?

Cinema 16, Fashion Industries Auditorium, Living Theater, the Charles Theater, Thalia, New Yorker, the Bleeker Street Cinema
The Charles Theater had very diverse programing, everything from Astaire-Rogers musicals to Italian neorealist dramas, cheap B movies (Ulmer), the Marx Brothers, to Orson Welles's Touch of Evil screened there. The theater would also show case local art on the walls of its lobby, held jazz shows weekly, showed Ukrainian films, held special events like a late nigh screening of Kubrick's Fear and Desire followed by a discussion, and devoted day time shows to silent movies. Basically the theater worked to tailor to a very wide variety of people from all sectors of the arts community. Mekas later held midnight screenings on the weekends, creating a buzz/ atmosphere of "cultish exoticism." He also inniciated the experimental film screenings that allowed for many new directors to debut their work; these screenings became very popular. Jack's Smith's controversial "Flaming Creatures" screened there and the theater also hosted the Filmmakers Festival.


2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?

Smith, Rice, Jacobs were associated with the "Baudelairean Cinema" The term come from the name of the writer Baudelaire. The films confronted the audience with an array of concepts and visual images that included tabooed subjects, violence, sexuality, etc.

3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?

New York City was preparing for the 1964 World's Fair by cleaning up the city's "image" and shut down many of the theaters that screened underground films.

4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?

Tavel helped document how Warhol's factory was ran, he also rewrote "A Clockwork Orange" to suite Warhol's film making style, by stripping down to its basic structure. Vinyl was shot in real time, with one stationary camera, and showed the bare minimum of the story. Sedgewick plainly sat on a truck and flicked her cigarette, but her eyes were so intense that they stole the focus of the scene.

5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?

Underground film first gained attention in the mainstream in the magazine circuit. After Warhol's series, "The Chelsea Girls" was released, it gained wide spread popularity, partly due to an impressive review in "Newsweek," and also because the people who saw it were so ecstatic about it that they encouraged others to see it as well. It was the first underground film to screen at a major theater where it played for seven weeks. Then the film spread throughout other major theaters, including the York, St. Marks, the Cinema Theater (LA), and eventually all across the country. The mainstream press in New York received this film in a very negative light.


6. Why was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?

He decided to create compilations of underground films and send them out to midnight screenings on a circuit of movie theaters owned by his uncle. These compilations ended up being called, " The Underground Cinema 12, " and played in 22 different cities across the country. This gave underground film more exposure then ever before.


7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?

He never again created anything that caused much of a buzz, but he did remain as a great influence over the sexual content in experimental films of the following era.