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Started in 2006 as basically a hoard of 35mm film prints, the American Genre Film Archive has rapidly grown to over 6,000 film elements, from grindhouse trailers to exploitation features now considered canonized classics. Based in Austin, Texas, this bastion of horror, action, exploitation, fantasy and weirdo cult cinema has somewhat single-handedly saved an entire subset of filmic output from total decimation. Officially established as a non-profit in 2009, and recently partnered with major exploitation imprints like Severin Films, Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome and Shout! Factory, AGFA has successfully moved from collecting and preserving into theatrical distribution, with a catalogue that could populate any arthouse’s midnight movie slot for at least a decade. With preservation of these sometimes delicate elements a major imperative of the non-profit (their acquisition of a 4K digital scanner in 2015 was a complete game changer), we should probably be knighting the folks behind its daily, labor-intensive operations. But something tells us they actually might prefer superhero capes.
Join us this summer for a seven-night screening series featuring the strangest, the coolest, and the head-trippiest titles from AGFA’s outlandish collection. Guests for this mind-blowing tribute to the world’s best archive of fringe cinema include punk rock maven Penelope Spheeris, Something Weird Video boss lady Lisa Petrucci, the hosts of Blumhouse’s Shock Waves Podcast for a live taping, and the entire American Genre Film team: Director Joe Ziemba, Head Archivist Sebastian del Castillo, Head of Business Affairs Alicia Coombs, and Head of Theatrical Sales Bret Berg.
